Cracking The Code: How Machine Learning Takes The Headaches Out Of Hashtags

You’ve seen the scene in countless Hollywood heist flicks: A character must obtain a priceless gem, coveted thumb-drive, or other object of tremendous value secured in a safe rigged with a state-of-the-art digital combination lock. Undeterred, the sagacious safecracker whips out a high-tech do-hickey that fits conveniently over the safe’s control pad. Activating the device, the brazen burglar sits back and casually enjoys a cup o’ joe while numbers on his device’s digital display whiz by like prices on a California gas pump. Seconds pass as ―click-click-click ― the correct numeral combination is discovered and ― ka-CHUNK! ― the safe magically opens.

Ain’t technology grand?

In the modern world of social media, treasures aren’t rare objects secreted behind thick steel doors, but instead the eyeballs of tens of millions of consumers distributed across the globe. And the keys to accessing these treasures aren’t some random alphanumeric sequences, but the hashtags people on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and other social media platforms use to identify the theme or topic of a conversation. For a business, the challenge becomes finding ― or creating ― the optimum hashtag ―or hashtags ― that will attract the greatest number of followers.

If only there was a do-hickey for that! Actually, there is.

Introducing Social Analytics from Northern Light

Social Analytics from Northern Light is a machine learning-based tool companies can use for social media analysis, research, and planning. Like the high-tech decoders that silver screen safecrackers use to subdue sophisticated security systems, Social Analytics helps market researchers, media planners, and competitive intelligence (CI) professionals crack the code of social media hashtags to find actionable business insights.

Similar to the spy-in-the-sky satellites in every Tom Clancy thriller, this cutting-edge technology provides companies a detailed overview of the social media landscape, allowing them to precisely target their most valuable customers. Curious how Social Analytics can help your company? Let’s count the ways.

It can:

• Determine the most effective and efficient hashtags for your social media market posts.
• Quantify the content focus, reach, and overlap of your hashtags so you can understand exactly how relevant and important they are.
• Analyze Twitter author accounts to determine which are the most influential with the most relevant audiences.
• Uncover the hashtags and keywords your competitors are using so you can get insights into their strategies.
• Discover how tweeters self-categorize themselves through their hashtags and keywords.

The Power of Machine Learning

Electronic computers as we know them were first developed during World War II, and one of the first tasks they were assigned was, in fact, code-breaking. Computers are particularly adept at finding patterns in seemingly meaningless noise, and this ability has grown exponentially in the past decade.

Incorporating the latest advances in machine learning, Social Analytics can scan literally millions of tweets in seconds and not only identify hashtags relevant to your business, but differentiate between homonyms with near human-like accuracy.

Why does this matter? You might ask. Well, if you’re in the health care industry, you would presumably want to focus on #Cancer (the disease) but ignore #Cancer (the astrological sign). Likewise, if you’re in IT, you might have an interest in #Apple (the company) but not #Apple (the fruit). Bottom line: social Analytics (powered by machine learning) understands context, which can help save you big $$$ when designing social media campaigns.

Because the tech employs machine learning, it becomes even more and more accurate with experience. And it’s all done with tight, pristine security practices that adhere strictly to copyright compliance protocols as per our corporate contracts. Bonus!

For More Information

Is there a vault of new customers you’d like to crack? We have the technology. Click here to get started. Or contact us to start a conversation.