Have you ever thought about what people think of your brand? Do they like it? What would they want to change? Although these questions might seem too simple, they’re critical for marketers to improve their business. After all, one should always know about the ins and outs of their marketing strategies to guarantee success. Simply put, social media sentiment analysis is the core of a solid social media presence. It allows brands to track online conversations in real-time. These conversations could be about the brand itself or its competitors.
Remember, customer opinions always hold the utmost importance. The immense social media popularity has made it easier for brands to access these opinions. But understanding them is still complex. That’s where social media sentiment analysis comes in.
Sentiment analysis is essential for all social media platforms. It doesn’t matter if you use Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Collecting and evaluating performance data remains the one essential thing to making informed social media marketing decisions.
But first, you need to understand what social media sentiment analysis is and why it is important. Let’s have a look.
Table of contents
What is Social Media Sentiment Analysis?
As the name suggests, social media sentiment analysis is all about evaluating your audience’s sentiments. In other words, you gather data and assess it to see how people perceive your brand on social media.
Sentiment analysis goes beyond likes and mentions. Instead, it focuses on the consumer’s emotions and opinions. As a result, it is also often termed “opinion mining.” The social media platforms are your mine, and the customer preferences are the gemstones you dig out.
So, remember, social sentiment analysis is crucial for guaranteeing a business’s success.
Why is Sentiment Analysis Important?
Before social media blew up into this huge industry, it was simply used to connect with friends and family. After all, we do remember platforms like Friendster and MySpace, right? But over time, brands have realized and unlocked the true power of social media. It is no longer just an innocent chatting platform but a dynamic marketing tool.
Social media is an ever-growing network of consumer opinions. The way they interact with a brand helps businesses know what products customers like and what they don’t.
Remember, a customer’s preferences hold the utmost power. It helps brands know what will drive their business forward. As a result, they can make informed buyer-centered decisions to thrive.
One can look at it as a way to shift the power back to the brands. After all, they can analyze customer sentiments to solve problems, improve brand reputation, and offer new and unique products. As a result, helping them solidify their position as a successful brand in the industry.
And that is why sentiment analysis is essential. Otherwise, you’ll only hit a dead end no matter how many advanced strategies you use.
Steps to Run Social Media Sentiment Analysis
Given below are the steps you must follow to run social media sentiment analysis:
Track All Social Media Mentions
The first and foremost step of social media sentiment analysis is to see what conversations customers are having about your brand. The best way to do this is to see what posts and stories you’re tagged in.
Sadly, many people won’t always tag you, which can serve to be a bit of a problem. But that is not something you need to need to worry about.
Many tools like Hootsuite allow you to track all social media mentions regardless of whether your brand is tagged or not. This will help you know what your customers’ sentiments are. Do you like your brand or vice versa? Knowing the ins and outs of these sentiments will help you put your best foot forward and succeed.
Analyze Consumer Sentiments in These Mentions
Next, you have to evaluate the consumer sentiments in these mentions. A simple way to do this is to look at positive and negative words. Given below is a list of some positive and negative terms you may find:
- Love
- Wonderful
- Great
- Best
- Perfect
- Bad
- Hate
- Disgusting
- Terrible
- Worst
Of course, these are not the only comments you’ll come across. Just make sure to list down all that you think is a consumer “sentiment.” You can even scan your comment section and DMs for this.
Calculate Your Social Sentiment Score
Once you’re done tracking and analyzing your social media mentions, you have to calculate your social sentiment score. This isn’t as complicated or mathematical as it sounds.
You can do this in two ways. Either calculate the positive mentions as a percentage of total mentions or calculate the positive mentions as a percentage of mentions that include a sentiment. For the latter, you don’t have to include any neutral comments.
That said, it doesn’t really matter what method you use. What matters is your consistency and what you’re doing to improve your customer’s sentiments. As long as there is a positive change, you’re good to go.
Sentiment Analysis Tools
For some businesses, calculating sentiment analysis might not be easy. That’s where sentiment analysis tools come into play. They help companies figure out their consumer’s preferences and improve accordingly.
Given below are some great tools even you can use:
Hootsuite Insights Powered by Brandwatch
You can use Boolean search to auto-track social media sentiments using Hootsuite Insights powered by Brandwatch. The tool also shows you what words people use the most when discussing your brand.
It’s a great way to get a general idea of people’s perceptions of you. The best part is that you can compare these with your competitors to see where you lack and how you can improve.
Hootsuite Insights also allows you to look at sentiments according to different demographics. You can add geographic and age filters, to name a few. Plus, the AI analysis feature also helps you figure out the reason behind a particular sentiment.
Mentionlytics
“Discover everything that is being said about your brand, your competitors or any keyword.”
The line above is Mentionlytics’ selling point. After all, who doesn’t want to know “everything” that customers think about their brand, right? It’s honestly an all-in-one tool that even tells you about what your competitor’s customers think.
As a result, helping you expand your search criteria. The best part about this is that you can get accurate results to improve.
Digimind
Digimind is another excellent sentiment analysis tool. It takes information from almost more than 850 million sources. This serves as proof that you’re getting accurate and thorough results when it comes to consumer sentiments about your business.
Just like Hootsuite, you can even apply filters on Digimind. This helps you customize the entire analysis process.
Social Media Sentiment Analysis Provides Context
Now that you’ve read this article in detail, you know all about what social media sentiment analysis is and how to do it. The gist of it all is that it helps you understand the power customer sentiments hold.
But that’s not all. Social media sentiment analysis also tells you the why behind certain preferences. So, you’re just getting data; you’re also getting the story that gives the data its value. All in all, social media sentiment analysis means better performance for your brand.
Featured Image: CommSights
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