If you think tracking your mentions is enough, then you are only getting half of the story. Sentiment analysis is the key insight to understanding how your brand is truly perceived by the public.
Knowing that people are talking about your brand isn't enough in today's data-rich media environment; you also need to know how they feel about it. Sentiment analysis is useful in this situation.
Understanding sentiment is essential for brand managers and PR pros to be able to manage reputation, adapt messaging and address possible crises before they become more serious.
The process of using technology to identify the emotional tone of publicly available mentions of your brand is known as sentiment analysis. It examines written content from forums, blogs, social media, news articles and reviews.
Machine learning, natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI) are frequently used to generate sentiment analysis.
So, how does it work? The NLP will decode words, phrases and context to assign an emotional value.
There are three different types of sentiment analysis:
- Polarity-based (positive, negative, neutral and mixed)
- Emotion-based (anger, joy, sadness, etc.)
- Aspect-based (sentiment about a specific part of a product or service)
Now, why does this matter for PRs? Sentiment analysis can assist PRs by:
- enabling them to measure public perception
- detecting negative sentiment spikes
- identifying any gaps between brand messaging and audience reception, and
- gaining insights into refining any campaigns, product offerings and communication strategies.
Sentiment analysis enables brands and PRs to access their audience's emotional pulse and go beyond superficial metrics. This allows you to create more successful, responsive and genuine communication strategies by learning how people feel about your brand, rather than just what they say.
Curious about how your brand is perceived right now? At Focal Points, our media monitoring tools include in-depth sentiment analysis that helps you see — and shape — your brand’s reputation in real time. Let's connect.
For more insights, take a look at How to Turn Media Reports Into Actionable Insights.
*Image courtesy of Canva