Online sentiment...like tossing a coin!

Automated sentiment analysis
Sentiment analysis might be seen as a way of finding favourability of online coverage. There are some free tools like Tweet Minister for Twitter, although most of the online services use a paid approach. Views on their accuracy are mixed; Mel Carson, Community Manager at Microsoft in a recent For Immediate Release podcast said his experiences of sentiment analysis were not positive enough for him recommend their use.

Fresh Networks went further in their review of Social Media Monitoring Tools 2010, indicated they were no more accurate than tossing a coin!

The solution is to restrict the content to the influential conversations, and then to graft-on human sentiment and message analysis, either done in-house or externally if independent credibility is important.