The Crimson Hexagon ForSight™ platform is used every day by global organizations to analyze relevant consumer opinion from the Twitter Firehose. In fact, we’re now storing and indexing several hundred million Tweets daily and mining them for business intelligence. So, when we spotted this new research from Pew related to Twitter use we were particularly interested in the findings.

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, as of February 2012, some 15% of online adults use Twitter, and 8% do so on a typical day. Overall Twitter adoption remains steady, as the 15% of online adults who use Twitter is similar to the 13% of such adults who did so in May 2011. At the same time, the proportion of online adults who use Twitter on a typical day has doubled since May 2011 and has quadrupled since late 2010—at that point just 2% of online adults used Twitter on a typical day. The rise of smartphones might account for some of the uptick in usage because smartphone users are particularly likely to be using Twitter.

Other key findings from the study:

• African-Americans continue to use Twitter at very high rates—28% of online African-Americans are Twitter adopters, and 13% use the service on a typical day.
• Usage by young internet users (those 18-24 years old) increased dramatically over the last year, with nearly one in three now using Twitter.
• Pew’s data also suggests that these trends are deeply intertwined with mobile Twitter usage on smartphones. Fully 20% of smartphone owners use Twitter overall, and 16% use the service specifically on their cell phones.

Complete Pew Research Study
Click Here

What do you think about Pew’s latest study? Has your use of Twitter increased over the last year? Tweet @CrimsonHexagon with your thoughts or leave a comment below.

Click on image to enlarge.

Analyzing more than 11,300 mentions across Twitter, Facebook and Blogs, we found the majority of positive conversation (22%) focuses on the benefits of visual representation of brands and products. Pinterest users enjoyed crafting a “lifestyle” around their brands to engage consumers and help them understand how the brand views itself. Other Pinterest users (19%) loved expressing their interests visually, without the need for a long word-based explanation. The other positive conversation (16%) focused on Nonprofits and the rewards of utilizing a Pinterest profile to visualize the cause.

Neutral conversation only included 9% of mentions dedicated to general nods to Pinterest in the news or related posts. The majority of Neutral mentions, at 25%, were links from Pinterest with infographics, frequently used to show other social media trends. For example, one infographic categorized Facebook user growth. The last neutral category showed 9% of users simply jumped on the bandwagon, per say, as Pinterest has grown in popularity among social networks.

The topic wheel below provides another way to analyze the most popular topics related to Pinterest users:

The Topic Visualizer shows groups of related posts, based on the themes and topics of conversation. Click to enlarge.

The largest topic concentration is “tips” related to using Pinterest, though we notice the allure of a “visual social network” is represented within most topic categories. Delving into the refined categories, we can also see the “Pinterest Boards” highlighted. This may suggest users enjoy the level of personalization offered by the use of Pin Boards.

Understanding who uses Pinterest and why may also reveal if and when the all-visual social network may go the way of Instagram, which was recently acquired by Facebook for $1 Billion. It’s certainly clear that visuals and the networks leveraging them captivate us now more than ever.

Do you think the visual social network will lose its charm, or will social networkers find better uses for personal or brand-level interaction? Tweet at @crimsonhexagon and let us know what you think.

As always, we’ll continue analyzing the space for interesting trends. In the meantime, feel free to contact us at info@crimsonhexagon.com with questions or to learn how your market, brand or product could benefit from leveraging the Crimson Hexagon ForSight™ platform for social media monitoring and analysis. Want to see the Crimson Hexagon platform in action? Request a Live Online Demo.

Miles Branman also contributed to this post.

In an effort to change this, and what many are seeing as the opening volley of the 2012 Election, President Obama has, in recent days, made his case for the Buffett Rule (now blocked by the Senate), named for American investor Warren Buffett, as the solution to the recession and what will return the United States to economic solvency. However, many Americans remain divided on the issue.

Crimson Hexagon analyzed more than 102,000 opinions in social media and found that 23% are in favor of the Buffett Rule, as they feel it’s a step in the right direction:

• 11% think it makes perfect sense for the ultra wealthy to pay more in taxes given their exponentially larger incomes than most Americans.
• 7% feel that, as a GOP ploy, they’re greedy and want nothing more to beat Obama in the upcoming election, and neglecting how much it could help the country.
• 5% acknowledge it as a general positive, in that they agree with the President’s positioning and stance on the issue.

