6.

Social Media Analytics

Applications and Privacy

Amit Aylani
 Contents
● Social media in public sector - Analyzing public sector
social media,analyzing individual users, case study.

● Business use of Social Media - Measuring success,

Interaction and monitoring, case study.

● Privacy - Privacy policies,data ownership and maintaining

privacy online.
Traditional Media Vs Social Media
1. Reach: Traditional media (such as television, radio, and print) often
have a wider reach compared to social media, as they can be accessed
by people without internet access. Social media, on the other hand, is
limited to those who are connected to the internet.
2. Target audience: Traditional media allows for targeting specific
demographics through programming or content. Social media allows
for targeting based on interests, behaviors, and demographics.
3. Cost: Traditional media can be expensive to advertise on, as it
requires purchasing airtime or ad space. Social media advertising can
be more cost-effective, as it allows for targeting specific groups and
allows for adjusting campaigns based on performance.
Traditional Media Vs Social Media
4. Control: Traditional media allows for more control over the message being
delivered, as it is a one-way communication. Social media allows for less control,
as it is a two-way communication and allows for audience interaction and the
spread of information beyond the intended audience.

5. Speed: Traditional media often has a slower turnaround time for creating and
distributing content, as it requires production and distribution processes. Social
media allows for faster dissimilation of information, as it can be shared instantly.

6. Engagement: Social media allows for more engagement with the audience,
as it allows for two-way communication and the ability to respond to comments
and feedback. Traditional media has a lower level of engagement, as it is a one-
way communication.
Social Media in Public Sector
● Improved communication with the public: Social media
platforms allow public sector organizations to directly communicate
with the public, providing real-time updates and information about
services and initiatives.
● Increased transparency: Social media can help increase
transparency in government operations by providing a platform for
open communication and allowing the public to directly engage with
and ask questions of government officials.
● Improved customer service: Social media can be used as a
customer service tool, allowing public sector organizations to
quickly and effectively address issues and concerns raised by the
public.
Social Media in Public Sector
● Greater reach and engagement: Social media allows public
sector organizations to reach and engage with a wider audience,
including those who may not traditionally interact with government.
● Enhanced community involvement: Social media can be used to
facilitate community involvement in government decision-making
and facilitate collaboration between government and community
organizations.
● Increased efficiency and cost savings: By using social media for
tasks such as answering frequently asked questions, public sector
organizations can save time and resources that would otherwise be
spent on more traditional forms of communication.
● Enhanced crisis management: Social media can be used to
Social Media Uses by Individual / Organization

● Broadcast /Sending Information

● Request/ Feedback Input
● Conversation Interaction
Analyze How Individual / Organization is using Social Media?

● Who is doing the posting?

● Who are the target audience members?
● Why is the audience engaged in social media with the
organization?
● What type of content or interaction is the audience
interested in?
● What are the goals of the user? Which of the three
interaction methods above are they using?
● How is the user using social media?
● Do the user’s actions support the goals?
Case Study 1
● Social media to solve an attempted child
abduction

A scene from the surveillance video released by the

Philadelphia Police Department on YouTube and through other
social media to help capture the man who attempted to
abduct a 10-year-old girl.
Case Study 1- Social media to solve an attempted child abduction

● The Philadelphia Police Department has effectively utilized social media platforms such as YouTube,
Facebook, and Twitter to gather information about crimes and alert the public about emergencies.
● They have also used smart phone apps to allow people to report incidents and locate local police
stations. The department has reported successfully catching 87 suspects through their use of social
media.
● In addition, the department has found that social media can be an effective way to receive information
from people, as demonstrated by several witnesses identifying a suspect in an attack after the
department posted a video of the incident online.
● The department has found success in not overwhelming their audience with too much content, posting
to Twitter less than 10 times a day, and targeting relevant information to their audience.
● To further optimize their social media strategy, the department can analyze the demographics of their
followers and survey them about their reasons for following the department.
● They can also engage in conversations with their audience and interact with other departments to
share best practices.
Case Study 1- Social media to solve an attempted child abduction

