Language Support in Social Media Analysis

Does your social media program include foreign language requirements? Even if your company does business in only one country, you might need multiple languages. The question is, how much capability do you need to check off the language box?

An email from a vendor contact in Tokyo reminded me of a conversation at the Tech@State conference a few weeks ago. We were talking about monitoring Arabic-language social media, and someone pointed out that their analysts know Arabic. They don't need translation; they just need to collect the content for their analysts to read.

It's an important distinction, and it led us into a conversation about what a monitoring platform needs to do to support different types of users. The short answer is, language capability is more than a one-box checklist item. You have to know your needs in order to evaluate tools.

International support in the software
Let's start with the scenario from that initial conversation: an organization is looking for a software platform for monitoring or analyzing social media content in a specific set of languages. Here are some tool capabilities that might back up a claim about language support:

1. Find content written in a language
   Theoretically, all you need is support for the required character set, search terms in the desired language, and a broad range of sources. In practice, it's harder to collect content in some countries and languages than others. Ask about source coverage in the countries you need to include.
2. Translate foreign-language content
   In the age of Google Translate and other machine-translation programs, it's easy to add a translate button to a tool. If your needs are simple, machine translation could be good enough.
3. Filter content by language.
   The most basic level of language support involves identifying the language used in a text. Based on some of my testing, that's harder than it looks. Tools that can identify source languages usually offer filters based on the language, which is useful for directing items to analysts who can read them, as well as for analysis of content by language.
4. Apply text analytics to content in the language.
   Adding more languages to the analytics engine of a social media platform is hard work. I've heard from several sources that adding sentiment analysis in another language, for example, is equivalent to starting over. If you want your tool to do text analytics in a specific language—sentiment, topics, entity extraction, and the rest—ask specifically if those features are supported in the languages you need to analyze.
5. Provide a user interface in a language.
   So far, this has all been about the content. If you're working with native linguists, though, you may also want to support them with a user interface in their language. I've talked with people at companies that monitor social media in multiple languages using teams in multiple countries. Giving them a UI in their own language(s) is a nice touch, and one that probably pays off in increased productivity.

International support in services
Now, let's look at the other side of the business: the services market. One easy way to add coverage of additional markets is to send the work to an agency that has those capabilities. The first question is, can they support the languages you need? The follow-up question is, how do they do it?

1. Multilingual analysts
   Is it adequate to have an analyst who knows the language? Depending on your circumstances, it could be.
2. Native language analysts
   Anyone who's studied a foreign language knows that it's easier to learn as a small child. Native fluency makes the analyst more likely to catch subtleties that a non-native speaker might miss.
3. Native analysts located in foreign market
   If your native-fluent analysts are current residents of the foreign country of interest, they may be better attuned to current events and cultural trends than their peers working in another country.
4. Vendor based in foreign market
   Social media analysis firms are virtually everywhere (try searching a country name in the directory). You can find native analysts who work abroad for international firms, and you can find them working for smaller firms based in their country. Working with foreign vendors adds complexity, but it could be the right answer in some circumstances.

It's easy to make up a list of languages and mark them yes or no. When I did my first report on companies in social media analysis in 2007, I didn't go much farther than that (I did ask about native fluency among analysts). If you're building a capability with international scope, be clear about the level of language support you need, and you'll be a big step closer to finding the right partners for your program.

I've been thinking lately about nuances in product requirements. More to follow.

Language Support in Social Media Analysis

Does your social media program include foreign language requirements? Even if your company does business in only one country, you might need multiple languages. The question is, how much capability do you need to check off the language box?

An email from a vendor contact in Tokyo reminded me of a conversation at the Tech@State conference a few weeks ago. We were talking about monitoring Arabic-language social media, and someone pointed out that their analysts know Arabic. They don't need translation; they just need to collect the content for their analysts to read.

