What Is Net Sentiment Score & How to Use It

You’ve got likes, comments, shares, and a sea of brand mentions. You’re tracking the data, you’re seeing the activity, but let’s be honest—what does it all really mean? How do people actually feel about your brand?

What if you could boil all that noise down to a single, powerful number? A number that tells you, at a glance, whether the internet loves you, loathes you, or is just plain indifferent.

Meet the Net Sentiment Score (NSS).

It’s the marketing metric you’ve been missing, and it’s about to become your new best friend for tracking brand health, measuring campaign impact, and understanding your audience on a whole new level. In this article, we’ll break down what it is, how it’s calculated, and three ways you can put it to work immediately.

What is Sentiment Analysis? (A Quick Refresher)

Before we dive into Net Sentiment Score, let’s quickly touch on the engine that powers it: sentiment analysis.

In a nutshell, sentiment analysis is the process of using technology (like AI and machine learning) to scan online text and determine the emotion behind it. At its most basic level, it categorizes any given brand mention—be it a social media post, a news article, or a blog review—as one of four things:

• Positive: “Just used the new Makemi report and it’s a game-changer for our marketing!”
• Negative: “Ugh, I’m so frustrated with the customer service at Brand X.”
• Mixed: “I love my iPhone’s new display but the battery life sucks.”
• Neutral: “Brand Y announced its Q3 earnings today.”

This process gives you a foundational understanding of online conversations. But counting up individual positive and negative mentions only tells part of the story. You need a way to see the big picture. That’s where NSS comes in.

Breaking Down the Net Sentiment Score

The Net Sentiment Score is a simple metric that calculates the overall balance of positive and negative feelings expressed about your brand online. It distills all those individual mentions into a single score ranging from -100 (everyone is saying negative things) to +100 (everyone is saying positive things). A score of 0 indicates a perfect balance between positive and negative sentiment.

The formula is straightforward:

(Number of positive mentions – Number of negative mentions) / (Sum of positive + negative mentions) x 100

For example, if you had 120 total mentions in a month:

• 60 were positive
• 20 were negative
• 20 were mixed
• 20 were neutral

Your NSS would be:

(60 – 20) / 80 x 100 = +50.

This single number gives you a clear, immediate understanding of your brand’s overall reputation.

Why Bother with Net Sentiment Score? (The Benefits)

In a world drowning in data, simplicity is a superpower. The beauty of the Net Sentiment Score lies in its ability to cut through the clutter.

• It’s a Simple KPI: Forget juggling a dozen different metrics. NSS gives you one reliable number to track overall brand health. It’s easy for anyone in your company, from the CEO to a marketing intern, to understand.
• It’s a Benchmark: How did your sentiment score this month compare to last month? How does it stack up against your biggest competitor? NSS provides a clear benchmark to measure your performance over time and against others in your industry.
• It’s a North Star for Strategy: A rising score can indicate that your new marketing campaign is resonating with your audience. A sudden drop can act as an early warning system for a PR crisis, allowing you to react before it spirals.

Putting Your Score to Work: 3 Ways to Use Net Sentiment Score

Knowing your score is one thing; using it is another. Here are three practical ways to leverage your Net Sentiment Score.

1. Track Campaign Impact: You just launched a major new ad campaign. You’re seeing a spike in mentions, but are they good or bad? By tracking your NSS before, during, and after the campaign, you can get a clear, data-backed answer on whether your message is hitting the mark or falling flat.
2. Monitor Brand Health: Your brand’s reputation isn’t static. Tracking your NSS on an ongoing basis (e.g., monthly or quarterly) gives you a continuous pulse on how the public perceives you. This allows you to identify patterns, understand what drives positive conversation, and address sources of negative feedback.
3. Analyze Your Competition: How are you perceived compared to your competitors? A competitor analysis using NSS can reveal their strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps their customers are complaining about a specific issue you can solve, or maybe they launched a campaign that was universally loved. These are invaluable insights for your own strategy.

The Makemi Advantage: From Score to Strategy

While the Net Sentiment Score is a powerful starting point, it’s not the end of the story. A score of +40 is great, but why is it +40? What emotions are driving the positive conversations? What specific issues are causing the negative ones?

That’s where Makemi comes in.

Our Sentiment Analysis Report doesn’t just give you a number. We provide the context and strategic insights you need to take action. As a one-shot, consultant-style report, we deliver a comprehensive analysis that tells you the “why” behind your score. We dig deeper to:

• Assign secondary emotions to positive and negative posts, so you know if people are “excited” or just “satisfied.”
• Determine the importance of each mention based on engagement and outlet relevance, so you can focus on what matters most.
• Offer strategic considerations to help you leverage the good and fix the bad, turning your score into a concrete action plan.

We deliver the deep insights of a consulting engagement without the long-term commitment, giving you exactly what you need to improve your marketing.

Conclusion

In today’s fast-paced digital world, understanding public perception is more critical than ever. The Net Sentiment Score offers a clear, concise, and powerful way to measure it. It’s an essential KPI for any marketer serious about building a strong brand reputation.

Ready to find out your score and, more importantly, what to do about it?

Learn more about Makemi’s Sentiment Analysis Report and take the first step toward mastering your brand’s reputation.