Comments on: Social Media Sentiment Analysis – Can you Trust it?

By: Ashley

Ashley — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:30:18 +0000

Hi Magnus,

absolutely agree with the points raised.

Over at Brandtology, this is precisely the ‘pain point’ that we seek to address. We are one of the largest Business and Brand Online Intelligence service providers that combines technology, processes and trained professionals to deliver accurate and relevant intelligence to global organizations.

With more than 100 Social Media Specialists in 10 locations around the world, we are able to verify and enhance our automated machine analysis in more than 9 different languages. This ensures very high accuracy and relevancy of the analysis reports provided to our clients who do not have to waste a moment sieving through irrelevant data.

Ashley Lim
Social Media Consultant
Brandtology

By: Magnus Nilsson

Magnus Nilsson — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 08:12:17 +0000

Thanks for the comments. Some interesting links there, will have a look.

Think Mike’s comment is spot on that it’s simply key to involve human analysis.

By: Steve Ardire

Steve Ardire — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:53:51 +0000

Hi Mangus – yes good points which evokes the overused cliche caveat emptor.

> However, if the natural language engine miss-interprets the true sentiment of posts and tweets, you might be in dangerous waters.

But it’s more than just NLP i.e. you need the right mix of embedded semantics which of course is keen bias of mine

I just started taking a look at http://www.socialtality.com/ which looks intriguing ( disclosure: do not have a working relationship with them in case you’re wondering )

- Steve

By: Margaret Lawlor

Margaret Lawlor — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 04:50:52 +0000

I’m with you: automated sentiment analysis isn’t close to 100% perfect yet. As you mentioned, Magnus, sarcasm and irony will throw things into the ditch pretty quickly. But it sure seems like a big step in a very interesting direction. If these tools get me even a little way down the analysis road, there’s value for me there. The best tools will enable me to make decisions about which posts to keep and which to toss from within the admin. It’s going to be interesting to watch how these tools evolve.

Thanks, man.

Margaret (@blocheads)

By: Mike Layton

Mike Layton — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:56:24 +0000

Technology should serve to assist human analysis, not replace it. Your example is a great one on why there should be serious reservations on trusting the results of automated sentiment analysis. And to compound the issue, this all assumes that the content being analyzed is comprehensive and qualified. If the human factor is left out of this stage, the “machine” may not even be analyzing the right conversations. I’m biased but to answer your question, marketers may be better served to skip automation and rely on human analysis in the first place.

Thanks for sharing, Mike.