Determining  whether the opinion of a post is not easy, but technologies such as Natural Language Processing, Computational Linguistics and Text Mining have made it a little easier. These technologies take care of the “heavy lifting”, making your Social Media Analytics process a little less consuming. It can be a consuming process.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) software endeavors to understand groupings of words to determine their meaning. In the case of Social Media Analytics, NLP tries to understand the sentiment of the word groups and rate them as either positive or negative. The problem comes in with understanding and ambiguity. Take for instance this simple example to help you understand one of the problems with NLP. Take the phrase “The house is small.” Is that a positive statement or a negative one? Well it all depends on the reader and what you are looking for. NLP is not perfect, yet but with a little manual work it can get you to where you need to be. Social Media Analysis will for some time be a semi-automated process because there are some things that software just can’t figure out.

Still, the ability to understand sentiments is an important factor. Understanding sentiments help towards understand ROI the of your Social Media initiatives. By setting a baseline of where your customer sentiments are today as collected through your Social Media Monitoring data-warehouse then over time watching how those sentiments improve can serve as a useful key performance indicator (KPI). Then you can tie the timing of the sentiment shift with sales for the same time period and now you have a measure that most executives will appreciate.

As you continue you Social Media Analytics process do not forget to collect and benchmark the sentiments of social web participants.

Let me begin by explaining what LinkedIn is. LinkedIn is a Professional Social Networking site that allows you the ability to post your professional profile and capabilities and then connect with people you know. In addition you become connected with people that your connections know. So how can this tool help your business?

LinkedIn is a tool that helps you to promote your area of expertise. Individuals looking for your kind of service can review your profile and make a determination as to your abilities to assist them. In addition LinkedIn has a Q&A sections that allows your to answer questions that others may have posted and if you are selected for contributing the best answer you have formed a connection that will lead to future sales.

Through LinkedIn you can give and receive recommendations. We all want to do business with people we know and trust. So if you have a client, invite them to join your network on LinkedIn and request a recommendation. Now when they add someone to their network, who most likely has a similar need, that individual looking for the services you provide is now connected to you and sees a recommendation for the services that you performed. This could potentially lead that individual to contact you because you come recommended from someone they trust.

Linked in is a visible Networking reminder that can help you build your business through the power of relationships. Just this week I have been contacted twice by individuals whom I have not been in touch with for some time, which has led to potential business opportunities. There are so many other ways that LinkedIn can help your business. Perhaps I shall write a future eBook on the matter. But I think the next question to answer will be how can FaceBook help my business. Check back for the answer to that one

Remember: Byte or Get Bitten

I have long been a Microsoft zealot, starting with Windows 3.0. But on Friday I had a Vista breakdown for the third time and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I had been toying with the thought of getting a Mac for the past year. So, instead of attempting to rebuild my laptop, I went out and bought a MacBook Pro. All that I can say is WOW!!!! I should have done this a long time ago.

One of the biggest holdbacks for me has always been Outlook and Exchange. But Microsoft has a program called Entourage, which is Outlook for Mac. What I like about it, is that it not only has Mail, Calendar, Contacts, & Tasks but a feature that I have always wanted in Outlook and that is Projects.

No, I did not go with Office 2008 for Mac I went with iWorks. It is simply but powerful and is compatible with Office. I have always been an Access expert but decided to give FileMaker Pro a shot. The verdict is still out on that one. I use Visio daily for mapping out processes, plans, information architectures, and other flowcharts. But ConceptDraw is just as good. I use and love MindManager for brainstorming and they have a Mac version. Of course, all of my Adobe Web 2.0 tools work seamlessly and now I have more tools available because of being on a Mac.

Everything about Apple is cool, trendy, hip and it just operates so much better. I’ve gone Mac and never going back.

Byte or get Bitten

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Byte or Get Bitten!

Let me explain how some of this website comes about and explain the cure.  Some business owners know that they need a website and they want a professional website so they go looking for a web developer and see a 4-8K price tag and get sticker shock. Because they understand this is just the upfront cost and know that they have to keep the website update. So they try to do it themselves or worse they pay some high school student to put something together.

So if you want an incredible professional looking interactive functional website get it for free with DotNet Nuke (DNN)

DNN is a free Web 2.0 Framework.  It is open source with a huge support community. There are tons of free modules for this platform such as Maps, Blogs, Forums, Calendars, File Managers, and even an incredible Online Store. If you want more then what is included for free with DNN you can go to the snowcovered website and get some very professional looking skins for less than 100 bucks.  DNN is incredible and it’s designed for the Search Engine Optimization. It gives you the flexibility to tag every module.

Nuke your ugly website

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Byte or get Bitten