Word-of-mouth marketing can be a key tool in driving ecommerce sales, and it can happen anywhere. Maybe customers are raving about your business on Reddit, sharing unboxing videos on TikTok, or writing detailed reviews on their personal blogs. You can turn these positive brand mentions into powerful social proof on your website, use them to identify your biggest brand advocates, or repurpose them as content for your marketing channels.
Even negative mentions present opportunities to strengthen your business: You can use them to gather honest feedback on how you can improve, or respond to them directly, preventing reputational damage. All types of brand mentions matter, and you can use a few tools to monitor them and make the most of what people are saying about your brand.
What are brand mentions?
Brand mentions are references to your business, products, or services in news articles, online reviews, social media posts, or other media. Companies rely on media monitoring tools to find brand mentions, which can range from casual mentions to detailed discussions about a company’s offerings.
Brand mentions, whether positive, neutral, or negative, can offer valuable insights into your company’s brand reputation, helping you understand how customers really feel about your business (called brand sentiment).
Types of brand mentions
Brand mentions can appear anywhere your audience congregates online. Some are direct (when a user states your company name or tags your company) or indirect (when a user talks about your products or discusses your business without citing your company name). Brand mentions can also appear in the media, from news articles to television segments to podcasts. Brand mentions can be:
- Social media brand mentions. Consumers or content creators discuss your brand on social media channels like Instagram and LinkedIn, whether in posts, tags, hashtags, or comment sections.
- Reviews and ratings. Customers share their experiences with your company on review sites like Google Reviews or Yelp.
- Community discussions. People share opinions about your products in online forums and online communities like Reddit or Facebook groups.
- Blog or print mentions. Bloggers weave references to your products into their articles and guides, or journalists and reporters feature your company on news sites, in industry publications, or in digital magazines.
- Broadcast coverage. Radio, television, and podcast hosts discuss your brand.
Why monitor brand mentions?
A thoughtful brand monitoring strategy helps you capitalize on positive conversations and address negative mentions before they escalate into larger issues. Once you track brand mentions, here are a few ways you can use your newfound insights to improve your ecommerce company:
Engage in real-time conversations
When you identify brand mentions online, you can join conversations about your business while they’re still relevant and active. Quick, thoughtful responses show your audience that you’re listening and value their input.
A 2024 study found that consumers prefer local businesses that respond to both positive and negative reviews: 88% of consumers said they would patronize a business that responded to all reviews, while only 47% of consumers said they would patronize a business that never responded.
Noticing and responding to negative brand mentions can also help you with reputation management and help you prevent a public relations crisis before it happens.
Amplify social proof
Make use of the enthusiasm of satisfied customers. You can monitor your brand mentions to find instances of positive feedback, then (with permission) broadcast those positive reviews to a wider audience. Plus, your audience might trust these reviews over your own advertisements: A study from multinational PR company Edelman found that 63% of 18- to 24-year-old consumers trust what an influencer says about a brand over what that brand says about itself.
As a small business owner, you can leverage these positive brand mentions by resharing them across your marketing channels—like in a post on your website’s blog, an Instagram Story, or a mention in your email newsletter.
Beauty brand Glossier, for example, used this strategy to great effect. The company turned passionate customers into micro-influencers and brand ambassadors by featuring their authentic content on the Glossier Instagram page, helping to build a sense of community between the company and its audience.
Use feedback to drive improvements
You might shiver at the thought of seeing a negative mention of your company, but you can use neutral and negative brand mentions to help you improve your company.
For example, recurring customer support requests might tell you where to strengthen your customer service process. Brand mentions detailing confusion over your website or messaging can signal how you might revamp your marketing and communications strategies, and customers’ product feedback can reveal which product features you need to improve.
For instance, fashion brand Minted New York uses TikTok not just for marketing, but for product development—when founder Marcus Milione shared a prototype of a tote bag on the platform, commenters pointed out that the bag needed an adjustable strap, feedback that Marcus incorporated into the product’s final design.
Tools for tracking brand mentions
Brand mention tools can notify you every time your company name appears on social media or elsewhere on the web. Some tools can do a lot more, like showing you your brand mentions over time or using artificial intelligence to analyze your brand sentiment. Finding the right media monitoring solution depends on your needs, budget, and the channels where your audience talks about you the most.
Google Alerts
Google Alerts is a simple brand-tracking tool.You input keywords (like your brand name), then the technology scans the web for mentions of those words, sending you an email notification whenever your brand appears in news articles, blog posts, or other web content. You can customize these alerts by language and region and decide how often you receive updates.
