What is the point of a word cloud

Data visualizations (like charts, graphs, infographics, and more) give businesses a valuable way to communicate important information at a glance, but what if your raw data is text-based? If you want a stunning visualization format to highlight important textual data points, using a word cloud can make dull data sizzle and immediately convey crucial information.

When you’re looking at an in-depth data analysis, do you find it difficult to discern which points are the most important?

Anyone who’s ever stared blankly at a lengthy database or long pages of text can relate. With so many insights to comprehend, how do you know where to begin?

Word cloud generators can help simplify this process.

If you’ve ever looked at a jumble of disparate words that seem to have no correlation until you investigate further, you’ve seen a word cloud. These are powerful tools across myriad industries, from art to science.

Today, we’re exploring their use in the field of data visualization. Along the way, we’ll share how your organization can use them to help pinpoint important issues and better direct your steps forward.

Ready to learn more? Let’s get started!

What are Word Clouds?

Word clouds (also known as text clouds or tag clouds) work in a simple way: the more a specific word appears in a source of textual data (such as a speech, blog post, or database), the bigger and bolder it appears in the word cloud.

A word cloud is a collection, or cluster, of words depicted in different sizes. The bigger and bolder the word appears, the more often it’s mentioned within a given text and the more important it is.

Also known as tag clouds or text clouds, these are ideal ways to pull out the most pertinent parts of textual data, from blog posts to databases. They can also help business users compare and contrast two different pieces of text to find the wording similarities between the two.

Perhaps you’re already leveraging advanced data visualization techniques to turn your important analytics into charts, graphs, and infographics. This is an excellent first step, as our brains prefer visual information over any other format.

Yet, what do you do if your raw data is text-based in nature?

Much of the research your organization conducts will include at least some form of an open-ended inquiry that prompts respondents to give a textual answer.

For instance, you might ask current customers what they like or don’t like about your new product line. Or, you could ask them to give suggestions on how your organization could improve. They could also have the chance to elaborate on any pain points they’re experiencing.

There are industry tools that allow you to code such open-ended data so users can understand it quantitatively. Yet, these don’t come cheap. Word clouds offer a cost-effective, yet powerful, alternative.

With these, you can still quantify your text-based insights into measurable analytics. The only difference? You won’t create a chart or graph as you would with a set of numbers.

Instead, you’ll create a word cloud generator to transform the most critical information into a word cloud.

Here’s an example from USA Today using U.S. President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Speech 2012:

As you can see, words like “American,” “jobs,” “energy” and “every” stand out since they were used more frequently in the original text.

Now, compare that to the 2014 State of the Union address:

You can easily see the similarities and differences between the two speeches at a glance. “America” and “Americans” are still major words, but “help,” “work,” and “new” are more prominent than in 2012.

Using word clouds isn’t exclusively for creating presidential eye candy. Keep reading to discover how word clouds can benefit your business.

Where Word Clouds Excel for Businesses

In the right setting, word cloud visualizations are a powerful tool. Here are a few instances when word clouds excel:

• Finding customer pain points — and opportunities to connect. Do you collect feedback from your customers? (You should!) Analyzing your customer feedback can allow you to see what your customers like most about your business and what they like least. Pain points (such as “wait time,” “price,” or “convenience”) are very easy to identify with text clouds.
• Understanding how your employees feel about your company. Text cloud visualization can turn employee feedback from a pile of information you’ll read through later to an immediately valuable company feedback that positively drives company culture.
• Identifying new SEO terms to target. In addition to normal keyword research techniques, using a word cloud may make you aware of potential keywords to target that your site content already uses.

When Word Clouds Don’t Work

As mentioned, word clouds aren’t perfect for every situation. You wouldn’t use a pie chart to show company revenue growth over time, and you shouldn’t use word clouds for every application, either. Here’s when you want to avoid using a word cloud.

• When your data isn’t optimized for context. Simply dumping text into a word cloud generator isn’t going to give you the deep insights you want. Instead, an optimized data set (one handled by an experienced data analysis team) will give you accurate insights.
• When another visualization method would work better. It’s easy to think “Word Clouds are neat!” and overuse them — even when a different visualization should be used instead. You need to make sure you understand the right use case for a word cloud visualization.

