I don’t have the link to the actual conference that happened this week, but I was asked by associates of McGraw-Hill to provide a15 minute presentation that could be played remotely to the audience.

Here’s the presentation as I recorded it as a Flash Movie file.

Here’s the slideshare file without the audio, if you want to just look at that, or download the PPT.

Finally, on another note - a few new developments.

• Taken totally by surprise but the inclusion of my name in a list of Market Research professionals as an influential.   I suppose this should go along with the book and online writings, but while I’ve seen my name come up for the usual marketing stuff, or more pointedly, for Analytics, I haven’t really seen my name on a list of Market Research professional, till now.

In fact, this list of Market Research Professionals came out of a previous project of mapping Market Research accounts on Twitter that was done about 6 months ago, according to the article on Research-Live.com (a site I will be following for now on, as you can tell).

I also liked how they did their original project (see the results of the network map, below).  At this point, if WebMetricsGuru or SMAnalyticsBook is in the map, I can’t tell – but that was in December 11).

• Click here to download a high-res version of the full network map (from Research-Live.com)

I found myself on the original map (above) by downloading it, opening it in Acrobat 10 reader and searching on my handle, which was in the outskirts – I guess shooting off of Altimeter and a few others (ironic, as I have no official affiliation with any of them, and have often disagreed, or at least, offered my own point of view which is different.  I don’t doubt, though, that I’d like some the trappings that come with Altimeter’s big footprint and worldly success in the social business space/field – and I take that in account in putting my own viewpoints forth.  [SEE MY COMMENT BELOW AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST for a followup].

Maybe what I’m coming around to saying is that I want to be able have that success, but I still want to remain me, and authentic – do what I feel is right for me, and yet, it still be extremely valuable to people who want that service and insights, etc.)..ha!

Anyway … the methodology to create the map is along the lines of  my own ideas, one’s I’ll be using shortly for Politics and Event Tracking:

…. Over 106,000 on-topic messages were collected in total, generated by 5,000 individuals or companies. Working with Jon Puleston of GMI, we narrowed the list down to the top 400 with an interest in market research and re-ran the analysis to produce the image opposite – a network map showing the lines of communication running between various Twitter users, represented as nodes.

….Brownlee has also applied a clustering algorithm to determine the main sub-groups within the market research Twitter community. These are colour-coded. “These groups are predicated on the frequency, pattern and density of connections between the nodes in each group,” explains Brownlee.

…. One thing that surprises (us) is the lack of any clearly defined clientside clique – or indeed a major clientside influencer. The absence of research buyers in discussions on Twitter was also noted by De Ruyck in our interview. “We have to admit that most of us [Twitter #MRX users] are agencyside and on the more progressive side of the industry – working at smaller or mid-sized agencies specialised in the newer online research methods and techniques.

According to Tom De Ruyck, who is cited in this interview -

“Most #MRX Twitter users are agency-side and on the more progressive side of the industry. It would be great if more conservative researchers and clients would join the discussion. It would make it even more valuable”

For this year, Tom De Ruyck predicted that …

 …a  more in-depth and critical discussion about mobile and gamification in research, maybe. I also expect market research online communities (MROCs) to go fully mainstream: every agency will start talking about them and clients will embrace them as an online alternative for qualitative research. We’ll probably also be discussing everything that has to do with emotions and understanding/predicting the irrational: facial coding, behavioural economics, neuroscience (again). And, of course, I really hope that something totally new will pop up – that’s what makes it so exciting to be in this industry.

BTW, Tom is the head of research communities at InSites Consulting and president of Baqmar, the Belgian Association for Quantitative and Qualitative Marketing Research and you can follow him on Twitter @tomderuyck.

The weird thing is I’m not formally part of this community at all … but probably should be… I didn’t think of myself (yet) as as a progressive market research professional even though the world sees me that way – perhaps,  that’s my fault – not seeing that – not picking up the theme.

But no longer – I see it now.

Me, walking through a “Portal” last week.

There’s a whole story about that but I’ll leave it out, for now.