Although 29% of the 36% of neutral conversation is simply sharing the news surrounding the Buffett Rule, 7% are curious of other’s opinions on the topic.

Yet, an overwhelming majority of the conversation considers the Buffett Rule as doing more harm than good, as well as being skeptical of its benefits, resulting in a resounding 42% balking at the notion of the rule:

• 17% don’t view the Buffett Rule as a viable solution to the economic turmoil and only stands to create more economic distress.
• 15% are generally opposed to the introduction of such a rule.
• And 10% see the Buffett Rule as an extension of class warfare, pitting Americans against one another, and ultimately serving as a distraction to more important issues.

How do you feel about the Buffet rule? Tweet at @crimsonhexagon and let us know what you think.

Sean Finn and Aliyah Bilal-Gore also contributed to this post.

Almost immediately after the February 26 shooting of Trayvon Martin, the conversation about the case began simmering on Twitter. But it was nearly three weeks later, on March 17-after the release of 911 tapes-before the story exploded on Twitter, on blogs and in the mainstream media to become the first story of the year to get more coverage than the race for the president.

As attention to the story surged, the focus within these three parts of our media culture varied greatly, according to a special report by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. On Twitter, the conversation has focused on sympathy for the slain teenager and expressions of outrage at the killing. On blogs, the emphasis has been on the role of race in the highly charged case. In the mainstream media, the Trayvon Martin controversy was heavily a cable news and talk radio story. And there, the primary discussion has focused on two politically oriented issues-gun control laws and the Florida Stand Your Ground statute, which gives citizens the right to use deadly force when they believe they are being threatened.

Moreover, the Martin story has been a much bigger story on MSNBC, whose talk show hosts are liberal, and a much smaller story on Fox, whose prime time lineup leans conservative. The focus of the discussion differs as well. Conservative talkers paid the most attention to questions about who Martin is and to the defense of the man who pulled the trigger, George Zimmerman. Liberal hosts focused primarily on gun control and the Florida law.

A Story that Took Two Weeks to Emerge

Travyon Martin, the 17-year-old African American walking home from a convenience store, was shot by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman on February 26. In the days immediately after, the shooting got more attention in social media than in the national mainstream press, though even on Twitter and in blogs the attention was still fairly modest.

That changed on March 17 after the release of 911 audio tapes of Zimmerman calling police who advised him not to follow Martin. The volume on Twitter doubled overnight and continued to rise for the next several days. The same thing happened in the blogosphere, where the discussion had been minimal at the outset.

To review the complete Pew Research findings please access the complete report here.

As always, we’ll continue analyzing the space for interesting trends. In the meantime, feel free contact us at info@crimsonhexagon.com with questions.

Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) uses Crimson Hexagon ForSight™ Platform to Analyze Social Media Sources Covering the Story.

CMM partnered with Crimson Hexagon, and the Marketing Productivity Group, the leading provider of “state-of-the-science” analytical insights for marketers, on the study exploring which Super Bowl advertisers can expect to see the biggest Conversational ROIs™ on their multi-million dollar investment. According to CMM, Conversational ROI™ measures both the direct impact of word-of-mouth communication on marketing performance, including dollar sales, as well as the amplification effects which social provides to both offline and online paid channels of communication.

Which brands received the biggest bang for their buck?

• M&M’S generated the highest overall level of positive conversation on Super Bowl Sunday with one “sexy” 30-second spot during the first quarter of the game
• M&M’S tied Audi and Act of Valor for the highest proportion of positive sentiment
• M&M’S placed second only to Doritos in terms of generating the longest-lasting conversations around their ads
• Five of the top 10 Conversational ROIs™ are for autos
• While Chrysler’s two-minute “Halftime in America” ad created the second-highest level of negative online conversations, it also ranked among the likes of Coke, Pepsi and Doritos in terms of proportion of positive sentiment toward the ad and created the longest-lasting conversation among all of the auto advertisers

Which brands received lower Conversational ROIs™?

