When the new Google privacy policy was announced last week, I knew there was no chance I’d have time to read through it and take in all of the changes. Luckily, this was the subject of January 28^th’s installment of the Wall Street Journal Sentiment Tracker, so I got to see what people chatting on social media, the world’s largest focus group, had to say about Google’s privacy policy.  Powered by NetBase, the Sentiment Tracker showed that while 55% of social media users on Facebook and Twitter are opposed to the changes, a close 43% support the changes and find them inoffensive. I dug a bit more into the data to see what the 55% have against the changes, check out some of these verbatim:

I’m upset about the new Privacy Policy for #Google . I don’t want them reading my #gmail !

You should read Google’s new privacy policy, it’s pretty evil. As expected.

Maybe time to leave the Google Empire behind!

Are you for or against? Let me know in the comments!

January is the month of New Year’s resolutions – last year we looked at diets and gyms, and this year we’ve taken a look at health food crazes. In keeping with this theme, I decided to round out January with a second Brand Passion Index on the workout gear that is keeping social consumers honest. I’ve never been a big runner, but in the past my sneaker of choice was always Ryka; I have small ankles and a narrow foot and they were always perfect for me. Nowadays, I’ve been hitting the yoga mat, so I’m far from a sneaker expert. Luckily, the newest member of the NetBase Marketing team, Dave Ewart, is both an ardent runner and a triathlete, so I turned to him for a lineup of the biggest names in sneakers, and learned about some new brands in the process. With Dave’s help, we settled on these seven: Skechers, Puma, Nike, VibramFiveFingers, Saucony and Reebok.

Some of these brands were really new to me – I’d previously been referring to Vibram with the incredibly technical term of “foot gloves” (did I mention I’m not a runner?) – so the data surfaced by the Insight Workbench was fresh and interesting. Well, mostly fresh. Surprise, surprise: Nike was the buzz winner, with 44% of the overall conversations, though its other metrics were, compared to the other brands, kind of average, with a Passion Intensity score of 63 and a Net Sentiment of 71. Saucony tied with Skechers for the highest Net Sentiment score of 89, and also generated the second highest Passion Intensity with a 70. VibramFiveFingers generated only 6% of the overall chatter, but showed its presence
with the highest Passion Intensity score of 71 and a high Net Sentiment score of 80. Reebok nabbed the second highest volume of chatter with 26% of the conversations, but fell behind with the second lowest Passion Intensity score of 60 and the lowest Net Sentiment score of 57.

In this graphic, the amount of chatter about a brand is indicated by the size of the bubble, while the placement of the bubble shows the intensity of passion.

Verbatim surfaced about Saucony not only showed that online consumers are loyal to the brand because of its incredible and thoughtful
quality, but also surfaced some fascinating insights. As a CMO, I can see a whole campaign unfolding around the concept of sock-less Saucony shoes – and as an English major, I’m loving the alliteration!

Sooo excited to try out my new Saucony Hattori running shoes! They are minimalist shoes (socks optional) but still have wonderful cushioning on the soles

The cushioning of Saucony shoes is extremely well-designed

I now use Saucony Kinvaras, which are light and flexible and I’ve loved them so far

I love my Saucony Progrid Kinvaras – I just bought my second pair tonight. They’re super light, very flexible in the toes, but they have enough ankle support and stability for me

While I don’t think that VibramFiveFingers necessarily rolls off the tongue, the brand is clearly doing something right. Online consumers raved about the “revolutionary footwear” and all of the perks that come with this purist running technology.

Vibram 5 fingers are by far the best 

Vibram 5 Fingers footwear are probably the most revolutionary footwear available on the market today

The Vibram FiveFingers have really helped strengthen my feet and improve my balance/posture

The Vibram shoes improve posture and practically force proper running form

Verbatim about Reebok really demonstrated to me a classic crisis management use case through the very modern lens of social media: how to
respond to your online consumers in the midst of a PR disaster regarding claims of easy toning.

Whew, Reebok got their hands slapped! Hope you didn’t fall victim to the faulty claims they made for these shoes

RT @MyFiveFingers: Spoiler alert: Those Reebok toning shoes don’t do anything (shocker!)

I got a pair of the Reebok Easy Tone shoes and they don’t do anything for me at all 

I got the reebok easy tones thinking that they would be comfortable and they actually hurt my feet! 

