When it comes to social networks, there are plenty to choose from. One list has compiled over 800 of the top social networks, apps and digital services in use today. Mark Cuban‘s Cyber Dust app has thousands of users yet, it seems to have been left out of the discussion. Maybe his team and the legions of faithful Cyber Dust users actually like it that way.
Cyber Dust falls into the category of ephemeral texting and some have argued this growing trend could make for a pretty slippery slope. Especially if you’re planning to keep the data around for future analysis. Hard to make that happen with Cyber Dust, since all data turns to, well…dust.
Many already know the danger of “traditional” text messages, which are repeatedly used as evidence in court. Government authorities make tens of thousands of annual requests for personal data while pursuing charges for the purpose of prosecuting cases in a court of law. Companies that store big data, like Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! comply with those requests an alarming 70-90% of the time. So, whatever you put on paper or in the digital space, the expectation should always be that data can come back to bite you at a later date.
That’s where Cyber Dust can come in pretty handy, unless you want to analyze the data.
When conducting any type of scientific analysis, large sets of data are always preferred, especially when it comes to reducing your margin of error to around 5%. Social media platforms have become popular marketing mediums, and with the right analytic tools in place, can be a great source of business intelligence and consumer interaction.
With Cyber Dust, collecting data for analysis was a very manual process. I’ve seen a few users automate certain features to engage conversation, but I think that breaks from the real spirit of “sharing” valuable social interaction. Then again, as we’ve seen on other platforms, there are more than enough folks who are all about themselves, their products or their services and they don’t care much about perceived value. No problem, we’ve accounted for them in our analytics too.
So, I’m happy to share some of the analysis from a recent stretch of using the Cyber Dust app. Again, this was not the most scientific approach, but a study conducted over 72 hours with numerous interruptions for additional research, data collection and diaper changes. I’ve tried to make the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) more about what types of interactions you might expect after taking the time to integrate into this community.
I should share some baseline numbers with you up front. I have added 929 “friends”, so I could receive all of their blasts or direct communications. For every “blast” that I currently send out, I can expect an “audience” of 751 recipients. For those not familiar, a blast is an update provided by a Cyber Dust user to be shared “publicly” with all other users who have added you on this social media platform. So, for one reason or another, the numbers indicate that 178 “friends” don’t know me yet, or maybe they don’t feel that I share the type of information that would be of value in their daily lives. That’s cool, nothing personal, just noting what appears to be a bit of a disconnect (929-751 = 178).
Here are the categories I (manually) tabulated in terms of the types of information that I was receiving in that 72 hour span:
Let me explain the categories. I’ve noticed (as is true on other “social” media platforms) there is a strong desire to do the online version of standing on a cafeteria table, arms flailing while yelling, “Look at me! Look at ME!!” So, if a user had “I, me, my” in the first 5 words, those were tabulated.
“Self” indicates they only talked about themselves or promoted themselves. “CD Tips” were for users giving other users advice on how to use the platform (lots of “you’re doing it wrong” corrections lately). “Brand/Solicit/Promotion” were for communications where the only intent was to do just that – promote a brand, an event or solicit money from investors, donations, etc. “Others” were when users offered “follow Friday” suggestions or in any way promoted users other than themselves. “Direct” were messages intended for me only. And “reblast” is for, well…a controversial topic among users as some complain about abuse of the very Twitter-like “retweet” feature on Cyber Dust.
Personally, I don’t judge anyone by what they say, and fully support everyone having the right to freedom of speech. Not sure anyone knows this, but I still officiate high school football as my sole remaining connection to sports, so I judged all these communications on Cyber Dust as fairly as possible.
Here are the totals:
You can see the numbers, but again when it comes to analysis of a data set, this was a pretty small sample size. I will leave the key “takeaways” to the audience for discussion, but based on what I observed over that time frame, it looks like you can expect lots of pictures that other users feel contain value.
Personally, I enjoy the Cyber Dust app for the direct interaction among users who I feel add value to my daily routine. You know who you are and don’t worry, I’m keeping your identities on the down-low.
Analyzing Social Media 