• Coca-Cola aired three spots and received the lowest Conversational ROI™
• Coca-Cola placed seventh in terms of positive online buzz, but fared worse in proportion of positive sentiment (11th place) with the fifth-highest level of negative posts
• Kia Optima and VW Beetle rank in the bottom half – the two car brands ranked sixth and seventh in terms of proportion of positive ad sentiment, but both were in the bottom five in terms of online buzz generated

Is the investment worth it for Hollywood studios?

• Ads for all three movies ranked in the bottom half for Conversational ROI™
• The Lorax Movie and Act of Valor are among the top five in terms of continuing to generate online conversations about their ads, with John Carter close behind at number eight, though not achieving a high score for conversation ROI

Throughout 2012, CMM will continue to track the online buzz generated by these advertisers. In particular, it will monitor conversations about the brands’ marketing actions and consumers’ feelings toward the brands and their purchase behaviors. By linking these online conversations to the brands’ marketing and in-market sales, CMM continue to demonstrate how this network of paid, owned, earned and shared media all work together in driving sales.

To view the complete rankings, visit CMM’s website.

The bailout package might prevent total economic collapse. But many Greeks are worried about the changes that the financial rescue will bring — and they’ve been talking about their fears on Twitter.

Crimson Hexagon analyzed more than 17,000 tweets about the Greek bailout. We looked only at tweets about the financial negotiations sent over the last month from within Greece.

Overwhelmingly, Greek Twitter users were concerned with the austerity measures and pay cuts that a deal would bring. Fifteen percent of tweets were worried about the cuts would mean for the Greek economy and society as a whole. Thirteen percent of tweeters expressed concern that their pay might be cut, that they might lose benefits or that they would lose their job entirely. Twelve percent doubted if the planned cuts would actually lessen the Greek deficit.

Click on image to enlarge.

Other Greeks used Twitter to blame their government or society as a whole for the problem. Seven percent of bailout tweets said that tax evasion was the major reason for Greece’s economic woes, ten percent accused the government of being corrupt and fifteen percent of tweets suggested that democracy, born and nurtured in Greece, was now “lost.”

And as austerity riots broke out in the Greek capital of Athens, locals took to Twitter to send pictures and reports from the scene. Fifteen percent of tweets over the past month that discussed the bailout mentioned those protests, workers’ strikes or police brutality.

Pieces of this blog post appear courtesy of Mashable. Crimson Hexagon provided analysis to Mashable for this story.

To get a better sense of how online consumers feel about the new service we analyzed thousands of public posts from Twitter, blogs and forums, online news sites and Facebook.

The key take-away: Netflix beware.

Why? More than 50% of the online conversation showed that consumers would entertain an alternative, or at least think Netflix should watch its back.

Here’s the specific breakdown of opinions present in the online conversation:

• 26% of the conversation indicated consumers had a desire to try the new Verizon/Redbox service
• 24% cautioned Netflix to watch its back
• 6% suggested they’d jump to a new ship for a lower cost option
• 7% showed some concern for Verizon, wondering how this move would alter its business
• The remainder of the conversation was simply sharing of the news

What do you think about the Verizon/Redbox partnership? Did our analysis surprise you?

The Stop Online Piracy Act is getting more negative attention, as major websites such as Wikipedia protest the bill with blackouts. Even Google has joined in on the action, with a blackout of its logo and a link on its homepage explaining why the company opposes the legislation.

Given all the high-profile commentary on SOPA we were curious about what the online public had to say about the proposed legislation, which comes up for a vote on January 24th. Using the Crimson Hexagon ForSight platform we analyzed more than 700,000 relevant online opinions from Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and Forums from December 17, 2011 to January 17, 2012.

Within the 733,503 relevant online opinions, 35% of the discussion represents a call to action, requesting a stop to the legislation. 23% of the online opinion supports web site blackouts and boycotts. 17% felt that SOPA curtails liberty and 9% of online comments were requests that citizens contact their elected officials to voice their opinions. The remaining 16% was general discussion and passing along the news related to SOPA legislation. It’s clear that SOPA certainly doesn’t have the support of the masses.

What do you think about SOPA? Should our legislators go back to the drawing board? We’d love to hear your opinon.

As always, we’ll continue analyzing the space for interesting trends.