My reebok easytone was not good. It was messing up my knee and throwing off my balance with some of the moves 

Which brand are you lacing up these days? Let me know what your experience has been – tweet me @lisajoyrosner

Seeing pajamas through the eyes of my children reminds me how much I loved them way back when. All four of my little ones are diehard pajama enthusiasts – especially the footie ones, which are adorable.  In fact, they’ve begun a new tradition in our family called “PJ Day” where they stay in them all day, robes and all – sometimes our peace-sign Snuggie even gets some play. Recently, my 4-year-old was invited to a pajama-themed birthday party and was absolutely tickled at the thought of going out in public in PJs and boots. I wonder what her response would be to the recently proposed ban on pajamas in public Louisiana from a county commissioner in Louisiana…and it turns out that the January 21^st installment of the Wall Street Journal Sentiment Tracker was wondering about the response to the legislation as well. Powered by NetBase, this week’s ST looked at the social media reaction on Twitter and Facebook to all things pajama, and found that almost 42% of social media users think it is simply unacceptable to wear pajamas out in public (I better tell my daughter her days of pjs outside are numbered…). I couldn’t get over some of the verbatim; some of these people are riled up!Check out some gems below:

Oh my they are trying to ban people from wearing PJ’s in public! Finally thank God that is really tacky!

A town in Louisiana is trying to ban wearing pj pants out in public!!!! That’s an amazing ban!

I really dislike people wearing pajamas to school, like save that for your house..

Where do you fall? Public PJs as social taboo or no big deal? Drop me a line and let me know!

I had resisted smart phones for the longest time. Finally, when my daughter started to call my traditional phone an “old man phone,” I knew it was time to take the plunge. I’d never liked Apple products in the past … perhaps they were too “intuitive” for my brain. But when I was at the Verizon store (yes, I too switched too) they showed me a demo of the iPhone 4S with Siri and I fell in love with it instantly. It has saved me so much time—I can send paragraphs of email from my iPhone using Siri. And she almost always has an answer for me, even it’s just to back off to using a web search.

Still, I know that Apple makes bold claims for Siri, declaring it “understands what you say and knows what you mean.” Do consumers find it lives up to its billing?

About Siri

Siri is a feature on the Apple iPhone 4S. According to the Siri FAQs page on the Apple website, “Siri is the intelligent personal assistant that helps you get things done just by asking. It allows you to use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more. But Siri isn’t like traditional voice recognition software that requires you to remember keywords and speak specific commands. Siri understands your natural speech, and it asks you questions if it needs more information to complete a task.”

Positive Themes

“Communications” is the biggest positive theme, which is mostly about talking to Siri.

• I like talking to Siri. Me: I love you. Siri: All you need is love. (source)
• Yay I finally got my new iPhone4 S!! And I’m n love!! I love talkn to Siri!! (source)

“Calls me names” is another component of the Communications theme. Siri uses your name when she talks to you and it’s really a delightful feature. Some people (as you can see in the sound bites below) have entered their name as “Big Poppa,” “daddy,” or “Princess Martha.” It must be fun to hear.

• I love when Siri calls me daddy☺. (source)
• I love when Siri calls me slam. #itsAWESOME (source)
• I love when Siri calls me Princess Martha. (source)
• I love it when Siri calls me Big Poppa. (source)

Consumers think Siri is a “cool app.”

• Siri, the intelligent assistant, looks cool… assuming I don’t have to repeat things to it, or be forced to speak like a robot to be understood. But Siri (the company Apple scooped up) is the leader in this stuff, so should be good. (source)
• Siri makes my iPhone cooler than my iPad. (source)

Users think Siri is “great technology.”

• @mchapman22 not this bad boy. Best phone I have ever owned linked to my iPad via iCloud. Plus Siri is great technology. (source)
• Got a new iPhone 4s! And I love it! Siri is the best voice-activated software ever. Way more accurate and intuitive than others. (source)

Users like the fact that Siri comes in various nationalities.

• Ironically the British #Siri is funnier than the American one. But then again, I’ve always loved the British sense of humour. (source)
• The Aussie Siri is great at recognising my voice!! (it uses female voice too ) I must say though, I’ve had just as good success rates with diction using all the English versions… (source)

Negative Themes

Some consumers find Siri “inefficient,” meaning they’re annoyed that Siri often “can’t understand me” or is a poor search assistant.