It's an important distinction, and it led us into a conversation about what a monitoring platform needs to do to support different types of users. The short answer is, language capability is more than a one-box checklist item. You have to know your needs in order to evaluate tools.

International support in the software
Let's start with the scenario from that initial conversation: an organization is looking for a software platform for monitoring or analyzing social media content in a specific set of languages. Here are some tool capabilities that might back up a claim about language support:

1. Find content written in a language
   Theoretically, all you need is support for the required character set, search terms in the desired language, and a broad range of sources. In practice, it's harder to collect content in some countries and languages than others. Ask about source coverage in the countries you need to include.
2. Translate foreign-language content
   In the age of Google Translate and other machine-translation programs, it's easy to add a translate button to a tool. If your needs are simple, machine translation could be good enough.
3. Filter content by language.
   The most basic level of language support involves identifying the language used in a text. Based on some of my testing, that's harder than it looks. Tools that can identify source languages usually offer filters based on the language, which is useful for directing items to analysts who can read them, as well as for analysis of content by language.
4. Apply text analytics to content in the language.
   Adding more languages to the analytics engine of a social media platform is hard work. I've heard from several sources that adding sentiment analysis in another language, for example, is equivalent to starting over. If you want your tool to do text analytics in a specific language—sentiment, topics, entity extraction, and the rest—ask specifically if those features are supported in the languages you need to analyze.
5. Provide a user interface in a language.
   So far, this has all been about the content. If you're working with native linguists, though, you may also want to support them with a user interface in their language. I've talked with people at companies that monitor social media in multiple languages using teams in multiple countries. Giving them a UI in their own language(s) is a nice touch, and one that probably pays off in increased productivity.

International support in services
Now, let's look at the other side of the business: the services market. One easy way to add coverage of additional markets is to send the work to an agency that has those capabilities. The first question is, can they support the languages you need? The follow-up question is, how do they do it?

1. Multilingual analysts
   Is it adequate to have an analyst who knows the language? Depending on your circumstances, it could be.
2. Native language analysts
   Anyone who's studied a foreign language knows that it's easier to learn as a small child. Native fluency makes the analyst more likely to catch subtleties that a non-native speaker might miss.
3. Native analysts located in foreign market
   If your native-fluent analysts are current residents of the foreign country of interest, they may be better attuned to current events and cultural trends than their peers working in another country.
4. Vendor based in foreign market
   Social media analysis firms are virtually everywhere (try searching a country name in the directory). You can find native analysts who work abroad for international firms, and you can find them working for smaller firms based in their country. Working with foreign vendors adds complexity, but it could be the right answer in some circumstances.

It's easy to make up a list of languages and mark them yes or no. When I did my first report on companies in social media analysis in 2007, I didn't go much farther than that (I did ask about native fluency among analysts). If you're building a capability with international scope, be clear about the level of language support you need, and you'll be a big step closer to finding the right partners for your program.

I've been thinking lately about nuances in product requirements. More to follow.

Facebook Files S-1 for $5 Billion IPO (revealing stats & revenue)

Updating as this plays out with deeper analysis and links…

Just a few moments ago, Facebook officially filed an S-1  for an initial public offering seeking to raise $5 billion. Here are a few key findings…

- 845 million monthly active users, year over year growth of 39%

- 483 million daily active users as of December, year over year growth of 48%

- 425 million monthly mobile users

- 100 billion friend connections as of December 31, 2011

- 2.7 billion Likes and comments per day during the last quarter of 2011

- $1 billion in profits in 2011

- $3.7 billion in revenues in 2011, soaring 88% between 2010 – 2011

- Profits grew 65% from $606 million in 2010

- Zynga makes up 12% of overall Facebook revenue

- Google posted $961.8 million in revenue and $105.6 million in profit when it initially went public…Facebook’s profits are nearly 10x heading into its IPO

- Facebook 2011 profits were 1.6x that of Amazon, which posted a 45% drop in net income between 2010 and 2011 at $631 million

