Social media sentiment data analysis

The average person spends nearly two-and-a-half hours on social media each day, leaving a trail of interactions – comments, likes, shares – in their wake each time they log in. This flood of data can make it challenging to pull meaningful insights to the surface. 

Zavy offers a simple solution for understanding insights swimming in the complex ecosystem of social media. 

Using Zavy’s sentiment map to weigh up different aspects of your social audience’s interactions can give you deeper understanding of how they connect to your brand. More specifically, overlaying data with sentiment might be the key to giving your data-driven insights real value and in turn drive more creative ideas. 

Data + sentiment = valuable insight

Like the people who share their lives through these platforms, social media is a lot more complex and nuanced than it might appear to be at face value. Counting likes can’t tell you everything you need to know. Interactions might make a post appear shiny and popular, but there is a whole world of emotion sitting behind those clicks. 

Numbers alone can’t tell you how people are reacting to your activity. Think of it this way; measuring likes, comments and mentions can tell you people are talking about your brand. Sentiment analysis can tell you what they are saying.

Sentiment can’t be artificially inflated by advertising either. You might be able to boost the reach of a post and subsequently the number of people who engage with it, but that won’t necessarily influence how people feel about your brand. This is why you should consider sentiment as a metric. It can help you understand how people are feeling about your content, before you put valuable marketing budget behind it. 

At Zavy, we have found that carefully curating data, and layering in sentiment, can help find that ‘bullseye’ insight to help guide your social content strategy.

Real people, real feelings

Social media is fertile ground for searching for sentiment-focused insights. Unlike traditional broadcast media, which by nature has a limited ability for two-way communication, conversations happen naturally on social channels. People wear their hearts on their digital sleeves, expressing their feelings openly with each reaction, like, or comment.

Posts are filled with sentiment – both positive and negative – which helps you to understand the real impact of your brand in these environments. In turn, you have the chance to actively engage with your audience, amplifying good impressions and countering the bad.

Perhaps the simplest, and most effective part of monitoring sentiment is that it’s a tangible reminder your customers are more than a collection of data points. They are real people with thoughts and feelings which exist in the real world and not just online.

If you can understand your customers’ emotions and anticipate their needs, you can forge powerful relationships and establish lasting brand loyalty.

Tracking sentiment in Zavy

Our platform uses net sentiment scores to take money or ad spend out of the equation. This allows you to focus on how people feel about your brand regardless of reach or engagement stats, which can be easily but hollowly inflated by paid posts. 

The dashboards easily identify sentiment scores for posts from your own channels and those of other brands in your competitive set. It’s a fresh and insightful benchmark to consider, adding an extra dimension to your social media marketing. It means that no matter where you sit in your category, whether you’re the incumbent or the start-up trying to break in, you can analyse sentiment on equal footing.

Following trends in positive and negative sentiment, and extracting the relevant insights, can help you hone your messaging to ensure you’re delivering the type of content your audience wants.

Let’s look at some examples…‍

When you have consistently high sentiment, people will stick with your brand through the ups and downs

One of New Zealand’s favourite brands, Whittaker’s, with their community of avid chocolate lovers, have cultivated consistently high sentiment among their Facebook followers. Knowing they have this positive emotional support helps them to strike the right tone and deliver not so great news without the risk of damaging their brand. 

In October, Whittaker’s announced a price increase on Facebook. For many brands, this would incur an outpouring of disgruntled comments and angry emojis. For Whittaker’s the response was not only a huge number of interactions, but 30% net sentiment – above average for their posts across the past three months. Comments on the post reveal enduring loyalty and love for the brand, with consumers happily taking onboard the price increase and thanking Whittaker’s for their transparency in reporting the increase – testament to the two-way conversation Whittaker’s has established with their followers. 

Sentiment supporting inclusivity

Among women’s activewear brands, sentiment serves to highlight the success of posts that swim against the tide – and backs up a brand’s decision to do so.

Lululemon saw hugely positive net sentiment scores from two posts that highlight diverse voices and bodies. These posts are a departure from the traditional focus on slim, white bodies that dominate women’s activewear aesthetic. Inclusivity is proved to connect more deeply with their audience and boost their brand sentiment.

They aren’t the most shared or commented on posts – but in terms of creating authentic connections with their followers, and inspiring a community to pursue fitness, they are the most effective. Without the visibility of sentiment, this might not have been as evident. 

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Ready to find out your brand’s sentiment? Try a 14-day free trial of our cutting-edge social listening tool, Radar.