Industry Trends
What Makes Us Share? Using language analytics to predict the virality of New York Times Articles
It’s no secret that we love to share links to stories, videos, or pictures that capture our attention with others online. Studies show that 59% of people report frequently forwarding information found on the internet, and it is estimated that someone tweets a link to a New York Times story once every 4 seconds. Our…
Read MoreWSJ: Why Likability Matters More at Work
Wonderful to see our analytics in the Wall Street Journal! Why Likability Matters More at Work Likability Is More Important—and Harder to Pull Off—on Video By Sue Shellenbarger Is the workplace becoming more like high school? “Likability” is becoming a bigger factor for success at work as social networks and videoconferencing grow. The impact goes…
Read MoreThe Quantified Valentine: The Science Behind the Language of Love
Last Valentine’s Day we asked 100 people to identify their favorite way of saying “I love you.” We then analyzed the linguistic components of the best responses to see if there were patterns in the language of love. So, what was the best way to say “I love you”? The winning response was “You’re my…
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How to Write a Popular Blog: The Common Language Components of the 15 Most Popular Blogs
You immediately know when you come across a great blog. You share the link on social media, talk about it with your friends, and subscribe to make sure you don’t miss the next post. But do you know why? What is it that drives thousands of people to read one blog, while another is seen…
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The New Science of Lie Detection
“I’m on my way”, “Sorry, my phone died”, “I’m fine”. Everyone lies daily. According to Pamela Meyer, author of LieSpotting, we are lied to anywhere between 10-200 times every day. Strangers lie up to 3 times within the first ten minutes of meeting each other, and even babies lie by faking a cry just to…
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Communicating in the Multi-Generational Workplace
The American workforce demographic is transitioning. According to a study by UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School and the YEC, millennials or Gen-Y (those born between 1976 and 2001) will make up 36% of the workforce in 2014 and 46% by 2020. With baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) making up roughly 40% of the…
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The Evolution of Communicating the News
It used to be you woke up with a newspaper and ended the day with the TV news. Now we wake up checking email and social media and end the day the same way. As a result, news sources and styles of reporting are rapidly evolving. We now have many options for keeping up with…
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Is Siri the Perfect Voice?
Last week, voice actor Susan Bennett came forward as the voice of Siri, Apple’s voice-activated virtual “assistant”. Bennett says that in 2005, she sat in a recording booth for four hours a day during the month of July, reading phrases that would be put together to create a synthetic voice. Her voice has been used…
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Stand Up Straight? Our New Research on Posture and First Impressions
We’ve discussed how Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are in a previous blog post, presenting research from Harvard’s Amy Cuddy showing how using a “power pose”– a confident, expansive posture – for two minutes increases testosterone levels by 20% and decreases cortisol levels by about 25% in our brains. These changes in hormone levels…
Read MoreEngage, Don’t Perform: How do you Measure Authenticity?
Do you know that feeling you get when you’re watching a speaker and you’re not convinced they really believe what they’re saying? They just seem too polished, too prepared, too smooth, too “inhuman”. They seem, candidly, inauthentic. As technology has enabled rapid growth in methods of communication, authenticity is more important today than it ever…
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