Twitter is the darling of the chattering classes and wields an incredible influence relative to its size. Hashtags abound in creative work these days, making this era of advertising perhaps the most obviously dateable of any era – #s will work like the rings on a tree stump. After the noted link between social mentions and the results of the successful Obama campaigns in the US, some even hoped for an easy and cheap way to gather insight.
This incredible social phenomenon however is not always easy to read. There has been a conspicuous silence, for example, over the Scottish referendum. Perhaps that’s because the raw form indicators seemed much less accurate regarding the September 18th plebiscite. At first glance, relative Tweet volumes gave the Yes campaign a 2 to 1 advantage, the result of course was a No with over 55 per cent of the votes.
Apply a little demographic insight though and you can understand why. Firstly, the turnout in the Obama election of 2012 was around 57 per cent and around 140 million of Americans (just under 45 per cent) were on Twitter. Meanwhile a massive 84 per cent of Scots voted, whilst UK penetration of active Twitter users is currently around 24 per cent. So the relative number of users of the social network to voters was much higher in the USA. Secondly, Twitter remains most popular among the young and according to Lord Ashcroft Polls, the heartland of 16-18 year olds voted overwhelmingly for independence. So we’ll be keeping our eyes on this revolutionary landscape as todays Millennials will seem tech shy compared with their brothers and sisters next time the polls open.
All this really proves of course is that by understanding the qualities of information and skilful analysis of the data it provides, we can successfully interpret it. There are great advantages in the immediacy of Twitter, as you can use proprietary technology to tell within 24 hours of a launch how well a campaign is being received and react accordingly. The understanding is not hinged purely on emotion either; you can see where your Tweeters are, and interpret impacts for logistics and other demands.
The launch of the iPhone 6 provides our next big conversation starter and we’re listening, Twitter provides the most efficient feedback loop imaginable. While overall sentiment for the new device has been positive, we have seen less excitement than one might expect; we’re seeing liking outweighing loving. Perhaps more importantly, while the overall sentiment shows barely a third of Tweets feeling negative, positive mentions came crashing down at launch on the 19th of September and have continued on a much shallower downward trend ever since. Meanwhile, anger surfaced on the 22nd, perhaps as a response to the issues some have experienced with regards to the solidity of the device, or possibly frustration at not getting one.
As fascinating as these nuggets are, they remain pro forma anecdotes rather than insights. In a world of increasing media complexity and myriad sources for intelligence, it is the skill of interpretation that makes media agencies relevant to clients; by using social analysis in combination with a plethora of other tools, we can understand not just those who shout loudest, but the silent majority too.
By Rich Martin, Digital Strategy Director of MEC.
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