UPDATE 1: The Hacker Way

Really appreciate the culture of Facebook as mentioned in the S-1 under the heading “The Hacker Way.” Here’s an excerpt:

The Hacker Way
As part of building a strong company, we work hard at making Facebook the best place for great people to have a big impact on the world and learn from other great people. We have cultivated a unique culture and management approach that we call the Hacker Way.
The word “hacker” has an unfairly negative connotation from being portrayed in the media as people who break into computers. In reality, hacking just means building something quickly or testing the boundaries of what can be done. Like most things, it can be used for good or bad, but the vast majority of hackers I’ve met tend to be idealistic people who want to have a positive impact on the world.
The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo.
Hackers try to build the best services over the long term by quickly releasing and learning from smaller iterations rather than trying to get everything right all at once. To support this, we have built a testing framework that at any given time can try out thousands of versions of Facebook. We have the words “Done is better than perfect” painted on our walls to remind ourselves to always keep shipping.
Hacking is also an inherently hands-on and active discipline. Instead of debating for days whether a new idea is possible or what the best way to build something is, hackers would rather just prototype something and see what works. There’s a hacker mantra that you’ll hear a lot around Facebook offices: “Code wins arguments.”
Hacker culture is also extremely open and meritocratic. Hackers believe that the best idea and implementation should always win — not the person who is best at lobbying for an idea or the person who manages the most people.

UPDATE 2: Risks

As a matter of disclosure, Facebook must release risks to caution investors against buying blindly. Here is the full list as pulled from the S-1. I share it here with you to learn from Facebook’s diligence in constant innovation or as they say “shipping.” It’s a healthy form of inspiration to always compete for the moment and for relevance over time.

1. users increasingly engage with competing products;
2. we fail to introduce new and improved products or if we introduce new products or services that are not favorably received;
3. we are unable to successfully balance our efforts to provide a compelling user experience with the decisions we make with respect to the frequency, prominence, and size of ads and other commercial content that we display;
4. we are unable to continue to develop products for mobile devices that users find engaging, that work with a variety of mobile operating systems and networks, and that achieve a high level of market acceptance;
5. there are changes in user sentiment about the quality or usefulness of our products or concerns related to privacy and sharing, safety, security, or other factors;
6. we are unable to manage and prioritize information to ensure users are presented with content that is interesting, useful, and relevant to them;
7. there are adverse changes in our products that are mandated by legislation, regulatory authorities, or litigation, including settlements or consent decrees;
8. technical or other problems prevent us from delivering our products in a rapid and reliable manner or otherwise affect the user experience;
9. we adopt policies or procedures related to areas such as sharing or user data that are perceived negatively by our users or the general public;
10. we fail to provide adequate customer service to users, developers, or advertisers;
11. we, our Platform developers, or other companies in our industry are the subject of adverse media reports or other negative publicity; or
12. our current or future products, such as the Facebook Platform, reduce user activity on Facebook by making it easier for our users to interact and share on third-party websites.

UPDATE 3: Facebook’s Friends or Who Owns Facebook

Ken Yeung over at bub.blicio.us found this interesting graphic complied by Learnvest based on data published by The WSJ and The Guardian. It’s a visual look at the distribution of Facebook stock. Some interesting pre-trading numbers reveal just how big this IPO is worth to the market, employees, investors, and partners.

UPDATE 4: A Letter from Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg urges understanding before investment. This is an approach that conditions investors for a long-term play rather than a quick and profitable turn. As important, is the focus on culture and values. Facebook invests emotion and aspiration in its mission and purpose, something I think more companies should consider to effectively connect with the human network (you and me).

Here are some highlights…

Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected.

Zuckerberg believes that personal relationships are the fundamental unit of our society

Facebook’s 5 core principles are 1) Focus on impact, 2) Move Fast, 3) Be Bold, 4) Be Open, and 5) Build Social Value.

The Facebook team is inspired by technologies that have revolutionized how people spread and consume information.

