The Most Social Batsman

IBM has taken its social analytics capabilities to the subcontinent.

If you’ve ever visited India, you know that the name of the game there is cricket.

So IBM applied its advanced analytics and natural language processing capabilities recently to try and get underneath the “social sentiment” around that country’s leading cricket stars.

With little question, Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar continues to rule the game of cricket, both on the pitch and on social networks, and is followed by captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and opening batsman Murali Vijay.

This all on the even of the last test match in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar cricket series between India and Australia.

Ravinda Jadeja came out on top as India’s most popular bowler for the match, but nonetheless, it was Tendulkar who consistently lead the social conversation during the period.

A whopping 50 percent of the public sentiment revolved around his batting performance, followed by other that topics that include his past records (which are virtually endless), his stature, and his retirement plans, among others.

The index further revealed that negative sentiment towards Captain Dhoni was high at the beginning of the first match.

However, his on field performance is reflective of how public sentiments changed making Dhoni the most positively referenced player in the series. Another interesting highlight was the emergence of Shikhar Dhawan on the social networks after his debut century — within 5 days, there was 200 percent growth in his online conversations.

For the first time, IBM applied advanced analytics software and natural language processing to cricket to build a social score board for the Indian Players based on the intensity of the sentiment and volume of online conversations.

Over 1.2 lakh posts (~ 120,000) on a variety of platforms including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the blogging community were analysed during the first three matches in the current series.

Speaking about IBM’s Social Sentiment Index, Virginia Sharma, Vice President, Marketing & Communication, IBM India/South Asia, said of the effort:

“IBM is changing the game — both in business and in sports. By applying the social sentiment lens to cricket that has a multi-screen experience, we demonstrated how analytics can provide real time exciting insights into public preferences. This can be leveraged by organizations across the media, entertainment and sports industries to better understand their audience, determine endorsement values, and deliver effective marketing campaigns for their businesses”.

About the IBM Social Sentiment Index

The IBM Social Sentiment Index uses advanced analytics and natural language processing technologies to analyze large volumes of social media data in order to assess public opinions.

The Index can identify and measure positive, negative and neutral sentiments shared in public forums such as Twitter, blogs, message boards and other social media, and provide quick insights into consumer conversations about issues, products and services.

Representing a new form of market research, social sentiment analyses offer organizations new insights into Big Data that can help them better understand and respond to consumer trends.

Go here for more information about IBM Social Analytics technology.