Using Data to Predict Virality with Ernan Haruvy Ph.D. of University of Texas at Dallas

 

In the marketing class taught by Ernan Haruvy Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Dallas, “accelerants of relevance,” is the technical term students take notes on. For those without a marketing background, the term may be more easily understood as the data-supported elements of what makes a piece of social media content go viral.

We sat down with Haruvy on this episode of the Digital Marketing Professor Series to discuss the specific data analytics that his class uses to measure social media marketing effectiveness.

“We were trying to find out ‘what is it in terms of content and the actual demographics of the people doing tweets and retweets that accelerates retweeting that causes virality’,” Haruvy said.

As part of a collaboration with PR firm Golin, marketing students at University of Texas at Dallas analyzed tweets for content words, emotion, and sentiment analysis, including positivity and negativity. Haruvy said this is especially key in social media marketing.

“You don’t want something to just diffuse very fast; You want it to diffuse positively,” Haruvy said. “You want people to be excited about your product or story.”

On the podcast, Haruvy weighed in on whether a message from an unlikely source is either more, or less, likely to go viral. We even discussed Taylor Swift’s latest Instagram post, urging her fans to register to vote, which is the first outwardly political Instagram message she has posted.

For the latest news, videos, and podcasts in the Software & Electronics Industry, be sure to subscribe to our industry publication.

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!
Twitter – @TechMKSL
Facebook – facebook.com/marketscale
LinkedIn – linkedin.com/company/marketscale

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

Rothman Index
The Origin Story of the Rothman Index – Episode 5
January 8, 2026

Hospitals collect enormous amounts of clinical data, yet preventable patient decline remains a persistent challenge. Over the past two decades, hospitals have invested heavily in early warning scores and rapid response infrastructure, but translating data into timely, meaningful action has proven difficult. As clinicians contend with alert fatigue and increasing documentation burden, a more…

Read More
Rothman Index
My Mother and the Story of the Genesis of the Rothman Index – Episode 4
January 8, 2026

Healthcare generates enormous volumes of clinical data, yet making sense of that information in real time remains a challenge. Subtle changes in vitals, labs, and nursing assessments often precede serious events, but when that information is fragmented across the medical record, emerging risks can go unnoticed. The central challenge facing hospitals today is not…

Read More
home
Delivering Moments That Matter: The Art of Joy, Memory, and Meaning at Anthropologie Home
January 8, 2026

These days, ‘home’ means more than just four walls. It’s where people reset, gather, and express who they are—raising the bar for what they expect from the brands that help shape those spaces. Consumers are no longer just buying décor—they’re investing in meaning, memory, and moments that last. Research continues to show that people…

Read More
Texas energy
Small Margins, Big Risks: How Fraud Hurts Texas Energy Retailers
January 6, 2026

Fraud has quietly become one of the most existential threats in Texas’s deregulated retail electricity market—because the business runs on razor-thin margins and delayed payment. Under the non-POR system overseen by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), retail energy providers assume the full risk of nonpayment. With profit margins often measured in just a…

Read More