• Siri is a bad bad girl ! Because of her slang , she didn’t understand what am I saying tsk tsk. (source)
• Originally Posted by Xater: The response of Siri is that it can#t help me out with maps, traffic or directions. I also have trouble asking Siri to tell conversions. I always get the response that it doesn’t understand what I mean. Sorry, but I’m going to have to agree with Siri on this one. (source)

Siri also makes a convenient scapegoat for people who can’t spell. (Maybe this belongs in the Positive themes.)

• From now on I’m going to blame Siri for all my spelling/grammar mistakes. (source)

As we saw above, many people tell Siri to call them a pet name, but there can be a downside to that.

• I hate when Siri calls me Sex Kitten in public. (source)

“Scary” is a negative theme. Apparently some people get creeped out by a smart phone that talks to them and see it as a bad omen of things to come.

• I’m really scared that Siri is the beginning of Terminator. (source)
• Automated soda fountains stress me out. The idea of Siri TV makes me dread the future. I don’t want to live like the Jetsons! (source)

“Dumb” is a negative theme? Some consumers find Siri dumb?

• Siri is a moron I swear!!! (source)
• My Siri is dumber than David rawlins’. (source)

Insights

Reading what people like about Siri makes you think they’re talking about a human friend: They like talking to her, she tells them stories, and they think she’s fun and funny. Also intelligent. But that’s not too surprising, given that Siri understands what you say, acts on it, and calls you by name. Even in the negative comments, which people make when they’re frustrated with Siri, users personify her and swear at her like they would at a person.

Evaluating the utility of Siri, most people accept that voice recognition software hasn’t evolved to the point yet where it’s perfect, but they find Siri pretty darn good. So most users don’t feel Apple’s claims are too bold; instead they find that the iPhone is a very useful device, made much more useful (and fun) by the addition of Siri. Sure, there are some complaints, but they’re often expressions of immediate frustration over Siri not understanding a specific utterance; the users aren’t panning the app as a whole.

A couple of the negative themes—“scary” and “misspellings”—actually consist mostly of tongue-in-cheek comments that are pretty funny.

The iPhone 4S is a device that people enjoy using and Siri gives it an extra dimension of convenience and utility, and a personality that most users really like. Except when it calls them “Sex Kitten” in public … which gives us an idea: Maybe Apple can add the capability for Siri to call you different names at different locations. When I’m at home (which it can detect), call me Sex Kitten. When I’m at work, call me Boss.

About Our Approach

This case study is a form of social media analysis called a netnography—a qualitative, interpretive research methodology that adapts the traditional, in-person ethnographic research techniques of anthropology to the study of online communities.

To write this netnography, NetBase analyzed thousands of posts from consumers about the brand. The posts are automatically sorted into Positive or Negative classifications by our natural language processing (NLP) engine, then we manually sample those posts.

To summarize a netnography as we’ve done here, we distill our findings into useful insights about how the brand we studied is positioned and perceived. We can provide our source data and confidence intervals for the percentages in the theme charts upon request.

After a week of looking at the social media response to health foods in honor of New Year’s resolutions, I found it very interesting (and timely) that the January 14^th installment of the Wall Street Journal Sentiment Tracker focused on junk food giant Hostess filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. I must admit that I have NEVER eaten a Twinkie and do not consider them food. Ever the optimist, I thought that maybe America is turning a corner and we’re finally getting healthier – but the data, powered by NetBase, revealed that online consumers on Facebook and Twitter see things differently. While 25% of the conversations revolved around the health drawbacks to Twinkies and Ho Hos, 33% of social media users felt sad and nostalgic about the cream-filled treats going under. See what some of your online constituents (and the people restoring my faith) had to say about Twinkies and their health:

Wait a minute…. Childhood obesity at an all time high and the #Twinkie company is going out of business. Something doesn’t add up here.

#hostess is filing for bankruptcy one less enemy to fight hopefully in the battle for health.

Like most I have enjoyed a Fruit Pie at 3 a.m. post dive bar yet it is a very promising sign of US health that Hostess has gone bankrupt.

