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The coalition government has announced a tie-in with Facebook to source ideas from the site’s millions of members on the much-talked about spending cuts. So, has crowdsourced government finally arrived?
Members can submit and vote on ideas to reduce the deficit via a link on the networking site’s Democracy UK page to microsites which focus on public discussion.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg commented: “The governments’ willingness to reach out and engage with Facebook users is going to go a long way because I’m sure that all the people using Facebook in the UK have a lot of great ideas on how they could do this. It’s really innovative to open up policy making and engage the public in this way to try and create more social change.” (BBC News 9/7)
Not everyone has been convinced by the idea though. A post by Simon Jeffrey (9/7) pointed out the deal was based on a link to the Spending Challenge site hosted by the government, it’s not actually on Facebook. Also, the internet was famed for its ‘mischief’ making and suggestions may not be taken seriously. Remember, web users had a field day photoshopping election campaign posters.
A quick look at the sentiment for the coalition move shows that comment is mostly neutral at the moment. But, nothing in social media stands still for very long and the story throws up all kinds of thorny questions on whether the strategy will work. And, will the government really be listening? Without universal web access in the UK, will the opinions of all voters be heard if the Facebook camapign will be the “primary channel” for feedback?
Meanwhile, the Irish Government has also captured the zeitgeist for engaging in the social media conversation. It has just launched its social media-led public news service. MerrionStreet.ie has been set up as a communication tool for the public and media. It uses WordPress, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr tools.
What a week. Shabby legged it and on Monday left the Big Brother house by the back door. It was no surprise she was the most talked about girl.
Figure 1: Girls buzz volumes – 30/6 to 6/7
Ben showed no signs of becoming a wallflower, stayed in the limelight and was the most talked about housemate with the highest number of mentions. Much of the buzz was around his defiance of the Tree of Temptation when he refused to take place in a secret task. He then decided that he couldn’t be bothered to do an army exercise session as punishment and let Dave do it instead – nice. Ben also did a stand-up routine in front of the live audience on Friday when Sunshine was evicted.
Figure 2: Boys buzz volumes – 30/6 to 6/7
Ife was the least talked about girl and Nathan was the least talked about boy.
Meanwhile, Josie, who has put her love interest – John-James – on a slow simmer, has become the bookies favourite to win at 3/1. Rupert Adams from William Hill explained: “The last 48 hours have been all about Josie and I have a feeling she could go on to be the most unusual of Big Brother winners,” (This is Local London 4/7). But, don’t write off Steve, Ben and Corin just yet.
Figure 3: Topic cloud for the Big Brother conversation – 30/6 to 6/7
Across the Big Brother conversation, John-James was again the lead topic. There was also talk that a celebrity would enter the house – maybe Jodie Marsh – which sent a few reverberations across Twitter.
As always, everybody has been talking about the nominations. Caoimhe and John-James were put up by the house. Caoimhe then saved herself by winning a task and put up Nathan up instead.
Figure 4: Sentiment expressed towards nominated housemates – 30/6 to 6/7
Nathan is the bookies favourite to go at 2/7 and after a quick look at the sentiment scores for both – we’re with them this week.
So, the boys have been nominated for eviction. Big Brother housemates Ben, Govan, Dave & Mario face the public vote tomorrow. The house had its first bust-up last week and the housemates haven’t really gone down the peace and love route since. What on earth’s gone on?
Figure 1: Girls buzz volumes – 18/6 to 24/6
Well, Ben and Shabby have been at the centre of the storm all week. The buzz among the girls was for Shabby. She was involved in an almighty row with Ben, had a special task from the Tree of Temptation to cosy up to arch-enemy Ben for a couple of hours and then won a dinner date with unrequited love Caoimhe. Shabby’s week was topped off by saving herself from nomination and putting Mario up in her place.
Figure 2: Boys buzz volumes – 18/6 to 24/6
Ben was the most talked about boy. On Wednesday, Big Brother revealed that Ben had discussed nominating his ‘friend’ Sunshine by using a secret code (Digital Spy 24/6). The housemates lost their shopping budget as a result. Mario also had a dose of unrequited love and backed Ben during the rows.
