How to do Social Media Sentiment Analysis? [Guide]

13 min read

Social media sentiment analysis is about judging whether social media posts are positive, negative, or neutral. So, what is the sentiment of your brand or business? You can check it easily. Keep reading to learn more.

To run successful social media profiles, you need to analyze their performance.

Social media analytics provide you with essential knowledge about your performance. Think about metrics such as:

  • Engagement rate,
  • Social media reach,
  • Number and type of interactions,
  • Social media shares.

All of these numbers give you insights into how your audience is responding to your marketing tactics.

But behind those numbers are emotions.

And emotions are the driving force behind everything a user does on social media. To fully understand how your brand is perceived online, you need to track social media sentiment.

In this article, I will tell you:

What is social media sentiment analysis?

Social media sentiment analysis is a process of using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning techniques to analyze social media data and determine the emotions and opinions of the people posting the content. As a result, posts are defined as positive, neutral, or negative.

Social media sentiment measures the feelings around your social media posts.

This technique helps businesses, governments, and individuals to understand public opinion, identify trends, and make informed decisions.

Conduct sentiment analysis for social media. Start a free trial!

You can apply sentiment analysis can be applied to various social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, and more.

That’s an example of a mention with a positive sentiment:

Mention expressing positive feelings about Oreo cookies, detected by the Brand24 tool

This is an example of a mention containing negative words:

Mention expressing negative feelings about Oreo cookies, detected by the Brand24 tool

A neutral mention looks like this:

Mention with neutral sentiment detected by the Brand24 tool

How to do social media sentiment analysis?

In the beginning, it might seem that we are able to do the sentiment analysis on social media manually. It would require lots of time and effort. To be honest, I can’t imagine analyzing each mention and post. Luckily, we don’t need to do it.

The sentiment analysis tool (like Brand24) can do the job for you. Using tools is the best way to conduct a trustworthy analysis.

Start social media sentiment analysis!

How does it work?

Tools apply natural language processing (NLP) to analyze online mentions and determine the feelings behind the post.

Yeah, sentiment analysis tools are a game-changer. They allow you to sift through the noise and extract valuable insights.

Texts that have similar meanings for humans will also have a similar meaning to the sentiment analysis algorithm. That way, the algorithm can detect synonyms and attach the correctly identified feelings behind the message.

Why use tools to measure sentiment?

As I mentioned before, tools gather mentions and judge whether they are positive, neutral, or negative. But that’s not everything. They will show you many useful insights and social media metrics.

Here are more benefits:

  • Insights: By using tools, you can better understand what your customers are saying, identify trends and improvement areas. 
  • Efficiency: Tools can process large volumes of data quickly and accurately, allowing organizations to analyze social media sentiment in real-time.
  • Consistency: Tools are designed to be consistent and objective, ensuring that social media sentiment analysis results are reliable and unbiased.
  • Cost-effectiveness: Manual sentiment analysis on social media requires significant time and resources, making it costly and impractical for most organizations. Tools, on the other hand, are relatively affordable and can be used by organizations of all sizes.

Conduct sentiment analysis for social media. Start a free trial!

Social media sentiment analysis example

Now, let’s take a look at the social sentiment analysis example. I will analyze the Oreo brand using the Brand24 tool.

Are you curious about which social media platform works best for Oreo? Let’s dive in!

Step 1: First, I needed data. I created a monitoring project for the “Oreo” keyword. I am interested in English mentions, so I selected this language while setting up the project.

Step 2: Brand24 collected data related to my oreo project from various social platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and others.

Step 3: I drew my conclusions from the collected data:

  • On the sentiment chart, I can see that the general Oreo’s sentiment is positive
  • In the last 30 days, there were about over 100k mentions of Oreo. 35k of them are positive, while 12k have a negative sentiment. 
Positive and negative sentiment detected by the Brand24 tool
  • Twitter is the primary source of mentions.
Oreo brand mentions detected by the Brand24 tool
  • Twitter is also the main source of negative sentiment.
Social media sentiment analysis of Twitter channel

Check: How to Do Twitter Sentiment Analysis

  • Among all social media channels, Instagram stands out with positive sentiment.
Social media sentiment analysis of Instagram channel
  • Reddit delivers both positive and negative mentions.
Social media sentiment analysis of Reddit channel
  • YouTube mainly delivers positive mentions.
Social media sentiment analysis of YouTube channel
  • TikTok is a small source of mentions, but most of them are positive.
Social media sentiment analysis of TikTok channel
The online reputation score detected by the Brand24 tool
  • The brand generates positive discussions, which has a good impact on its online brand reputation.
The context of a discussion detected by the Brand24 tool

Step 4: As you can see on the chart, there is a rapid increase in mentions on the 6th of March. Let’s see what happened.