So are you stockpiling Twinkies? Let me know your thoughts on the latest company to file for Chapter 11!

About Philz Coffee

Founded in 2003 by Phil Jaber, Philz Coffee has developed a devoted following. All the blends available at Philz are the result of 25 years of coffee alchemy and invention. Philz was voted “Best Coffee in San Francisco” by SFWeekly. The company sells coffee online and has seven retail locations in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Positive Themes

“Coffee blends” is the biggest positive for Philz, which covers “iced coffee,” “Tesora blends,” Turkish Coffee,” and many other popular Philz blends.

• i’ve been longing to yelp a 5 star coffee joint. This is it. Philz Coffee is so legit. I had their Tseora and it became my instant favorite. I am a big coffee drinker so I know a little bit about coffee. (source)
• RT@ttorres My half-caff iced coffee from @Philz_Coffee is perfect. Icing a hot drink is a fine-art & Rick at the PA store has mastered it. (source)
• Love it. Super friendly service.  Ok not the original – though I do love the very first Philz.. Philz coffee zee best! My favorite after trying several different grounds has got to be the Philtered Soul – black. (source)

Consumers find Philz to be “great tasting.”

• Without wanting to over-hype it @Philz_Coffee might be the greatest coffee I’ve ever tasted. Crushed mint! (source)
• Umm, because Philz coffee is the best coffee in the world!!…and super strong too. (source)

The personal service at Philz is often mentioned as a plus.

• Philz Coffee on #Yelp: The coffee is great (hot OR iced). The service is friendly (they remember who you are, what y… (source)
• I like philz. It gives me a good vibe and the people are wonderful, And of course the coffee is flaw less. i only have one have one complaint… there ordering system. you order one place, walk across the cafe to pay and then wait in a jumble of people for your coffee, which takes a while! also, it is hard to figure out when it is your turn to order, for the lack of organized line! Philz, once you organize yourself you will be my favorite coffee spot! (source)

Negative Themes

We couldn’t find enough negatives to produce a valid theme chart, but here are the key themes and some representative sound bites.

“Not preferred taste” was the most common negative comment.

• OK, Philz folks, get a grip: It’s not good coffee, roasted to death and back and flavored, the drinks are a gimmick, and their coffees are cut rate and not well sourced. On all three fronts, fail. Can we move on? (source)
• Answer: Philz Coffee is too strong! Crashing like Hindenberg. (source)
• My only major gripe is the lack of wifi. Outlets aplenty but no internet.  You would think that Guerilla Cafe, as a place that serves coffee, might just suffer a little bit since the new Philz opened next door. One thing that Philz lacks though is a good espresso, and this place delivers well enough. (source)

Some find it “expensive” and are overwhelmed by all the options.

• Did I just spend $4 on a cup of coffee? I didn’t mean to! My boyfriend and I stopped by our first Philz this weekend and it was kind of a fail.I didn’t expect so many options and the menu overwhelmed me. So I just picked one randomly, Seven Stars. (source)

This comment points up the disadvantage mentioned in our intro, namely, that there are only a few Philz locations and that expanding brings its own set of problems.

• I know a lot of people prefer Peet’s, but I don’t like their syrups. Philz is the best coffee I’ve had, hands down…even better than that stuff people are always bringing back from South America or Hawaii. Unfortunately, Philz only has so many locations and their quality will undoubtedly suffer as they start to expand. (source)

Insights

When consumers name other gourmet coffee brands and Philz in the same post, it’s most often to say that the other brands don’t measure up to Philz. The company says it believes in “first-class customer service” and consumers find that they’re true to their word. Similar to Peet’s, we couldn’t find enough negative sound bites to build a chart, which shows there just aren’t many people who have something bad to say about Philz. So their positioning at the high end of the gourmet coffee market is right where customers perceive them.

One dilemma for the company, highlighted in one of the sound bites, is that people wish Philz had more coffeehouses. The seven locations are popular and often crowded. On the Philz site, two new locations are listed as “coming soon,” so the company is trying to expand to meet demand.

Of course, as another poster points out, they risk being a victim of their own success as they expand if they can’t continue to provide the quality service people praise them for. In fact, more than one post points out a specific problem with the way consumers order, pay for, and wait for coffee. Apparently the flow of those operations within a store is a bit haphazard and consumers find it an inconvenience—not enough so that they aren’t coming to Philz, but enough so that they’re speaking up about it. This sounds like an issue Philz can fix by improving the layout of its stores and the way customers move through the steps of a transaction.

