Sentiment
Sentiment is the tone an AI answer takes when it names your brand: positive, neutral or negative.
Sentiment is how an AI answer talks about you when it names you. "Fernhill roasts some of the freshest beans in the UK" is positive. "Fernhill is one of several roasters that deliver" is neutral. "Fernhill only delivers within London" is negative.
The platforms build their answers from what's written about you across the web, so the tone of their answers is a short summary of your reputation.
How we read it
We read each mention of your brand as positive, neutral or negative, and keep the words the reading is based on. You see the verdict next to the sentence it came from, so you can judge it yourself.
We count how many of each there are, and don't turn them into a score. A score out of 100 suggests more precision than a reading of a few sentences can give, and it hides why an answer was marked the way it was.
For example, a week with 40 positive, 90 neutral and 10 negative mentions tells you more than a single score of 71 would, because you can open the 10 negative ones and read them.
How we count has the rule.
Reading your sentiment
Neutral isn't bad. An answer that lists you with others without praise or criticism is neutral, and most answers are.
Read the negative mentions first. They often repeat an old complaint, or something that's no longer true, and the answer's sources show where it came from.
Sentiment is about tone. Whether what an answer says about you is true is a separate question, answered by AI claims and brand facts.
Where to find it
The Sentiment tab in Perception shows your tone by brand or by platform, day by day. What's said lists the things the answers say about you, with their tone and the pages behind them.