Social sentiment analysis by the Brand24 tool

Step 5: To find out, in the Analysis tab, I selected the time filter for the 6th of March.

Thanks to the “Trending hashtag” feature, I quickly discovered that people posted lots of mentions with #nationaloreoday #nationaloreocookieday hashtags.

Trending hashtags related to Oreo, posted on the 6th of March, that were detected by the Brand24 tool

The Oreo cookie was first introduced by the National Biscuit Company (now Nabisco) on March 6, 1912. Nowadays, National Oreo Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated on March 6th each year in the United States.

On that day, social media users posted about 6600 mentions. They generated 4.7m social media reach. Most of them come from Twitter and Instagram.

Social media statistics of mentions posted on March 6th

Step 6: In the last step, I decided to compare the brand sentiment of Oreo and KitKat.

In the Comparison tab, I selected my two projects, Nike and Oreo. The tool showed me that KitKat has slightly more positive brand sentiment than Oreo. Twitter and Instagram are the primary sources of online buzz for both brands.

Social sentiment analysis and sentiment score of KitKat and Oreo

Start social media sentiment analysis!

Why analyze sentiment on social media?

The fundamental purpose of sentiment analysis on social media is to get valuable business insights that will help you improve your overall business performance.

You can apply the insights from sentiment analysis to many different areas of your business. 

Tracking positive and negative sentiments will help you:

  • Improve your customer experience
  • Better understand your target audience
  • Spot social media crises in the making
  • Measure the performance of your PR campaign
  • Track your competitor’s progress
  • Protect the brand’s reputation

Tracking your audience’s sentiment can have many benefits to your business. Here are just a few!

01 Improved customer satisfaction

You should use sentiment analysis to improve overall customer service. Thanks to analyzing positive, negative, or neutral social mentions, you can identify the strong and weak points of your offering.

Social listening will help you spot your customers’ pain points in real time. Reaching out to people who may have a negative experience with your brand can help you show how much you care about them. Turning an unhappy customer into a satisfied one will help your business thrive.

Check: The Best Social Listening Tools

02 Understand your audience feels

Understanding customer opinion and feelings is crucial for social media marketers because it can help them create better customer experiences, improve customer satisfaction, and ultimately, drive more sales.

Ongoing sentiment analysis will ensure that your messaging is always in line with your followers’ needs. Analyzing the sentiment and customer feedback during the product launch will quickly tell you whether the launch was successful.

Tracking customer sentiment will ensure you can meet their expectations.

03 Prevent social media crisis

Do you know the saying “bad news travel fast”? Well, bad news online spreads even faster! 

One negative mention can start an avalanche of complaints. In the era of Internet trolls, some users might be complaining even if they never had a chance to use your product.

But if you catch the original complaint early on and solve the problem, you might avert a social media crisis. Addressing complaints at the early stage will prevent the situation from escalating and will protect your brand reputation.

04 Measure the results of a PR campaign

Analytics is the most important part of every social campaign. And social media sentiment analysis might be just the addition you need to improve your marketing campaigns and their results.

Social media sentiment will tell you what your target audience thinks about your campaign. Generating buzz and counting impressions is only one of the crucial parts of any campaign. Reaching the right audience with a positive message is.

Your campaign might generate so much negative buzz it won’t serve its purpose. With social sentiment analysis tools, you can spot negative remarks immediately and tweak the campaign to suit your needs.

05 Monitor your competitors

To stay ahead of your competitors, you must know what they are doing.

Inside Brand24’s dashboard, you can easily set up a separate project with keywords related to your competitors’ businesses. First of all, the tool will give you a sneak peek of their campaigns’ results, and secondly, this type of competitive intelligence is completely legal and ethical.