Figure 3: Topic cloud for the Big Brother conversation – 18/6 to 24/6
So, what was happening in the rest of the house?
As you can see above, John-James was still the lead topic of the week. But, Corin has emerged as the bookies latest favourite to win at 11/4.
Back to Friday’s eviction…
Ben had the most negative mentions compared with the other three nominated housemates with 7.6 per cent. Our system analysed 1,100 mentions in real-time, across online and social media for the most talked-about boy. On the flipside, he also had the highest score for positive mentions with 22.8 per cent.
Mario had the fewest negative mentions at 5.1 per cent, and lowest positive mentions at 14.1 per cent.
Figure 4: Sentiment expressed towards nominated housemates – 18/6 to 24/6
The bookies favourite to go was Govan at 1/2. If we had some Monopoly money – it would probably would have gone on Ben.
We took a breather in the past few days from all the furore surrounding today’s emergency budget and ran a quick sentiment analysis of the Labour leadership contest. Ed Miliband, Ed Balls, David Miliband, Andy Burnham & last-minute nominee Diane Abbott were selected to go head-to-head in a bid to lead their party after the election defeat.
One of the lingering early issues of the campaign has been the Oxbridge education of all of the contenders. For example, influential blogger Guido Fawkes (18/6) ‘had to laugh at the Coronation Street “man of the people” look and feel’ of Ed Ball’s new website. The blogger also wondered ‘how many people from the real-world depicted by Corrie went to elite public schools, Oxford and on to Harvard’.
With the exception of Diane Abbott, they all followed the same path: Oxbridge, policy adviser to the Blair / Brown governments, then cabinet minister. Some analysts felt the long-running contest had all the excitement of watching a punctured balloon trying to take off. What were the differences between the candidates, where did they want to take the Party after its election defeat? Who was leading the pack?
It was a good week to take a look at the race, especially as the contenders went up against each other on Newsnight’s live TV debate with Jeremy Paxman and an audience of voters.
Figure 1: Buzz volumes for the Labour leadership discussion in online media
Over the reporting period, our system analysed around 14,000 mentions of the contest, in real-time, in online and social media. The spike in coverage on 15 June was driven by news of the TV debate.
Ed Balls was by far the most talked about in the web discussion with more than 4,000 mentions. Diane Abbott was in second spot with over 2,800 mentions. Andy Burnham was the least talked about.
So, what’s been said about the five contenders over the reporting period.
We ran a quick comparison report to look at the sentiment scores for each in online media.
Figure 2: Sentiment for the Labour leadership discussion in online media
In terms of positive mentions – our system scored Ed Miliband highest at 32.3 per cent of his coverage. Diane Abbott was second with 31.9 per cent.
Andrew Sparrow on The Guardian’s Politics Live Blog (16/6) analysed the performance of each candidate during the Newsnight debate with positive comments for Ed Miliband and Diane Abbott on their stance on immigration. Ed Balls had apparently consolidated his position as the ‘anti-immigration’ candidate during the Q&A session, while ‘others, such as Ed Miliband and Abbott, showed more sophistication on this topic, pointing out the underlying problems, such as a shortage of housing’.
Positive comments for David Miliband included many tweets in support of his campaign and approval of his sharper style during the TV debate.
Andy Burnham was praised for his communication skills and focus on policy. He was also singled out as the only candidate that was trending on Twitter after Newsnight.
There were also some favourable mentions of Ed Balls’ better-than-expected Newsnight performance.
However, there was criticism levelled at Ed Miliband over his move to distance himself from the war in Iraq and accusations that he was rewriting the history books. Ed Balls was also in the firing line for his attempts to distance himself from the last Labour administration on immigration policy. David Miliband attracted negative comment on his close ties with New Labour and Tony Blair and the war in Iraq. Andy Burnham’s comment that the Iraq war gave hope to its people was also criticised. Diane Abbott’s relationship with Michael Portillo on the TV show This Week generated negative mentions.