There are many other instances when a different visualization should be used over word clouds. (Feel free to contact one of our data analysts to learn more.) More complex data sets and projects require a team of developers and designers for a complete transformation. In could an infographic or dashboard, but word cloud applications are limited to, well, words.

What is a Word Cloud Generator?

As its name implies, an online word cloud generator is a tool that scans a body of text, turning it into component words.

From there, it can create a word cloud that highlights the most frequently mentioned words. If you don’t prefer the cluster shape, most tools enable you to format the word cloud in various ways, including:

• Horizontal lines
• Columns
• Formed to fit a certain shape

Most providers will also allow users to choose different layouts, fonts and color schemes depending on their preference. This means you can make one to match the color scheme of your brand, your partners, or your clients.

While the color used on a word cloud holds a primarily aesthetic value, you can contrast the hues to help categorize words or illustrate a separate data variable.

Why Use a Word Cloud Generator?

Think word clouds aren’t relevant to your organization? Think again.

These are an unexpected yet powerful way to display important data visualizations. Let’s take a look at a few of the top ones.

1. Understanding Client Issues

How are you currently analyzing your customer satisfaction levels? From polls and surveys to social media posts and more, your audience is talking about your brand.

As they do so, they’re delivering valuable insights into the psyche of your target customer. What’s making them tick and what to do they love? Are there any issues that seem to pop up time and again?

It can be difficult to find the answers to these questions if you’re simply reading each comment on an individual basis. Yet, when you create a word cloud with this feedback, you can quickly visualize what everyone is talking about.

For instance, you might notice that phrases such as “wait time” or “attitude” appear to dominate the cloud. This can reveal your customers’ pain points.

Or, you might see positive terms such as “affordable” and “customer service” towering over others, revealing what you’re doing right. Either way, you’ll know which topics to focus on at your next meeting, and you’re already one step in the direction of change.

2. Quickening Business Actions

That important marketing research report just came in at 5:00 p.m. The only problem? It’s 50 pages long.

You’d love to read through it line by line, but you don’t have enough hours in the day, and you’re supposed to give a brief on the data the next morning. This is where a word cloud generator can help.

When you copy the text into the generator and let it do its job, you can see in seconds which talking points appear the most frequently. Then, you’ll know where to start your search to hit the most important parts.

3. Analyzing Employee Sentiment

When you ask employees to share their feedback and opinions about the workplace, what do you do with those responses? It can be difficult to turn this kind of unstructured data into meaningful action if you don’t know where to start.

This is where word cloud visualizations can help.

When you’re able to see which points your employees are discussing at the highest rate, you’ll know how to make valuable and meaningful changes that can boost morale, strengthen company culture, and improve performance.

4. Simplifying Technical Data

You could present highly technical researching findings to a non-technical audience, such as your community board of directors. Yet, when you do so, it’s common to look into an audience of blank stares.

When you present a word cloud instead, you’re able to share the same findings in a more accessible and engaging way. This expands your reach and enables you to share important information in a way that doesn’t require advanced technical understanding.

5. Searching for Patterns in Data

With quantitative data, charts, graphs, and other data visualizations can help you identify key patterns. However, pulling these same insights from qualitative data can prove cumbersome at best and impossible at worst.

A word cloud generator makes this process a cinch. Those words you see overpowering the others? Those are your salient points and overlapping themes.

These would be difficult to find in a tabular format, but they pop out in a word cloud.

6. Search Engine Optimization

You have a good basic grasp on the kinds of keywords that your target audience wants to see. In fact, you might even use a keyword generator to find the most popular ones in your industry niche.

However, do you really know how Google sees your website?

The answer to this question can make or break your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy.

You can use a word cloud generator to see how your content appears to Google bots and similar machines. While it won’t reveal the more technical elements of SEO such as headers, backlinks, and alt tags, it does help you see the general message that your page conveys.

