Comments on: Meaning Within Measurement: Sentiment Analysis and Social Media

By: Shyam Kapur

Shyam Kapur — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 07:17:38 +0000

This is an excellent post. Perhaps the best free semantic analysis tool out there is TipTop http://FeelTipTop.com

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:47:47 +0000

Here’s a perfect formula for sentiment analysis: http://www.conversition.com/a-formula-for-perfect-sentiment-analysis/

By: themos kalafatis

themos kalafatis — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:57:44 +0000

Good article which states concisely opportunities vs problems in social media analytics. Being a text miner myself i could add my 2 cents by saying that accuracy in sentiment analysis is very application – specific, typical being around 72 – 75% in my experience. This technology provides very good insights in what people want and how they think, why they don’t like specific products / services or politicians. Great caution is needed not to make wrong conclusions though.

By: Katie Delahaye Paine

Katie Delahaye Paine — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 03:19:22 +0000

Interesting perspective, but as my father said back in the 60s when he was publisher of Fortune: “If we can put a man into orbit, why can’t we, with any degree of certainty, measure the effectiveness of communications. The reason is simple, and perhaps a bit old fashioned. People. Human beings with a wide range of choice, cantankerous, capricous and consumed by innumerable conflicting interests and conflicting desires. ”
The problem with your post is that it ignores the importance of the human element. At best, automated sentiment analysis is correct about 65% of the time. If the finance department was only accurate 65% of the time, the CEO would be in jail, and the company would be bankrupt. You cannot rely entirely on computers. You need humans, trained in the science of research and analtyics to check the accuracy, as well as to interpret the results.