Retently provides two key widgets: Top 5 Positive Topics and Top 5 Negative Topics. Each topic listed in these widgets has a sentiment dynamic represented as a percentage. This article explores the concept of sentiment dynamic, its calculation, and how to interpret the changes effectively.
What is the topic sentiment dynamic?
The topic sentiment dynamic is a metric that helps you track the changes in your audience's sentiment towards a particular topic over a specified comparison period.
The sentiment dynamic is represented as a percentage, indicating the difference between a topic's sentiment score at the beginning and the end of the comparison period.
The formula for calculating the sentiment score is as follows:
Number of times a topic had a positive (or negative) sentiment / Total number of times a topic had any sentiment
This calculation varies slightly depending on whether you're viewing the Top 5 Positive Topics or Top 5 Negative Topics widget. This ensures an accurate representation of the sentiment dynamic for a topic among other topics with the same sentiment orientation.
Interpreting the dynamic values
Now that we understand what topic sentiment dynamic is and how it's calculated, let's understand how to interpret these values correctly:
Positive Dynamic: In the Top 5 Positive Topics widget, the sentiment dynamic ideally should increase (represented by a green arrow pointing upwards ↑). This means the topic is gaining more positive sentiments over the comparison period, which is a positive sign.
Negative Dynamic: In the Top 5 Negative Topics widget, the sentiment dynamic ideally should decrease (represented by a green arrow pointing downwards ↓). This indicates that negative sentiments associated with the topic are reducing over time, which means that more neutral and positive sentiments increased.
However, if you notice the dynamic's percentage displayed in red, this means that the topic has gathered more negative sentiments, irrespective of whether it's on the positive or negative topics list.
Why is the sentiment dynamic important?
Understanding sentiment dynamics provides insights into how perceptions around certain topics are changing. This knowledge can be crucial when making decisions such as which areas to improve, which features to highlight, or which issues to address urgently.