This is important because when Google “looks” at your page, it does so by scanning its content and code. You might think you’re getting the right points across, but do they really dominate? Your word cloud can reveal if you’re giving enough attention to the keywords that matter.

How to Make a Word Cloud

As shown by their increasing popularity, making a word cloud for your website or business isn’t difficult, but there are some important considerations that need to be made so your visualization is more than just eye-candy. While word clouds can be incredible tools for data visualization, it’s important to understand how to use them the right way.

Step 1: Optimize Your Data Set

First, you’ll want to get a valuable, text-based data set. Make sure the data set you’re using is both text-based and optimized for context. Copying and pasting just any textual data into a word cloud generator might not give you the exact insights you need.

Not sure where to begin?

Our team of data analysts is skilled in taking unstructured text and turning it into an optimized data set. First, we’ll help you make sure the source data you’re referencing is both usable and actionable. Then, we’ll compile it in a way that draws out the most interesting and relevant content. Having an experienced analyst compile this helps to ensure your source data is actually usable.

Step 2: Use a Word Cloud Generator Tool

Once your data set is in place, your next step is to run it through a word cloud generator tool. Many businesses like and use Wordle, but there are many others you can try, too (such as Tagxedo and WordItOut). The downside to these free tools is many sites, including Wordle, automatically add all text clouds to their portfolio. This means any site visitor can see it, potentially undermining your marketing efforts. (Check your individual tool’s policies to see if your word cloud will be used in this way.)There are many online resources and apps you can use to perform this step, including:

• Wordle
• Tagxedo
• Tag Crowd
• WordItOut
• Word Cloud Generator for Chrome
• Word Cloud Python tools
• Google Word Cloud tools

Step 3: Export the Word Cloud

Once you create your word cloud, you need to move it from the program to your files. Some platforms will enable you to download the image as a PDF, although many won’t make that easy. In some cases, you’ll have to take a screenshot of the image and save it that way.

Before you close out of the program and start reviewing the data, there’s one security precaution to keep in mind.

While most of the programs above are either free or low-priced, keep in mind that there can be some drawbacks to the convenience they offer. For instance, any time you create a word cloud in Wordle, it saves it to its virtual portfolio.

This might not be a deal-breaker if the data you’re compiling and analyzing isn’t confidential or highly sensitive. Yet, if you work in an industry (such as healthcare or banking) that emphasizes confidentiality and customer data protection, this can render the service unusable.

It’s also a drawback if you’re using a word cloud for marketing purposes. If anyone can search Wordle’s portfolio, there’s nothing stopping them from tapping into your most compelling data.

An easier, safer and all-around better route to take? Create your word cloud from scratch rather than relying on an online program to do the work for you.

Exporting your word cloud from a free tool might take some work. Sometimes, if download as an image or PDF isn’t available, you’ll be forced to take a screenshot – a less-than-elegant solution.

Here’s what to do if you really want your word cloud to be noticed: consider designing your word cloud from scratch!

Does this sound like a lot for you to handle in-house? Not all companies have (or need) an in-house data analyst. Our experienced team at Boost Labs has experience working with enterprise clients such as the U.S. Census Bureau, small businesses like individual websites, and everything in-between.

Creating Your Own Word Cloud

Sure, it’s simple to plug your text into a virtual generator and receive your custom word cloud in seconds. Yet, as we’ve discussed, this can put your most critical data sets in a vulnerable position.

Instead, why not let our team take the reins and create a one-of-a-kind word cloud that’s all yours? This eliminates the risk of your information falling into the wrong hands.

A data visualization expert can also help you pinpoint the most cloud-worthy parts of your unstructured data set so you’re not sifting through tomes of irrelevant data, attempting to make disjointed parts connect.

We’ll work with the most insight-rich parts and deliver a personalized graphic that you can use in your short-term and long-term department planning efforts.

The Best Word Cloud Generators Are Custom

Around the world, we’re creating and sharing more data than ever before and the trend shows no sign of stopping down.

From sales numbers to online traffic rates, you’ve likely got plenty of quantitative data to analyze and discuss. Yet, are you making as much use out of your qualitative inputs?