On 15 June, the Fabian hustings exit poll put Ed Miliband as favourite with 40 per cent approval. Interestingly, Michael Crick (14/6) posted speculation that David Miliband might resign from politics altogether if Ed Miliband wins, because he might find it difficult to serve under his younger brother.
Roll up. Roll up.
Roll up for the circus was the clarion call of Big Brother (BB) producers Endemol as the final series of BB kicked off last Wednesday. Thirteen housemates and a ‘mole’ entered the house and we were off. Shabby, Caoimhe, Ife, Corin, Rachael, Sunshine, Louise, Steve, John-James, Ben, Nathan, Govan, Dave & Mario the mole were in.
So, we joined the conversation around the online watercooler to bring you a 360-analysis of all the goings on in the house, the nominations & evictions, the twists & turns, who’s saying what, why and where.
Over the first few days all the housemates began to ‘bond’. All was quiet in the state of Endemol.
But, all circuses have a ringmaster and Big Brother set wild-card hopeful Mario, now called Moley, a secret, ‘impossible’, task to sabotage the house until Saturday. He wasn’t ‘officially’ rumbled by the others and was allowed to stay as a bona-fide housemate – with all the usual trappings: rows, conspiracies and a love interest.
So, where was everyone talking about BB? A quick look at the channel breakdown showed all the noise was on Twitter with a 73.8 per cent share of voice. In terms of authority, our social media measurement system scored Yahoo! Answers highest with a 62.6 per cent share of voice.
Figure 1: Channel breakdown for the Big Brother discussion – 9/6 to 15/6
Who was everyone talking about?
Figure 2: Girls buzz volume – 9/6 to 15/6
Figure 3: Boys buzz volume – 9/6 to 15/6
The buzz was around Sunshine and Mario over the course of the first week. We also ran a snapshot of the Big Brother discussion in online news and social media for the hot topics.
Figure 4: Topic cloud for the Big Brother conversation – 9/6 to 15/6
The stand-out topic was John-James, the bookies early favourite to win. The tweet below gave us a bit of clue about his early popularity.
Fast forward to Monday – nominations day. The annual love-in between all the housemates came to its traditional early end. Six days was a long time in reality TV and the honeymoon period was well and truly over. The first row erupted between Dave and Govan – over some onions. A right old ding dong followed.
On Tuesday, there was a nominations twist which created another buzz in the tweetstream. First off, Shabby, Sunshine & Dave were put up for eviction by the house. But, Dave beat the other two in a challenge, saved himself, and put Rachael up instead. Shabby was agitated about her nomination and had a bust-up with Ben.
Who’s likely to go?
Figure 5: Sentiment for nominated housemates – 15/6
Yesterday, Sunshine was the most talked about. She also had the highest number of negative mentions – mainly calls to get her out. But, there were also reports that she was being bullied by the other housemates. (Daily Star 15/6)
Shabby was the bookie’s favourite to go at 8/15. But, where we’re predicting Rachael.
It was early doors, but all the signs were there: World Cup fans have already gone Twitter mad.
The micro-blog buckled under the weight of tweets in the build-up to the first match on 11 June. The site had already experienced a few outages and had to post an explanation on the technical difficulties which led to its poor performance. (Twitter.com 11/6)
The Twitter team went on to warn: “As more people turn to Twitter to see what’s happening in the world (or in the World Cup), you may still see the whale when there are unprecedented spikes in traffic“. (Twitter.com 11/6)
During the opening game between hosts South Africa and Mexico, CNN.com’s Twitter buzz counted around 300,000 tweets. (NewTeeVee 11/6)
We’re monitoring the impact of social media on the World Cup, so had a quick look at the buzz driving the surge on Twitter on 11 June. By drilling down by channel, we were able to generate the top 75 lead topics on the micro-blog. This enabled us to analyse the noise-to-signal ratio of tweets and filter conversations which kicked off debates which would linger longer than many hangovers.
Figure 1: Twitter topic cloud – 11/6
For example, a quick click on mentions of The Guardian in the topic cloud led us to a discussion about football fans and brewers joining forces to fight a hike in beer tax during the tournament.
In terms of sentiment on Twitter (11/6):
There were 2015 positive mentions, 3561 neutral mentions and 331 negative mentions.
