GLOBAL, NOVEMBER 2010 – What does it really mean to click a ‘Like’ button? Brands are now starting to look into the emotion behind reactions to brands, beyond simple "like" and "unlike". A method called Sentiment Analysis works by using algorithms to understand the context of people’s opinions, adding up statements that express positive, negative, or neutral reactions to the brand.
In a blog entry, Scott David illustrates Sentiment Analysis: "For example, a YouTube comment such as ‘The Social Network sucks’ is clearly negative, whilst a blog saying, ‘The Social Network is not factual, but does capture the essence of the character’, is either neutral or erring towards the positive, and someone tweeting, ‘OMG u mus c JT in #socialnetwork :D’ is positive but needs a lot of syntax interpretation."
Algorithms for sentiment analysis are already being used by companies such as Google, Apple, Skype, Adobe and Ogilvy. Some of them are monitoring sentiment analysis feedback based on data gathered by applications that scan social media sites using key words.
Looks as if brand will be able to read between the lines sooner than we think.
Image: Sean MacEntee on Flickr
