QUT researchers have developed ground-breaking technology for monitoring social media content and engagement, answering industry calls for better big data analysis.
The web platform uses unique algorithms based on academically rigorous methodologies created by QUT's Dr Darryl Woodford and Katie Prowd, whose G20 Hypometer recently received international attention for its ability to analyse tweets about Brisbane's G20 Leaders' Summit in real time.
"We've designed the platform as a 'social media control room' that allows companies to monitor campaigns and events in real time, giving them a much deeper level of insight than the usual hashtag searches and 'like' counts," said Dr Woodford, a Creative Industries Faculty research fellow.
"We are moving the analytics discussion beyond just looking at the results of an event or social media campaign, by prompting action based on real-time content and metrics placed in national and industry contexts.
"Our work builds on metrics for Twitter that we've developed and published through our work with the QUT Social Media Research Group, but it takes many of them to the next level - and to more social media platforms."
The researchers have successfully tested their software on social media data from large-scale public events including the Melbourne Cup and the recent G20 Leaders' Summit in Brisbane.
Their system centres on a user-friendly dashboard from which an organisation can analyse data about conversations from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Creative Industries Faculty data analyst and co-developer Katie Prowd said these advanced analytics allowed the organisation to make well-informed decisions about interacting with customers, including creating campaigns and advertising that specifically respond to issues raised over social media.
"Social media plays an extremely important role in both event planning and execution, and organisers are increasingly looking for software that can deal with the big data involved," Ms Prowd said.
"Our platform acts as a virtual control room from which organisations can sift through that big data quickly and alert staff immediately to emerging conversations they need to act on."
"It helps them to really understand what content does or doesn't work well, and what topics their users are responding to inside and outside of the organisation's official communication feeds.
"Events and campaigns are a great fit for this technology because it is designed to deal with large-scale data in real time, and everything is actionable right from the virtual control room.
The service has attracted more than $100,000 in proof-of-concept funding from QUT's innovation arm, qutbluebox.
qutbluebox Director of Innovation and Engagement Brent Watts said the researchers had already been contacted by several companies interested in trialling the platform and engaging in consultancies.
"We're quite keen to hear from other organisations that represent novel test cases, so we can hone the product and test its capabilities over a wide range of events and campaigns," Mr Watts said.
The researchers hope to make the analytics tool commercially available in 2015.
Companies interested in trialling the software should contact Michael Evans from qutbluebox on 07 3138 4676 or m.evans@qutbluebox.com.au.
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Media contact:
Kate Haggman, QUT Media, 07 3138 0358, kate.haggman@qut.edu.au
After hours Rose Trapnell, QUT Media team leader, 0407 585 901
