Sentiment Analysis - Natural Language Processing

I have always been interested in Natural Language Processing tools, but with the recent purchase of Topsy by Apple, I wanted to do some research and find out available tools. To my great surprise there are great tools out there, that makes sentiment analysis pretty easy, and the biggest of all is Python library Natural Language Tool Kit, aka NLTK. parses, tags and reconstructs texts so that machines can understand the sentiment behind each statement. Here is a great video tutorial on how to install and do a test run with NLTK:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQVvvaa0QuDfRO5bQFLcVgvIOIhNUZpZf

It is composed of 26 videos, each about 10 mins long. The presenter does a great giving you just what you need to know. Check it out!

Double Robotics vs Romo - Affordable Telepresence Tool

The lack of enough initiatives/start-ups in Telepresence/Virtual Presence world has always surprised me.  After all, people started working remotely for a while now and they need is the tools to make this experience better.  The biggest tool to me is Telepresence robots.

Unfortunately most of the attempts that I have seen so far has one fundamental problem; they are not affordable.  I will not get into too much details but for instance, a robot from Double Robotics costs you $2,499 as of today.  I find it unnecessarily expensive,  given that the robot has only two moving parts and you will have to provide the brain of the machine with an IPad.  The actual price goes up to $3,000 when the price of IPad is included.

As I have given up all hope, I found this new startup; Romotive .  Apparently, this whole project started as Kickstarter project and they started manufacturing in bulk couple years ago.  I will go ahead and be upfront about this; this is not designed as virtual presence robot.  It is intended to be a robot pet (from out of space) that is supposed to interact with you.  However, this doesn't mean that it has tele-conference capabilities.  And the best part is... yes its price.  It is only $149.  It is one twentieth of what Double Robotics costs you.  Yes, it is smaller in size, but I don't think the price difference could be explained merely by the difference in size.  If these guys are able to build this product for $149, I am sure a bigger version of this tool could be built at an affordable price.

As it is the case with any other product, the more competition there is, cheaper the products get.  Hopefully, we will see more competitive products being released as entrepreneurs realized the untapped potential in this market.

Facebook Enters $16 Billion Deal for WhatsApp

It is crazy to see to think Facebook will pay $16 billion for WhatsApp.  Given that most of WhatsApp's ~450 million members live outside of US makes this deal a bit more questionable.  It's obvious that Facebook is struggling to find a way to reach out to teenagers.  And the company made multiple attempts to purchase SnapChat and failed.  However replacing SnapChat with WhatsApp doesn't look a smart idea.  I guess we'll wait and see how this plays out.

Hello after a long hiatus!

I have been busy with work recently so I apologize for not updating my blog for a while now.

When I look at my latest post from 2011, it's amazing to see everything that has changed!  There are all new social media channels that have become major players in the field.  Instagram's $1 billion acquisition by Facebook,  Yahoo buying Tumblr for $1.1 billion, Facebook's and Twitter's IPOs.  The  biggest mind bugling of all is the Snapchat's rejection of $3 billion offer from Facebook.

Social media is an ever-changing landscape.  The major players are here to stay but certain ones will bound to go away if they don't renovate their services.  If I were to group them, I would say Facebook and Twitter will be here for the long time.  Instagram is looking strong for the medium-term but they will need to find ways to engage those who might be getting bored of the platform.  And I believe that Snapchat and Tumblr will not be as hot as they currently are.  From a business perspective, Snapchat is the most problematic for two main reasons; 1- service is east to replicate by others 2- target audience, - young kids with limited discretionary income - is irrelevant to marketers.

Here is my quick rant on what has been going on since I last blogged.

Talk to you all soon!

SEO - Ten Illustrations on Search Engines Valuation of Links

Have you ever wondered what principles are important for link valuation? Here is a summary of 10 most important factors for you;

1 - Links Higher Up in HTML Code Cast More Powerful Votes

2 - External Links are More Influential than Internal Links

3 - Links from Unique Domains Count More than Links from Previously Linking Site

4 - Links from Trusted Sites Seed Set Pass More Value

5 - Links from "Inside" Unique Content is More Important than Those from Footers/Sidebar/Navigation

6 - Keywords in HTML Text Pass More Value than those in Alt Attributes of Images

7 - Links from More Important, Popular, Trusted Sites Pass More Value (even from less important pages)

8 - Links in NoScript Tags Pass Lower or No Value

9 - A blast of New Links May Enable a Website to Overcome "Stronger" Competition Temporarily (or in Perpetuity)

10 - Websites that Link to Web Spam May Devalue the Other Links

For more information visit;

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/10-illustrations-on-search-engines-valuation-of-links

Influencer Marketing

As promised, I would like to talk about influencer marketing and especially its application to the Internet.  Influencer marketing is a type of marketing in which the marketing efforts are focused on identifying key players that have influence over potential customers. Eventually the idea is to turn influencers into advocates so that they increase brand awareness of your product/company amongst your target customers.

Marketers have long been using influencer marketing techniques but influencer marketing has become even more effective and efficient since the introduction of social media.

Why more effective? Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, foursquare and social bookmaking sites like Stumbleupon, Digg, Reddit have made it easier than ever for marketers to identify influencers. Additionally, there are many services on the internet such as Klout.com that help marketers identify/measure person’s overall online influence based on user’s social media activities such as number of Facebook friends, Twitter followers or activity levels on these platforms.

Why more efficient? Reaching out to key players through social media is more cost effective than conducting in-depth interviews, surveys or focus groups with tens or hundreds of people.

Finally, I would like to share a new website called Influenster. Influenster, in its own words, defines itself as a “Community of trendsetters invited to share their lifestyles and show their influence to qualify for personalized product shipments, special rewards and exclusive deals from the brands they love”. This sounds like a win-win situation both for consumers and the brands. Influenster also seems to successfully employ gaming dynamics through their badge page.

Check out Influenster at http://www.influenster.com/

Best

Em

Why Internet Marketing?

Hi there,

With the introduction of web 2.0, marketers are equipped with plentiful tools to execute effective digital marketing campaigns.

We know that brands are shifting their focus and more importantly their marketing dollars from traditional media to internet marketing! There are several reasons for the shift, here is a few I can think of; Internet marketing is cheaper compared to traditional marketing vehicles, brands can get in touch with a big range of audience for a small portion of traditional advertising budgets. The internet itself also allows consumers to interact with one another in the purchasing process, making the experience more attractive to both consumers and marketers.

In addition to all the points above, marketers can better track their campaigns, utilize many Internet metrics (e.g. click through rate, cost per impressions, response per impressions etc) and decide whether the campaign is efficient and effective and make necessary changes on the fly. This would not be possible with traditional media where brand managers buy their TV, radio, print space a year or so in advance and stick to it.

More to come on internet advertising, specifically influencer internet marketing!

Cheers,

Em