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Cross-Analyzing Customer Sentiment And Customer Segments

November 24, 2009 By 1 Comment

Cross-Analyzing Customer Sentiment And Customer SegmentsEarlier this month, we talked about sentiment analysis. In this post, I’ll dive into the topic of adding meaning to the numbers. Having a nice number of total positive mentions doesn’t have to be representative of how each customer segment feels about your organization, brand, or products/services.

Adding Up The Numbers

As discussed earlier this month, the most important thing to discern in sentiment analysis is the uniqueness of sentiment, i.e. whether the sentiments monitored/measured are unique to a person or is distributed through influence or virality.

Throughout this post, I’ll use the following example. A company has monitored the social web and has filtered out the unique sentiments that mention something about the company. A total of 5,010 sentiments were found. The company found 1,765 positive mentions; 2,357 neutral mentions; and 888 negative mentions.

From a totals perspective, this looks quite promising. When the neutral mentions are disregarded, the company gets nearly twice as many positive mentions as negative mentions. However, it’s time to put the numbers into perspective.

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Catalysts Of Content Distribution And Their Effect On Sentiment Analysis

November 12, 2009 By 1 Comment

Catalysts Of Content Distribution And Their Effect On Sentiment AnalysisThe content on the social web is a rich source of information for people and organizations. This content can also contain a certain sentiment related to you, your brand or your products/services. In this post, I’ll be discussing the distribution of content—based on influence, virality and discussion—and the monitoring and analysis of positive or negative sentiment.

Access

When someone posts content on the Web, people will have access to it. This is a matter of fact and relates to all content and isn’t necessarily restricted to social media content, e.g. blog posts, status updates or user-created videos. It becomes social once distribution of content takes place outside the original creator’s direct control.

Distribution

The distribution of content can have an impact on you, your brand or your products/services if there is a clear sentiment involved. Sentiment is generally classified as positive, negative or neutral. In this post, I’m omitting “neutral”, because it doesn’t carry an opinion and in some cases, can even be positive because it enhances awareness.

I’d like to reflect on sentiment through three catalysts of distribution:

  • Influence
  • Virality
  • Discussion

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Keep Your Enemies Closer

August 25, 2009 By

Particularly in new media, marketing tactics aren’t always as proven and as successful. There is often a big difference in the tonality, the form and the audience of the content. Readers of a car blog aren’t necessarily the same type of people that read a car magazine, for example.

It’s always important to consider the value, the relevance and the timing of your message when marketing on the web. The danger in online marketing—especially with the advent of social media—is the backlash that can arise when a certain marketing effort is not to the audience’s liking.

Some companies will enter a confrontation with the audience, while other companies will ignore the audience. But either way, there’s a moment of contact that you can seize. The amount of backlash you receive is the result of the influence of the starter. Wouldn’t you like to be able to make use of that influence to your advantage? There are more benefits to be gained in repairing any bridges that may be broken than to burn them down completely.

Understand the value of your messages to your audience. When things do go wrong, embrace the naysayers.

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Real-Time Search

June 11, 2009 By

The real-time stream is consistently bringing new content onto the Web every second, like news updates, status updates, photo and video uploads et cetera. In an effort to keep up, search engines also need to step up their game and provide real-time search solutions. Google is planning in that direction by actively monitoring services like Twitter and its recent introduction of Wave.

However, the need for real-time discovery has opened up the marketplace for new players who can specialize in this field. The best will be able to provide search feedback, keyword monitoring and intelligent recommendations.

  • Search feedback will give you the real-time results for a certain query, which is particularly useful with current events or trending topics.
  • Keyword monitoring allows you to monitor real-time activity on the words that are relevant to you. This will also be helpful in your search engine optimization efforts. This could also be a premium option that service providers can monetize on.
  • Intelligent recommendations help you filter out the clutter by bringing you only the best and most relevant search results. This increases usability by decreasing overload. Furthermore, it’s a monetization opportunity for service providers to offer premium advertising space.

The key will be to find a tool that works for your search needs but prevents you from becoming overloaded.

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Hello, Is There Anybody Out There?

April 20, 2008 By

When you’re broadcasting messages to people, do they listen? Do they respond to your ads, do they click on your links, do read your newsletters, et cetera? If the results are underwhelming, try some of these approaches:

  • Content: Rewrite the content to be more about them than about you. While messages should cover what you’re promoting, they should also emphasize the benefits to users. Scrutinize your content and check whether its relevance is high enough for your audience.
  • Form: Experiment with different types of headlines to different audiences. The headline of a press release should catch the attention of a journalist, but at the same time, it might not be enticing enough for a consumer. Play with the layout and the use of images to make your message more attractive or reader-friendly. Make use of consumer (eye-tracking) studies to see what areas should be focused.

Don’t be afraid to throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks.

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