About Our Approach

This case study is a form of social media analysis called a netnography—a qualitative, interpretive research methodology that adapts the traditional, in-person ethnographic research techniques of anthropology to the study of online communities.

To write this netnography, NetBase analyzed thousands of posts from consumers about the brand. The posts are automatically sorted into Positive or Negative classifications by our natural language processing (NLP) engine, then we manually sample those posts.

To summarize a netnography as we’ve done here, we distill our findings into useful insights about how the brand we studied is positioned and perceived. We can provide our source data and confidence intervals for the percentages in the theme charts upon request.

Welcome to the first Brand Passion Index of 2012.  I’m excited to kick off this year with a nod to one of the most common New Year’s resolution: getting healthy and getting fit. Last year, we looked at diets and gyms, so this year I decided to take a different approach and analyze the foods that people turn to when their waistbands are a little more tight following the holiday season. I eat fairly healthily, but still needed some inspiration so I turned to Google to find some more of health food fads, and in the process, found multiple interpretations on the pronunciation of acai. I still can’t quite pronounce it, but added it to this list of healthy foods that people can’t stop talking about in social media: quinoa, kale, wheatgrass, pomegranates and acai.

Using the Insight Workbench I found that social media users  simply love their healthy food: all five of the brands returned overall very positive results. Pomegranates (a favorite snack of mine and the juice of choice of my kids if combines with ruby grapefruit) emerged as the buzz winner, generating 34% of the overall chatter, a Passion Intensity score of 61 and a Net Sentiment score of 75. The Workbench also surfaced that the top pomegranate brands include POM, Welch and Old Orchard, so I have some new ones for the grocery list! Quinoa and acai (is it a prerequisite that these healthy foods have to be impossible to read and pronounce?) took the lead with a tie for the highest Net Sentiment score of 85, though acai edged quinoa out by one point for the highest Passion Intensity score of 82. Online consumers recommended finding the best quality for both brands at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, two places where I leave behind much of my paycheck.

n this graphic, the amount of chatter about a brand is indicated by the size of the bubble, while the placement of the bubble shows the intensity of passion.

Verbatim surfaced about pomegranates showed that social media users are buzzing about the jewel-toned fruit because of the many benefits it has: great taste, a positive effect on your skin and overall health.

I’m addicted to pomegranate seeds they are soo yummy

Pomegranate is the perfect additive for the skin 

It’s official: Pomegranates are pretty and fun to eat

Pomegranate has to be one of the best natural snacks! 

Social media chatter contained glowing reviews to acai berries due to the superfood qualities the tiny berry contains: also high in antioxidants, addictive taste and super for that resolution of weight-loss.

Acai berries are great antioxidants—and great in smoothies and yogurt parfaits…

I love acai berries with a passion

I love Acai Berry and it is now part of my daily weightloss routine

Seriously I’m sure the Acai Berry are better than crack

@BillCorbett I hear that those ACAI BERRY DIETS are better than life/sex itself! 

And, finally, though quinoa generated 13.5% of the overall  huge amount of conversations, it’s clear that its following is mighty. Online consumers gushed about the tender grain – and I can’t blame them, I eat it almost every day!

Quinoa is quick, easy to prepare and delicious 

Quinoa is my new favorite thing 

@DwellStudio Quinoa is pretty much the best thing ever 

To say that I’m a quinoa fan is an understatement 

So what’s your  New Year’s resolution? And what’s your go-to health food and where do you buy it? Check back in for the next BPI, I’m still sticking to resolutions and looking at social’s favorite sneakers for those much needed work outs!

