Category Archives: behavior
In social analytics, maturity is relative
At Altimeter Group, we’ve been measuring the state of social business for several years now. Each year brings new shifts. Some are surprising, others not so much. This year’s theme, in “The 2015 State of Social Business,” by my colleague … Continue reading
Is your data cheating on you? Five life lessons from the Ashley Madison hack
If you’re not one of the 37 million people whose data was hacked in the Ashley Madison breach, you can breathe a sigh of relief. Sort of. The Ashley Madison story may be great for a few news cycles of schadenfreude, … Continue reading
The Trust Imperative: A Framework for Ethical Data Use
Consider this: Consumers don’t trust the way organizations use their data. CEOs are concerned that lack of trust will harm reputation and growth. People who don’t trust companies are less likely to buy from them. Yet the default option for businesses … Continue reading
This week in #digitalethics: the useful versus creepy problem
Remember when we were twelve, and we thought the funniest thing ever was to play the game where you add the phrase “in bed” to every sentence? As the mom to a middle-schooler, I’m rapidly being re-introduced to this delightful … Continue reading
Data Diary: Five things we can learn from the Super Bowl
(Note: this is a longish one, but you’ll be able to read it in 20 percent of the time it would take you to heat up more Totino’s Pizza Rolls.*) Personally, I don’t care much for football; my significant other … Continue reading
Facebook’s “Emotional Contagion” Experiment: Was it Ethical?
Update, June 29: Co-author Adam D. I. Kramer posts a response here. By now, you’ve probably heard that data scientists at Facebook recently published a study in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science revealing that, in their words, “emotional states can … Continue reading
Social Data for Social Good: Five Lessons from Academia
In business, we spend a lot of time trying to understand social data and other forms of big data for strategic advantage: to make business decisions, increase revenue, reduce costs, improve relationships with customers and spur innovation. But what about … Continue reading
Before You Freak Out About Pinterest and the Zappos Study…
A lot of people have been buzzing today over this Bloomberg story both announcing Zappos’ launch of a recommendation engine based on Pinterest pins, and stating that–although Pinterest drives the highest number of shares compared to Facebook and Twitter–it also … Continue reading
Social Analytics 2012: The Year of Digging Deep [Part 2 of 2]
So much has happened since August, when I published my research report, A Framework for Social Analytics. I collected some of that progress in my 2011 wrap-up, in which I concluded that the social media honeymoon is, at last, truly … Continue reading
Playground to Prediction: Misinformation and Social Analytics
When I was a kid, there was a hugely popular commercial for Life cereal featuring a kid called Mikey. One day, a strange and horrible tale started to make its way around the playground. “You know that kid Mikey? From … Continue reading
Thought Experiments 