SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYTICS – UNIT II

Descriptive analytics
Descriptive analytics examines what happened in the past. You’re utilizing
descriptive analytics when you examine past data sets for patterns and trends.
This is the core of most businesses’ analytics because it answers important
questions like how much you sold and if you hit specific goals. It’s easy to
understand even for non-data analysts.
Descriptive analytics functions by identifying what metrics you want to measure,
collecting that data, and analyzing it. It turns the stream of facts your business
has collected into information you can act on, plan around, and measure.
Examples of descriptive analytics include:
 Annual revenue reports
 Survey response summaries
 Year-over-year sales reports

The main difficulty of descriptive analytics is its limitations. It’s a helpful first step
for decision makers and managers, but it can’t go beyond analyzing data from
past events. Once descriptive analytics is done, it’s up to your team to
ask how or why those trends occurred, brainstorm and develop possible
responses or solutions, and choose how to move forward.

Predictive analytics
Predictive analytics is what it sounds like — it aims to predict likely outcomes
and make educated forecasts using historical data. Predictive analytics extends
trends into the future to see possible outcomes. This is a more complex version
of data analytics because it uses probabilities for predictions instead of simply
interpreting existing facts.
Use predictive analytics by first identifying what you want to predict and then
bringing existing data together to project possibilities to a particular date.
Statistical modeling or machine learning are commonly used with predictive
analytics. This is how you answer planning questions such as how much you
might sell or if you’re on track to hit your Q4 targets.
A business is in a better position to set realistic goals and avoid risks if they use
data to create a list of likely outcomes. Predictive analytics can keep your team
or the company as a whole aligned on the same strategic vision.
Examples of predictive analytics include:
 Ecommerce businesses that use a customer’s browsing and purchasing
history to make product recommendations.
 Financial organizations that need help determining whether a customer is
likely to pay their credit card bill on time.
 Marketers who analyze data to determine the likelihood that new
customers will respond favorably to a given campaign or product offering.
The primary challenge with predictive analytics is that the insights it generates
are limited to the data. First, that means that smaller or incomplete data sets will
not yield predictions as accurate as larger data sets might. Getting good
business intelligence (BI) from predictive analytics requires sufficient data, but
what counts as “sufficient” depends on the industry, business, audience, and the
use case.

Additionally, the challenge of predictive analytics being restricted to the data

simply means that even the best algorithms with the biggest data sets can’t
weigh intangible or distinctly human factors. A sudden economic shift or even a
change in the weather can affect spending, but a predictive analytics model
can’t account for those variables.

Prescriptive analytics
Prescriptive analytics uses the data from a variety of sources — including
statistics, machine learning, and data mining — to identify possible future
outcomes and show the best option. Prescriptive analytics is the most advanced
of the three types because it provides actionable insights instead of raw data.
This methodology is how you determine what should happen, not just
what could happen.
Using prescriptive analytics enables you to not only envision future outcomes,
but to understand why they will happen. Prescriptive analytics also can predict
the effect of future decisions, including the ripple effects those decisions can
have on different parts of the business. And it does this in whatever order the
decisions may occur.
Prescriptive analytics is a complex process that involves many variables and
tools like algorithms, machine learning, and big data. Proper data infrastructures
need to be established or this type of analytics could be a challenge to manage.
Examples of prescriptive analytics include:
 Calculating client risk in the insurance industry to determine what plans
and rates an account should be offered.
 Discovering what features to include in a new product to ensure its
success in the market, possibly by analyzing data like customer surveys
and market research to identify what features are most desirable for
customers and prospects.
 Identifying tactics to optimize patient care in healthcare, like assessing the
risk for developing specific health problems in the future and targeting
treatment decisions to reduce those risks.

The most common issue with prescriptive analytics is that it requires a lot of data
to produce useful results, but a large amount of data isn’t always available. This
type of analytics could easily become inaccessible for most.

Though the use of machine learning dramatically reduces the possibility of

human error, an additional downside is that it can’t always account for all
external variables since it often relies on machine learning algorithms.

Diagnostic analytics
Another common type of analytics is diagnostic analytics and it helps explain
why things happened the way they did. It’s a more complex version of
descriptive analytics, extending beyond what happened to why it happened.
Diagnostics analytics identifies trends or patterns in the past and then goes a
step further to explain why the trends occurred the way they did. It’s a logical
step after descriptive analytics because it answers questions like why a certain
amount was sold or why Q1 targets were hit.
Diagnostic analytics is also a useful tool for businesses that want more
confidence to duplicate good outcomes and avoid negative ones. Descriptive
analytics can tell you what happened but then it is up to your team to figure out
what to do with that data. Diagnostic analytics applies data to figure out why
something happened so you can develop better strategies without so much trial
and error.
Examples of diagnostic analytics include:
 Why did year-over-year sales go up?
 Why did a certain product perform above expectations?
 Why did we lose customers in Q3?

