About

Welcome to Mining the Social Web, a companion blog for the book with the simple purpose of taking social web mining mainstream.

Valuable social data is scattered all across the web, and there is no shortage of good ideas about what to do with it. However, relatively few people are acting on those ideas in an impactful way, and this is a situation that desperately needs to change. With the growth of digital data accelerating across sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Google+, it’s time that social web mining become part of a broader repertoire as opposed to an elite hacking activity. There really are countless insights lurking just beneath the surface of social websites, and developing the skills that you need to tap into that vast wealth of data is serious leverage on many of the problems that you will routinely encounter.

…it’s time that social web mining become part of a broader repertoire as opposed to an elite hacking activity…

Let’s take this journey together. I’ll lead the way and do everything that I can to help you be successful in developing the expertise that you need to acquire the data and bend it to your will. Although this is a professional blog that’s based largely around topical material, I want it to be much more personal than just another faceless blog. Behind the scenes, I’m a human being just like you, and I view my efforts on this blog  as a series of relationship-building activities with an audience of unique individuals that I hope to get to know in a personal way. Like any other relationship in life, honest and open communication is vital. Please leave constructive comments, ask questions, and provide suggestions for future content. I have a few ideas, but for this blog to achieve its objective, it has to be as much about your ideas as it is mine.

Looking forward to this journey together with you….

Matthew A. Russell