Often the easiest way to do this is through a monitoring platform. Using Google Alerts or a similar collection tool, you'll need to apply the "sentiment scale" (positve or negative) yourself. For a small number of items this can be OK, but as your program grows (as your social mentions grow in number) you'll want a more robust solution.
Firms like Techrigy, radian6, Cymfony, BlogPulse, KD Paine and others offer platforms with varying degrees of sopohistication and price points: the common feature is that all make qauntifying community mentions easier.
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Dave Evans