● The Philadelphia Police Department has effectively utilized social media platforms such as
YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter to gather information about crimes and alert the public about
emergencies.
● They have also used smartphone apps to allow people to report incidents and locate local police
stations. The department has reported successfully catching 87 suspects through their use of social
media.
● In addition, the department has found that social media can be an effective way to receive information
from people, as demonstrated by several witnesses identifying a suspect in an attack after the
department posted a video of the incident online.
● The department has found success in not overwhelming their audience with too much content, posting
to Twitter less than 10 times a day, and targeting relevant information to their audience.
● To further optimize their social media strategy, the department can analyze the demographics of their
followers and survey them about their reasons for following the department.
● They can also engage in conversations with their audience and interact with other departments to
share best practices.
Case Study 2 : Predicting elections and astroturfing

● Social media has become important for political campaigns to reach

voters.
● Attempts have been made to use social media trends to predict
election outcomes, with initial success but limited overall accuracy.
● The volume of social media posts about a candidate may not
accurately reflect public opinion.
● Social media can be effective in generating interest and support for
issues and causes.
Exercise: Case Study
● Choose a popular current issue of public debate (a bill under
consideration, an election, or a political issue). Search Twitter for
posts about that issue.
○ What opinions are you able to find? Summarize them.
○ Is one opinion dominating the others?
○ Do you find a lot of content repeated? Perhaps one or two
tweets that are repeated by many accounts? Does this appear
suspicious, or is there a reason for it?
Business Use of Social Media
Case Study : Blendtec, a manufacturer of high-end blenders

Broadcast example: Will it Blend? Marketing campaign

An example of a “Will It Blend?” YouTube video, showing the blender being used on an iPhone.
Business Use of Social Media
● Blendtec, a manufacturer of high-end blenders, has had a highly
successful social media campaign through their "Will It Blend?" series
on YouTube, in which the company's founder demonstrates the power
of their blenders by blending unusual and sometimes absurd objects.
● This humorous approach has gained the company a significant following
and helped to increase sales.
● Their top-viewed videos have well over 10 million views
each, and their collection of videos all together have 200
million views. The company’s YouTube channel has over
400,000 subscribers.
Case Study 2- Interaction and monitoring example: Zappos
customer service

● Zappos is an online retailer known for its excellent customer

service and successful use of social media.
● The company interacts with customers on Twitter and
Facebook, and has a dedicated Twitter account for customer
service inquiries.
● A small team of customer service representatives handle
these inquiries, with an average response time of under an hour.
● Zappos' online customer service interactions can also be seen by
other social media users, helping to improve the company's
reputation.
● Zappos proactively reaches out to customers with problems,
even if they have not contacted customer support directly.
Case Study 3 : Social Media Failure
● Social media failure example: Celeb boutique and the NRA

● Social media mistakes can have significant impacts on a business' reputation and can
spread quickly.
● The National Rifle Association (NRA) made a mistake by posting a tweet that was
inappropriate given the news of a mass shooting, and quickly deleted the tweet and the
account.
● Celeb Boutique made a similar mistake by trying to capitalize on a trending topic related to
a mass shooting, and faced skepticism and backlash despite issuing an apology.
● Businesses should be careful about what they post on social media and consider how their
content may be perceived by others.
● Connecting a product to a negative idea on social media can generate negative feelings
about a brand.
Exercises/Case Study
● Come up with five companies or brands you interact with regularly. For example, the
companies could be a beverage bottler, restaurant, clothing brand, or technology
company. For each of the five, find all the social media accounts you can. These will usually
include a Facebook page, often a Twitter or YouTube account, and they may be present in
many other types of social media.
○ List each company and their social media accounts.
○ Find as many counts for each social media account as described in the section on
measuring success.
○ How often does the company interact on their social network site? Is it many times a
day, a few times a week, or never?
○ What kind of interaction is the company doing? Broadcast, request for input, direct
interaction, or a combination? Provide an example of each.
○ Assess the company’s social media strategy. What are they doing well and why? What
could they do better, why would that be better, and how should they do it?
● Find a major company offering customer service on Twitter. Search Twitter to find the 10 most
recent customer service interactions they have had.
Exercises/Case Study
● Find a company that has undertaken a viral marketing campaign
over social media.
○ What is the essence of the campaign?
○ What metrics can you use to measure it (number of views,
fans, likes, etc.)?
○ Is the campaign ongoing, or did it run for a fixed amount of time?
○ Are any statistics available to indicate the success of the
campaign? If so, what are they?
Privacy
● Privacy -
● Privacy policies,
● data ownership and maintaining privacy online.
Privacy
● Social media privacy refers to the protection of personal
information and communication on social media platforms.
● It is important to be aware of privacy settings and to carefully
consider what personal information is shared online.
Privacy
● Protect personal information and communication on social media.
● Be aware of privacy settings.
● Carefully consider what personal information is shared online.
● Be cautious about accepting friend requests or connecting with strangers.
● Be aware of potential scams or phishing attempts.
● Use strong, unique passwords and enable two-factor authentication if
available.
● Review the privacy policies of social media platforms.
● Limit the amount of personal information provided.
Privacy Policies and Settings
● Social media has made it easier for people to share information
online.
● The default privacy settings on social media platforms have become
more public over time.
● Many people use privacy settings to restrict who can see their
information, but some have difficulty understanding and using these
settings.
● Privacy policies detail how a social media site collects, uses,
and shares user data, which may include personal
information, location, and posts.
● It is important to carefully review privacy policies and understand
what information is being shared.
personalization X X X sold

