Alexis Kestler
Monitoring your brand mentions is an activity of tracking various channels, to find out when and where is your brand mentioned.
You’ll need this information for analysis. The data you will need to monitor are blog posts, social media channels, comments, but also articles in newspapers. There are plenty of tools that will do the job for you, and considering the benefits you can get out of it, this could be important for your brand.
There are several reasons why this is essential. One of the most important reasons is to interact with your followers and turn them into brand ambassadors. Also, you can avoid potential problems and disasters. And you can measure how effective your marketing campaigns are. The more your brand is mentioned, the more your influence grows.
How to Start Monitoring your Brand
When you are just trying to figure out what to do, it can seem overwhelming. It is important to determine which data has value, and which hasn’t. It can be done with just one keyword, but it can happen that people use different words connected to your brand, so you’ll miss it. For example, branded hashtags (or other hashtags you use) may not be compiled from that single word.
By monitoring just one keyword (or more if your brand is made of more) you will not get the results you’ll want to. So, we will go through the main features which will help you to set your tracking.
Different Variations of your Brand Name
Take some time to think about all variations that may appear online. Maybe you already use some of them. Shortened names, adding or missing out special characters, usual misspellings, nicknames, etc. may help you track any conversations connected to your brand.
Social Media Handles (@example) and Hashtags (#example)
Monitoring handles and related hashtags guarantee you don’t miss any conversation on social media. It is normal to consider just the brand’s handle, but sometimes handles are equal and sometimes not to the brand’s original name.
You could read about the value of using hashtags in our post “Instagram Hashtag Research: Strategies for Beginners“, so monitoring them may have multiple benefits. They are used everywhere, so tracking these conversations will help you stay on top. This is particularly important for your brand hashtags – you will get data on how much they are actually used.
Negative Keywords and Competition
Tracking any negative keywords, and also your competition keywords may help you to prevent crisis and possible problems. You will get access to any conversations where is your brand mentioned with another brand’s name. Also, it is very useful to track links that point to your website, to have information on why.
Using Google Alerts
Google Alerts is a free and most common tool to track the topics you are interested in across the web. It doesn’t offer many features, but it is very simple and easy to use. You can quickly sign in with your Google account and set it up. But you have to keep in mind you can miss out on some mentions, or get the alert a couple of days later. You can use it since it’s free, but if you are taking this task seriously it should not be your only tool.
You are able to choose the options you want:
- how often – as it happens, once per day or once per week
- sources:
- language and region
- how many – you can choose between all results and only the best results
- deliver to – your email address
Using Awario
Awario is one of the most mentioned tools for brand monitoring and social listening online. It is checking over 13 billion websites daily, which also includes social networks and forums. It comes with a price, you can check here.
Their email alerts are fast and functional. You can fully customize your sources and results you would like to get, and also the frequency of the alerts. (Similar to Google Alerts.) This is a great tool, worth the investment.
There are plenty of other tools online to help you monitor your brand. Some of them are free, some are not. Brandwatch is worth trying, but you can also check Mention or even Keyhole if you prefer social listening. With a little research, you can find something that suits your needs.
How to Use Mentions in your Advance
Every mention of your brand should be an opportunity to build something else out of it. Even if it’s a negative comment. And when your business starts growing, there will be more and more of mentions. That is a good sign and always try hard to improve it by answering it.
Consider brand mentions as a shout out for your business. People will talk about it and create an organic audience around that mention. You will get a lot of shares and sales.
