Not surprisingly, 95% of social media users were offended by Jeffries’ words, while 3% had no issue and 2% cracked jokes.  What do you think? No big deal or do you take serious issue with it? Let me know in the comments! And as new topics trend, feel free to reach out to us on Twitter or Facebook and tell us what you’d like to see on our Trend Tracker!

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

I have to say, I was amazed at just how much passion villainous women create!  Viewers love to hate the evil moms and this intensity really stirs up a high level of engagement. We found that Cersei of Game of Thrones generated the largest share of buzz, with 58% of the overall conversation.  Cersei was the most talked about TV mom, and she had one of the lowest Net Sentiment scores (4) and the second lowest Passion Intensity (56). Online consumers can’t stop buzzing about how controversial and evil she is – and how well the actress pulls off this icy role.

Everyone hates Cersei because she’s so good at being bad. Lena Heady ftw.

Ughhhhhh, I hate the Lannisters! And I freaking hate Cersei.

@angrygodofjebus I hate Cersei so much too. Which is the best feeling her performance could give.

Betty Draper of the critically acclaimed Mad Men – and currently, my new favorite show thanks to Netflix and weekends – received the third highest share of buzz with 11% of the overall conversation. And I guess in this case, a good thing, Mrs. Draper had the lowest Net Sentiment score (-10) and a fairly high Passion Intensity of 62. Verbatim revealed that online consumers hate and ranted about Betty’s deplorable mothering skills.

It’s season six and I still hate Betty Draper. #madmen

Welp. I officially effing hate betty draper.

Betty Draper was one of the most brilliantly appalling characters ever written

Betty Draper is ruining Mother’s Day… #MadMen

Betty Draper is easily the worst mother ever. #madmen

And finally, on a high note: Gloria Pritchett of Modern Family emerged as the most-loved TV mom, with the highest Passion Intensity score (97) and the highest Net Sentiment score (66). Despite generating only about 1% of the overall chatter, online consumers gushed about how Gloria is their much-loved, favorite character.   I guess the formula here is it’s better to be hated than loved if you want the buzz!

My favorite is Gloria Pritchett.

Sofia Vergara. Have you seen her as the fabulous Gloria Pritchett in Modern Family? I think I’m in love!

Words cannot describe how much I love Gloria Pritchett!

Just for the record, I love Gloria Pritchett!

Who’s your favorite TV mom? Let me know in the comments! And to my fellow moms out there, have a healthy and happy Mother’s Day!

Twitter has gone so mainstream that now even my dad and Warren Buffet have Twitter handles! Apparently Buffet has always had an aversion to technology, but he jumped on the social media bandwagon – and rapidly accrued hundreds of thousands of followers in mere minutes. We saw further evidence of social media’s ubiquity in the last election – Obama for America was totally dialed into social, connecting with voters, and then powered their social analytics strategy with NetBase insights. So it is no surprise that now the king of investments is joining the 140-character conversation. The May 4^th installment of the Wall Street Journal Sentiment Tracker covered the social media response to Mr. Buffett’s Twitter debut, and while 39% were excited, 57% couldn’t stop tweeting and Facebooking about his growing follower count. 1% said they weren’t excited, and 3% cracked jokes.  Check out some of the extra jokes below:

Calm down, Internet.  @WarrenBuffett joining Twitter is not gonna make you rich.

Warren Buffett accumulates Twitter followers even faster than he makes money.

Rumor has it that Warren Buffet joined Twitter today.  The collective I.Q.  just sloped upward.

As the April 13^th installment of the Wall Street Journal Sentiment Tracker showed, currency and all of its different incarnations is top of mind these days, particularly on social media.  And this week on Saturday’s WSJ Sentiment Tracker covered the social response to the design of the new $100 bill.  As with many topics on the social web, online users were polarized and had some strong opinions – 32% like the new design, while 22% find it ugly, 43% talked about the new security features of Ben Franklin’s bill and 3% cracked jokes. I agree with the comment that it is looking more like the Euro. Check out some of the extra jokes below:

In a blatant effort to taunt the public, the Federal Reserve unveiled their new $100 bill today.

The new $100 have features that make it hard to counterfeit. One feature: nobody in the USA can afford a $100 bill to counterfeit.

It’s like a Photoshop kid from the ’90s designed the new $100 bill.

What do you think of the new design? Let me know!

To build on their findings, I took a look at this same question but through a different lens.  At NetBase we are currently in beta testing with our Digital Channel Intelligence solution for Twitter.  Customers had been asking for a way to measure their effectiveness in the same two areas J.D. Power reported on.  So NetBase is gearing up to offer two key metrics as part of NetBase Digital Channel Intelligence for Twitter:

1] Post Engagement – The rate at which followers interact with a tweet, which basically measures the effectiveness of Twitter marketing.  It’s the (Number of Retweets + Number of Replies) / Number of Brand Tweets.  In a nutshell, it measures how much consumers respond to the company’s tweets.