These are often some of the most insightful data points your organization can leverage. They’re full of opinion, long-form feedback, and personal reflection. Word cloud generators can help make the most of this content, one visual at a time.

Are you ready to discover the power of word clouds for yourself? We’d love to help.

We’re data visualization experts, dedicated to helping companies turn mind-numbing data into interactive and informative graphics, charts, tables and more. Contact us today and let’s discover something new together.

Let us help you with data visualization.

Word cloud polls are an engaging way to display poll results and get to vital audience feedback. Word clouds can be an extremely effective way to understand what your audience is thinking and to help you visualise the main bits of feedback from your question. 

In this article we will answer these questions:

• What is a word cloud?
• What is a live word cloud?
• How do I create a word cloud poll in Vevox?
• When should I use Vevox for word cloud polling within lectures, meetings and presentations?
• How can Vevox’s word cloud polls help me better understand my audience?
• How do participants input their word cloud responses?
• Reasons to use word clouds
• Essential word cloud tips
• Getting started with Vevox word cloud polls

What is a word cloud?

A word cloud is a visual way to display text. It’s a graphic representation of words, where the size of the word corresponds to its frequency of occurrence in the text. Word clouds are often used to visualize large amounts of text or data.

Word clouds have become popular because they’re an easy way for people who aren’t familiar with statistics or visualization techniques to get an idea about what’s important in a given piece of writing or speech (and they’re fun!). They’re great for distilling large amount of feedback into key summary points! 

What is a live word cloud?

A live word cloud is a word cloud that is updated in real time, allowing it to be used for polling, brainstorming and audience feedback. The live aspect of this type of visual makes it ideal for displaying the results of in-the-moment discussions or for crowdsourcing. 

A live word cloud poll creates an engaging experience for your audience by allowing them to see how their votes compare with others’. It also provides you with valuable insight into what people are thinking about your question or topic at any given moment so that you can make better decisions about future content creation. 

How do I create a word cloud poll in Vevox?

Creating a word cloud poll in Vevox is easy. Sign up to a Vevox paid plan and select word cloud as your poll type in either the Vevox PowerPoint add-in or in your online Vevox dashboard. At this point, you can then enter the question that you want your audience to respond to. Make sure that your session is live and then run the poll with a click of the button and watch the results come through when you click «show results».  The results and your word cloud image is then stored in your dashboard to share with anyone or save on your computer. See how live word clouds work with Vevox below. 

 

When should I use Vevox for word cloud polling within lectures, meetings and presentations?

Vevox’s word cloud polling can work well for engage audiences at any point within a lecture or meeting, whether online, face-to-face or hybrid. That being said, word cloud polls can be effective tools for sparking engagement and discussion at various points during a presentation. For instance, word clouds are popular for icebreakers at a start of a presentation for sparking debate and getting everyone’s attention due to the nature of posing a open-ended question. Because they can be used to get open feedback in this way due to their versatile nature, they are also good for closing a presentation as well to summarise the content. Word cloud polls can also be used during sessiong to get a quick insight into the mindsets of your audience members; they can tell you what they’re thinking and how they feel towards a statement or topic. 

How can Vevox’s word cloud polls help me better understand my audience?

Live polling (in any kind of question format) is a great way to get feedback from your audience in the moment. Word clouds can be truly anonymous meaning you can get uninhibited feedback and get an accurate depiction of what the audience really thinks about the question you’ve posed.

The questions can be as meaningful or simple as you choose for instance: «What do you think of this new feature?» or «How are you feeling right now ?». The responses will then give you a direction of how the majority of your audience feels. But you always have all the responses stored to get a percentage of how people voted for your own further reporting. Word clouds can bring you closer to your audience by brainstorming together and really inviting a discussion. This active dialogue can help uncover points for further content down the line or help others to learn from peers. 

How do participants input their word cloud responses with Vevox?   

Once your word cloud poll is open, participants can enter multiple one word responses of their choice. For instance, if the question is «what are your top 3 three sports», someone could enter three words of «football», «golf» and «swimming». It’s a simple text box however running a test icebreaker poll is a good way to get everyone involved and ensure you have everything in check before running any important polls. 