Most of the positive chatter was driven by sheer exuberance that the World Cup was starting.
The arrest of the head of Rwanda’s Football Federation, Brig-Gen Jean Bosco Kazura, for attempting to leave the country without permission was one of the key negative mentions. The soldier was heading to the World Cup.
So, what’s on the horizon?
In the weeks leading up to the first match, the Vuvuzela topped Mashable’s Twitter Trends chart (12/6). The plastic stadium horn sounds like a drone of bees – music to some ears – worse than tinnitus to others – musical Marmite.
As the teams got down to business, France captain Patrice Evra complained that he couldn’t sleep because of the Vuvuzela racket. The Serb team complained that the din impacted their concentration and they gave away a ’stupid’ penalty during the Ghana game, (Yahoo.com 13/6). FIFA had already considered banning the horns. It’ll be interesting to see how this one plays out.
If first-day traffic numbers for Twitter are an indication of what’s to come, then it seems there will at least be a micro-blog pitch invasion at this year’s World Cup.
p.s. There was another link last week to an old report on BBC News’ popular stories. This time it was a report on a sponsorship settlement between FIFA and Mastercard – from 2007! (BBC News 21/6/07)
Wonder if this issue will be resuscitated by social media, just like the Mars story? (See post on 10 June – Why was Mars back in the conversation?)
Mars’ decision to use animal rennet in its chocolate bars was back in online discussions – but why?
BBC News reported the original story back in 2007 and the company, at the time called Masterfoods, explained that it was switching sources for its ingredients and asserted the decision had been “principled”. The Vegetarian Society responded by calling the move “incomprehensible“. (BBCNews 14/5/07)
Three years later and the issue was back. Not sure why, but this week, there were a couple of links to the original BBC report – as one of its most popular business reports. Curiouser and curiouser.
So, we noticed the issue pop up in social media content and ran a quick case study to gauge the mood of social media users, and try to understand why it was again a hot topic. We looked at where comment was, what everyone was talking about and sentiment. We tailored our research to monitor the Mars discussion on the use of animal products between 2 June and 8 June.
So first things first, the breakdown by channel. The blogs took the lion’s share with a 63.7 per cent share of voice. Twitter accounted for 13.4 per cent. No surprise as it wasn’t breaking news.
Figure 1: Breakdown by channel – 2/6 to 8/6
What was being discussed?
The great thing about our custom reporting tool is its flexibility. We were also able to drill down to look at topics in the most active channels such as the blogs & Twitter, which were at the centre of the latest debate.
What were the bloggers and tweeters talking about. Here’s a snapshot from the leading 75 topics.
Figure 2: Topic cloud snapshot from the blogs – 2/6 to 8/6
We are not limited to single word phrasing in the topic cloud. So, as you can see in the chart above, we picked up topics such as ‘vegan beauty products’ and ‘chocolate bar’ in the lead topics.
A simple click on the mention ‘chocolate bar’ linked to The J-Walk Blog (2/6) which indicated that the blogger thought this was contemporary news.
We then looked at current sentiment from social media users towards Mars’ introduction of animal rennet. Using the custom reporting tool, we drilled down to a couple of channels: the blogs & Twitter.
Figure 3: Sentiment for the blogs – 2/6 to 8/6
Figure 4: Sentiment in Twitter – 2/6 to 8/6
Over the week, our system analysed 174 mentions in social media of the Mars decision. The results were:
46 per cent of mentions were scored as positive
47 per cent of mentions were scored as neutral
6.3 per cent of mentions were scored as negative
Although there were no stand-out positive mentions for Mars, there was comment on the popularity of its chocolate brands in the same breath as explanations that the bars were no longer suitable for vegetarians.
In terms of negative mentions, consumer distaste at the introduction of rennet was at the eye of the storm.
We really don’t know how it became a hot topic. But we do know for certain in some corners there is an argument that comment on Twitter has a short shelf life. Today’s tweets will be used for tomorrow’s cyber chips. So to speak. But, looking at the Mars case, can brands ignore the power of social media to immediately bring old issues back to life?
