In the Media monitor, a sentiment is attached to messages. In this article you can read more about:
- How does sentiment analysis work?
- Step-by-step plan for adjusting sentiment
- Sentiment widget within a report
How does sentiment analysis work?
Engage works with an algorithm that uses manually trained data to determine which characteristics are perceived as positive or negative. This is done not only by looking at individual words, but also at word combinations such as 'not nice', capitalization, incorrect spelling, punctuation and the context of a person.
The sentiment analysis is relatively conservative in assigning a positive or negative sentiment. You will therefore see that the majority of messages are neutral. The sentiment is often subjective, which makes it difficult to arrive at the perfect sentiment determination. Only when there is a relatively high degree of certainty is the label positive or negative assigned.
This involves looking beyond individual words. Precisely because individual words are often incorrect. A simple example is the word "nice". If you write: "I don't like it" then it is even negative. But if you write: "Nice!" Then it can be both positive and negative. The message may be intended sarcastically and a positive assignment would then be incorrect. You can recognize the sentiment by the gray, green or red bar under the date of the message.
Step-by-step plan for adjusting sentiment
Step 1: Create a task
To adjust the sentiment of messages, we first need to create a task. You can create a task as follows:
1. Navigate to the 'Task Overview' on the left-hand side.
2. Click on 'Create Task.'
3. Follow the steps in the setup:
- Select the report for which you want to adjust the sentiment of the messages. The report allows you to determine a dataset, as it's based on a search query and a timeframe. This dataset is needed to modify the sentiment of messages.
- In the next step, you can optionally select any filters you want to apply. The task will automatically inherit the filters applied in the report.
- Choose the task type 'Manually Assign Sentiment.' Specify the percentage of messages for which you want to adjust the sentiment. Select 100 percent if you want to modify the sentiment of all messages. Finally, set the task's timeframe (optional). The task's end date indicates the deadline for adjusting all messages.
- Under the 'Recipient' section, enter the email address of the person who will perform the task.
- Optionally, add a description to the task for the person who will execute it.
4. Review the settings in the Preview and click on 'Create Task.'
5. In the overview, you'll see the created task with the status "Open."
Step 2: Adjust sentiment from within the task
Once the task is created, you can adjust the sentiment of messages from within the task. Sentiment adjustment can be done in an open, in-progress, or ongoing task.
1. In the Task Overview, you'll see all created tasks with their respective statuses.
2. There are a total of 4 statuses: Open, In Progress, Ongoing, and Completed. Click on the task name to start adjusting the sentiment.
3. In the following screen, you'll see the total number of messages that need to be adjusted on the left side. On the right side, you'll find randomly selected messages. When all messages need to be labeled, you'll see all messages here.
4. Below each message, there are three different sentiment icons: positive, neutral, and negative.
5. Select the sentiment icon that applies to each message
Progress
On the left side, there's a green progress bar that shows the percentage of messages completed. When all messages are adjusted, the status bar on the left will change to 'all messages are completed.'
Sentiment widget within a report
In a report, you can add the sentiment widget. In the widget filters, you have the option to display either automatic sentiment or manual sentiment.