2] Response Rate – The rate at which the company responds to consumer-originated tweets.  This basically measures customer service responsiveness.

Think of these rates as measures of the dialogue between the consumer and the company.  Consistent and engaged communication would mean high scores for both rates.

As my readers my know, I love chocolate, so I was eager to test this capability and find out which chocolate company has the highest Post Engagement (digital marketing effectiveness) and Response Rate (customer service responsiveness).

What I found out is chocolate companies seem to be using their Twitter handles primarily for one or the other (digital marketing vs. customer service) but not both.  You can see that in the graph presented here.  It covers the last month of tweets made by each Twitter handle.  The size of the bubble corresponds to the number of tweets the brand authored in the past month.

TCHO seems the best from a customer-service standpoint.  To see this, look at the x-axis that shows the Response Rate.  TCHO had the highest rate of 39% but their Post Engagement is the lowest of all at 1.    The 39% rate means TCHO has responded to 39% of the tweets authored by consumers who mention @TCHOchocolate.  I think this makes sense.  TCHO has strong roots in technology, having been founded in San Francisco.  They’re social-media savvy.  But I’m surprised they don’t also have a strong Post Engagement since their founders were from the marketing-heavy Wired magazine.

By contrast, Cadbury seems to be the one with the strongest Twitter marketing.  That’s because their Post Engagement of 42 is higher than the other brands.  But their Response Rate is 1%, a low score that ties with Lindt and Dove.  Cadbury’s Post Engagement of 42 means that, on average, every time Cadbury tweets, 42 people retweet or reply to Cadbury.  Considering that the analysis timeframe straddles Easter, it sort of makes sense for Cadbury’s marketing to have performed the best since they’re the chocolate company that most associates itself with Easter, in my opinion.

The J.D. Power study shows that six industries (airline, auto, banking, credit card, telecom and utility) are showing varying levels of success in balancing the use of social media for marketing and customer service.  I think our data from the Twitter Digital Channel Intelligence shows the same thing in the chocolate industry.

I think there’s an opportunity for a chocolate company to invest in doing a good job at both customer service and marketing in social media.  I feel like I’m more likely to buy from companies that offer good customer service.  And according to J.D. Power, their “study finds a correlation between overall satisfaction with a company’s social marketing efforts and consumers’ likelihood to purchase and their overall perception of the company” (http://www.jdpower.com/content/press-release/ubVb9GW/2013-social-media-benchmark-study.htm).

So chocolate companies: invest more in social media for digital marketing AND customer service and I’ll buy your chocolate.  I’d probably buy your chocolate anyway.  But maybe I’ll buy more of it.

Currency has come in many forms over the centuries.  Here in the US we have some odd ones like the 2 dollar bill or the Susan B. Anthony coin, which just didn’t seem to take off. Currency also evolves – when I backpacked through Europe in my late teens, I could not keep track of all those colorful bills from country to country, and now there is the ubiquity of the  Euro (except for the UK of course). And apparently now, there’s something new that goes into the digital world: Bitcoin, an e-currency. The April 13^th installment of the Wall Street Journal Sentiment Tracker, powered by NetBase, covered the social media response to the digital currency and the rollercoaster it seems to be on lately. 47% of Facebook and Twitter users talking about Bitcoin think it’s a good idea, while 50% think it’s ultimately bad, and 3% cracked jokes. Check out some of the other jokes we found below:

 So bitcoin is awesome ’cause it doesn’t have inflation…  it just has panic attacks?  Crazy investment?  Perhaps.  Currency?  No.

RT @zacharye: Bitcoin at $67 and falling.  Economy of Narnia in shambles.

I keep praying for a bit more coin.  Instead, the world got Bitcoin.

What do you think? Are you a fan of digital currency? Let me know!

In the NetBase Insight Composer, we have a “People” word cloud showing the individuals associated with a brand or topic, and sometimes our clients use that to pick a celebrity spokesperson or to see if the one they selected is resonating. Super Bowl time is when the “People” word cloud is the most populated, but this word cloud is always fun to analyze. So for this month’s installment of the Brand Passion Index, we looked at five top celebrities and the brands they represent to see what social consumers have to say about them: Beyoncé for Pepsi, Brad Pitt for Chanel No. 5, Ashton Kutcher for Nikon, William Shatner for Priceline, and Jennifer Aniston for Smartwater.

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

Beyoncé generated the largest share of buzz for the seven celebrities with 47% of the overall chatter, as well as the highest Passion Intensity score (76) and a mid-range Net Sentiment score (29). Online consumers chatted about her endorsement of Pepsi, revealing that they not only love the pairing of the two, but also the commercials and print ads.