Google Alerts’ real-time notices make it a great way to stay on top of breaking stories about your brand. However, it doesn’t track social media mentions, so you might want to supplement it with dedicated social listening tools.
Pricing: Free.
Sprout Social
Sprout Social helps you monitor brand mentions across major social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn while offering detailed analytics and response tools. It can process up to 50,000 posts per second, and Sprout Social’s AI features can tell you which mentions you should prioritize to mitigate brand damage. Note that Sprout Social focuses on social listening rather than press mentions, so you’ll likely want to pair the tool with one that can also monitor brand mentions in the media.
Pricing: Plans start at $249 per user per month, with the Professional tier at $399, the Advanced tier at $499, and Enterprise plans with custom pricing.
Agorapulse
Agorapulse is a social media management platform that provides comprehensive social media mentions monitoring alongside tools to enhance team collaboration and streamline workflows. The tool can consolidate messages from multiple social media platforms into an inbox, and its reporting features can track engagement metrics over time.
Agorapulse’s toolkit also includes features like saved replies and automated inbox rules, ensuring cohesive brand messaging across your small business. Agorapulse focuses on social channels, so you’ll need a separate monitoring system to track mentions across the broader web.
Pricing: Monitoring-enabled plans start at $99 a month for Professional level, and go up to $149 a month for Advanced and custom pricing for Enterprise. The free and Standard plans do not include monitoring features.
Mention
Mention is a media monitoring solution that tracks conversations across social networks, news sites, forums, and blogs in real time. The platform’s AI-powered sentiment analysis helps you understand the tone of conversations about your brand. Mention also offers competitive analysis tools that can help you track the online reputation of your competitors.
Pricing: Plans start at $49 a month for basic monitoring (Solo), with the Pro tier at $99 a month and ProPlus for larger teams at $179 a month. Enterprise solutions are available through custom pricing.
Brandwatch
Brandwatch is a comprehensive brand monitoring tool that alerts you to new brand mentions. The tool can find brand mentions across both print and social media, detect indirect brand mentions, and help you analyze your brand mentions over a span of years. The tool can also segment your audience, helping you further understand the story behind your brand mentions.
Pricing: Custom pricing based on the needs and features you require.
Best practices for tracking brand mentions
Monitoring what people say about your brand online requires more than just searching your company name. A systematic approach with the right tools helps you catch every meaningful mention and turn those conversations into actionable insights.
Watch for brand variations
Many companies see multiple versions of their names in everyday use—just think about how you might write “Coca-Cola” as “CocaCola” or “Coca Cola.” You’ll need to catch these alternate spellings to build a complete picture of your brand presence online and in the media. You’ll also want to track specific product names, slogans and taglines, and any unique branded terms that customers might use. If you’re a founder and face of your brand, don’t forget to monitor mentions of your own name, too.
Analyze conversation sentiment
Once you identify your keyword matches across the web, you’ll want to conduct sentiment analysis to determine whether your brand mentions are negative, neutral, or positive. Sentiment analysis is a qualitative procedure, but you can still use technology like AI machine learning to help you parse through large numbers of brand mentions (and many brand monitoring tools offer these AI tools). Insight into your brand sentiment might prove especially valuable during product launches or marketing campaigns when you want to determine customer reactions.
Keep tabs on competitors
Although it’s always a good idea to monitor your own brand mentions, you also might want to monitor your competitors’ brand mentions. Understanding your rivals’ online presence can reveal gaps and opportunities in your market.
For instance, if customers frequently complain about a competitor’s clunky return process, you might decide to emphasize your own hassle-free policy in your messaging. In another example, a direct-to-consumer clothing brand might notice repeated complaints about a competitor’s limited size range, then take the opportunity to highlight its inclusive and diverse fit options. Monitoring competitors’ mentions helps you stay ahead of industry trends and identify unmet customer needs before they become mainstream demands.
Brand mentions FAQ
How do you measure brand mentions?
You can measure brand mentions with monitoring tools like Google Alerts, Mention, or Sprout Social that track and analyze online conversations about your brand.
What are the different types of brand mentions?
Brand mentions include references to your company in social media posts, online reviews, news and blog coverage, broadcasts like television reports and podcasts, and online community forums.
What is the difference between direct and indirect brand mentions?
Direct mentions specifically mention or tag your brand name, while indirect mentions reference your products, taglines, or company without explicitly using your brand name.