I certainly talk about Market Research alot, my book is actually ranking pretty well on Amazon for Market Research, and probably, many of the more progressive Market Researchers have bought it or at least, looked at the writeup about Social Media Analytics.

I’ll grant you that McGraw-Hill, and I perhaps too narrowly focused the book, and they’re not as active promoting it as I wish they would, and yet, the book continues to do well, relative to what marketing has been put into it.

At times, fairly often, it’s been in the top 10 for Market Research, especially on Kindle, but in this case, today (as the screenshot below shows, the hard covered book is doing better).

If I’m reading this right – there’s a progressive market research community (which I’m part of) but which, hasn’t really been tapped into yet by clients (hence, the absence of any clear client influence) .. am I reading this right?  That’s not exactly what Tom is saying (he’s saying, I think, that more Conservative MR should embrace these new approaches and mediums, and perhaps, people, like me).

But Tom’s clearly in a Market Research role, my persona is somewhat different, I come to Market Research, purely on my own interests and inclinations, without any of the formalities and trappings (and perhaps, training) that come with it.

I come at MR, almost as an outsider, with my own view, my tools and my own approach, that may, or may not be In Sync with everyone else is doing.  I don’t know – I have to track this community a lot more closely in the future – perhaps in Radian6 and Sysomos – just see what everyone is saying, esp with #MRX hashtag.

Is this an opportunity that people haven’t grabbed on to yet?  Or are the Market Research people, this community that I have been added to, simply ahead of it’s time?

Perhaps, the projects going on are of a private nature, done for clients who really don’t want to talk about what they are researching, more maybe the nature of online research, is just private, and crowded out with all the Social Marketing (and ironically, given the presentation I have at the beginning of the post) by all the social marketing messaging and hype to try to solve perceived or real  business problems by optimizing the messaging  (that rarely are actually solved as the substance of the business hasn’t really changed).. I’ll leave it to you to read in the names, I still want to be on friendly terms with everyone, ha!)

Sounds like the approach isolated the signal from the background noise – but that was in December, right?  What happened with the list of the 400 nodes?   Here’s the list of the top 20, and remember – I didn’t put myself on that list directly … I didn’t even know about the list or this community .. but now .. I do.

Wow!

By the way, check out this new App  called Triggers.  I think this is something big, but just the tip of the iceberg.   Consider it a “down payment” on my “MR” credentials (such as they are).

One last thing…… a leap of Faith (as if going through the Portal, above wasn’t enough).  I have a decision to make about this.  If anything would be a new thing for me… this would be it.

It’s known I taught Social Media & The Arts at Rutgers this spring, and it will be offered again, in the fall – except, I will be building it from scratch.   The course was good (I had 85 students, all remote) but it could have been even better if was built by me from scratch.

Well, my wish granted.  But what do put in the course?  What do put, so to speak, in the Box... or for that matter, outside of it.    It’s certainly not the best time for me financially to take this jump, even for a week or two (which I’m considering and have to decide on shortly).  Yet, I’ll venture – there is something here.  I met with some graduates of ITP (and have been so a few of the shows there, but missed the last few), who said the program was a turning point for them.

People like Dennis Crowley came out of NYU ITP, Dodgeball and now FourSquare, really came out of that, alot of the best of modern mobile and gamification is connected to this program.

I’ll leave it at that …. it’s only for a week or two, and it’s not clear what the programs are going to be – what little I can find on the sessions going on such as this one (and maybe, just doing one week is the safest for me, perhaps with the option of adding an additional week – if the timing and money works out for me).

It is Memorial Day Weekend, folks, so happy, happy, and let’s all enjoy it.  Cheers ~marshall

Update:

My guess is I’ll get to post again this weekend, but just in case, I’ll memorialize now, since I haven’t had time over the last week. Among projects I’m working on now is the UCI Extension Social Media Measurement Course  MGMT X461.71 that starts in exactly a month (June 25th).  The course material, built in the Moodle shell, is shaping up nicely, and like a cook that adds the seasoning, as I assemble the material more ideas come to me – and we’ll also be using NetBase as a platform (along, possibly, Radian6, since there is a partnership between McGraw-Hill, the publisher of my book, and Salesforece/Radian6 around my book for Universities).

