The impact on your brand of a mention from each mood category is distinct. A positive review is a huge gain for PR, while negative feedback may indicate a problem with customer service, and apathy is unlikely to even register on anyone’s radar.
Large increases in social media attention are a coveted prize for most companies. If, however, those comments are critical, the situation changes dramatically.
Analysis of feelings in social media
The meaning behind this is easily grasped. It’s only a thought, an opinion, or an emotion. The tone or emotion portrayed in a brand reference on social media might reveal the post’s mood.
Certain social media administration tools include sentiment analysis algorithms or filters. Sentiment analysis functions in social listening platforms monitor and report on the general tone of your social mentions.
Methods for evaluating public opinion using social media
So, why is it helpful to incorporate sentiment analysis into your social listening tool? It’s not only about understanding the bigger picture from your weekly reports.
1. Give your social media interactions top priority.
When you initially log in each day to check social media, you should prioritise the most pressing mentions. While it’s everyone’s fondest wish that no flames ever need extinguishing, being ready and prompt in such an event is essential.
You should also make an effort to address client complaints as soon as feasible.
Lots of social listening programmes allow you to sort your new or unread mentions by how they make you feel. Eliminate the less important tasks and concentrate on the ones that must be completed first. For every given warning, you may customise the filter that appears above your unread mentions stream in Mention.
Let’s imagine, for the sake of argument, that your product team is working to enhance a certain function. You may run a search for the name of that function in your feed and then peruse the negative comments to figure out why people are dissatisfied with it.
2. Evaluate how well your brand is known
You may acquire a clearer understanding of your brand’s reputation by compiling data on sentiment trends and patterns.
You may learn how people feel about your brand on social media by analysing the mood of mentions in reports.
If the public dialogue about your brand is shifting, a change in the average sentiment may indicate a change in perspective. Keep an eye out for recurring patterns and developments in sentiment, as well as the relationships between sentiment and other social media indicators.
The reaction to certain campaigns, product launches, or events may also be gauged with the use of sentiment reporting. Then, you may add more depth to your social media mentions by connecting it to the larger picture.
A rise in unfavourable sentiment may be traced back to when your website was offline for maintenance, for instance. Another option is to look at the data in aggregate form a week following a product launch to assess how well it was received.
3. Help in times of crisis
Your brand may never face a social media crisis, but you should be ready for one just in case.
Social listening may aid in monitoring for potential crises in a number of ways.
Working with the people in charge of public relations and corporate communications at your firm might help you recognise potential problems before they escalate.
And if a crisis does arise, the ability to assess and filter by emotion will facilitate the management of messages and the restoration of calmer seas.
During this PR crisis, businesses may use social media sentiment analysis to keep tabs on how the E. coli epidemic is affecting their brand’s reputation, as well as identify and engage with their company online.
The ability to move swiftly and implement a long-term strategy would be greatly enhanced by having access to such details.
4. Conduct market analysis of the competition
By setting up notifications for your competitors, you may gauge their public opinion in the same manner you gauge that for your own brand.
Sentiment analysis may be used to track and report on how your rivals are being discussed in social media channels. Be on the lookout for unfavourable remarks as possibilities for community building and good ones for lead creation.
You may track the effects of campaigns, announcements, and events on their reputation in the same way you track your own brand’s.
Even if the topic of discussion isn’t you, you can still make an appropriate contribution. You may convert a competitor’s critic into a buyer by doing things like:
It’s a terrific real-time approach to communicate with the people in your sector if you’re cautious not to be too pushy and only respond to tweets where it makes sense to join the debate.
5. Give background information while discussing opinions.
Market share is another useful metric for gauging your standing in relation to the competition. However, such quantitative measures don’t necessarily reveal the whole story.
Consider the following scenario: you have achieved industry dominance and immediately begin to celebrate. However, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that much of the talk is somewhat critical.
The situation is crucial.
Sentiment analysis, at its core, is all about streamlining the process by which the surroundings of a social media mention may be examined.
While there are other measures that might reveal the topic of conversation, sentiment analysis reveals the substance of the conversation.
Do you consider public opinion when you listen? Feel free to discuss its usefulness below.