Also published on HuffingtonPost
Nate Silver had a great piece in the Times over the weekend, looking at how clashes with police seem to have driven mainstream media coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protests (a classic example of the principle of “if it bleeds, it leads”). The centerpiece of his article is the chart below, showing the pattern of relevant media hits:
Nate’s article made me wonder about the comparable pattern of discussion on social media channels, a far more democratic (with a small “d”) set of media. Our new friend Steve Kleine was able to produce the social media numbers for “Occupy Wall Street” and “OWS,” hot on the heels of his first article for the site, and the results are striking:
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October 13th, 2011
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New guest author! Steve Kleine is the Principal at Ensomo, a social media monitoring and analysis firm, and in the piece below he introduces us to the basic concepts campaigns need to know about this ever-more-important aspect of online communications.
Four Steps for Effective Social Media Monitoring in Politics
By Steve Kleine, Ensomo
Social media monitoring (SMM) is rapidly becoming a hot topic as campaigns and elected officials realize just how much unbiased data is being churned out about their candidates every day across the social web. The social media universe truly has become the world’s largest focus group. Many campaigns are taking advantage of this huge mass of data to not only communicate with their current and potential supporters, but also to gain significant intelligence on potential voters.
For example, social media data can provide insight on how a particular speech or debate was received. Did it increase the number of positive mentions? Are people understanding the messages behind it? Other examples of the benefits of a solid SMM plan include measuring how a candidate is perceived on current issues, finding new issues before they get covered in traditional media and seeing if a new ad campaign is making an impact.
SMM is a daunting task, but a well thought out strategy can help your campaign find the best program for your unique needs. Here are a few steps to help you get started.
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October 13th, 2011
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