Throughout the leadup to the much publicized Facebook IPO, scheduled for this Friday, May 18th, Attensity has been using our Attensity Analyze social analytics application to track sentiment about the world’s largest social media network. Using Attensity Analyze, we processed 138,572 public comments posted on Facebook, Twitter and blogs over a six-week period. And in the course of our analysis, we stumbled on something interesting. (That’s one of the very cool things about Attensity Analyze, it makes it easy to discover valuable insights you weren’t necessarily looking for.)

While the buzz about the IPO is predictably mostly positive, sentiment about the new Timeline feature showed a very different reaction. In fact, the results show an overwhelming 93 percent of comments contain negative sentiment toward Timeline.  We were rather shocked at the degree of frustration expressed by Facebook users toward the new Timeline format, given that Facebook is still in the process of rolling out Timeline to individual users and the new format is not yet mandatory. (Although businesses were required to convert their profile pages to the new format in March).

As shown in the chart here, our analysis reveals not only strong negative sentiment, but many users mentioning their intent to “churn” or switch away from Facebook as a result of the  change. The most frequently appearing phrases in the posts are: “Delete FB Account”; “Hate New Timeline”; “Timeline Forced Changes”; “Switch to Other Social Network”; and “Will Delete FB.”

During the research timeframe, many users indicated their intention to try competing social network Google+.

Will Facebook users follow through and really switch? Only time will tell. But with Facebook’s user base now almost 900 million strong, the company would do well to listen to its user community on this issue and address user concerns before the change becomes permanent.

To conduct its research, Attensity its Facebook Analytics Module, which enables business users to analyze publicly viewable Facebook comments, posts and surveys to extract deep business insights, along with its social media data feed which collects social conversations from over 150 million online and social sources, including the full Twitter Firehose, blogs, and other sources. For more examples of how Attensity analyzes social sentiment, download the Attensity eBook titled “CRM Use Cases from the Field.”

As our existing customers know, Attensity Analyze is a powerful social media analytics solution that offers deep out-of-the-box insights for social media professionals. But for Analyze customers who want additional fine-tuning of their reports and data management, the application offers sophisticated customization options that can bring Attensity Analyze to the next level.

Attensity Educational Services is now offering Analyze training with a curriculum that builds on foundational concepts, then deep dives into customization. These 1-on-1 sessions are comprehensive and practical, enabling your organization to leverage all of the features that Analyze offers.

The following training courses for May and June are below. For more information on topics covered, pricing, on-site training options and more, contact us at: education@attensity.com.

Attensity Analyze 6 – Introduction

Course Number: 101
Dates: Computer-based training at your convenience
Duration: 5 hours

This “basic training” module provides comprehensive coverage of Text Analytics concepts, focusing on Attensity 6. You will learn about Attensity applications, understand the process, and review Attensity 6′s Analyze module.

Who Should Attend: Power users, System Administrators, Business Analysts, IT Specialists, and Solution Architects
Prerequisites: Basic understanding of software applications

Attensity Analyze 6 – Discovery and Analysis

Course Number: 301
Dates: May 15, June 12
Duration: 1-day

Learn how to use the Attensity Analyze 6 Analyze module to select from datasets, analyze text, and create reports, analytics, queries and dashboards using dashboard and report templates. This course will prepare students to use out-of-the-box dashboard and report templates on Sentiment Overview, Compliments and Complaints analysis, Executive Overview, Themes and Net Promoter Analysis.

Who Should Attend: Business Analysts, Business Users who want to create Queries and Analytics
 Prerequisites: Analyze 6.0 Introduction (101)

Attensity Analyze 6 – Dashboard Development

Course Number: 302
Dates: May 16, June 13
Duration: 1-day

Learn how to develop dashboards, dashboard templates, reports, report templates, Alerts, Document tags and advanced analytics (Hot Spotting and Cross Sectioning). Also learn how to use multiple scopes of constraints and set up filters in order to develop advanced dashboards.

Who Should Attend: Business Analysts, Business Users who want to create Queries and Analytics
Prerequisites: 101 and 301 courses

Attensity Analyze 6 – Advanced (Categorization)

Course Number: 303
Dates: May 17, June 14
Duration: 1-day

Learn how to use Categorize modules to create, edit or modify a category set. Categorize Triples, Facts and Terms using Categorization Dashboard or Categorize plug-in. Learn how to use Category Rule builder to automate categorization after new extraction.

Who Should Attend: Business Analysts, Business Users who want to create Queries and Analytics
Prerequisites: 101, 301 and 302 courses

If you are planning to be in the New York area next week, Attensity invites you to come see us at the 2012 Sentiment Analysis Symposium on May 8th, where Catherine Van Zuylen, Attensity’s VP of Products, will present “How Does That Make You Feel? Sentiment Analysis in 2012.”

Attensity recently sponsored the Social Media Analytics Summit in April, and it was great to see so many customers come and share real, practical business use cases for social analytics and engagement. If you missed it, and even if you were there, you can now download the use case presentations, including the audio tracks, from Attensity customers EMC and Neiman Marcus.

