Sentiment Analysis: Meaning and Definition

Sentiment analysis uses natural-language processing to classify mentions of a brand, product, or person as positive, negative, or neutral, and to track how that sentiment shifts over time. Applied to social posts, reviews, news, and forum chatter, sentiment analysis converts qualitative chatter into measurable reputation signals. Brands use it to flag emerging PR crises early, measure campaign impact, and feed data-driven reputation-management decisions — such as when to publish positive content or correct misinformation.