Also, in a month exactly, the NYT Small Business Conference takes place, which is a big deal, and I’ll be speaking twice, that day.  The session I’ll be speaking to twice is Dymistifying Data.

DEMYSTIFYING DATA

Description:

Making sense of Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, EdgeRank, Conversation Analysis and other similar free data research tools to help better your online presence.

Panel:

Mona Chaudhuri, Head of Product, Chartbeat
Marshall Sponder, Founder of WebMetricsGuru INC, Author of Social Media Analytics (2012, McGraw-Hill), Instructor for Social Media at Rutgers University and UCI Irvine.

… and I’ll be preparing THAT presentation in early June.

Thoughts and Visits:

• Dropped by Associated Press the other day to visit the folks at Visual Revenue – and friend Dennis Mortensen.  Among the tidbits was the optimization VR does for online newspapers is invisible to readers, but very evident to the publishers – and gets a very significant boost on in monetizing online news properties.  Another thing stuck out to me – Dennis and I spoke about Analysis Fatigue – and that Visual Revenue helps editors and publishers do their job better, test out titles, move stories to where they are most visible, keep them up longer or shorter, without asking they get involved in Analytics.  I wondered if the movement to streamline business and operational process is now becoming an established trend, as it was echoed by my friends at Venuelabs, today.   The argument is that Analytics is now becoming married to the business function, and no longer needs to be, or should be, considered independently.  Hmmm…. will be interesting to see where this goes.
• I was also at the Russell Simmons – Dylan Ratigan event last night at the 92nd Street Y which was interesting in that I didn’t know what I stumbled onto, but was interested in the political debate on how to fund political change.

Web Journal:

•  There were a few industry maps released this week on Social, Mobile and Search Landscapes – they’re all interesting because they’re really crowded (and that’s the tip of the iceberg).
• Gary Angel’s post Digital Segmentation was one of his best, and I’m looking forward to our webinar next month of Big Data.
• SpokenLayer looks interesting and I’ll download the app.
• Larry Page spotted with Google Glasses - I’m sure in 18 months, we’ll all want a pair.
• I suppose if all WebMasters just attend Google WebMaster Academy, the whole field of SEO becomes obsolete – what do you think?
• Another online Infographic program, this one looks interesting – infogr.am
• Commented on this post on the 5 types of Social Software.
• Yawn … Oracle buys Virtue, but then again, Social Media is supposed to replace traditional media.
• Sounds like Monster.com (where I once worked) is about to be sold (rumor has it, to LinkedIn?) – at this point I’m not sure why anyone would buy Monster.com, since the entire service has, more or less, become obsolete, at least, from a Job Search perspective.
• How many Financial Prediction Social Media Sentiment Analysis platforms are there now (Yawn)?  And if everyone who trades uses this kind of platform, won’t it become ineffective?
• Facebook went public last week, and so, what else is new, the stock price slid this week and people are saying social networks aren’t, by nature, really that profitable.  What do you think?  I’ll tell you this, the Social Giant is improving it’s out of the box metrics including the number of fans who have seen a brand’s message (though I’m not sure if that metric is all that valuable), as well as how Viral the message is.
• Finally, friends at The Recorded Future are doing a Jigger (dance) as they just raised another 12 Million of VC funding – we’re doing a webinar again, as well, looking at June 28th for it.  Just was speaking and doing some work with RF the other day, so I was quick to congratulate them.

So … overall, a lot of good stuff!

In preparation of my UCI Extension course next month, and later on, Rutgers Social Media and The Arts in the fall, I tested out PowerPoint and various other software, such as Camtasia, to record presentations.   In the process of doing so, I saw I could make my presentation into a video and place on YouTube.

The video is 40 minutes long, hope you get a chance to listen to it, or parts of it.