The Voice on Social Media speaks Volumes in London 2012

Anyone following London 2012 Olympics???

I am doing a Social Media analysis on the 2012 Olympics with the IBM Cognos Consumer Insights solution and thought I would share some of the things people are talking about. My analysis only included internet conversations from Blogs, Microblogs, Videos and Boards from June 17^th. There was a lot of discussion about what we can expect for the Open Ceremonies in London. When looking at the weeks before the Opening Ceremonies, the conversatoin was dominated by refernces to Danny Boyle as to a theatrical experience that is to occur. Surprisingly, Ralph Lauren was a close second to Danny in conversation around the Olympic garb his company was providing. While Jacques Rogge was in the top 5, I would have thought Jacques Rogge cracked the top three being the IOC president.

I thought it would be an interesting thing to do a post-mortem on Opening Ceremonies as to who had staying power in conversation and who jumped up. It ws Danny Boyle who kept his name in the top three. The theatrical experience was delivered. But not surprisingly, James Bond jumped up from nowhere and he became the “Most Referenced” spot in this analysis with respect to Opening Ceremonies. The Queen's rendez-vous with 007 and the parachute jump resonated well with people world wide. As a Canadian, I had to compare these ceremonies to Vancouver 2010. These ceremonies are comparable, in fact the song “I Believe” is still being used which is good to hear. In retrospect, Canadians should have had an episode on Austin Powers. Perhaps Austin could have joined forces with Governer General David Johnston in a secret mission of some sort to build more theatrics. But I digress. :)

There was a comment on the internet prior to the Olympics that Soccer and Gynanistics dominated conversation for the US. When I was looking at the numbers I saw something different, so perhaps the analysis included different timeframes or sources (or lack thereof). I found that the US conversation was dominated by Swimming, Tennis and Athletics in that order as shown below.

With respect to the Swimming, the internet chatter is primarly referencing the healthy rivalry between Micheael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. Phelps is edging Ryan Lochte out for the “Most Referenced” in swimming. Does this mean he is a favorite? That would require an affinity analysis which I will leave until another time.

Not suprising, that the breakdown for Canadian conversation actually includes “Hockey” in the top five sports. Strange but true. Perhaps some Canadians, don't know Ice Hockey is not a “Summer” sport. Any fellow Canadians out there? Get talking about Canada in the Olympics, we need more cheers. Go Canada Go!

As I created this analytics model on the Olympics, I thought it was worth while to note that this model included German and French in the analysis and I would expect a few of my colleagues to provide unique content from their languages.

Check in a little later as London 2012 plays out.

Cheers

Chris

Here is to short a "Honey Do list" this weekend.

Just getting off a great Victoria day Weekend in Waterloo.  The weather was better than any Victoria day weekend that I can remember.  I do find it somewhat strange to call this particular day a holiday.  If the weather is bad, which is usually the case then it is most of my time is indoor and  we do spring clean-up in the closets. But when the weather is nice or close to being nice, the “Honey Do lists” are longer as most of outdoor work has yet to be started.  So it is not really a holiday.

It may be different for folks in the US with Memorial day due to the weather differences of North and South.  I see people are really gearing up for this Memorial Day.  I was reading a WSJ blog on some work I did recently about how there is an uptick in sentiment on this upcoming holiday weekend in the US.  It is almost like people are finding ways around the gas prices.  I find difference in year on year growth between flying and driving. “The index also shows a 65% rise in people mentioning traveling by air while discussion of driving increased 13%.”  is an excerpt from the Driver's Seat   More people talking about flying likely indicates a better outlook on economics in the states I would expect.

The article summary is also interesting as it identifies how we can learn about why people do what they do from an analysis on Social Media conversation on a given topic.  This observation really makes sense as many people speak to why they make many of their decisions or disclose their opinions which also identifies what is going on in their minds' eye and what they really want.  Pretty powerful stuff!

Back to holidays....Being Canadian, I also enjoy Memorial Day.  When most of my colleagues and bosses are off on a holiday makes my day a little easier too.  :)  Hopefully those enjoying Memorial Day have short “Honey Do lists and get at least one day to do what they really want!

Cheers!