La Trobe Business School: Customer Analytics Social Media Project

This project, undertaken by a student at La Trobe Business School, explores customer analytics using social media data. The study begins with an introduction to sentiment analysis and text mining, highlighting their importance in understanding customer behavior in the digital age. The project is divided into two case studies. Case Study 1 investigates the impact of article properties on social media shares, analyzing data from various channels (Lifestyle, Entertainment, Business, Social Media, Technology, and World) to identify trends in title length, content length, and publication times. The analysis involves exploring the relationship between keywords, shares, and sentiments to inform online advertising strategies and customer communication. Case Study 2 focuses on predicting consumer review sentiments to improve marketing strategies and brand awareness. The methodology includes examining the sentiment polarity of Twitter comments and mining their characteristics to uncover underlying emotions. The findings are presented through tables and figures, providing insights into the most shared content and the topics associated with each channel. The study aims to extract meaningful insights from unstructured data to enhance customer engagement and improve marketing effectiveness.

Customer Analytics with Social Media
(Assignment 1 - Social Media Analysis for Understanding Customer
Preferences and Sentiments)
By
<Student Name>
(18815197)
La Trobe Business School
Melbourne, Australia

Table of Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. Case Study 1 2
2.1 Explore the impact of article properties 2
2.1.1 Channel wise number of shares 2
2.1.2 Properties of high number of shares 9
2.2 SAS Text Miner for keyword analysis 14
3. Case Study 2 18
References 20
Annexure i

List of Figures
Figure 1 Number of shares vs Title length (Overall)...................................................................................10
Figure 2 Number of shares vs Content length (Overall)..............................................................................10
Figure 3 Total shares vs Published on the weekend (Overall).....................................................................11
Figure 4 Comparison of average title lengths of top 10 shares of each of the channel...............................13
Figure 5 Comparison of average content lengths of top 10 shares of each of the channel..........................13
Figure 6 Comparison of no. of publishes in weekdays of top 10 shares of each of the channel.................13
Figure 7 Topics of whole data vs Share.......................................................................................................17
Figure 8 qplot of sentiments........................................................................................................................19

List of Tables
Table 1 Top 10 shares under “Lifestyle” channel 3
Table 2 Top 10 shares under “Entertainment” channel 4
Table 3 Top 10 shares under “Business” channel 5
Table 4 Top 10 shares under “Social media” channel 6
Table 5 Top 10 shares under “Technology” channel 7
Table 6 Top 10 shares under “World” channel 8
Table 7 Top 10 topics under “Lifestyle” channel 14
Table 8 Top 10 topics under “Entertainment” channel 14
Table 9 Top 10 topics under “Business” channel 15
Table 10 Top 10 topics under “Social Media” channel 15
Table 11 Top 10 topics under “Technology” channel 16
Table 12 Top 10 topics under “World” channel 16
Table 13 Top 10 topics under “Whole” data 16
Table 14 Top 10 topics under “six channels”: Cumulative 17
Table 15 Eight Emotions vs Counts 18

1. Introduction
Emotions are an integral ingredient of human life. Through the visible gestures, it can directly affect the
audience. It is very difficult to comprehend someone’s intention or sentiments only through texts without
any visibility. With the rise of digital era, and with the wide use of mobile, internet, digital media and
social networks, textual communication has turned out to be the main source of communication. Hence,
need has been felt in research community (Pandey et al., 2016) to create a model which can recognize the
sentiments behind the text and can make these digital communications more effective (Li and Wu., 2010;
Pang and Lee, 2008). This study focuses on text mining and sentiment analysis, which are nowadays most
popular methods for language processing. Polarity of emotions and views can be computed using these
models, these models assist to create meaningful insights out of unstructured data. In this study, our main
objectives are the identification of the impact of articles on sharing based on the metadata and to
understand sentiment of movie reviewers in twitter and comparison of different methods of sentimental
analysis. In case study 1, our objective is to find out the relationship between different keywords, shares,
and sentiments, which would help to make strategy for improved online advertising and better
communication with customers. In case study 2, our objective is to predict consumers’ review sentiments,
which would help to provide meaningful insights to improve the campaign tracking, customer-oriented
marketing strategy and brand awareness. During sentimental analysis, our target will be polarity
identification of twitter comments (positive, neutral, or negative) and mining the characteristics of a given
comment to uncover their polarities (Pak and Paroubek, 2010).
1

