What are you measuring using the Attentio technology?

Buzztrend is measuring online buzz, or those topics that captures the interest of people online in blogs and discussion forums. The topics we care about are those relevant to politicians, policy makers and the media reporting on these issues.

How does it work?

First we define the relevant policy issues our clients would like to know more about in terms of how they are perceived online. This could for instance be the different political issues discussed on the national or the regional level. It could also be the names of political parties or the name of party leaders or candidates for a certain election. These issues are then defined as search terms. Using the technology developed by Attentio we are then able to make a detailed search along a number of dimensions.

What are the more detailed results you are able to deliver?

We can deliver detailed results along a number of dimensions:

Time: Measuring the buzz over period of times we are able to deliver buzztrends related to specific topics.

Location: We can relate these trends to specific geographical areas either on the global, national or regional level.

Topics: A search term can be linked and measured against a number of related topics. Take the name of a presidential candidate for instance, like Clinton or Obama, we are able to match these candidates against political issues in the campaign to determine how the online community perceives the different candidates against the different issues as they develop towards the election.

Source: The search can be defined using a number of different sources, depending on the issues we are analyzing. If we are looking at political issues in Sweden, we can limit our search against online sources linked to Swedish politics, typically blog search engines in Sweden.

How many online sources are you able to monitor?

In principle we can monitor any online source, depending on their relevance in terms of quality and the actual needs of our clients.

What is the frequency?

We are able to deliver results that are updated every 24 hours. This means that we are immediately able to measure the effect of a televised political debate in the blogosphere.

Can you determine if a candidate or a political issue is perceived as positive or negative?

Technology developments focusing on semantics and sentiment tracking are gradually coming to a point that enables us to more precisely determine by means of technology enhanced analysis if a statement linked to for instance an issue is negative or positive. At present, this process can not be done satisfactory without additional human support.

If you find that one candidate receives more buzz than other candidates, can this in any way be translated into votes, hence replacing the more traditional polls as an analytical tool?

Since we are not 100 percent able to determine the sentiment by means of an automated process, buzz can not be directly compared to and translated into votes. But, as we have found using the Attentio technology in a number of national and regional elections, online buzz appear to correlate well with the final result of the election. Without exception those parties and candidates that have received the most buzz are also those who have in the end won the election. We have also been able to determine the relative difference between the winner and the other contestants.

In addition to the direct output from the technology we use based on online search, what else do you deliver?

Interpreting the results along the different dimensions mentioned above require in debt analysis. Although the technology is able to deliver astonishing results, going trough the underlying material, basically analyzing a number of the most relevant hits, involves the use of human analytical skills. As a result we also offer additional analytical services including the delivery of targeted buzz trend reports.

How can political parties, candidates and policy makers benefit from buzztrend services?

Buzztrend.eu allows our customers to gain certainty about what the online community cares about. Knowing instead of guessing means that they more precisely can target and adjust political messages in a political campaign, for instance, or in general allow them to better communicate with the online community. As we have seen in the US election in 2004 and 2008, and the French presidential election in 2007, political campaigns are targeting in particular the increasing number of bloggers and other internet users. This is a trend that will only continue to grow as the younger generations matures. Media and technology convergence is supporting this trend.