# Sentiment & Position

Two of GrackerAI's visibility signals get their own dedicated view: **Sentiment** (how AI talks about you) and **Position** (where within the response you land, down to a per-mention percentile). Position is tracked separately from **Prominence**, the coarser first/middle/final-third signal that feeds your visibility score - related ideas, but different measurements. Both move independently of whether you're mentioned at all.

![Sentiment & Position](/docs/images/sentiment_and_position.png)

You can be present in every response and still lose the deal - if you're mentioned last, or mentioned coolly. This tab is where you catch that.

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## Sentiment Drift

Your average sentiment score over time, plotted alongside your tracked competitors. GrackerAI scores the tone of every response that mentions you - positive, neutral, or negative - and tracks the trend.

Watch for:
- **Declining trend** - AI is describing you less favourably. A visibility drop usually follows 4–8 weeks later, so this is an early warning, not a lagging metric.
- **Sudden negative spike** - Usually traces to one specific source: a new negative review, a competitor's comparison page, or content of yours that's gone stale.

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## Sentiment Distribution

A breakdown of every response that mentions you into positive, neutral, and negative buckets across your monitoring period.

A healthy distribution for most B2B brands is **60%+ positive, under 10% negative**. If negative exceeds 20%, treat it as a priority investigation, not background noise.

When a competitor's sentiment drops while yours holds steady, buyers actively comparing the two of you are more likely to lean your way. Track both, not just your own line.

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## Position Distribution

Position is about *where* in the response you're mentioned, not *whether* you are. AI answers read top to bottom - a brand named first reads as the default recommendation; a brand named fourth reads as an afterthought, even with identical sentiment.

Every mention carries a **position percentile** - how early in the response it falls, based on its exact character offset, from 0 (the very start) to 100 (the very end). The Position Distribution table groups mentions into three tiers - **Hero** (first third of the response), **Middle**, and **Tail** (last third) - and shows how your mentions split across them versus your competitors. A high Hero share means AI leads with you.

For the per-competitor average-position comparison (**Position Battle**), see the [Competitors tab](/docs/using-gracker/competitor-analysis).

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## Reading Sentiment and Position Together

The two signals answer different questions, and the combination tells you what to fix:

| Sentiment | Position | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Positive | Early | Strong - AI treats you as the leading answer |
| Positive | Late | AI likes you but doesn't lead with you - an authority gap, not a perception gap |
| Negative | Early | Visible but framed badly - a messaging fix, not a content-gap fix |
| Negative | Late | Weakest combination - both authority and framing need work |

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## Common Workflows

### Monthly Sentiment Review (15 min)
1. Open Sentiment Drift and check for a declining trend over the last 30 days
2. Cross-check Sentiment Distribution - if negative is above 20%, open the underlying [Responses](/docs/using-gracker/responses-and-citations/responses) to read what's driving it
3. Identify whether the source is a review, a competitor comparison page, or outdated content of yours
4. Log the finding and assign a fix - content update, PR outreach, or a review-response strategy

### Position Trend Check (10 min, weekly)
1. Check your Hero/Middle/Tail split in Position Distribution, then open **Position Battle** on the Competitors tab to compare your average position against your top 2 competitors
2. If you're consistently mentioned after a specific competitor, open [Competitor Analysis](/docs/using-gracker/competitor-analysis) to see what's driving their lead
3. Prioritise content that directly targets the comparison prompts where you're losing position

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## Next Steps

- [Check your mentions](/docs/using-gracker/mentions): role, context, and factual accuracy behind each mention
- [Understand your visibility score](/docs/using-gracker/understanding-your-scores/visibility-score): see how sentiment and prominence feed your overall score

- [Read your responses](/docs/using-gracker/responses-and-citations/responses): read the full text behind a sentiment or position shift