How to Effectively Monitor Your Brand Online
In today's digital landscape, your brand's online presence is paramount. What people say about your brand online can significantly impact your reputation, sales, and overall success. Effective brand monitoring allows you to stay informed about these conversations, address concerns promptly, and leverage positive feedback to strengthen your brand. This guide provides a comprehensive, step-by-step approach to monitoring your brand online, covering essential tools, techniques, and best practices.
Why is Brand Monitoring Important?
Brand monitoring is more than just tracking mentions of your company name. It's about understanding the overall perception of your brand, identifying potential crises before they escalate, and gaining valuable insights into customer sentiment. By actively monitoring your online presence, you can:
Protect your reputation: Address negative feedback and misinformation quickly.
Identify opportunities: Discover potential partnerships, collaborations, and new markets.
Improve customer service: Respond to customer queries and complaints promptly.
Track competitor activity: Monitor what your competitors are doing and how they are perceived.
Measure marketing effectiveness: Evaluate the impact of your marketing campaigns on brand awareness and sentiment.
1. Setting Up Brand Monitoring Alerts
The foundation of effective brand monitoring is setting up alerts that notify you whenever your brand is mentioned online. This allows you to stay informed in real-time and react quickly to any developments.
Keywords to Track
The first step is identifying the keywords you want to monitor. This goes beyond just your company name. Consider including:
Your company name: In all its variations (e.g., "Brandmonitor", "Brand Monitor", "Brandmonitor Australia").
Your product names: Including variations and misspellings.
Your slogan or tagline: If it's unique and recognisable.
Key personnel: Names of your CEO, founders, or other prominent figures.
Industry keywords: Terms related to your industry that are relevant to your brand.
Competitor names: To track what people are saying about your competitors.
Using Google Alerts
Google Alerts is a free and simple tool that can be a good starting point for brand monitoring. To set up an alert:
- Go to Google Alerts.
- Enter your keyword in the search box.
- Click "Show options" to customise your alert settings, including:
Frequency: How often you want to receive alerts (as-it-happens, once a day, once a week).
Sources: Which sources you want to monitor (news, blogs, web, video, books, discussions).
Language: The language of the mentions you want to track.
Region: The region where you want to track mentions.
How many: Only the best results or all results.
Deliver to: Your email address.
- Click "Create Alert".
While Google Alerts is free, it has limitations. It may not capture all mentions, especially on social media platforms. For more comprehensive monitoring, consider using dedicated social listening tools.
2. Utilising Social Listening Tools
Social listening tools offer more advanced features than Google Alerts, allowing you to track mentions across a wider range of platforms, analyse sentiment, and identify trends. These tools can provide valuable insights into how your brand is perceived on social media.
Features of Social Listening Tools
Comprehensive monitoring: Track mentions across various social media platforms, forums, blogs, and news sites.Sentiment analysis: Automatically determine the sentiment (positive, negative, neutral) of mentions.
Trend identification: Identify emerging trends and topics related to your brand and industry.
Influencer identification: Discover influential individuals who are talking about your brand.
Reporting and analytics: Generate reports on brand mentions, sentiment, and trends.
Popular Social Listening Tools
Several social listening tools are available, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Some popular options include:
Mention: A comprehensive tool that tracks mentions across the web and social media.
Brand24: A cost-effective option with a user-friendly interface.
Talkwalker: An enterprise-level tool with advanced analytics and reporting capabilities.
Hootsuite: While primarily a social media management platform, Hootsuite also offers social listening features.
Sprout Social: Another social media management platform with robust listening and analytics tools.
When choosing a social listening tool, consider what Brandmonitor offers and how it aligns with your needs, budget, and the specific platforms you want to monitor. You can also learn more about Brandmonitor to understand our approach to brand monitoring.
3. Tracking Online Reviews and Ratings
Online reviews and ratings play a crucial role in shaping consumer perceptions of your brand. Monitoring these reviews is essential for understanding customer satisfaction, identifying areas for improvement, and addressing negative feedback.
Platforms to Monitor
Google My Business: Monitor reviews on your Google My Business listing.
Yelp: Track reviews on your Yelp page.
Industry-specific review sites: Monitor reviews on sites relevant to your industry (e.g., TripAdvisor for hotels, Zomato for restaurants).
Social media platforms: Keep an eye on reviews and ratings on your social media pages.
Responding to Reviews
It's crucial to respond to both positive and negative reviews. Acknowledge positive reviews and thank customers for their feedback. Address negative reviews promptly and professionally, apologising for any issues and offering solutions. Responding to reviews demonstrates that you value customer feedback and are committed to providing excellent service.
Tools for Review Management
Several tools can help you manage your online reviews, including:
ReviewTrackers: A dedicated review management platform that tracks reviews across multiple sites.
Birdeye: A platform that helps you collect, manage, and respond to reviews.
Podium: A customer communication platform that includes review management features.
4. Analysing Sentiment and Identifying Trends
Simply tracking mentions is not enough. You need to analyse the sentiment behind those mentions and identify emerging trends to gain a deeper understanding of how your brand is perceived.
Sentiment Analysis
Sentiment analysis involves determining the emotional tone of a piece of text. Is the mention positive, negative, or neutral? Social listening tools often provide automated sentiment analysis, but it's important to review the results manually to ensure accuracy. Consider the context of the mention and the language used to determine the true sentiment.
Identifying Trends
Look for patterns in your brand mentions. Are there recurring themes or topics? Are there any emerging issues or concerns? Identifying trends can help you anticipate potential problems and proactively address them. For example, if you notice a surge in negative mentions related to a specific product feature, you can investigate the issue and take steps to fix it.
Using Data Visualisation
Data visualisation tools can help you make sense of large amounts of data and identify trends more easily. Create charts and graphs to visualise brand mentions, sentiment, and other key metrics. This can help you communicate your findings to stakeholders and make data-driven decisions.
5. Responding to Mentions and Feedback
Once you've identified brand mentions and analysed the sentiment, it's crucial to respond appropriately. This involves engaging with customers, addressing concerns, and leveraging positive feedback.
Responding to Positive Mentions
Thank customers for their positive feedback and share their comments on your social media channels. This can help amplify positive sentiment and build brand loyalty. Consider offering incentives or rewards to customers who leave positive reviews.
Addressing Negative Mentions
Respond to negative mentions promptly and professionally. Acknowledge the customer's concerns and apologise for any issues they may have experienced. Offer a solution to the problem and take steps to prevent similar issues from occurring in the future. Avoid getting defensive or argumentative. The goal is to resolve the issue and turn a negative experience into a positive one.
Creating a Response Strategy
Develop a clear response strategy that outlines how you will respond to different types of mentions. This should include guidelines for tone, language, and response time. Ensure that your team is trained on the response strategy and knows how to handle different situations. It's also helpful to have a frequently asked questions resource prepared to address common concerns quickly.
Monitoring the Impact of Your Responses
Track the impact of your responses on brand sentiment and customer satisfaction. Are your responses resolving issues and improving customer perceptions? If not, you may need to adjust your response strategy. Consistent monitoring and analysis are key to effective brand management. Remember that Brandmonitor can help you navigate these complexities and ensure your brand reputation remains strong.