The main flaw with diagnostic analytics is its limitation of providing actionable
observations about the future by focusing on past occurrences. Understanding
the causal relationships and sequences may be enough for some businesses, but
it may not provide sufficient answers for others. For the latter, managing big
data will likely require more advanced analytics solutions and you might have to
implement additional tools — venturing into predictive or prescriptive analytics
— to find meaningful insights.
SENTIMENT ANALYSIS:
Sentiment analysis is the process of classifying whether a block of text is
positive, negative, or neutral. The goal that Sentiment mining tries to gain is to
be analysed people’s opinions in a way that can help businesses expand. It
focuses not only on polarity (positive, negative & neutral) but also on emotions
(happy, sad, angry, etc.). It uses various Natural Language Processing algorithms
such as Rule-based, Automatic, and Hybrid.
let’s consider a scenario, if we want to analyze whether a product is satisfying
customer requirements, or is there a need for this product in the market. We can
use sentiment analysis to monitor that product’s reviews. Sentiment analysis is
also efficient to use when there is a large set of unstructured data, and we want
to classify that data by automatically tagging it. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
surveys are used extensively to gain knowledge of how a customer perceives a
product or service. Sentiment analysis also gained popularity due to its feature
to process large volumes of NPS responses and obtain consistent results quickly.
Why is Sentiment Analysis Important?
Sentiment analysis is the contextual meaning of words that indicates the social
sentiment of a brand and also helps the business to determine whether the
product they are manufacturing is going to make a demand in the market or not.
According to the survey,80% of the world’s data is unstructured. The data needs
to be analyzed and be in a structured manner whether it is in the form of emails,
texts, documents, articles, and many more.
1. Sentiment Analysis is required as it stores data in an efficient, cost
friendly.
2. Sentiment analysis solves real-time issues and can help you solve all real-
time scenarios.
Here are some key reasons why sentiment analysis is important for business:
 Customer Feedback Analysis: Businesses can analyze customer
reviews, comments, and feedback to understand the sentiment behind
them helping in identifying areas for improvement and addressing
customer concerns, ultimately enhancing customer satisfaction.
 Brand Reputation Management: Sentiment analysis allows businesses
to monitor their brand reputation in real-time.
By tracking mentions and sentiments on social media, review platforms,
and other online channels, companies can respond promptly to both
positive and negative sentiments, mitigating potential damage to their
brand.
 Product Development and Innovation: Understanding customer
sentiment helps identify features and aspects of their products or services
that are well-received or need improvement. This information is invaluable
for product development and innovation, enabling companies to align their
offerings with customer preferences.
 Competitor Analysis: Sentiment Analysis can be used to compare the
sentiment around a company’s products or services with those of
competitors.
Businesses identify their strengths and weaknesses relative to
competitors, allowing for strategic decision-making.
 Marketing Campaign Effectiveness
Businesses can evaluate the success of their marketing campaigns by
analyzing the sentiment of online discussions and social media mentions.
Positive sentiment indicates that the campaign is resonating with the
target audience, while negative sentiment may signal the need for
adjustments
Structured data –
Structured data is data whose elements are addressable for effective analysis.
It has been organized into a formatted repository that is typically a database. It
concerns all data which can be stored in database SQL in a table with rows and
columns. They have relational keys and can easily be mapped into pre-
designed fields. Today, those data are most processed in the development and
simplest way to manage information. Example: Relational data.

Semi-Structured data –
Semi-structured data is information that does not reside in a relational
database but that has some organizational properties that make it easier to
analyze. With some processes, you can store them in the relation database (it
could be very hard for some kind of semi-structured data), but Semi-structured
exist to ease space. Example: XML data.

Unstructured data –
Unstructured data is a data which is not organized in a predefined manner or
does not have a predefined data model, thus it is not a good fit for a
mainstream relational database. So for Unstructured data, there are alternative
platforms for storing and managing, it is increasingly prevalent in IT systems
and is used by organizations in a variety of business intelligence and analytics
applications. Example: Word, PDF, Text, Media logs.

Differences between Structured, Semi-structured and Unstructured

data:
Semi-structured Unstructured
Properties Structured data data data

It is based on
It is based on It is based on
XML/RDF(Resource
Technology Relational character and
Description
database table binary data
Framework).

Matured
No transaction
Transaction transaction and Transaction is adapted
management
managemen various from DBMS not
and no
t concurrency matured
concurrency
techniques

Version
Versioning over Versioning over tuples Versioned as a
managemen
tuples,row,tables or graph is possible whole
t

It is more
It is more flexible than
It is schema flexible and
structured data but
Flexibility dependent and there is
less flexible than
less flexible absence of
unstructured data
schema

Scalability It is very difficult It’s scaling is simpler It is more

 Semi-structured Unstructured
Properties Structured data data data

to scale DB
than structured data scalable.
schema

New technology, not

Robustness Very robust —
very spread

Query Structured query Queries over Only textual

performanc allow complex anonymous nodes are queries are
e joining possible possible

