Analytics for Twitter allows users to query Twitter directly in Microsoft® Office Excel 2010. Utilizing the free PowerPivot Excel Add-in users can perform their own analysis such as who are the top Tweeters, what #hashtags are they using and do they have a positive or negative tweet tone. Sample code, used to create this application, is included as a sample and how-to.

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Overview

Analytics for Twitter allows users to search Twitter and get dashboard views on Tweet statistics inside Microsoft® Office Excel 2010.
With this FREE add-in, you can:

• Perform up to 5 parallel Twitter Searches (limited to 1500 results per query per day).
• Drive ad-hoc analysis of tweets by day, by hour, by tweeters, by #hashtags and @mentions.
• Customize your views (using slicers, DAX formulas or reference tables).

Important:

1. Please note, that, after Installation, Analytics for Twitter will manifest itself as a Microsoft® Excel 2010 file called “Analytics for Twitter.xlsx” on your desktop.
2. Please note that Analytics for Twitter works only with the latest versions of Microsoft® Excel 2010 and of Microsoft® PowerPivot for Excel 2010. To download Microsoft® PowerPivot for Excel 2010, please go to www.PowerPivot.com.
3. 3. Please note that Analytics for Twitter takes advantage of Twitter Search (http://search.twitter.com/). During periods of high traffic volume Twitter Search does not always return search results. Please be patient and try your search again.

System Requirements

• Supported Operating Systems:Windows 7
  • Windows 7 Professional
  • Windows 7 Enterprise
• Preinstalled Software (Prerequisites):
  • Microsoft® Office Excel 2010.
  • Microsoft® PowerPivot for Excel 2010.
  • Minimum of 2 GB of RAM
  • 5MB of available hard disk space

Instructions

Perform Twitter Search

1. Open the “Analytics for Twitter.xlsx” file on your desktop.
2. Enter a maximum of 5 comma delimited search queries in the search pane located at the top of the “Topics”, “People”, “Tone” or “Details” worksheets. See the Twitter Search Syntax section for more information on the search syntax. You only need to enter your search term once to populate all the worksheets. For your convenience, the search pane is located at the top of each sheet.
3. Click the search icon to retrieve Twitter search queries.
4. Wait for the “Twitter Search Complete” message box.
5. Click OK.
6. Wait for the “Next Steps” message box. If a “Twitter Search Query Clipped” message box precedes this message, note the message and consider refining the affected search query.
7. Click OK.

Refresh the data

1. On the PowerPivot tab in Excel, click “Update All”.
2. Wait until PowerPivot Window has refreshed.
3. Close or minimize the PowerPivot Window.
4. On the Data tab in Excel click “Refresh All”.

Tone Dictionary

The Tone Score is calculated based off of the user defined tone dictionary. This dictionary maps keywords to a tone index which is a sliding scale from very positive to very negative. Users can modify the dictionary to meet the needs of their specific search topic.

1. On the Tone Dictionary worksheet in Excel, modify the dictionary terms in the right hand column.
2. Repeat Perform Twitter Search and Refresh Data steps. The Tone Score is calculated as part of the search query process, thus in order to capture dictionary updates the search must be performed after tone dictionary updates.

Search Query Syntax

Analytics for Twitter has been designed to support up to 5 concurrent search queries on #hashtags, @mentions, keywords and Tweeters. The search operators’ syntax follows Twitter Search syntax see http://search.twitter.com/operators. The following examples outline several sample search scenarios.

• Searching Hashtags
  • #microsoft, #msbi, #sql, #sqlserver, #powerpivot
  • #microsoft AND #bi, #sql OR #sqlserver
• Searching Mentions
  • @microsoft, @microsoftbi, @powerpivot
  • @microsoft AND @bi, @sql OR @sqlserver
• Searching Keywords (i.e. freeform text search)
  • microsoft, powerpivot, excel
  • excel AND bi, powerpivot or sql
• Tweeters
  • from:MicrosoftBITV, from:MicrosoftBI
  • from:MicrosoftBITV OR from:MicrosoftBI
• Combo Search
  • #msbi, @microsoftbi, MicrosoftBI, from:MicrosoftBI
  • #msbi AND @microsoftbi, MicrosoftBI OR from:MicrosoftBI

Limitations: Twitter search queries are limited to the past 4 – 7 days and a maximum of 1500 tweets per day.

