Leveraging Real Time Analytics to Create Actionable Social Media

We live in a fast paced world and with social media its only getting faster. On an average day, Twitter processes 500 million tweets and during President Obama’s second inauguration, Twitter said its users sent over 1.1 millions inauguration-related tweets. YouTube sees 800 million viewers a day and 50% of active Facebook users log in each day posting 55 millions status updates. Needless to say, that is a lot of data being created. For organizations this represents real opportunities (better understanding of customers, efficiency, cost-reduction) as well as significant challenges (how do you make sense of it). Analytics and GIS technology can be the solution to this increasingly complex puzzle.

Analytics helps us discover what is working, what has changed, and how we should react. In government, it can tell us where to cut costs to increase efficiency and better serve citizens. Admittedly, this is not new. Advanced analytics is becoming increasingly more common in the public sector as organizations attempt to manage and understand their different data sources. Still, we have a long way to go.

GIS data and mapping technology, blended with analytics, can be a powerful tool to understand trends and situations.
Organizations can use customized, interactive, cloud-based maps to view, share and analyze data in real-time. There are countless examples of agencies doing this well, but one cool story is how the Memphis Police Department used ArcGIS technology to pinpoint high-crime areas in real-time. In 2005, Memphis faced rising crime rates like many cities across the country, and the standard way of doing things was clearly not working anymore. By using GIS technology and combining diverse data sets, MPD could better predict when and where crimes occurred, and then focus their resources on these problem areas. The results were better than anyone imagined as crime reduction in these high-crime areas ranged from 37% to a staggering 80%. Since 2006 and the implementation of BlueCRUSH (Crime Reduction Utilizing Statistical History), property crime decreased by 26.2%, violent crime has decreased by 23.6% and the MPD is able to better share relevant data with federal, state and local agencies.

The ability to perform analysis against streaming data is essential in today’s world, especially in areas of law enforcement and emergency situations. To learn more about ArcGIS capabilities and how it can be used with social media data to answer critical questions in your agency, join Esri at their Federal GIS Conference. In the session, “Leveraging Real Time Analytics to Create Actionable Social Media” they will demo how you can set alerts to trigger when an updating analysis hits critical results.

The Esri Federal GIS Conference is the place to learn valuable skills and expertise to leverage GIS technology in your agency. The best part? Federal employees attend for free. It’s taking place February 25-27 in Washington, D.C. Check out more information below:

• Sessions include: technical sessions led by experts, user sessions focused on case studies and best practices, and Federal DevGeo sessions just for developers
• New ArcGIS for National Government sessions showcasing Esri’s comprehensive government solutions
• The Federal GIS Solutions EXPO featuring products and services from over 70 government solution providers
• Social events where you can collaborate with federal leaders, GIS professionals, and Esri staff

You can learn more and register here.