2. Case Study 1
1.1 Explore the impact of article properties
As mentioned in the assignment, six excel sheets (lifestyle (lifestyle), entertainment, business (bus), social
media (socmed), technology (tech), and world (world)) have been formed from the provided data i.e.
“OnlineNewsPopularity.csv”. Few facts which have been identified while exploring the data, have been
mentioned below.
Observations for life style, entertainment, business, social media, technology, and world are 2100,
7059, 6259, 2325, 7345, and 8425 respectively. There are and 6147 observations which have no
associations with any of these channels. There are also few observations which are associated with two
channels like “Title 157”, which is associated with entertainment & social media both; title 24 is
associated with lifestyle & social media both; title 185 is associated with business & social media both;
and title 345 is associated with business & technology both.
1.1.1 Channel wise number of shares
“Leaked: More Low-Cost iPhone Photos” has got highest number of shares i.e. 843300, though this is not
falling under the six channels.
Lifestyle
For lifestyle channel, “Obama to Discuss NSA Reform with Lawmakers” has got highest number of
shares i.e. 208300. The top 10 shares under Lifestyle channel have been shown below in Table 1.
2

Table 1 Top 10 shares under “Lifestyle” channel
Sl.
No
.
url Title shares
1 http://mashable.com/2014/01/07/
obama-nsa-reform-lawmakers-
meeting/
Obama to Discuss NSA Reform With
Lawmakers
208300
2 http://mashable.com/2013/07/08/
supercut-one-man-trailers/
No Movie Trailer Is Complete Without This
One Line
196700
3 http://mashable.com/2013/11/25/
teenage-online-activity/
87% of American Teenagers Send Text
Messages Each Month
139600
4 http://mashable.com/2013/06/11/
wristband-mood-monitor/
High-Tech Wristband Monitors Mood 81200
5 http://mashable.com/2013/05/29/
summer-reading-list/
22 Books for Your Ultimate Summer
Reading List
73100
6 http://mashable.com/2013/07/11/tech-
virtual-border-fence/
Finalists Exhibit Tech for $465 Million
Virtual Border Fence
56000
7 http://mashable.com/2013/12/10/
mock-netwars/
Cybersecurity Experts Will Face Off in
Mock NetWars
54900
8 http://mashable.com/2013/10/15/apps-
morning-commute/
84% of Smartphone Owners Use Apps While
Getting Ready in the Morning
54200
9 http://mashable.com/2013/10/21/
revenge-porn/
It's Still Easy to Get Away With Revenge
Porn
49700
10 http://mashable.com/2014/05/29/beats-
solo-2-review/
Beats SoloA Headphones Sound Great, But
You're Paying for Fashion [REVIEW]
45100
3

