I have been working on this question for a few months, since I got interested in Word Clouds, and found they might be a crude, but effective way to show progress with Social Media Campaigns.

Noticed Alterian/Techrigy/SM2 as an Advanced Theme tool could be effective is showing the changes in a campaign; I took a monthly snapshot of May – September 09 for  a profile of a small restaurant chain in NYC whose Social Media Program I’ve assisted with, mostly around metrics reporting.

The charting software could be improved – it could have additional colors (depending on predominant sentiment, for example) and overall, could have been done a lot smoother – but, as it is – the charts, which I animated, appear to show that success in a social media campaign may be seen with messages that get “clearer” and “more focused” vs. those that get more elements.

Here’s the frame for May 09  – see how “noisy” it is?

Now, look at September 09, two full months after a Social Media campaign has been running -

The larger globes mean more conversations around a specific topic – the closer the globes are, the closer the topics are related, according to Alterian.

I’m just wondering if Social Media is like Art – here’s what I mean …. in painting, it’s the clarity and focus of a message that makes it effective … might the same thing be true of Social Media?

That’s a deep thought and I’ll continue to think about it – and perhaps, talk to it in London, next Month at Monitoring Social Media 09 conference that I’ll be speaking at on November 17th.