The Social Web Analytics eBook 2008

1st July 2008

With thanks to David Meerman Scott, Brian Solis and the Social Web Analytics vendors for their support and contributions.

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To see some comments / reviews, click here.

To view a comprehensive list of SWA vendors as of 30th June 2009, click here.

To learn about the follow up Influence Scorecard initiative, click here.

To allow me to stay in touch, leave your email address with me here (absolutely no spam guaranteed, no way, not ever).

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Click here to download the PDF ebook*.

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*Requires Adobe Reader. Click here to download it.

About the Social Web Analytics eBook 2008

Technology has revolutionised communications, massively and irrevocably, to the benefit of the consumer, the adaptive and agile organisation, and those who cherish an open society.

This ebook gives a brief overview of the characteristics of the Social Web (also known as Social Media), but that's not its primary purpose.

Rather, I review here how all organisations can try and make the most of the unprecedented wealth of information afforded by the Social Web, the incredible facility to 'listen in' on conversations close to their heart, and to initiate and engage in this dialogue. It has been relatively straight forward for PR professionals to work with a few dozen journalists; it has been a means to an end for advertisers to bludgeon brand values into targets; but today, keeping tabs on thousands of conversations is quite another challenge altogether... two-way dialogue between your stakeholders, and between you and your stakeholders.

This ebook is an introduction to Social Web Analytics (SWA, also known as Social Media Analytics), the driver for it, how it can be applied, the key vendors and their services, and considerations for your organisation's procurement of such services.

I stop short of making recommendations of one vendor or one tool over another however; that's for each reader to investigate equipped with the understanding lent them here and married to their insight into their organisation's specific needs.

Readers of my blog will see that I have leaned on the content of past posts in compiling this ebook.

Lastly, but importantly, I urge readers to consider "A Bill of Rights for Users of the Social Web" by Joseph Smarr, the irrepressible Marc Canter, Robert Scoble and Michael Arrington.

What is Social Web Analytics?

I define Social Web Analytics as the application of search, indexing, semantic analysis and business intelligence technologies to the task of identifying, tracking, listening to and participating in the distributed conversations about a particular brand, product or issue, with emphasis on quantifying the trend in each conversation's sentiment and influence.

Author information

Reviews and comments

Chris Brogan, PodCamp co-founder and social media consultant

"20 Free eBooks About Social Media".

Marshall Sponder, WebMetricsGuru blog and The Analytics Guru blog

"Darn, this is the book I wish I could write - print it out and read it.

"It's rare that I see anything about Web Analytics AND Social Media Web Analytics - and I just did - this ebook on Social Web Analytics."

Christopher Berry, Fortune 500 Digital Marketer

"Mass kudos to you on the initiative. 99% Awesomeness 1% Critical ;-)"

"The content is really great, really concise, and is a very smooth introduction to Social Web Analytics (SWA)."

"The specific quote 'People perform as they are measured' is by far the simplest and most robust description of the importance of organizational goal architecture I've seen to date."

Nick Sowden, Collective Intellect

"Well it's been a while since someone has done a really in-depth analysis of social media companies and here is a real killer. Philip Sheldrake... has broken the silence with an incredibly detailed analysis of the current players in the social media world. Download the full 99 pages of sweetness..."

Trevor Young, the PR Warrior!

"This is a good resource to have sitting on your computer desktop. I downloaded it today and, while I've only managed to skip through it at this stage (I got caught up with the many external links on offer!), I will definitely re-visit it in more detail as well as keep it on-hand as a 'go-to' manual."

Scribd hottest Web 2.0 Docs

"I am amazed! This is one of the very best presentations I have ever seen on Scribd! ... The content is amazing. I love the links and resources. Thank you so very much for sharing this with us." (Click here to go to the ebook on Scribd.)

Staying in touch

Note that I dislike spam as much as the next person. I won't email about anything unrelated to the social Web and analytics, and I won't give or sell your email address to anyone else.