Entertainment
“Sprint's New Plans Guarantee Unlimited Data for Life” has received maximum number of shares
(210300) under entertainment channel. The top 10 shares under entertainment channel have been shown
below in Table 2.
Table 2 Top 10 shares under “Entertainment” channel
Sl.
No
.
url Title shares
1 http://mashable.com/2013/07/12/
sprint-unlimited-data-for-life/
Sprint's New Plans Guarantee Unlimited Data
for Life
210300
2 http://mashable.com/2013/12/25/
xbox-one-getting-started/
What to Do With Your New Xbox One 197600
3 http://mashable.com/2013/12/26/
mcdonalds-kills-mcresource-line/
McDonalds Kills Site That Advised Employees
to Eat Healthy Meals
193400
4 http://mashable.com/
2013/08/28/6000-video-launched-
helloflo/
How a $6,000 Video Got 6 Million Views and
Launched a Business
138700
5 http://mashable.com/2014/02/10/
flappy-bird-typing-tutor/
'Flappy Bird Typing Tutor' Is Even More
Frustrating Than the Original
112600
6 http://mashable.com/2014/10/14/
sandworm-russian-hackers-nato-
with-microsoft-bug-ukraine-nato/
Russian Hackers Used Microsoft Bug to Spy
on Ukraine and NATO
109500
7 http://mashable.com/2014/05/28/
lookout-theft-protection/
Lookout Fights Back Against Smartphone
Thieves
109100
8 http://mashable.com/2014/09/10/
australian-tested-ebola-virus/
Australian Patient Tests Negative for Ebola 98500
9 http://mashable.com/2014/01/14/
facebook-yandex-partnership/
Facebook Makes Inroads in Russia With
Yandex Partnership
98000
4

10 http://mashable.com/2014/05/05/
apple-v-samsung-update/
Samsung Trial Jury to Apple: Go After Google 96000
Business
“Dove Experiment Aims to Change the Way You See Yourself” has received maximum number of shares
(690400) under business channel. The top 10 shares under business channel have been shown below in
Table 3.
Table 3 Top 10 shares under “Business” channel
Sl.
No.
url Title shares
1 http://mashable.com/2013/04/15/
dove-ad-beauty-sketches/
Dove Experiment Aims to Change the Way You
See Yourself
690400
2 http://mashable.com/2013/11/18/
kanye-west-harvard-lecture/
Kanye West Lectures at Harvard About
Creativity
652900
3 http://mashable.com/2014/01/14/
australia-heatwave-photos/
It's Hot as Hell in Australia Right Now 310800
4 http://mashable.com/2013/03/28/
blackberry-1-million/
BlackBerry Sold 1 Million BlackBerry 10
Smartphones in Q4
306100
5 http://mashable.com/2013/11/14/
ibm-watson-brief/
IBM Brings Watson to the Masses and Other
News You Need to Know
298400
6 http://mashable.com/2013/12/04/
christmas-movie-mashup/
All The Christmas Movies You Need in One
Mashup [VIDEO]
158900
7 http://mashable.com/2013/03/02/
resume-design/
Can Beautiful Design Make Your Resume
Stand Out?
144400
8 http://mashable.com/2014/01/15/
apple-settles-ftc-lawsuit/
Apple to Return $32.5 Million for Accidental
App Purchases
139500
9 http://mashable.com/2014/01/29/ How Big Data Is Influencing Hiring 110200
5

big-data-hiring/
10 http://mashable.com/2013/11/19/
mapbox/
MapBox Enables Amazing Custom Maps for
Sites and Apps
106400
Social media
“World's First Sprout-Powered Battery Just Lit Up a Christmas Tree [VIDEO]” has shared maximum
number of shares (122800) under social media channel. The top 10 shares under social media channel
have been shown below in Table 4.
Table 4 Top 10 shares under “Social media” channel
Sl.
N
o.
url Title shares
1 http://mashable.com/2013/11/26/sprout-
battery/
World's First Sprout-Powered Battery
Just Lit Up a Christmas Tree [VIDEO]
122800
2 http://mashable.com/2013/06/12/facebook-
hashtag-advertising/
Facebook Hashtags Not Open to
Advertising a Yet
59000
3 http://mashable.com/2013/02/25/reddit-facts-
2-25/
5 Fascinating Facts We Learned From
Reddit This Week
57600
4 http://mashable.com/2013/11/29/marketing-
wins-fails-2013/
The Most Memorable Brand Wins and
Fails of 2013
57000
5 http://mashable.com/2013/08/11/superman-
photoshop-comic/
Even Superman Can't Resist
Photoshopping His Pics [SUNDAY
COMIC]
54100
6 http://mashable.com/2013/11/03/youtube-
music-awards-watch-video-live-stream/
Watch the YouTube Music Awards
Here [VIDEO]
53100
7 http://mashable.com/2013/01/16/reddit-most-
beautiful-songs/
The 100 Most Beautiful Songs in the
World, According to Reddit
51900
6