Facebook hopes to strengthen how people relate to each other.

Even though Facebook’s mission sounds big, the company is focusing on starting small — with the relationship between two people.

Facebook is building tools to help people connect with the people they want and share what they want, and by doing this we are extending people’s capacity to build and maintain relationships.

Facebook has already helped more than 800 million people map out more than 100 billion connections with a goal of accelerating this “rewiring.”

Facebook seeks to improve how people connect to businesses and the economy.

The company believes a more open and connected world will help create a stronger economy with more authentic businesses that build better products and services.

Facebook observes that as people share more, they have access to more opinions from the people they trust about the products and services they use. As a result, the global social network strives to makes it easier to discover the best products and improve the quality and efficiency of their lives.

This quote by Zuckerberg really captures the spirit of Facebook’s mission, “Today, our society has reached another tipping point. We live at a moment when the majority of people in the world have access to the internet or mobile phones — the raw tools necessary to start sharing what they’re thinking, feeling and doing with whomever they want. Facebook aspires to build the services that give people the power to share and help them once again transform many of our core institutions and industries.”

Facebook Files S-1 for $5 Billion IPO (revealing stats & revenue)

Updating as this plays out with deeper analysis and links…

Just a few moments ago, Facebook officially filed an S-1  for an initial public offering seeking to raise $5 billion. Here are a few key findings…

- 845 million monthly active users, year over year growth of 39%

- 483 million daily active users as of December, year over year growth of 48%

- 425 million monthly mobile users

- 100 billion friend connections as of December 31, 2011

- 2.7 billion Likes and comments per day during the last quarter of 2011

- $1 billion in profits in 2011

- $3.7 billion in revenues in 2011, soaring 88% between 2010 – 2011

- Profits grew 65% from $606 million in 2010

- Zynga makes up 12% of overall Facebook revenue

- Google posted $961.8 million in revenue and $105.6 million in profit when it initially went public…Facebook’s profits are nearly 10x heading into its IPO

- Facebook 2011 profits were 1.6x that of Amazon, which posted a 45% drop in net income between 2010 and 2011 at $631 million

UPDATE 1: The Hacker Way

Really appreciate the culture of Facebook as mentioned in the S-1 under the heading “The Hacker Way.” Here’s an excerpt:

The Hacker Way
As part of building a strong company, we work hard at making Facebook the best place for great people to have a big impact on the world and learn from other great people. We have cultivated a unique culture and management approach that we call the Hacker Way.
The word “hacker” has an unfairly negative connotation from being portrayed in the media as people who break into computers. In reality, hacking just means building something quickly or testing the boundaries of what can be done. Like most things, it can be used for good or bad, but the vast majority of hackers I’ve met tend to be idealistic people who want to have a positive impact on the world.
The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo.
Hackers try to build the best services over the long term by quickly releasing and learning from smaller iterations rather than trying to get everything right all at once. To support this, we have built a testing framework that at any given time can try out thousands of versions of Facebook. We have the words “Done is better than perfect” painted on our walls to remind ourselves to always keep shipping.
Hacking is also an inherently hands-on and active discipline. Instead of debating for days whether a new idea is possible or what the best way to build something is, hackers would rather just prototype something and see what works. There’s a hacker mantra that you’ll hear a lot around Facebook offices: “Code wins arguments.”
Hacker culture is also extremely open and meritocratic. Hackers believe that the best idea and implementation should always win — not the person who is best at lobbying for an idea or the person who manages the most people.

UPDATE 2: Risks

As a matter of disclosure, Facebook must release risks to caution investors against buying blindly. Here is the full list as pulled from the S-1. I share it here with you to learn from Facebook’s diligence in constant innovation or as they say “shipping.” It’s a healthy form of inspiration to always compete for the moment and for relevance over time.

