That’s right, you read that correctly: Sentiment Analysis. And I think it’s going to be BIG. It is, however, a tool that is highly subjective and subject to the limitations of context.
A Working Definition of Sentiment Analysis: Sentiment Analysis (SA) is a tool that operates at the macro level, collecting real-time online communications about a company, product or issue and assigning a positive or negative value to the collective thoughts of the online commentary. Call it Market Insight.
Powered by technologies such as natural language processing, text mining and proprietary algorithms, SA search spiders retrieve communications from the growing host of Social Media sites on a real-time basis, score them using their proprietary algorithms and assign a value to the collective consciousness.
I’m using the term “conversations” here quite broadly to range from actual online conversations to things like ratings, and reviews retrieved from Social Media sites such as: Blogs, Business Portals, Microblogs (think Twitter), Forums, Message Boards, Review Sites, etc.
by Stablio Boss
As covered in previous posts, the world of citizen journalists can be pretty snarky, uninformed and downright mean-spirited at times. Staying on top of this can be daunting; companies and individuals need tools to help manage their online reputation.
Sentiment Analysis, as a nascent industry, is not perfect by any means. Industry insiders themselves say that the current state of performance has around 70-80% accuracy. Yet Web 2.0 has unleashed a monster. Easy to use Web 2.0 functionality enables pretty much anyone to weigh in with opinions on everything under the sun putting businesses and individuals (celebrities, thought leaders, etc.) at the mercy of this new capability. It requires new skills, processes and tools to manage.
Sentiment Analysis is a next step tool that expands upon the growing army of Online Monitoring tools and Online Reputation Management Strategy & Planning to aid organizations in their online reputation management efforts. Start-ups have sprung up to capitalize on the growing need for businesses, organizations and even individuals to understand the collective consciousness that can define their online reputation.
How is Sentiment Analysis Changing Online Business Competition?
- Actionable Intelligence – businesses can see what the concerns are AND get a qualitative handle on how much of a problem they have.
- Immediacy – informed by the collective zeitgeist; learning about and managing a problem in its infancy rather than in a full-blown crisis and put a rapid response plan to work correcting the problem.
- Competitive Intelligence – think of the tremendous advantage your sales and marketing team would have if you had the scoop on what customers thought about your competitors’ products and services.
- Brand Management – what if your sales are down for non-product related reasons such as concerns about the company or your key executives? Learn all about that with SA tools, get improvement programs underway and put your PR department to work.
New companies are popping up to claim your heart, mind and wallet as well as stalwarts such as SAS. Visit our Online Reputation Management Tools area for a list of companies – from free to $$$ — that offer Sentiment Analysis tools.