8 http://mashable.com/2014/08/11/isee-3-
buzzes-moon/
Rebooted NASA Spacecraft Begins a
New Mission 36 Years After Launch
47700
9 http://mashable.com/2013/08/09/12-doctor-
who-episodes/
'Doctor Who' Crash Course: 12
Essential Episodes [VIDEOS]
47400
10 http://mashable.com/2014/02/24/gravity-
brandspeak/
The Tech Behind the Film 'Gravity' 41900
Technology
“Startup stories from early hires” has got maximum number of shares (663600) under technology
channel. The top 10 shares under technology channel have been shown below in Table 5.
Table 5 Top 10 shares under “Technology” channel
Sl.
No
.
url Title shares
1 http://mashable.com/2014/04/09/first-100-
gilt-soundcloud-stitchfix/
Startup stories from early hires 663600
2 http://mashable.com/2013/07/05/google-
field-trip-july-free/
Visit 23 Museums and Zoos Free
With Google Field Trip App
104100
3 http://mashable.com/2013/08/24/instagram-
acquires-luma/
Instagram Acquires Video Filter
App Luma
96100
4 http://mashable.com/2014/01/21/kiev-
ukraine-protest-photos/
Kiev Riots at Fever Pitch: The
Fiery Scene in 30 Photos
88500
5 http://mashable.com/2013/12/01/amazon-
drops-kindle-fire-prices-for-cyber-monday/
Amazon Drops Kindle Fire Prices
For Cyber Monday
83300
6 http://mashable.com/2013/03/13/learn-to-
code-free/
Learn to Code for Free With These
10 Online Resources
71800
7 http://mashable.com/2014/06/18/helloflo-
first-moon-party-ad/
Hilarious HelloFlo Ad Is the Only
Good Thing About Periods
70200
7

[VIDEO]
8 http://mashable.com/2014/07/08/harry-
potter-j-k-rowling-new-facts/
16 Crucial Things J.K. Rowling
Reveals in New Harry Potter Story
67800
9 http://mashable.com/2013/10/24/google-
calico/
Google Wants You to Live 170
Years
55200
10 http://mashable.com/2013/10/11/
international-day-of-girl/
All Eyes on Malala Yousafzai on
Second International Day of the
Girl
53200
World
“U.S. Will Now Monitor All Travelers From Ebola Zone for 21 Days” has received maximum number of
shares (284700) under world channel. The top 10 shares under world channel have been shown below in
Table 6.
Table 6 Top 10 shares under “World” channel
Sl.
No.
url Title shares
1 http://mashable.com/2014/10/22/
ebola-cdc-active-monitoring/
U.S. Will Now Monitor All Travelers From
Ebola Zone for 21 Days
284700
2 http://mashable.com/2014/04/14/
travel-tax-refund/
Study: 54% of Online Adults Would Spend Tax
Refunds on Travel
141400
3 http://mashable.com/2013/11/15/
apple-ios-7-0-4/
Apple Fixes FaceTime Bug With iOS 7.0.4 128500
4 http://mashable.com/2014/11/03/
drones-french-nuclear-sites/
Mystery drones fly over French nuclear sites 115700
5 http://mashable.com/2013/12/13/
prince-harry-reaches-south-pole/
Prince Harry Reaches South Pole After 200-
Mile Trek for Charity
111300
6 http://mashable.com/2014/09/07/ 12 Hours in 'Utopia': On the set of Fox's newest 108400
8