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Sentiment Analysis

Track how people feel about your brand—see sentiment scores, keywords driving tone, and real posts behind the trends.

Julie Bevacqua avatar
Written by Julie Bevacqua
Updated this week

In this article

Learn how to use Sentiment Analysis to understand audience tone and reactions, including how to:

  • Track shifts in sentiment over time

  • Identify keywords driving positive and negative posts

  • Explore the post feed by sentiment type

  • Adjust sentiment labels for accuracy

  • Filter by Sub-Tracker to compare tone across segments

Overview

Sentiment Analysis shows whether your tracked posts are positive, negative, or neutral. You’ll get a visual breakdown over time, plus the keywords driving tone and the individual posts behind the shifts—so you can stay ahead of perception changes, catch issues early, and understand audience reaction in more depth.

Watch this overview video of Sentiment Analysis


How to Use Sentiment Analysis

See how people feel about your topic—at a glance.

To open Sentiment Analysis:

  1. Go to Listening & Campaigns

  2. Select your tracker

  3. Click Sentiment in the left-hand menu
    (You can also click Sentiment from the dashboard preview card.)

Inside, you’ll see:

  • A timeline of sentiment changes

  • A sentiment score (% of positive out of positive + negative)

  • A keyword list by sentiment

  • A post feed with emoji sentiment labels

Use it to:

  • Track tone shifts across a campaign

  • Spot spikes in negativity or positivity

  • See which keywords are fueling each sentiment

  • Browse posts to understand context and audience mood


Sentiment Timeline & Score

The timeline chart helps you spot tone changes over time—whether it’s a sudden spike in positive reactions or a dip into negative sentiment.

  • Green = Positive posts

  • Orange = Negative posts

  • Blue = Neutral posts

  • Blue Line = Sentiment score trend (based on positive % out of total positive + negative)

To the right, the donut chart shows your current sentiment breakdown.

  • Green = % Positive

  • Orange = % Negative

  • Blue = % Neutral

Score = Positive / (Positive + Negative)

Neutral posts are excluded from this score.

Use this chart to:

  • Catch mood swings in your campaign

  • Understand how sentiment evolves day to day

  • Flag potential issues before they escalate

Key insights to look for

  • Spikes in positive or negative sentiment: Sharp changes in tone may reflect news events, campaign reactions, or shifts in public perception.

  • Repeated negative keywords: Terms that appear frequently in negative posts may be influencing how your brand or topic is perceived.

  • Increase in neutral posts: A rise in neutral content can suggest lower engagement or waning audience interest.

  • Consistent positive keywords: Words that appear often in positive posts can highlight themes or messages that are resonating.

  • Differences across Sub-Trackers: Variations in sentiment by audience, region, or campaign can reveal how different groups are responding.


Keywords Driving Sentiment

This section breaks down which words are showing up in positive vs. negative posts.

You’ll see two tabs:

  • Positive: Keywords fueling upbeat posts

  • Negative: Keywords linked to concern, criticism, or backlash

Click any keyword to see how it’s being used in context.

Use this to:

  • Spot potential red flags

  • See if a single word is skewing sentiment

  • Refine how you position or phrase your content


Post Feed by Sentiment

On the right side of the dashboard, you’ll see the individual posts behind your sentiment score.

Each post shows:

  • Platform and user (Usernames may not always appear, depending on the platform. See the the Ultimate Guide to Social Listening Data in Keyhole for details.)

  • Post content

  • Engagements

  • Date of post

  • Sentiment

    • 😀 Very Positive

    • 😌 Slightly Positive

    • 😐 Neutral

    • 🙁 Slightly Negative

    • 😡 Very Negative

Click on a keyword in Keywords Driving Sentiment - it will be highlighted in the matching posts on the right.

Use this to:

  • See the tone in action

  • Compare engagement across sentiment types

  • Surface examples for PR, support, or strategy review

Click Load More Posts to see additional results.


Adjust the Sentiment of Posts

You can update the sentiment on any post if needed—especially if tone or context was misread.

To edit one post:

  1. Go to the Posts page

  2. Hover over the post and click Edit Sentiment

  3. Choose a new emoji

To bulk edit:

  1. Switch to List View at the top of the Posts page

  2. Select multiple posts

  3. Click Edit Sentiment at the bottom

  4. Choose a new emoji

You can also sort the Posts table by sentiment to group similar posts together.


Sub-Trackers in Sentiment Analysis

If your tracker includes Sub-Trackers, you can view sentiment within each one individually.

To do that:

  1. Click the dropdown at the top of the page

  2. Select the Sub-Tracker you want

  3. The graphs, keywords, and posts will refresh to show sentiment data just for that group

⚠️ Sentiment Analysis currently supports English-language posts only.

It may not catch sarcasm, slang, irony, or cultural nuances.


Get Help

For additional support, click the chat icon in the bottom right-hand corner and select I'm an existing customer and need support.

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