Who is data shared with

Other users on X X
website - all
Other users on the X X X X X
website - user controlled
Other internet users (not X X X X X
registered with site)
Third parties (other X X X X X X
companies)
For analysis provided back X X X X X X
to registering site
For marketing products to X X X
you
For any purpose they X X
choose
Law enforcement if X X X X X X
requested
aggregated NPII data X X
Companies that have an X X X X X X
interest in the registering
company

User control issues

Accounts/data can be X X X X
totally deleted Archived
copies kept X X X
Deanonymization
● Deanonymization research showed that anonymous bloggers'
identities can be discovered through marketing databases by
matching demographic information like location, age, gender, marital
status, and type of housing
● Maintaining online anonymity is difficult because even seemingly
meaningless pieces of information can be combined to reveal a
person's identity
● Advanced computer algorithms can detect and merge multiple
accounts belonging to the same person through attributes like
addresses and birthdates, structural network data, and other features
Aggregation and Data Mining
● It is challenging to remain anonymous on social media.
● Personally identifiable information includes data that reveals a
user's identity, such as name and photo.
● Combining certain data that is not personally identifiable on its own
can lead to the identification of a user.
● Users may choose to share some information but not others, and
techniques are being developed to infer attributes that users have
chosen not to share.
● Research is being conducted on aggregation and data mining
in the context of social media privacy.
Inferring Data
● Anonymous use of social media can be difficult to maintain due to
the ability to combine seemingly insignificant pieces of information
to identify a person's identity.
● "Entity resolution" algorithms can merge anonymous and non-
anonymous accounts belonging to the same person.
● Data shared on social media can be used to infer more information
about a person, such as sexual orientation, political leanings, and
personality traits.
Data ownership and Maintaining Privacy Online
● Social media sites often have complex privacy policies that can be difficult for users to
understand and manage.
● Data shared on social media is rarely truly private and can be accessed or
shared by others with or without users' consent.
● Many social media sites have business models that involve using users' data for
advertising and other purposes, often without paying users or seeking their
consent.
● Users can protect their privacy on social media by being aware of and
understanding the privacy policies of the sites they use, making careful choices
about what they share, and assuming that any information they post could potentially
be seen by a wide audience.

● It is important for users to remember that once content is shared on social media,

it can be difficult or impossible to fully retract it.

Respecting Privacy in Social Media Analysis
● Privacy in social media can be difficult to maintain due to
data sharing practices of companies and the existence of tools that
allow others to discover personal information.
● It is important for users to understand who owns their data and how
it can be used, as well as to consider the potential consequences of
sharing certain information.
● Researchers should respect the privacy expectations of
social media users by collecting data in compliance with
website terms of service and policies, anonymizing data
when possible, and obtaining informed consent for more
sensitive data.
● Institutions such as Institutional Review Boards (IRB) can
help ensure that research protocols involving human subjects,
Exercise / Case Study
1. Choose two social media websites. Pull up their
privacy policies and answer the following questions for
each.
a. What information will be collected about you?
b. How much of that information is really
necessary for you to use the site? Are they
asking for more than they need?
c. Do you have access to all the information stored about
you?
d. How will your information be shared with third parties?
e. Can your data be sold?
f. Are you allowed to permanently delete your data from
the system?
Thank You !!