Sentiment Analysis: Believe Hype, Not Myths

Author:

Blake Cahill

Source:

From focus groups to phone polls to man-on-the-street surveys, companies and organizations have been trying to understand consumer opinions for decades. And with social media producing a steady stream of updates and opinions from the masses every second, businesses have discovered yet another way to attain this valuable data. But distilling actionable information from social media often requires a deeper analysis, and this is where sentiment analysis comes in.
 
However, sentiment analysis is almost as misunderstood as it is talked about. To help marketers understand how to successfully understand consumer opinion in the social space I have outlined some common myths and best practices to consider.
 
Myth: Sentiment is Sentiment is Sentiment
 
"Sentiment" is actually a general term that can mean a lot, depending on how it's measured and translated into a piece of the social media puzzle.
 
At a very basic level, sentiment is an opinion that is deemed positive, negative or neutral. But just being able to put a tweet into a "positive" or "negative" category may not be enough for your company to craft a meaningful response -- typically, to really understand the implications of a customer voice sentiment analysis you need to go deeper. To do this...