As word cloud polls are a free entry text box, it means it’s a great way for gathering more detailed feedback or information, as it gives them complete freedom to write whatever they want! Vevox does have an automatic profanity filter so we’ve got you covered! However for peace of mind you do have control to filter out any responses you want to disregard in your word cloud. 

Reasons to use word clouds

• For sparking discussions via icebreaker questions or statements.
• For sentiment analysis and to understand your audience’s emotions or thinking.
• For crowdsourcing ideas and constructing meaningful brainstorms.
• For clearly visualizing audience data via text feedback.
• For fun and boosting audience morale.
• For summarizing a presentation for a visual takeaway.
• For demographic analysis.

Essential word cloud tips: 

• To keep your statement or question simple to respond to with a one word answer
• Participants can send in multiple response but should only send in a limited amount of words in one go… word clouds shouldn’t become sentence or essay clouds. 
• The volume of certain responses is reflected in the word cloud to show the most popular words.
• For clearly visualizing audience data via text feedback. 
• If you have a large audience then not all responses might be shown but they will be captured for your reporting. The aesthetic of a visually pleasing word cloud is important to revealing the most important trends within your audience. 
• The profanity can be turned on and will be automatically applied to word clouds. 
• As word clouds are open entry fields, give the audience time to think about what words they might want to enter. This is a more creative poll type then a multiple choice poll for instance. 
• The more word frequency, the better the word cloud poll will look!
• Try an ice breaker or test word cloud to before trying it out in an important part of a meeting or class. 

Start engaging YOUR audience with live word cloud polls… 

Live word clouds are a great way to visualize data, especially when you want to show audience feedback or ideas and to discuss them in real-time. We hope you found this article has provided you with a good overview of what a word cloud is and we’ve given you inspiration for using a live word cloud in your presentations.

If you’d like to learn more about word clouds and how you can use a live word cloud poll, read our resources here: 

• Sign up and use EVERYVOICE for 25% off a Vevox paid plan
• Word clouds with Vevox
• Live word clouds with Vevox in Microsoft Teams

A Word Cloud is a collection or cluster of words depicted in different sizes. The bigger and bolder the word appears, the more often it is selected/voted for by an audience member.

Word Clouds are a powerful way to visualise what your audience really thinks about a topic. They are easy to read, quick to produce and simple to understand.

What are the benefits of using a Word Cloud? 

Word Clouds help reveal what your audience really think 

• Understand what your audience/employees feel about a topic/situation
• Your audience can summarise their view of a topic
• Allows you to measure change when used at the start and end of an intervention/workshop
• You can measure audience understanding of a topic
• Allows you to identify what is important to your audience
• Brainstorm concepts or ideas
• Identify audience feedback in their own choice of words
• Identify new ideas/topics to target
• Facilitate peer to peer feedback
• Gather and present e.g. employee change readiness to stakeholders.

Word Clouds are quick and informative

• The audience voting page enables the presenter to get live feedback from their audience in real time

Word Clouds are exciting and emotional  

• The audience feel part of the presentation
• Provide an opportunity for co-creation of content
• The audience help drive the topic of discussion.

Word Clouds are engaging

• The audience feel part of the presentation by contributing their answers.
• The audience are interested to see the responses from their fellow audience members.
• Word Clouds can be good icebreakers and can provide an entry point for a topic of discussion.

Word Clouds are visual

• Our brains prefer this over any other format
• Your audience is more likely to engage with this visual format than with a conventional slide with bullet points.

Now you’re a Word Cloud expert, read our 10 Word Cloud Ideas For Different Scenarios to help you get started.

What is meant by the Term Word Cloud?

Also known as a weighted list, text cloud, wordle, or tag cloud, a word cloud refers to a cluster or compilation of various words. They get displayed in different and distinct sizes based on a specific parameter. A word cloud serves as a visual demonstration or representation of essential and crucial text data. It can include the vital and unique keywords that get used on websites.