I’ve always been a snap-happy person. However, despite a serious dedication to capturing every moment and hoarding my pictures, I’m actually a late adopter of technology. I was the last of my friends to go from analog to digital, but now that I’ve made the switch, my Kodak camera tends to sit on the shelf in favor of my iPhone (note I was also one of the last people on earth to finally get a smart phone), which is now my go-to for capturing memories. While I love the convenience of my iPhone, nothing compares to the quality of good old-fashioned film, so seeing the headlines about Kodak declaring bankruptcy definitely gave me pause and made me reflect. And according to Saturday, January 7^th’s installment of the Wall Street Journal Sentiment Tracker on the 132-year-old brand’s announcement, I wasn’t the only one. 64% of social media users on Facebook and Twitter were saddened to see the iconic brand struggling to keep up with the fast pace of developing technologies, while 23% of users insisted this was inevitable. Below are some of the other sound bites I surfaced with NetBase showing Kodak fans looking back on over a century of Kodak moments:

So, another American icon will be going down the toilet…we will miss you Kodak…

Such a sad day- Thanks for all the memories Kodak!

This is so, so sad. My first camera, and many others afterwards, was a Kodak.

So are you nostalgic? Or did you see this one coming? Let me know in the comments!

Here’s a personal example: When I bought my daughter a laptop a few months ago, I realized I should also sign up for a good online backup service. Since I’m not an IT wonk myself, I decided to use NetBase tools to help me make this purchase decision. Here’s how I did it.

Turning to Social Media for Buying Advice

First, to identify my choices, I set up “online backup” as a topic in Workbench. That surfaced the brands most commonly mentioned in connection with that term, which were Backblaze, Carbonite, CrashPlan, IBackup, IDrive, Mozy, SpiderOak and SugarSync. I also used Workbench to build positive and negative theme charts for the brands.

I then used Scorecard to create this Brand Passion Index (BPI).

After reviewing the BPI, the Positive and Negative theme charts I’d built in Workbench, and selected sound bites, I had reasons for or against going with the leading brands. Here are some observations about my decision-making process.

• I initially considered signing up with IDrive because I remember it from a long time ago, but that’s not a good reason to choose it. Then I saw they have the worst position on the BPI and they were out.
• Carbonite sounds familiar to me from all the advertising on NPR, so I was predisposed in their favor. They do have the largest share of buzz (biggest bubble on the BPI), but a common complaint is not having certain features, as you can see in this Negative pie chart. So they were out.

My next choice was IBackup, since it’s so well positioned on the BPI. But I realized that since its share of buzz is so low, its bubble is very small. That means its position might just be the beginner’s luck of a new entrant. Also out.

• I noticed that Backblaze has better share of buzz than IBackup and is the only other brand in the Love quadrant. But I wanted to double check the main positive and negative opinions, so I looked at the theme charts and concluded the positives far outweigh the negatives for our situation.
• Finally, I had to check out Mozy because it has such a big share of buzz. The main dislike was pretty significant though: Mozy gets rid of unlimited option. My daughter won’t have a lot of data on her laptop, so that’s not a deal-breaker for us. But Mozy is sort of undifferentiated in its position on the BPI—it’s in a cluster, and the cluster isn’t as well positioned as Backblaze. So Mozy was out.

The Final Decision: Backblaze

With the help of NetBase tools in evaluating my options, I ended up deciding Backblaze was the best fit for us. I’ve already used it for one full restore, which went smoothly. At this point I’d say I love Backblaze and am very glad I signed up for their service. Thank you to the quarter million or so people out there who helped me make this decision

The larger point of my personal experience is this: In the past, consumers would ask a few friends about an important purchase decision and companies would convene focus groups and do surveys to gather consumer opinions. But now consumers are turning to social media for advice on what to buy, and companies are turning to social media for advice on what to make. So it will be a very interesting new C2B world when companies and consumers are on the same page—literally looking at the same source of data to figure out what they want and what they need.

But here’s what does work: Put a unique hashtag in the title of your video—like #BASSMOB in this example. Then, to see what people are saying about that video, you can set up a topic in the Insight Workbench with the hashtag #BASSMOB. Viewers typically use the hashtag when they talk about the video, which makes this a fairly reliable way to track the online discussion.

Using Unique Domain Names

Here’s another solution: When it comes to URL shortening (also called URL compression), you can take the “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” approach. You can set up your very own URL compression with a domain name that’s unique to you. Bit.ly offers this service under the name Custom Short Domains.

If you produce a lot of YouTube videos and other content that’s hard to track with keywords, you can use this technique to at least track mentions of your URL compression prefix. For example, the New York Times uses nyti.ms.

Special thanks to my friends Alain Chesnais and Mark Zohar at TrendSpottr for teaching me these techniques.