Social media terms › Sentiment analysis

Social media glossary

What is sentiment analysis?

Sentiment analysis is the process of judging whether written text, such as comments or reviews, expresses a positive, negative or neutral feeling.

Sentiment shows how people feel, not just how many are talking. A post with many comments might look successful, but if most of them are complaints, that is a different story. Understanding sentiment helps you spot problems early and see what customers love.

Sentiment analysis can be done by reading comments yourself or by using software that scans text for emotional tone. Automated tools look at word choice and context, but they can miss sarcasm, slang and mixed feelings. It works across comments, mentions, reviews and messages on any network.

Use sentiment to compare campaigns, track reactions to launches and find themes in feedback. Do not rely on automated scores alone; read a sample of comments to check the tool is getting it right. Respond quickly to negative trends, and share positive feedback with your team.

Example

A restaurant runs its recent reviews through a sentiment checker and notices most negative comments mention slow weekend service.

How PilotPost helps

PilotPost offers a free sentiment analysis tool that tells you whether a piece of text reads as positive, negative or neutral. Learn more →

Related terms

Social listening

Social listening is tracking public online conversations about your brand, competitors, industry or keywords to understand what people are saying and feeling.

Comment

A comment is a written reply someone leaves under a social media post, allowing people to react, ask questions or start conversations with the poster and others.

Community management

Community management is the work of building and looking after relationships with your audience online, by replying to people, moderating discussions and encouraging conversation.

Brand awareness

Brand awareness is how familiar people are with your business, name or products, and how easily they recognize or remember you when they need what you offer.

What Is Sentiment analysis? Meaning and Examples