What is a Word Cloud?
A word cloud is referred to the visual representation of words. It is also known as text clouds or tag clouds. They work in a way where a particular word appears bigger and bolder in the word cloud if it is used more in a speech, blog post, or database.
A word cloud is a collection of words presented in different sizes. If a particular word appears bigger and bolder, then assume it to get mentioned more in a given text.
These are used to highlight the most relevant portion of textual data taken from blog posts or databases. You can also use word clouds to help business users compare and contrast two different pieces of text so that they can find the wording similarities between the two. Word clouds are important because our brain can easily get attracted to visual information compared to other formats.
Cloud creators use word clouds to highlight popular words and phrases based on how often they are used in a given text or how much relevant they are for the given text. You can get a quick and simple visual insight to analyze the given text or speech deeply.
Apps that we can use to create word clouds
There are several apps that we can use to create word clouds. However, we have discussed a few of them in this article. So, let us know about the apps that we can use to create word clouds.
TagCloud
This app can produce some beautiful-looking word clouds. With this app, you can get information from a word list, CSV file, or web page. You will get a variety of formatting options but the layouts are quite similar to each other. You can make word clouds at just 79p on this app and hence a popular option to create attractive word clouds at a cheaper rate.
Tweetroot
Tweet root is one of the most popular word cloud apps. It can be used to create a word cloud that is linked to a Twitter account or search. The layout doesn’t match up with each other as far as display options are concerned. However, this is a cheaper option where you can create word clouds from Twitter at just 79p. You can simply add to the search page for the hashtag or user you are searching for.
Word Salad
The basic version of the word cloud is free. So it is worth using this app to create word clouds. Moreover, you can get a lot of customization features if you pay for this app. There you will get a lot of options to change background color, font, font color, and arrangement. You can also make word clouds from Twitter hashtags and Wikipedia by using this app. Moreover, you can export word clouds to your camera roll, as a PDF. If you pay, you can also export word clouds as PSD format in photoshop.
Phoetic
Phoetic is available at 79p and can make word clouds from shapes. It works the same as fab WordFoto. However, you have to enter your own words as the interface looks a little clumsy. It has the limitation that you cannot make a word cloud using hashtags from a Twitter feed or other web page using this app.
WordFoto
With Wordfoto, graphics look amazing and they are also very easy to use. You can build word clouds from your images and the words you want to include. You can make word clouds at £1.49 with Wordfoto, which makes it a little bit expensive. But the word clouds look great that are made with this app.
Spout
You can choose Spout if you have a live plasma display. This app can look at different social media channels. It can also accept different inputs of words. Graphics created with Spout are amazing. You can build word clouds at £1.49, which is reasonable for the graphics quality you get with this app.
Uses of a Word Cloud
1. To understand client issues
Word clouds are an amazing way of visual expression. This can be used to analyze customer satisfaction levels. You can deliver valuable insights into the psyche of your target customers by using word clouds.
2. It can ease out business actions
With word clouds, you will be able to create a visual impression and hence, you can figure out the important terms instead of going through the entire speech or text. You can also figure out which points are appearing frequently. Thus, you can focus on the important parts.
3. You can figure out your employee’s feedback
Word cloud visualization works when you want some kind of feedback or opinions from your employee about the workplace or the job they are doing. You can analyze the points that your employees are talking about the most. So, you can focus on these points
4. It can simplify technical data
With word clouds, you can present highly technical research findings to a non-technical audience in a more engaging way. This way, you can reach out to your clients or board members. You can share important information even if they do not have any advanced technical understanding.
5. For Search Engine Optimization
You can use the word cloud to check how your content appears to Google bots, which will help increase the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy if you want your website to be noticed by Google. However, it will not reveal the more technical elements of Search Engine Optimization such as headers, backlinks, and alt tags. But, it will help you see the general message that you convey through your page.