Sentiment: What are your Analytics really Saying?

Without a clear understanding of the feelings or emotions surrounding your brand mentions, your standard web analytics can be misleading. A rising number of online mentions may mean an increased interest in your brand, but there’s little to celebrate if the sentiment behind them is predominately negative. You can create a richer portrait of your brand with sentiment analysis, and plan and adjust your social media content strategies accordingly.

As social media and content marketing continue to grow, sentiment analysis will become a more critical component of online metrics. There are many free online tools that track and measure sentiment, as well as more sophisticated paid tools. However, even the most advanced sentiment analytics still struggle with sarcasm and irony, so an element of human oversight is still required.

Word of mouth has always been a key influencer of purchasing and advocacy, and the social web is where this conversation is happening now. Teaming up with social sentiment specialists that can help you measure your social sentiment has become just as important as your techniques for obtaining direct web measurements.