We decided to analyze online comments from Twitter to better understand how people perceived this year’s show and new product announcements. Our analysis of several thousand Twitter posts shows an almost even split between positive and negative opinion surrounding the show. Using Crimson Hexagon’s ForSight^TM Platform, we learned the following:

• 38% of online opinions reveal excitement about CES and/or new products announced at the show
• A surprisingly large 34% did not find the show interesting or innovative
• 28% represented neutral sentiment focused around simple news mentions or attendees sharing their experiences at the show

Click on image to enlarge.

What do you think about CES 2012? We’d love to hear your opinon.

As always, we’ll continue analyzing the space for interesting trends. In the meantime, feel free contact us at info@crimsonhexagon.com with questions or to learn how your market, brand or product could benefit from leveraging the Crimson Hexagon ForSight™ platform for social media monitoring and analysis. Want to see the Crimson Hexagon platform in action? Request a Live Online Demo.

The conversation about social media is a hot topic within social media, so we were curious about how the announcement was perceived. Based on an analysis of Twitter and Facebook, we’ve discovered the following:

• 67% of the conversation is simply sharing the news with no additional commentary
• 8% are discussing the impact of the acquisition on individual Gowalla and Facebook users
• 14% are curious about the implications of the deal on the social media and mobile app industry
• 10% distrust Facebook and are unhappy about the acquisition

• 21% of sentiment expressed hope or wanted confirmation that reports were true, wondering if Gadhafi had really been captured
• 17% expressed happiness and excitement related to the news, with 13% expressing anger or negativity towards Gadhafi
• 9% of users related Gadhafi’s capture and death to that of Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, several questioning if his body would be disposed of in the same way
• 13% joked or were sarcastic in their response to the news, often commenting on his odd behavior or choice of clothing
• 28% shared the news they were receiving from sources like CNN and Reuters

What do you think about the Gadhafi news?  We’d love to hear your thoughts.

As always, we’ll continue analyzing the space for interesting trends. In the meantime, feel free contact us at info@crimsonhexagon.com with questions or to learn how your market, brand or product could benefit from leveraging the Crimson Hexagon ForSight™ platform for social media monitoring and analysis. Want to see the Crimson Hexagon platform in action? Request a Live Online Demo.

It’s also noteworthy that 16% of the online reaction felt that Tim Cook’s inaugural product launch as Apple’s CEO fell a bit flat compared to the dramatic reveals and style perfected by former CEO Steve Jobs.  Certainly a tough act to follow.

Crimson Hexagon analyzed 383,331 online mentions (Twitter) from October 4, 2011, finding 285,371 relevant opinions.  A summary of the opinion analysis results is provided below.

Click on Image to Enlarge.

What do you think about Apple’s iPhone 4S announcement?  We’d love to hear your thoughts.

As always, we’ll continue analyzing the space for interesting trends. In the meantime, feel free contact us at info@crimsonhexagon.com with questions or to learn how your market, brand or product could benefit from leveraging the Crimson Hexagon ForSight™ platform for social media monitoring and analysis. Want to see the Crimson Hexagon platform in action? Request a Live Online Demo.

• 40% are actively spreading the news, showing interest across all mediums
• 22% wonder what’s in store for Apple’s future
• 14% are saddened by the announcement but remain positive that Apple will continue in its success
• 11% think that Apple will suffer without Jobs at the helm

What do you think about Apple’s future?  We’d love to know about your thoughts.

As always, we’ll continue analyzing the space for interesting trends. In the meantime, feel free contact us at info@crimsonhexagon.com with questions or to learn how your market, brand or product could benefit from leveraging the Crimson Hexagon ForSight™ platform for social media monitoring and analysis. Want to see the Crimson Hexagon platform in action? Request a Live Online Demo.

Since Thursday, August 18, we have analyzed 84,175 mentions of HP’s decision to drop its PC business and stop creating webOS powered devices.  Of this conversation, there was only 14% irrelevant content. Relevant opinions (70,965) comprise the rest of the conversation.

The conversation was split up by Positive, Negative, and Neutral sentiment. 9% of the total relevant conversation was positive, 57% was negative, and 35% of the relevant conversation was neutral mentions of the HP “event.”

