SONETA: A social media geo-trends analysis tool

Abstract

Social media are used for expressing thoughts and opinions. Finding information hidden inside the vast amount of social media data is an overwhelming task especially for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that have limited resources. In this paper, we present an early prototype of SONETA, a social media geo-trend analysis tool that supports users, and specifically SMEs, by helping them detect social media trends in specific geographic areas. First, its architectural design and development process is delineated, followed by the presentation of a study that evaluated SONETA in terms of its usefulness and usability. Three SMEs participated in the SONETA evaluation study. Evaluation results showed that SONETA can be used in order to help SMEs in engaging social media more effectively. © 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland.