Using Social Media Analytics to gauge Australia's reaction to the upcoming Federal Election - Part 3

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I’ll start this blog by saying “Happy Father’s Day” to all those fathers in Australia and New Zealand. I hope that you have been spoilt today, and that you all had the same gorgeous weather that we had in Sydney.

This is the third blog in a planned series as we move towards the election on 7 September, and then when the results are announced. Here are links to last two blogs, in case you missed them:
Part 1: http://bit.ly/1cW671n
Part 2: http://bit.ly/18SQXUR

And I have since posted

Part 4: http://bit.ly/17GOz2v

Part 5: http://bit.ly/18OWbz5

Let’s start by looking at the change in the number of Posts, Mentions, Impressions, Net sentiment and Passion Intensity. The software dashboard tells us the volume of data that has been collected in the past week, the overall feeling/sentiment towards the candidate and how passionate people are when they mention either Kevin Rudd or Tony Abbott in Social Media (25.8.13-1.9.13):

	Posts	Mentions	Impressions	Net sentiment	Passion Intensity
Tony Abbott	38,599	41,006	87,233,598	-7%	28
Kevin Rudd	35,778	41,182	97,984,318	-11%	9

Compared to last week’s (18.8.13-25.8.13):

	Posts	Mentions	Impressions	Net sentiment	Passion Intensity
Tony Abbott	35,801	38,734	83,517,326	-6%	14
Kevin Rudd	36,806	42,094	100,062,168	-16%	0

And the week before (13.8.13-20.8.13):

	Posts	Mentions	Impressions	Net sentiment	Passion Intensity
Tony Abbott	44,278	49,228	87,988,650	-20%	39
Kevin Rudd	24,138	28,890	66,705,516	-15%	15

This comparative data indicates that Tony Abbott is still ahead, with Net Sentiment at -7% compared to Kevin Rudd’s -11%. The number of Posts and Mentions about both candidates remains quite even, and the Passion intensity is increasing again, although is still not as strong as a couple of weeks ago. I suspect that the Passion Intensity will increase over the next week as we count down to Election Day on Saturday.

This is what the Net Sentiment for each candidate looked like over the last week:

Please note that the real-time software allows you to look at any period of time, and length of time, you like. This is just a snapshot.

Another great tool on the dashboard is the ability to quickly and easily take a closer look at a Term or Terms that you’re interested in alongside your core Topics - which in this case are Tony Abbott and Kevin Rudd. To follow is what the software reveals when we add the following Terms individually:

Topic	Candidate	Net sentiment	Passion Intensity
Leadership	Kevin Rudd	-13%	20
	Tony Abbott	20%	0
Trust	Kevin Rudd	-39%	100
	Tony Abbott	-26%	0
Same-*** marriage	Kevin Rudd	-25%	0
	Tony Abbott	4%	40
Carbon Tax	Kevin Rudd	-48%	0
	Tony Abbott	-10%	0
Asylum seekers	Kevin Rudd	-6%	0
	Tony Abbott	-69%	0
Vote	Kevin Rudd	-6%	3
	Tony Abbott	9%	13

Interesting, isn’t it. This data suggests that people are more likely to vote for Tony Abbott at this stage.

Please stay tuned and share this blog with anyone you think might be interested in Social Media Analytics, Marketing or the Election. And please add a comment here if you have any questions, or share it with your community (eg, LinkedIn or Facebook) and leave a comment there.

If you’d like to know more about SAP Cloud for Social Media Analytics by NetBase software, have a look at this link: www.sap.com/socialanalytics, if you’d like to know more about the SAP Cloud portfolio, have a look at: www.sapcloudapps.com, or if you’re in Australia or New Zealand and you’d like to speak to someone, email us or ring Australia 1800 287 727 / NZ 0800 300 727. Feel free to reach out to me directly also through my profile on this community or LinkedIn.

The information displayed in this blog is presented in summary fashion and is intended for informational use only. The information is derived via linguistic analysis of media and internet content not under the control of SAP Australia; it is presented “as is” and may not be accurate, complete, current or useful. The information does not reflect the views of SAP Australia or any SAP employee or contractor. Neither SAP Australia nor any of its related bodies corporate is liable for any claims, costs, damages or liability arising from the use of or reliance on the information.