Brand Mentions

What are brand mentions?

Brand mentions, or brand alerts, are online references made to a brand. These mentions take different forms, such as product reviews, customer feedback, blogs, and news pieces. Brand mentions provide insights into the customer perception of a business.

Brand mentions work by notifying brands whenever specific keywords are mentioned, such as the business name across channels like a senior leader’s interview with a publication, services the business offers, or company blog posts. Businesses can choose which keywords they want to monitor and gauge online public opinion and brand sentiment.

Many businesses leverage media monitoring software to track brand mentions and receive notifications from news feeds and media channels. This software enables companies to track certain sources and use those metrics to develop campaigns and analyze media coverage.

Types of brand mentions

Since a brand can be mentioned across different channels, it’s helpful to know what kind of mentions to look out for.

• Customer reviews: Reviews are the most common reasons a brand gets mentioned online. Customers leave feedback on products, services, and customer experience on the company website, third-party review sites, and forums. Focusing on customer reviews can improve customer support and refine business processes.
• Social mentions: A large percentage of brand mentions occur on social media platforms, such as Instagram, Twitter, and  Facebook. Developing a branding strategy centered around social channels using social media monitoring software is beneficial when monitoring mentions.

Benefits of brand mentions

Brand mentions help companies understand their online reputation. By tracking brand mentions, a business can identify what it does well and areas of improvement.

• Focused marketing efforts. Brand mentions offer important information about customers that can be leveraged to effectively target them. They also help marketers pick the right customer interaction channel. When a brand is mentioned online, it gains a competitive advantage through discussions and conversations, leading to more brand visibility and awareness.
• Enables development of a customer-centric product. One of the biggest benefits of tracking brand mentions is customer feedback on products and services. Brands can gauge opinions and use that data to refine their offerings by keeping an eye on social media reviews, consumer forums, and review sites.
• Refined customer support. Active listening, responding, and helping are key to impactful customer support processes. Tracking brand mentions helps companies monitor customer queries, feedback, requests, and grievances. Companies can therefore analyze social mentions and quickly respond, increase customer satisfaction, and retain existing users.
• Higher conversion rate. An increase in customer satisfaction and retention leads to more sales. When a business is quick to alleviate customer concerns across different mediums, it garners trust among its audience. Brand mentions can also identify potential customers, as users often talk about companies online and rely on reviews before making purchases. Engaging with these customers helps move them down the sales funnel and increase conversions.
• Evaluate brand performance. Brand monitoring gives data into overall brand performance, perception, and market trends. It impacts strategic decision-making from upper management to individual teams. Keeping an eye out for brand mentions plays an important role in brand marketing campaigns, competitive analysis, and staying updated with industry changes.

Best practices to monitor brand mentions

Customers are more engaged with companies that consistently track brand performance. There are several ways to track brand mentions, depending on the business use case and relevance.

• Invest in keyword research. One of the sure-fire ways to monitor brand mentions is by tracking brand-specific keywords, such as the business’s name. However, paying attention to keyword variations can help bridge the gap when it comes to missed mentions. Check for abbreviations, misspellings, and industry jargon to track hidden alerts.

• Don't underestimate social platforms. Social media is slowly becoming the primary mode of customer communication. Adopt social listening practices to monitor popular hashtags, trending topics, and follower base to acquire new customers, satisfy existing users, and increase engagement.
• Set up actionable goals. Effective brand monitoring requires consistent goal assessment. Evaluate brand awareness and performance by measuring metrics such as volume of brand mentions, direct traffic through mentions, sentiment analysis, and social media engagement.