10 Best Brand Monitoring Tools for Developers (With Essential Tips)

Nowadays, we’re living in an era where everything is open to everyone because of the Internet. Let’s assume, you have a brand and someone makes comments about your brand in an article, web page, blog, forum, or social media channel.

If he tags your brand, then you can find it easily. But, not everyone who talks about your company online will tag you. And if it’s a negative opinion, it could significantly impact your reputation.

Then how will you find out that negative comment if they don’t tag you? This is the exact scenario where brand monitoring comes to the rescue. A brand monitoring tool will help you to get rid of this situation along with other benefits.

However, it’s never been easier to observe, analyze, and optimize the conversation around your brand. This is why we have created this article and with these tips and tools guide, you’re off to a great start. So, keep reading!

• Why Can’t You Ignore Brand Monitoring to Grow Fast
• What to Monitor for Your Brand
• 10 Best Brand Monitoring Tools to Monitor Your Brand
• What to Look for in the Best Brand Monitoring Tools
• Make the Best Use of a Brand Monitoring Tool

Why Can’t You Ignore Brand Monitoring to Grow Fast

As you know brand monitoring is the process of monitoring various channels to find mentions of your brand and assessing what is being said about it. It consists of discovering, reporting, and reacting to the different conversations and coverage happening around the brand.

So, if you are aware of the consistent growth of your brand, you just can’t ignore brand monitoring for your business. It can help you in many ways if you make the best use of it.

• Brand monitoring can help you identify how your brand is being spoken about
• Pinpoints any negative sentiment related to your brand that needs to be addressed
• Use insights about how your brand is perceived to aid the development of the new product, services, or goods
• Address consumer reaction to your or your competitor’s brand including crisis management
• Gain knowledge about how both your brand and competitor brands are being perceived on different platforms
• Allows for real-time customer engagement and improves customer satisfaction
• You can identify influencers to amplify your brand message and drive growth.
• Trendspotting helps you adapt quickly and capitalize on emerging opportunities
• Data-driven decision-making optimizes strategies for faster growth

Brand monitoring is also hugely beneficial for market research, as you can put together information and insights that are relevant to specific topics and keywords surrounding your brand.

What to Monitor for Your Brand

Now you know that what exactly brand monitoring is and how it can benefit your business, the next step is to understand what you need to monitor. There’s a whole range of keywords you can monitor beyond your brand name. So if you want to really make the most of brand monitoring, you will need to get a clear idea of all of these points.

1. Your Branded Keywords

Of course, the first thing you’ll need to monitor is your branded keywords. This could be your brand name or your brand slogan. For example, let’s say you sell multi-vendor marketplace creator software like Dokan. You’d want to monitor the keyword “Dokan” and the slogan “multi-vendor marketplace software.”

You should also monitor the variations of your brand name, because not everyone may use the same term to talk about your brand. In this case, you should also monitor keywords like “multi-vendor marketplace eCommerce solution”, “WordPress multi-vendor marketplace”, and “multi-vendor marketplace platforms”.

2. Topics and Industry Trends

Here you should be monitoring the big-picture view of the topic you’re looking to cover. Start searching for key topics associated with your brand. Here you will get insights into what phrases your audience used to talk about key topics in your industry. This way you’ll start to note trends, which can help your content and marketing campaigns.

3. Mentions of Your Brand & Products

This is the most obvious and most important element to keep watch for. Keep watching for the direct mentions and tags of your brand name or products. Try to figure out topics like, are people talking about you? What are they saying? Did they mention you and more related topics to your brand?

4. C-Suite & Brand Public Figures

Larger companies may want to monitor executives who are often in the public eye and may be the subject of online conversations.

They may even come up in the news or in blog posts. If it’s a positive mention, you’ll want to acknowledge and engage with the content. If it’s a negative mention, you’ll want to measure how big of an impact it might make and quickly do the necessary damage control.

5. Inbound links

Inbound link is a great parameter to monitor. Peep your website’s analytics to track incoming links. These could lead you to a reference out there on the world wide web that you didn’t even know was there. This can help you to understand how people are receiving your product and site.