Click on Image to Enlarge (%’s may not total 100 due to rounding)

Being the smallest group at 9%, the positive conversation of the HP event was generally geared toward support for the decision to drop webOS and the Personal Systems Group (PSG) portion of the company (PCs). One particularly spot-on verbatim from this portion of conversation is: “HP+Made+The+Right+Call+Putting+WebOS+Out+Of+Its+Misery”-@PaulBenjou.  Some people in this category expressed sadness, but believed that is was the smartest business move for HP.

Under the Neutral group, there were two categories: Neutral and “License or Open-Source OS.” The Neutral category consisted of a wide range of mentions starting from simple mentions of the event to being intrigued by the decision. This amounted to 26% of the conversation, and the other category, License or Open-Source OS, took 9%. This category consists of mentions that HP should open-source the webOS because it is a good OS system, as well as, HP should license the webOS to other manufacturers.

The largest group was Negative (“Bad move HP”), commanding 57% of the total relevant conversation. This category was split up into several different groups: Generally Negative; Upset that I just bought or was going to buy a HP device; Waste of webOS; Sad to see this happen; and HP is crazy.

The largest category here was “waste of webOS”, making up 18% of the conversation. This category represents the consumers’ opinion that HP wasted the use of webOS and that they should have done better. The next largest category is Generally Negative, which represents the general negative comments on the event, in particular to HP. This conversation took up 11%, while 10% of the total relevant conversation believed that HP is crazy for dropping the webOS and PC business. Both categories were upset about buying or just buying HP devices and “Sad to see this happen,” comprised 9 %. Sad to see this happen focused in on the conversation around being generally upset about what HP is doing and sad that they are discontinuing the products they love. Whereas the other category focuses on consumer reaction to having purchased an HP device recently or was planning to and now being upset that HP is killing the product. This is important because there is conversation that people are worried they will not receive support for their devices.

What do you think about HP’s moves surrounding webOS and its PSG division?  Let us know about your thoughts.

As always, we’ll continue analyzing the space for interesting trends. In the meantime, feel free contact us at info@crimsonhexagon.com with questions or to learn how your market, brand or product could benefit from leveraging the Crimson Hexagon ForSight™ platform for social media monitoring and analysis. Want to see the Crimson Hexagon platform in action? Request a Live Online Demo.

The conversation was split up by Positive, Negative, and Neutral sentiment. 5% of the total relevant conversation was positive, 72% was negative, and 22% of the relevant conversation was neutral mentions of the bus tour.

Being the smallest category at 5%, the positive conversation on the bus tour focused on a few key factors. The first factor is that other presidents have done the same thing, referencing President Bush. Others claim the GOP is just trying to find ways to hurt the image of President Obama. The other positive factor in this conversation is  the voice of general support for the President’s efforts on the tour.

The neutral 22% of the conversation is comprised of references and passing mentions of Obama’s bus tour. Some of the references consist of the stops he makes on his tour, his actions on the tour, and comments simply stating that he is starting the tour.

The biggest group, negative sentiment, was broken up into five different categories comprising 71% of the total conversation. The largest category was general negative comments about the bus tour at 22%. Many people on twitter were calling the tour an act of desperation. 17% of the total relevant conversation was people believing that Obama was campaigning and not on an official “listening tour”. This outraged people because they believe he is trying to cheat America. This is also captured in the 16% of the conversation that was upset that taxpayers are picking up the 2.2 million dollar bill for his tour. Another 12% of the conversation was making up names for the tour, as well as reTweets of some names that big figures, such as Mitt Romney, had come up with. For instance: “Magical Misery Tour”. The last 6% was people upset that Obama was touring and not in Washington DC doing his job.

A graphical representation of the opinions present in the online conversation is provided below.  You can click on the image to enlarge it.

Here are some specific examples of Tweets from each category:

Positive

“@andersoncooper @ac360 Pres. Obama doesn’t engage in campaign stunts; just not who he is. Def a listening tour; ObamaCareS!”