Big Data
Big data refers to extremely large datasets that are too complex to be managed
by traditional data processing applications. These datasets are characterized by
their volume (amount of data), velocity (speed of data generation), and variety
(different types of data). Big data analysis helps uncover patterns, trends, and
associations, enabling better decision-making.
Social Media as Big Data
Social media platforms generate massive amounts of data every second. This
data includes user profiles, posts, likes, comments, shares, and more. This data
is characterized by its volume, velocity, and variety, making it a prime example
of big data. Analyzing social media data can provide valuable insights into
consumer behavior, trends, and market sentiment.
Social for Social’s Sake
This phrase refers to using social media primarily for social interaction and
connection with friends and family. It focuses on building and maintaining
relationships, sharing personal experiences, and staying updated on the lives of
others.
Social Media as Entertainment
Social media platforms have become a significant source of entertainment. Users
consume various forms of content, including videos, memes, music, and live
streams. Platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube have capitalized
on this trend by providing a platform for creators to share entertaining content.
Social Media as Sharing
Social media facilitates the sharing of information, ideas, and experiences. Users
can share news articles, personal opinions, photos, and videos. This sharing can
lead to increased awareness, knowledge sharing, and community building.
Identifying Data in Social Media Outlets
Social media platforms have transformed into vast digital landscapes, brimming
with data that offers invaluable insights into individuals, trends, and consumer
behavior. Understanding the specific data available on different platforms is
crucial for effective data-driven strategies. Let's explore the data treasures
hidden within various social media domains.
Professional Networking Sites
Professional networking sites are online platforms designed to connect
individuals for professional purposes. Unlike general social media platforms,
these sites focus on building and maintaining professional relationships, job
searching, and career development. They provide a platform for professionals to
share their expertise, connect with colleagues, and explore new opportunities.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn, the cornerstone of professional networking, houses a wealth of
data that goes beyond simple connections. At its core, LinkedIn provides a
digital resume for professionals, showcasing their work experience, skills,
and educational background. But the data extends far beyond this.
Demographic information, including age, gender, location, industry,
company size, and job title, is readily available. Users voluntarily provide
details about their professional journey, such as work history,
certifications, and recommendations. The platform also offers insights into
users' interests through group memberships, content shared, and events
attended. A user's network size and the strength of their connections
provide a social graph that can be analyzed. Finally, user engagement
metrics like likes, comments, and shares offer clues about content
preferences and professional interactions.

Social Sites
Social sites are online platforms designed for social interaction, where users can
connect with friends, family, and acquaintances. These sites emphasize personal
relationships, sharing interests, and staying updated on the lives of others.
Facebook
Facebook, a global behemoth in social networking, offers a treasure trove
of personal and social data. Users voluntarily share demographic
information, including age, gender, location, interests, and relationship
status. A detailed picture of a user's life emerges through shared
information about education, work, hometown, and contact details. The
platform's core strength lies in user-generated content, encompassing
photos, videos, posts, likes, comments, and shares. These elements paint
a vivid portrait of individual and group behavior.
Beyond individual profiles, Facebook provides data on friendships and
connections, revealing the structure of social networks. User behavior,
tracked through metrics like likes, reactions, page visits, and ad
interactions, offers valuable insights into consumer preferences and online
habits.
 Renren
Renren is a popular social networking site primarily used in China. Similar
to Facebook, it allows users to connect with friends, share updates, and
join groups. However, Renren has a stronger emphasis on college students
and alumni networks.

Information Sharing Sites

Information sharing sites are platforms designed to share and distribute
information, primarily through video content. These sites focus on user-
generated content and provide a platform for creators to reach a wide audience.
YouTube
YouTube, primarily a video-sharing platform, offers a unique dataset. At
the heart of YouTube is video content, characterized by topics, keywords,
descriptions, and tags. User-generated content in the form of comments,
likes, dislikes, and shares provides additional layers of information.
Viewership data, including demographics of viewers, watch time, and
geographic location, reveals audience preferences and consumption
patterns. Channel information, such as the number of subscribers, video
uploads, and playlist data, offers insights into channel popularity and
content strategy.

Microblogging Sites
Microblogging sites are platforms that allow users to share short, frequent
messages. These sites focus on real-time updates, news, and conversations.
Twitter
Twitter, a platform built on brevity, offers a real-time pulse of public
opinion and information. Tweets, retweets, mentions, and hashtags form
the backbone of the data available. User profiles, including location, bio,
and interests, provide context. Engagement metrics like likes, retweets,
and replies offer insights into content popularity and user interactions. The
platform's strength lies in its time-stamped nature, enabling analysis of
trends, events, and sentiment in real-time.
Blogs/Wikis
Blogs and wikis, while not strictly social media in the traditional sense, offer
valuable data. Blogs provide long-form content on various topics, with authors
often sharing their expertise and opinions. Comments and discussions on blog
posts offer insights into reader engagement and feedback. Wikis, on the other
hand, are collaborative platforms where users contribute to creating and editing
content. The structure and content of wikis reflect the collective knowledge of a
community.