Pepsi commercials now with Beyonce might be my favorite commercials. #Yess #goddess

Pepsi will taste better now that Beyonce is on the can.

Loving @Beyonce’s new Pepsi ad! Very pop art…so adorbs!

Despite only generating 2% of the buzz, Jennifer Aniston reigned supreme with the most social consumer love; she had the highest Net Sentiment score (65) and a Passion Intensity of 46. Verbatim surfaced about Aniston, as it related to Smartwater, revealed that online consumers appreciated the refreshing and funny tone in Aniston’s commercials.

Again, Jennifer Aniston shows great sense of humor with another SmartWater commercial.

Great new ad by @smartwater with Jennifer Aniston: “Even more refreshing than the truth”

I’ve had it on repeat for 3 days. I love when Jennifer Aniston pokes fun at herself. Check out her hilarious new video for Smartwater.

Finally, on the (unfortunately) more negative side of things, Aniston’s former husband, Brad Pitt, received ridicule for his short-lived stint as Chanel No. 5’s celebrity endorser. Pitt had the second highest share of buzz with 32% of the overall chatter, but generated the second lowest Net Sentiment score (-7) and a Passion Intensity of 44. Social media users ranted about his monologue-style commercial and how uncomfortable it made them feel.

Brad Pitt’s Chanel commercial is so stupid.

Brad Pitt’s Chanel commercial gets worse with each viewing.

Brad Pitt’s new “Chanel” commercial is just stupid! I’m embarrassed for him!

So who’s your favorite celebrity spokesperson? Let me know in the comments!

Over the last couple weeks, I have been doing lots of research for an upcoming article on the glass ceiling and how it applies to the balance between work and home life for modern women. Much of what I found was quite encouraging, but the April 6^th installment of the Wall Street Journal Sentiment Tracker, on Brittney Griner potentially playing in the NBA, showed me that even at 6’8” you can still hit your head and not break the glass above.   41% of Facebook and Twitter users are supportive of a woman joining the NBA, while 55% are, rather forcefully, against it and 4% cracked jokes. I was shocked to see so many people against it – to me, talent is talent, regardless of gender. I did some extra analysis myself, and found that the demographic breakdown of the conversation was 21% female, and 79% male. Maybe that’s the problem… check out some soundbites from each side of the conversation below:

RT @RealTalkRuben: Would love to see Brittney Griner get a shot with the NBA.  A chance at least.  If she makes it, awesome.  If not, oh well. (from a male)

You men are so disrespectful with these Brittney Griner tweets…  Crazy how men start to act stupid when a woman shows shes just as good! (from a female)

This Brittney Griner to the NBA talk is absurd and has to stop.   #bereal #stopit (from a male)

Why the hell ESPN talking about Brittney Griner going to the NBA.  What a joke. (from a male)

Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

After years of working in Silicon Valley, a long daily commute has become commonplace to me, and for the most part, I barely notice my fellow commuters and their in-car antics anymore. In the past, though, I’ve seen people putting on makeup, eating breakfast, even one guy shaving his face. However, when I saw that the March 30^th installment of the Wall Street Journal Sentiment Tracker was about a new survey showing that adults are now admitting to texting and driving more than teenagers, I found the news frightening. There are big fines in CA for texting and driving, and I see people getting pulled over – as many of the comments said in the WSJ report, powered by NetBase, a text just isn’t worth it. 87% of Facebook and Twitter users are outraged that adults are being so irresponsible, 8% thought it wasn’t a big deal and 5% made jokes. Check out some of the jokes below:

How do people text and drive.  I can barely breathe and drive.   #honestly

It is equally genius, to shower fully clothed, as it is to text and drive.

Some guy did the dikembe mutumbo finger shake to me for texting while driving.

So, what do you think? Outrageous or no big deal? Let me know in the comments!

I’m not much of a late night TV person these days, but when I did watch, it was always with the classic Johnny Carson. In the episodes I have seen of Jay Leno, I still haven’t quite gotten used to him being in charge, so with the news that Jimmy Fallon may soon be taking over, I can’t believe it’s already time for the changing of the guards. The March 23^rd installment of the Wall Street Journal Sentiment Tracker, powered by NetBase, explored the response from Facebook and Twitter users and found that 93% are all for Jimmy Fallon taking over, while 4% want Leno to stick around a bit longer, and 3% made light of the situation with some jokes. I decided to see if anyone else shared my feelings about Johnny Carson – and turns out, I was not alone! Check out some of the conversations below:

@gretawire Re: Leno/Fallon.  We should’ve cloned Carson when we had the chance, no one could ever be better!

The Tonight Show will be replacing Jay Leno with Jimmy Fallon??  Why, that’s like…  like…  replacing Johnny Carson with Jay Leno!

Wishes Jimmy Fallon well with the Tonight Show but truth be told, no one can ever replace Johnny Carson.

So what do you think? Fallon or Leno?