Are You a Sentimental?

What I mean is: how many emotions you cannot easily contain and those take over you when responding to a post, or when you are out of the blue publishing something?

Why do I ask you this if the article is supposed to be Social Networks related?

Well, let me ask you another question: did you know the term “Sentiment Analysis” is a buzz word on the higher hierarchical levels of organizations such as Amazon, Dell, Google, Microsoft; aside from Facebook and Twitter, and many others?

The main reason is that big corporations are trying to target their marketing based on the type of emotions we express when using Social Networks. The small and mid-size social media blogs and consultancy-type businesses and individuals are also implementing some kind of system to help them sell their own products and services to small fry, while trying to hit the jackpot in the process.
So, every time we post something like “I hate (insert cellphone company here)’s billing! They put me on-hold for 20 minutes and then I got disconnected.” Or something like “I love my new car! It’s great on gas, stylish and easy to drive!” All those words and expressions are being collected, analyzed and managed so that they can more easily know where they need to focus on improvements, or where to increase prices, for instance.

Being said that, know that Sentiment Analysis is still in its infancy, although making strides quickly.
For example, when we post a comment along with a picture so that we are being sarcastic, cynical or ironic; such as in “You gotta love our politicians.” And the pix depicts such person(s) caught in the act wasting our tax money, the technologies cannot simply differentiate the intention of our message… yet.

Or when we use abbreviations and/or emoticons, such as in “My neighbour’s dog died! :D" or “My neighbour’s dog died! :-(" or “My neighbour’s dog died! :-)". Same sentence, but different emotion shown. Even the slight change in order: “My neighbour’s dog… :D …died!” is still difficult for a computerized algorithm to decipher.

The main thing here is that, each and every one of your comments is being analyzed today. That’s why you start to notice a trend on the advertising they post every time you go to YouTube, for example. Based on your searches, posts, Tweets, and so on… all you interact with online while using their systems (Social Media and others) is there for them to target you.

There you have it. Don’t be surprised by what the type and amount of advertising you start experiencing on your main sites and how it matches your moods and ways to express yourself, it is all based on you.

Therefore, do not reply here with a negative comment. ;)