-@AdamsArmyGirl

“It’s good to see President @BarackObama on the campaign trail, going on the offensive and taking the bull by the horns. #decision2012”

-@NSMoreno

Neutral

“Obama Kicks Off Midwest Bus Tour: President Barack Obama will travel to Minnesota Monday to kick off a three day…”

-@Addison_Jackson

“bama defends government action in Midwest bus tour: President Obama kicked off a three-day Midwest bus tour with a defense of govern…”

-@MadelynBracker

Paid by Tax Payers

“Go ahead, President Obama, continue your “bus tour” across America on my tax dollar”

-@drbrookie

“the President’s “Magical Misery Bus Tour” uses a bus that costs taxpayers 2.2 MILLION dollars plus your tax $ to fund the trip. #angryyet?”

-@owljones

Campaign not Tour

“@barackobama launching bus tour for jobs – HIS JOB – that is. #tcot #teaparty #p2”

-@patriotpress

“Obama speaking in decorah, ia today – he is definitely ramping up for campaign mode.”

-@josihellier

General Negative

“RT @Carolina4Perry: Why doesn’t @BarackObama call this a BS Tour. He doesn’t care about U.”

-@MissGriffith87

“POTUS bus tour stops Only in areas of LOW unemployment, handlers fearful of talking to the common man. Omce angain EGO and Arrogance”

-@thatsogp

Names for the Tour

“I call Obama’s campaign bus trip his “Watch Me Lie to You and Get Away With It Again” tour.”

-@homeschool911

“Mitt Romney is calling Obama’s bus trip the “Magical Misery Tour.” What is YOUR idea for a title for the trip? Post it now.”

-@kcmotalkradio

Not Helping the Country

“Tell @BarackObama it’s time to put the country before campaign fundraising. Why is he & Congress taking August off? #fixthismess”

-@worldpeacepray

“glad to see obama’s going on a bus tour instead of trying to fix our economic problems, i can wait for the next election”

-@LedZepplin27

What do you think about the President’s recent bus tour?  We’d like to hear your thoughts on this.

As always, we’ll continue analyzing the space for interesting trends. In the meantime, feel free contact us at info@crimsonhexagon.com with questions or to learn how your market, brand or product could benefit from leveraging the Crimson Hexagon ForSight™ platform for social media monitoring and analysis. Want to see the Crimson Hexagon platform in action? Request a Live Online Demo.

Scrambling to deter future violent rioting, the U.K. government is considering shutting down social networks such as Twitter and Facebook during civil disturbances, but the heavy-handed proposal is already drawing a significant amount of strong criticism from the online public.

Social networks and services such as the BlackBerry Messenger application were employed by some rioters to communicate, which lead Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday to propose “whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence.”

The approach is similar to measures taken by governments such as Egypt and Tunisia, both of which sought to restrict Internet access and services to quell anti-government demonstrations, though in the UK such an approach is giving rise to cries of hypocrisy or employing a double standard.

Crimson Hexagon utilized its ForSight platform to rapidly analyze 127,298 mentions on Twitter of the UK Riots from August 8 through August 11.  Of these, 12,534 mentions were found to be irrelevant to the analyzed topic, leaving 114,764 relevant opinions about the UK Riots and Social Media.

A detailed thematic analysis of the opinions present in the online conversation is provided below.  You can click on the image to enlarge it.

We’d like to hear your thoughts on this. What do you think about the UK’s proposed social outage?  Would you be okay with restricted online access to help reduce public rioting?

As always, we’ll continue analyzing the space for interesting trends. In the meantime, feel free contact us at info@crimsonhexagon.com with questions or to learn how your market, brand or product could benefit from leveraging the Crimson Hexagon ForSight™ platform for social media monitoring and analysis. Want to see the Crimson Hexagon platform in action? Request a Live Online Demo.

Social media reaction to the Netflix price hikes has been so strong that #DearNetflix trended on Twitter with customers complaining strongly about the changes. Crimson Hexagon looked into the Twittersphere reaction exclusively for this analysis. The Twitter response to the news showed 62% negativity and only 23% positivity. Of the 62% that were against the move, the sentiment was examined further to reveal the opinions with the negative grouping.  31% was categorized as ‘Bad Move Netflix,’ while a surprising 20% thought ‘Goodbye Netflix, Hello Redbox,’ and significantly, 11% ‘Plan to Leave Netflix’ altogether.

Of the 23% positive sentiment, only 10% said the ‘New Plans Are Okay with Me,’ while 13% expressed that it was ‘Okay, But Keeping Streaming Only.’

