Disclosure: IBM sponsored my attendance at their Analytics For All event. This post was written prior to the event.

I’ve written and spoken about IBM’s Watson (yes, the supercomputer that won Jeopardy) Analytics, and how it’s affordable Big Data analytics for marketers (for most small and medium businesses, $30 a month). IBM has upped the ante with its integration of Twitter hashtag analysis, which most social media marketers will find fascinating.

You begin by choosing Twitter as a data source:

Watson_Analytics.png

From there, you can use any of the modules Watson is known for. As I spoke recently at Social Media Success Summit, I decided to use that hashtag to explore potential queries:

Watson_Analytics_2.png

For example, how does sentiment influence retweets?

Watson_Analytics_3.png

Above, we see that Watson’s sentiment detection shows that no, sentiment doesn’t seem to influence retweets.

Is there a pattern in retweets by sentiment over time?

Watson_Analytics_4.png

So what does drive retweets? We jump over to the prediction module to ask:

Watson_Analytics_RT.png

For the #SMSS15 hashtag, geography and follower count are what influence retweets most, albeit weakly.

Watson’s Twitter import has restrictions; for the basic account, you’re limited to 25,000 tweets at a time, so if you wanted to tackle something like the 2016 presidential election, you’d need to upgrade. However, for most marketers, Watson will do fine out of the box. Give it a try with the hashtags you care about!

Disclosure: IBM sponsored my attendance at their Analytics For All event by paying my travel and expenses to the event. This post was written prior to the event. Full disclosures including potential financial conflicts of interest here.


You might also enjoy:


Want to read more like this from Christopher Penn? Get updates here:

subscribe to my newsletter here


AI for Marketers Book
Get your copy of AI For Marketers

Analytics for Marketers Discussion Group
Join my Analytics for Marketers Slack Group!


Subscribe to My Free Weekly Newsletter

Subscribe to My Free Weekly Newsletter

Sign up now to the free Almost Timely Newsletter, released every weekend with the latest news about marketing, technology, analytics, data science, and AI.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

You have successfully subscribed to the Almost Timely Newsletter!