Sentiment analysis may sound like the name of a kind of therapy, but in AI research, sentiment analysis refers to the use of techniques such as natural language processing (NLP) and text analysis to uncover the feelings and opinions underlying written statements. In other words, sentiment analysis uses artificial intelligence (AI) to recognize and analyze emotional signals that are embedded in text. Now companies across industries are utilizing this innovative technology to gain insight into how consumers feel about their brands and drive more emotionally intelligent consumer research.
Sentiment analysis is a social listening tool
As more and more of the conversation around brands and products has moved to social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram, consumers are constantly providing data about their feelings and opinions as they discuss brands online. But when it comes to consumer research, the question is: How can a company sift through this mass of data to better connect with their target audience and grow their unique brand?
This is where sentiment analysis enters the picture. The key is that sentiment analysis uses powerful AI as a social listening tool, analyzing social media posts or other text-based content to identify phrases and terms that indicate approval and disapproval (known as polarity), or that indicate emotions such as anger, disgust, excitement, and surprise. Because sentiment analysis is performed by AI, companies can gather large amounts of data and quickly identify emerging trends in brand sentiment among different groups.
For example, NetBase Quid’s AI-based platform uses sentiment analysis to recognize how consumers are feeling about a specific brand, but it can also perform sentiment analysis about other topics and group that data in productive ways. NetBase Quid users can study how their customers feel about current events that are relevant to brand messaging. Or they can identify groups that share their customers’ feelings about brand-relevant issues but who may not necessarily be aware of their brand.