Saludos

@ferglo

Me encontré un par de interesantes artículos que hablan sobre la Psicología de Twitter, que me gustaría compartir con ustedes. Donde plantean algunos aspectos de comportamiento que ya había notado, pero que ahora desde el punto de vista psicológico se explican de mejor forma, y como básicamente modifica algunos aspectos de la forma en cómo interactuamos y sostenemos conversaciones.

La primera parte del articulo es una breve introducción a Twitter (mas o menos buena) pero que contiene un par de “perlas”

“Twitter can bring about a feeling that you’re “missing something” when you’re not online and see your Twitter feed. Normal human conversations have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Twitter has none of these things — it’s continuous and nonstop, even when you’re gone. This can impart a sense of needing to “always be there” to see what’s going on. This isn’t necessarily a new feeling for some people, but the constant conversational updating on Twitter brings it to a new level.

This behavior can be unlearned, however, as it’s simply a way we’ve been taught to have a conversation with others when those conversations nearly always occurred face-to-face. Online, with no such limits as needing to be there at exactly the same time as another person, many of us will have to learn that it’s okay to step away from the conversation and come back to it at another time. It also means, however, that others need not to expect all replies in Twitter to be instantaneous. Just like email, some people will have it on all the time, and others will only check it once a day.”

Muy precisa la forma en la cual explica cómo se han creado una nueva “necesidad” donde al tener una conversación de N personas con N otras personas la demanda de atención se incrementado exponencialmente. Lo que nos lleva a la siguiente afirmación:

“This not knowing if you’ve missed anything “important” in the Twitterverse is a characteristic of the increase in information overload many people are beginning to experience. Between blogs, RSS feeds, news headlines, emails, Facebook status updates, and now Twitter, many people are starting to look like zombies trying to process all the information being pushed to them.”

Ya he hablando en otras ocasiones de este punto y de como la cantidad de información se incremente día a día, pero la afirmación es muy cierta, esta sobre carga de información tiene una ambivalencia muy importante, donde puede generar stress si el consumidor de la misma no es capaz de asimilarla (dedicare otro post a este punto en particular porque es muy importante).

Hasta el momento solo ha hablado de un aspecto que explica muy bien el éxito que ha tenido twitter al crear esta “nueva necesidad” o mejor dicho al “incrementarla”. En la segunda parte del articulo es donde realmente habla del porque las personas “twittean” (si ya se… con gusto acepto propuesta de términos J)

Obviamente como bien describe el autor, las razones son infinitas, desde solo hacerlo por socializar, pasando por razones comerciales y hasta para mejorar su reputación digital.

Pero él autor cree que la razón detrás de esto es:

“I would suggest that it is mainly to stay and feel connected with one another. It is simply socializing on a vast, unheard of scale. Whether it’s with people we actually know and trust, or complete strangers, in our increasingly inattention- and interruption-driven world, twitter is the perfect complement. It says, “Hey, I will not only reinforce your inattention, I will celebrate it!” While most people twitter while doing other things, the twittering makes a person feel even more connected to others who aren’t with them at the moment than any previous technology ever has.”

Lo que nos lleva a una de las necesidades fundamentales del hombre “el sentimiento de pertenecía” a un grupo social y me atrevería a decir que satisface una necesidad aun mas básica que como diría Carl Sagan en su libro “The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence” la necesidad de seguridad que proporciona el grupo.

Creo que esto proporciona una buena base para entender lo que sucede como fenómeno social, económico y cultural; claro está que esta explicación solo toma un aspecto de lo que pasa con twitter desde el punto de vista del “animal humano” pero que no explica algunos otros aspectos sobre todo desde el lado económico, pero bueno ese es tema de otro post. Aquí les dejo los links: The Psychology of Twitter y The Psychology of Twitter, Part 2. Espero sus comentarios.

Saludos.

ferglo

Saludos

Ferglo 

No se ustedes pero yo quiero una

Saludos

Ferglo