Keith Paul, Chief Listener at EMC, presented “From Listening to Analytics,” about EMC’s ongoing social media journey. In his presentation, Keith shared how EMC has grown from its initial social listening project to tying social measurement to business questions, and is implementing a “hub and spoke” strategy for social engagement throughout the enterprise.

Jeff Rosenfeld, Director of Customer Insight & Analytics at Neiman Marcus, shared data in his presentation generated from Attensity Analyze, which the company uses to analyze social media feedback on promotions, as well as practical examples of how the luxury retailer made that data actionable.

Download the presentations here.

And for more social analytics business use cases, Attensity’s new eBook, “Making Social Insights Actionable: Use Cases from the Field,” is also available for download. Organizations embarking on Social CRM initiatives can use these best practices and lessons learned through Attensity’s work with the world’s leading brands as a roadmap for your own social customer implementations.

With Katie Couric hosting ABC’s Good Morning America last week, media critics and TV viewers are wondering whether Couric’s former show (NBC’s Today Show) can stay on top. NBC has won every week in the ratings for the past 16 years – largely thanks to Couric herself, who co-hosted Today starting in December 1995, when the NBC show’s streak began.

So, to counter Couric’s presence on GMA, NBC brought in guest hosts, most notably former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Upon hearing this news, we quickly looked to see where the social media universe stands on the morning TV battle.

Using Attensity’s social analytics solution, I found the most commonly used words across social media related to Katie Couric and GMA. The resulting tag cloud showed comments centering around the themes “Love the Show,” “Team Katie,” “GMA has Katie Couric,” and “Game on” as the most frequently appearing.

While social media users are resoundingly positive when it comes to Couric and GMA, the sentiment regarding Palin and the Today Show has been, shall we say, more divided, as highlighted in the following dashboard:

Sentiment regarding Palin and the Today Show has been divided.

Interestingly enough, though, Palin’s Today appearance still beat GMA in the ratings. How can this be, given the strong disparity in sentiment between Palin and Couric?

To explain this, we can look to an unlikely source: Howard Stern. His similarly polarizing personality yet strong appeal is undeniable, as captured in the following exchange in his 1997 movie Private Parts:

Researcher: The average radio listener listens for eighteen minutes. The average Howard Stern fan listens for – are you ready for this? – an hour and twenty minutes.

NBC exec: How can that be?

Researcher: Answer most commonly given? “I want to see what he’ll say next.”

NBC exec: Okay, fine. But, what about the people who hate Stern?

Researcher: Good point. The average Stern hater listens for two and a half hours a day.

NBC exec: But… if they hate him, why do they listen?

Researcher: Most common answer? “I want to see what he’ll say next.”

So, while Palin may have pulled in admirers and naysayers alike to see what she’ll say next, it will be interesting to see whether less controversial guest hosts on Today will be enough against Couric to keep the streak going.

Photo credit: Parade

At Attensity, we believe no one can do a better job of explaining the value they get from social analytics and engagement solutions than the people using these products. That’s why Attensity is proud to be sponsoring an upcoming series of events and on-demand content featuring Social CRM use cases from our customers.

The events will include presentations from Attensity customers like Capgemini, EMC, Neiman Marcus, StubHub and others. In addition, a new on-demand eBook titled “Making Social Insights Actionable: Use Cases from the Field,”with additional examples is now available for download on the Attensity web site. The idea is to help other organizations embarking on Social CRM initiatives use these best practices and lessons learned as a roadmap for your own social customer implementations.

Upcoming events where Attensity customers and partners will present their social analytics and engagement use cases include:

• NAB 2012 in Las Vegas April 14-19. Attensity joins partner Cognizant Technology Solutions in its booth to demonstrate real-time social analysis of the new blockbuster movie The Hunger Games and the new season of hit TV show Mad Men.

• Social Media Analytics Summit in San Francisco April 17-18. Attensity is the exclusive Platinum sponsor of this first ever two-day business conference with a complete focus on social media analytics. The agenda includes a keynote address from Attensity CTO Ian Hersey, as well as customer presentations from Neiman Marcus, StubHub and Capgemini. Register with code ATTNSTYSMA to receive 50% off the registration price.

• Big Analytics 2012 in San Francisco on April 19. Attensity is sponsoring Teradata Corporation’s new series of regional events with a focus on the convergence of big data and advanced analytics techniques and technology.

• Text Analytics Summit Europe in London April 23-24. Attensity is the exclusive Platinum sponsor of this event, which will feature an Attensity keynote address and a customer presentation.

• Sentiment Analysis Symposium in New York on May 8. Attensity is a Platinum sponsor and will present customer use cases at this event dedicated to software that discovers business value in opinions and attitudes in social media, news, and enterprise feedback.

• Text Analytics Summit East in Boston from June 12-13. Attensity is the Gold sponsor of this event centered on understanding the Voice of the Customer, where an Attensity customer presentation will be featured. Register with code ATTNSTYSMA to receive 50% off the registration price.

The new Attensity eBook is a follow-up to our recently published eBook, “Make the Voice of the Customer Your Business Asset,” offering best practices and lessons from VoC implementations. Each free eBook can be downloaded at: http://www.attensity.com/resources/ebook.

We hope you find these customer examples useful in your own Social CRM initiatives.