Once you understand the sentiment around your competitors, you can use the knowledge to adjust your product or highlight its advantages.

Moreover, you can spot negative mentions before your competitors and propose your solution.

Start social media sentiment analysis!

06 Improve your product

Social sentiment analysis lets you spot the problem right at the source. You can eradicate it before it escalates, and you’ll be able to solve precisely the issues your customers want you to address.

Secondly, negative sentiment can give you valuable insights into your product features. Take a more in-depth look into all the negative mentions and find out what your customers are complaining about the most. Negative mentions will indicate the most important feature you need to improve.

Maybe your product is excellent, but could you improve the packaging? Or does the delivery company you cooperate with need to be more reliable? These are factors you could quickly improve to make your customer experience so much better.

How to improve social sentiment?

You already know what social media sentiment analysis is, and you have to right tools to measure the metric effectively.

Once you are familiar with the current state of sentiment analysis, you can take adequate measures and try to improve the sentiment around your brand.

What can you do to boost social sentiment?

Address negative sentiment head-on:

Instead of ignoring negative mentions, you should address them head-on. Here are some steps you can take to address negative mentions:

  • Determine the severity of the negative mention: Assess the impact of the negative mention on your reputation and the potential harm it could cause.
  • Respond promptly and politely: Responding to negative mentions promptly and politely can demonstrate that you take customer concerns seriously. Acknowledge the issue and apologize for any inconvenience caused. Offer a solution or ask how you can resolve the issue.
  • Be professional and avoid getting defensive: Responding in a professional manner can help defuse the situation and prevent it from escalating. Avoid getting defensive or engaging in arguments online.

Provide excellent customer service

Engaging with customers is one of the most effective ways to improve social sentiment. By responding to customer comments, complaints, and questions, marketers can show that they are listening and care about their customers’ opinions.

Providing excellent customer service is key to improving social sentiment. By resolving customer complaints and issues quickly and effectively, you can turn negative sentiment into positive sentiment.

Personalize interactions

Personalizing customer interactions can help build a stronger connection and improve social sentiment. Using customers’ names and addressing their specific concerns or interests can make customers feel valued and understood.

Create valuable content

To succeed in the online space, you need to establish your brand. Producing relevant content will help boost social sentiment around your brand. People will trust your company, automatically creating a positive buzz around your brand.

Moreover, Internet users will share well-written and interesting content. Creating engaging content will help you spread positive news vibes around your company. It will also help you reach brand new audiences.

Show your brand’s human side

Be authentic in your communication and interactions with your audience. Customers are more likely to engage with and feel positively toward brands that show their human side. This can include sharing behind-the-scenes content, showcasing employee stories, or highlighting the company’s values and culture.

Monitor mentions regularly

Keep an eye on social media platforms for any brand mentions, both positive and negative. This can help you understand how your brand is perceived and respond quickly to any negative feedback.

It’s important to monitor all relevant social media platforms where your brand has a presence. This includes Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and any other platforms that your audience is active on.

By monitoring brand mentions regularly, you can stay informed about what people are saying about your brand or business on social media platforms.

This can help you promptly address negative feedback, improve your brand perception and social media presence, detect the audience’s opinions, and create a positive image for your brand or business.

How to report social sentiment?

Once you have gathered the data, it is time to present the results of your work. You can create a report yourself, but many sentiment analysis tools have a built-in PDF report feature.

The most important aspect of reporting analysis is the ability to choose the data you want to include in it. You will be able to show exactly the insights you have worked on and the impact your activities had on the key metrics on every platform you are present.

Conduct social media sentiment analysis. Start a 14-day free trial!

Conclusion

To conduct social media sentiment analysis, you can use a sentiment analysis tool like Brand24. This tool automatically detects positive, negative, or neutral social media posts. 

Thanks to social media sentiment analysis and monitoring, you will:

  • Discover whether people post about your brand in a positive, negative, or neutral way,
  • Monitor online brand reputation,
  • Measure social media campaigns,
  • Prevent PR crises,
  • Answer negative posts quickly,
  • Improve your social media presence.

What is the sentiment of your brand? Check it out for free!

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