Click on Image to Enlarge

Netflix mentions on Twitter went up 114% over the one-day period of June 12 to June 13 that was used. There were also 15% of people who mentioned Netflix on Twitter that remained neutral and were merely tweeting the news. It seems that with the amount of negativity Netflix could have underestimated how strong consumer’s reactions would be to the new plans.  It may have also unwittingly created new opportunities for Redbox on the DVD rental side.  That said, how long will it be before Redbox launches its own streaming video service?

We’d like to hear your thoughts on this. What do you think about the new Netflix plans?  Will you be giving Redbox more of your business?

As always, we’ll continue analyzing the space for interesting trends. In the meantime, feel free contact us at info@crimsonhexagon.com with questions or to learn how your market, brand or product could benefit from leveraging the Crimson Hexagon ForSight™ platform for social media monitoring and analysis. Want to see the Crimson Hexagon platform in action? Request a Live Online Demo.

A new report from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism examining online opinion of the Israeli-Arab conflict from May 19-25 has found strong support for Israel across social media.

The report, which utilized Crimson Hexagon’s ForSight platform to rapidly monitor 48,000 blog posts and 430,000 posts on Facebook and Twitter, analyzed online conversation in the days following President Barack Obama’s address on Israel and the Middle East to ascertain the current state of opinion.

Some of Pew’s primary findings include:

• There was almost three times as much support for the Israeli cause as for the Palestinian one. “Many of those expressing support also took President Obama to task for suggesting that peace in the region would best be achieved by creating a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders.”
• Participants in the conversation were not merely communicating the news of Obama’s speech—they were expressing opinions. “Only a small percentage of the conversation was neutral as most users shared strong opinions about the difficult issues involved in the peace process.”
• The opinions divided along familiar lines in the conflict, with supporters of Israel suggesting Obama was not doing enough to support a staunch U.S. ally and supporters of the Palestinians suggesting “Israel continues to be an occupying power backed by the U.S.”

The Conflict in Social Media
Over the timeframe examined, the Crimson Hexagon platform helped Pew organize and analyze 303,506 opinions on Facebook and Twitter alone, with 11% of the opinions coming from Facebook and 89% from Twitter.

Much of the Pro-Israel opinion, 60% of Twitter and Facebook opinion, centered on the decision to renegotiate to 1967 borders. As one Facebook user writes: “What universe does Obama live in? What does he think would happen if Israel gave up the pre-67 borders. Look at what happened when Israel handed over Gaza in ’05.”

Criticism of Obama was also prevalent on Twitter. One user, @Obamapocalypse, writes: “Netanyahu smack down at the WH, schools #Obama on the reality of indefensible borders and the survival of the State of Israel. #tcot #ocra.” Another, @olpartnersllc, says: “OMG – Obama has lost his mind. Change the borders of Israel to 1967? He has got to be nuts or worse.”

Pro-Palestinian opinion, 20% of Twitter and Facebook opinion, focused on Israeli actions and U.S. support of Israel. @Lisang on Twitter writes: “Bibi also forgot to mention how many Gazan civilians the Israeli army killed after the 2005 withdrawal. #bibispeech.” @ibnezra writes: “Try it. The US will always guarantee Israeli “occupation.” Israeli “occupation” can never be challenged etc #aipac2011.”

There was also discussion from Palestinian supporters of the land rights in the region, with @RshRsho writing: “Giving up part of jewish land???? EXCUSE ME this is palestinian land you stole!! #Natanyahu.”

On the whole, blog posts accounted for roughly 7% of the opinions online, maintaining a similar ratio of support at Twitter and Facebook opinions. 55% of blog posts were pro-Israeli while 19% were Pro-Palestinian and 27% were neutral.

Thus far, the conflict has largely played out off of the internet: how do you think will social media shape the debate in the future?

Access the complete Pew Research report here.

As always, we’ll continue analyzing the space for interesting trends. In the meantime, feel free contact us at info@crimsonhexagon.com with questions or to learn how your market, brand or product could benefit from leveraging the Crimson Hexagon ForSight™ platform for social media monitoring and analysis. Want to see the Crimson Hexagon platform in action? Request a Live Online Demo.