In 2018, Tide Pods were on the menu. Adopted by internet meme culture, many social media users posted videos and content of the Tide Pod Challenge, where individuals dared each other to consume the detergent capsules.
Tide followed the emerging trend and online discourse closely and responded with a series of humorous ads featuring professional NFL player Rob Gronkowski telling viewers that the pods “are for doing laundry—nothing else!”
Tide’s response was a high-profile example of a company keeping track of how the public talks about its products and brand. Keeping tabs like this can help with crisis management, nipping potentially damaging discussions about your company in the bud. But it can also ensure you stay relevant and at the top of people’s minds in a positive sense as well.
Learn how to fine-tune your brand monitoring efforts to grow your business’s reach and popularity.
What is brand monitoring?
Brand monitoring refers to the practice of tracking brand mentions and analyzing how people are talking about your product, service, or brand online or in real life. With software, it’s much easier to track brand mentions across a variety of digital channels—from forums and review sites to social media platforms.
Why is brand monitoring important?
Brand monitoring gives insight into public perception of your brand’s reputation. It’s effective when it comes to gauging the reactions to any public-facing company shifts—think new product releases or marketing campaigns. Having this information will help you make quick decisions to further invest in what’s working or cut back on what isn’t.
Brand monitoring functions in tandem with social media monitoring and community management. Using tracking tools, you can find out when influencers mention your brand and capitalize on their audiences for additional engagement.
Checking in on what people are saying online also functions as an avenue for unvarnished customer feedback. Consumers will provide honest reactions and opinions if they’re truly speaking of their own accord. It’s an effective alternative to using traditional customer feedback forms, but both approaches can augment your market research or improve your product.
4 channels to consider monitoring
Given the scale of the digital landscape, the prospect of following mentions of your company may seem daunting. Here are the four channels you should consider monitoring:
1. Review sites
It’s difficult to understate the importance of review sites in regard to your brand reputation. According to one count, 88% of customers read Google reviews of a local business before choosing whether or not to engage with them.
While you can’t control how many stars customers give you on Google, you can check these sites to gauge popular perception, as well as to respond to outstanding complaints, questions, or feedback. Google even offers a word-cloud style tool on its interface to display keywords or phrases your customers consistently use when mentioning your business.
2. Social media
Many consumers, particularly those in the younger generations, use social media posts as their primary method of digital customer service. These customers expect engagement via Instagram direct messages, X post mentions, and TikTok comments. Using software or staff to monitor conversations on various social media channels helps build brand loyalty, nurture customer relationships, and inform marketing and business strategy.
3. News media
While not as customer-focused, traditional news media can strongly influence discourse and sentiment regarding your brand. News tracker tools such as Google Alerts can make it easy to receive a notification when an outlet mentions your business, product, or any related keyword.
4. Online forums
With more than 267 million weekly active users, Reddit is one of the most popular websites in the world, and a place users go to discuss in-depth experiences with products or services. Forums like Reddit offer a wealth of user-generated content that you can use to monitor how the public feels about your brand.
Elements to consider monitoring
Once you tap into online brand monitoring, you might find there are many ways to gauge how customers feel about your brand and products. This list can help you get started when deciding where and how to engage in brand monitoring:
Public sentiment
Public sentiment is the overall feeling that people have toward your brand. Do they sound positive when they talk about your company? Do they have some negative emotions about the quality of your products? You can use sentiment analysis tools to generate these general emotional assessments and get a good baseline understanding of where your brand stands.
Brand, product, or service mentions
One of the easiest brand monitoring elements to track is mentions of your brand name or the name of your product or service. Tracking these mentions can lead you to larger discussions happening online, as well as individual customer issues.
Customer pain points
It doesn’t feel good when a customer leaves a negative comment or review, but it represents an opportunity for your company to learn what it can do better. You can’t improve your brand’s online presence if you refuse to take constructive criticism. If multiple customers have the same issue with returns, for example, it might be time to review your processes.
Competitors
Consumers' time and attention is a limited resource. Checking in on what the competitors in your space are doing is a good way to ensure you retain your brand’s share of that pie.
5 top brand monitoring tools
There are dozens of modern brand monitoring tools. Here are a five to get you started:
1. Ahrefs
While primarily an SEO tool, Ahrefs also offers a range of brand monitoring functionality, including real-time alerts about your brand and relevant keywords across the web. Its analysis tool also helps identify influencers in your industry, as well as insightful data about how you stack up against your competitors when it comes to search ranking and mentions.
Pricing: Ahrefs plans start at $129 per month.
2. Google Alerts
Google Alerts is one of the simplest free brand monitoring tools. It sends you information when new results for a topic show up in Google Search. This is particularly useful for traditional news media mentions of your brand or product, curated through Google News.
Pricing: Google Alerts is free.
3. Keyhole
Keyhole is a social media brand monitoring tool that tracks and analyzes popular engagement metrics such as impressions, link clicks, and mentions. You can customize it to keep tabs on predefined keywords, URLs, or hashtags. You can also use it to generate sentiment analysis reports, as well as reports showing how you compare to your competition.
Pricing: Keyhole plans start at $79 per month.
4. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a popular social media management tool that doubles as a social listening software. It has a built-in AI brand sentiment analysis feature, too. Take advantage of its competitive benchmarking tool—it’ll offer you valuable insights into competitor brand mentions, behavior, and industry trends.
Pricing: Hootsuite plans start at $99 per month.
5. Brandwatch
Brandwatch is a powerful brand monitoring software that keeps track of review site mentions, as well as backlink analysis. Its influencer marketing functionality offers an easy-to-use option to find and engage with individuals in your space with large followings.
Pricing: Brandwatch plans vary for each customer. Inquire with Brandwatch to learn more.
Brand monitoring FAQ
What content should brands monitor?
Your company can keep an eye on everything from specific mentions of your brand name across social media networks to keywords relevant to your industry on internet forums.
What is an example of brand monitoring?
If your small ecommerce shop uses Google Reviews to gauge interest in and respond to comments about your newest product launch, that’s a great example of an engaged brand monitoring effort.
What are the top tools for brand monitoring?
Ahrefs, Google Alerts, Keyhole, Hootsuite, and Brandwatch are all potential offerings for your business to use for brand monitoring. They’ll provide you with plenty of social media coverage, as well as the ability to scour review sites and forums.