The bigger and more pronounced or bolder a word is, the more significant it is in a word cloud. The eye-catching nature of a specific text portrays its value. Thus, word cloud serves as an ideal and suitable way of dividing and drawing out the most prominent sections or portions of textual data. It separates the required parts from a single source, such as blog posts, and transfers them for record-keeping to the databases.

A word cloud is typically a one-word representation or depiction highlighting the significance of each portrayed text. Its importance gets shown using a specific font style or size and a particular color. This system of showcasing the words makes it possible to contrast and compare two distinct portions of a text. It, in turn, allows an individual to discover and find similarities in the wording that might appear between the selected parts.

A word cloud may also have hyperlinked references to other products, items, or websites that hold some significance or relevance to the showcased and highlighted tags or words.

What are the Different Types or Categories of Word Clouds?

According to slideswith.com, The differentiation of a word cloud into three prime types is possible based on how they get used or applied in different social software. The distinguishing of the highlighted words or tags depends on their meaning and not their appearance in these cases. As such, the types or categories of word clouds entail the following:

• On the Basis of Frequency

For this type, the parameter that the size of a specific tag or word represents is the total or the collective number of times it gets used in a particular item or article. Thus, it serves as a suitable way of highlighting the keywords. It can be related to an exclusive and identifiable element. It can demographically receive votes in the instances where exact results and outcomes are neither desired nor mandatory.

In other cases, the parameter that the size of a specific tag or word represents is the total or the collective number of items or articles in which it gets used or applied. Then, it serves to showcase and demonstrate the popularity of the selected texts in a visual manner.

• On the Basis of Significance

In this variant, the parameter that the size of a specific tag or word represents is its concurrences and significance. This sort of word cloud can get used without the assistance of some other element. For a majority of the cases, it is based on contrasts and comparisons and between distinct frequencies of the selected documents and the distributions of the expected results. It can also get done for live word clouds.

• On the Basis of Categorization

In this case, the tags, texts, or words get used to categorize. It works in this manner for the required and desired content items. The articles get represented in a word cloud. Here, the parameter that the size of a specific tag or word represents is the number of necessary particulars that it displays.

What are the Benefits or Advantages of Using a Word Cloud?

A word cloud brings with it and delivers multiple benefits that come to use in numerous sectors and fields. A few advantages that it provides consist of the following:

• Reveals and Unravels the Thoughts of the Audience

A word cloud has the ability and capability of unmasking and unraveling the thoughts that an audience possesses about a specific situation or topic. It stands true, especially for the ones that get generated and polled on a live platform. It helps to understand the individuals serving as the audience. It also aids in summarizing their various perspectives and showcasing them all together.

A word cloud serves as a suitable way of measuring and gauging the changes in the popularity of an item. This evaluation can get done by comparing the values at the start and end of a specific seminar or workshop. In other words, it helps to quantify the abstract understanding of a particular topic. It also allows for the identification and highlighting of the segments essential to the audience.

• Formulates New and Unique Ideas

A word cloud helps to point out the areas or scopes of popularity and recognition from the viewpoint and perspective of the audience. Hence, it aids in brainstorming and developing new and unique concepts and ideas. It allows the attendees’ topic, interest, or feedback to get identified and highlighted. It helps to seek a better way of carrying out a plan.

In addition to these, a word cloud helps in promoting and facilitating feedback and conversation among peers. It collects and showcases the necessary keywords live for a more effective working system.

• Offers a Visual Format

Among all other types, a visual format is the most preferred kind of all time. A word cloud offers this aesthetic style, keeping the audience interested and engaged even in boring presentations and data displays.

• Provides an Appealing and Enchanting Feel

Word clouds enable the audience to remain more engaged and feel like a part of the poll or presentation. It provides them with unique opportunities, allowing them to get actively involved in developing exciting content that can gain the attention and interest of millions worldwide. It also permits the audience to decide and take forward the topic of discussion or conversation.

The audience contributes and shares their responses and answers. They become a part of the responsibility of the poll or presentation. A word cloud sets the foundation of understanding how an individual thinks and perceives particular topics or situations.