1. users increasingly engage with competing products;
2. we fail to introduce new and improved products or if we introduce new products or services that are not favorably received;
3. we are unable to successfully balance our efforts to provide a compelling user experience with the decisions we make with respect to the frequency, prominence, and size of ads and other commercial content that we display;
4. we are unable to continue to develop products for mobile devices that users find engaging, that work with a variety of mobile operating systems and networks, and that achieve a high level of market acceptance;
5. there are changes in user sentiment about the quality or usefulness of our products or concerns related to privacy and sharing, safety, security, or other factors;
6. we are unable to manage and prioritize information to ensure users are presented with content that is interesting, useful, and relevant to them;
7. there are adverse changes in our products that are mandated by legislation, regulatory authorities, or litigation, including settlements or consent decrees;
8. technical or other problems prevent us from delivering our products in a rapid and reliable manner or otherwise affect the user experience;
9. we adopt policies or procedures related to areas such as sharing or user data that are perceived negatively by our users or the general public;
10. we fail to provide adequate customer service to users, developers, or advertisers;
11. we, our Platform developers, or other companies in our industry are the subject of adverse media reports or other negative publicity; or
12. our current or future products, such as the Facebook Platform, reduce user activity on Facebook by making it easier for our users to interact and share on third-party websites.

UPDATE 3: Facebook’s Friends or Who Owns Facebook

Ken Yeung over at bub.blicio.us found this interesting graphic complied by Learnvest based on data published by The WSJ and The Guardian. It’s a visual look at the distribution of Facebook stock. Some interesting pre-trading numbers reveal just how big this IPO is worth to the market, employees, investors, and partners.

UPDATE 4: A Letter from Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg urges understanding before investment. This is an approach that conditions investors for a long-term play rather than a quick and profitable turn. As important, is the focus on culture and values. Facebook invests emotion and aspiration in its mission and purpose, something I think more companies should consider to effectively connect with the human network (you and me).

Here are some highlights…

Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected.

Zuckerberg believes that personal relationships are the fundamental unit of our society

Facebook’s 5 core principles are 1) Focus on impact, 2) Move Fast, 3) Be Bold, 4) Be Open, and 5) Build Social Value.

The Facebook team is inspired by technologies that have revolutionized how people spread and consume information.

Facebook hopes to strengthen how people relate to each other.

Even though Facebook’s mission sounds big, the company is focusing on starting small — with the relationship between two people.

Facebook is building tools to help people connect with the people they want and share what they want, and by doing this we are extending people’s capacity to build and maintain relationships.

Facebook has already helped more than 800 million people map out more than 100 billion connections with a goal of accelerating this “rewiring.”

Facebook seeks to improve how people connect to businesses and the economy.

The company believes a more open and connected world will help create a stronger economy with more authentic businesses that build better products and services.

Facebook observes that as people share more, they have access to more opinions from the people they trust about the products and services they use. As a result, the global social network strives to makes it easier to discover the best products and improve the quality and efficiency of their lives.

This quote by Zuckerberg really captures the spirit of Facebook’s mission, “Today, our society has reached another tipping point. We live at a moment when the majority of people in the world have access to the internet or mobile phones — the raw tools necessary to start sharing what they’re thinking, feeling and doing with whomever they want. Facebook aspires to build the services that give people the power to share and help them once again transform many of our core institutions and industries.”

Komen restores grants to Planned Parenthood

News!
The breast-cancer awareness organization, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, is under fire for its controversial decision yesterday to drop funding for Planned Parenthood, which provides sexual and reproductive health care, including breast exams and birth control, to low-income women.
http://www.kpho.com/story/16663122/another-komen-official-resigns-1-

Social Work Month Gifts for Social Workers

Social Work Gifts Available Online

Graduation time, retirement and don't forget Social Work Month.
Or, it might be a birthday for a special social worker. Have a look at our social work gifts. We have special gifts for areas of practice, expressing appreciation and more. You can purchase buttons, shirts, mugs and more at the Social Work World Store. (Powered by Cafe Press)