Don’t you just love it when people mention your brand? Really, it does not matter whether the mention is positive or negative. You see, publicity is still publicity.
But how can you find out? It is not like people would tag you all the time if they mentioned your brand name. If you did not know your brand was mentioned, there really is no way that you can respond.
Today, I will show you how you can track your social mentions. This way, you will find out what people are saying, and you can respond appropriately.
Before we start, some people say that social monitoring is different from social listening. Social monitoring is looking for “what,” and social listening is looking for “why.”
Pundits like to slice and dice these things, but they are the same thing as far as I am concerned.
1. Social Mention
Social Mention is a monitoring platform. It aggregates information from different social channels like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and others. What it does is it identifies mentions based on keywords. If these keywords appear, you will get notified.
This software tracks information from more than 80 social media channels. That is not a typo—it is really eighty.
Here are the features:
- Strength – measures how likely your brand is being discussed online. It is a benchmark of how popular you are, and you can use this as a goal. The stronger your score is, the more people are talking about you.
- Sentiment – it is a ratio of how many of your mentions are positive against the negative ones. This is great because you no longer have to read the comments one by one and tag them, whether positive or negative.
- Reach – this is a measurement of your range of influence. The reach takes into account how many unique authors have mentioned or referenced your brand.
With this tool, you can get real-time analysis if there is any mention of your brand and which social media channel. You will also find the actual page or comment where your brand was mentioned.
What I like about this tool are its algorithm and scoring methods. The scores are made with statistics in mind. It also makes it easier for you to assess whether your brand name is doing well or not. A low score on a metric is a good indication that you have a job to do.
2. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a free social media software that also comes in a paid version. With this tool, you can see if there is a comment or a mention of your brand from the social media channels that you have integrated.
Here are the features of Hootsuite:
- Schedule social posts – one problem that many bloggers have is that they have to post on different social media channels one by one. With Hootsuite, you just upload a post in the software, and it will launch the same post on different social media channels at the time you choose.
- Filter conversations – you can choose what the tool shows you by selecting specific hashtags and keywords. This applies not only to your brand name but all other keywords you choose. This way, you can stay in touch with what is happening in your industry.
One thing about this tool that I really like is that you can integrate it with your blog. If you publish a new blog post, it will also post that blog on your social media channels. Your followers can see this, and you have the potential to get more traffic if they click on your link.
The tool has a great dashboard where you will immediately see what is happening on the social channels that you integrated. It is like looking at different social media channels on one page. From there, you can determine which comment or mention needs your immediate attention.
The free Hootsuite plan allows you to integrate three social media channels. If you want more, you have to subscribe to the paid plan. Also, the free plan only allows you to access a few features. You need to pick a plan to get the entire suite.
3. Brandwatch
Brandwatch is a platform that helps you understand your consumers. It analyzes billions of social media conversations, and it tells you what is happening not only about you but the internet in general.
Here are the things you can do with it:
- Track consumer trends – be it about your product or industry, you will see trends emerge from this tool. If there is something new, you will find out about it, and you can act quickly and decisively.
- New market opportunities – apart from getting to know what people say about you, you will also learn what people are looking for. The platform has a smart AI that follows relevant conversations that can impact your business growth.
- Protection from threats – as a single negative message about your brand can do damage. It can be shared, but before this flame turns into a bushfire, you will be notified. As such, you can respond quickly before people start judging you.
There is no pricing structure for this software. You need to contact the company, book a meeting, and discuss what you need. From there, you will be given a quotation for the cost of the service.
4. Reputology
Reputology is a free platform that you can use to monitor social media chatter about your brand. It is used by Fortune 500 companies like Gold’s Gym.
With Reputology, you can see how people are rating your company on other platforms like Google and Facebook. It is a great tool for active companies like restaurants, hotels, and retails stores.
Here are the features of the platform:
- Review monitoring – see if there is a new review and how your current score is trending.
- Integration – you can integrate the tool with Hootsuite and then respond to these reviews from a single dashboard.
- Forwarding – you can forward the review you saw to the appropriate department and let them investigate and respond accordingly.
- Users and staff – you can create users so different people can access the comments and respond to them. It is up to you to decide if you want them to have the same permissions.
While Reputology is free, you also have the option to get a professional account. It seems to me like it is a subsidiary of Hootsuite. The dashboard looks the same, and if you click on the installation button, it will take you back to the Hootsuite website.
Summary: Social Listening
Social listening must be one of your company’s priorities. In the old days, when there was no internet, word of mouth was crucial. Customer feedback was important, and it still is.
Today, people all over the world can chatter about your brand. And whenever someone does, you have to be there to thank the person or explain why something wrong happened.
You have to have an engagement with people. The unfortunate thing is that you cannot expect people to just talk about your brand on your own social media pages—they will do this in others, and you have to be there when it happens.
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