10 Best Brand Monitoring Software to Monitor Your Brand

Brand reputation is everything. Especially in the age of the Internet, when anybody can talk about your company online. The number of channels and Internet users makes it hard to follow every mention of your brand.

Here comes the responsibility of a brand monitoring tool. It helps to monitor every single thing that needs to be monitored. Some of the top brand monitoring tools are,

1. Google Alerts
2. Social Mention
3. Mention
4. Talkwalker
5. Brandwatch
6. Hootsuite 
7.  BuzzSumo 
8. Sprout Social
9. Awario
10. Brand24

Apart from this list, there are also a lot of popular brand monitoring tools available around you. But, these are the handpicked items that are suggested by us.

Google Alerts

Google Alerts is a simple and free brand monitoring tool that anyone can use to start monitoring mentions of their brand. All you need to do is enter the keyword you want to monitor into the search bar and enter your email address. That’s all!

Every time someone uses your keyword online, you’ll receive an email. But, using this tool, you won’t receive any advanced analytics sections, nor will you be able to set up dedicated notifications or generate reports.

Note: Google Alerts does not monitor social media, but it is a free brand monitoring tool.

Social Mention

Social Mention is another free and easy-to-use brand monitoring tool. It looks very similar to the Google search engine.

Enter the keyword you want to track in the search bar. Then you can define the source you’d like to look into. You can choose from blogs, microblogs, bookmarks, images, videos, and questions. Unfortunately, it does not offer social media monitoring.

The main drawback to Social Mention is that it does not offer data from social media platforms. Therefore, the results and analytics are limited, and not always 100% accurate.

Mention

Mention is a comprehensive brand monitoring that lets you track conversations in real-time. So you’ll be able to provide a timely response to customer complaints and negative brand mentions before the damage is done. The tool collects data from over 1 billion sources including forums, blogs, social media, and more.

Basically, the Mention is created for organizations or agencies that have multiple brands, especially if these entities have many different competitors. Pricing starts at $29/month for a basic account, and increases due to variables such as the number of accounts, alerts, and more.

In addition to this, you can also set up automated reports to be delivered to your inbox so you can stay updated even when you’re not monitoring in real-time.

Talkwalker

If you want to go beyond tracking conversations and get a bigger picture of how people actually feel about your brand, you can measure your brand sentiment using tools like Talkwater.

In addition to its social listening capabilities, this tool also tracks brand health and sentiment. It even lets you compare your results with that of your competition.

The pricing for Talkwalker is kinda unbearable for small or startup businesses. It starts at $9600/year for a basic plan.

Brandwatch

Brandwatch is a tool that helps you uncover consumer insights by tracking brand mentions on social media and around the web. It offers historical data and powerful algorithms based on machine learning.

The algorithms will slice and dice data for you to provide:

• The most accurate and insightful information about your audience
• Segment the data into relevant categories that will help you build the perfect customer persona

Moreover, Brandwatch offers a reporting platform featuring live data reports and real-time displays.

Brandwatch is a brand monitoring tool dedicated to large companies and enterprises. The pricing is available upon request.

Hootsuite 

Hootsuite is best known as a social media management tool. With the help of HootSuite, you can schedule your social media posts. But you can also use Hootsuite as a brand monitoring tool and gather all the mentions about your brand online.

It will only collect mentions from social media channels, such as Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube. It also provides you with an easy way to identify the most relevant conversations by filtering them based on keywords, location, and hashtags.

BuzzSumo 

Buzzsumo is a great tool for keeping track of blog content. It comes with a series of advantages like,

• keywords and brand alerts
• domain alerts – receive a notification any time new content is published on a given domain
• author alerts – track all content posted by a certain author
• link alerts – get notified any time there’s a new backlink to your website (excellent for SEO purposes)
• personalized dashboard
• real-time notifications
• filters to receive precisely the results you need

You can search a limited number of daily keywords on Buzzsumo for free, but if you want to set up monitoring to track your brand mentions and competitor content, you’ll need to opt for their premium service.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a comprehensive social media management and brand monitoring tool. It offers features for social media scheduling, publishing, engagement, and analytics. In terms of brand monitoring, Sprout Social provides real-time social listening capabilities to track brand mentions, keywords, and industry trends across various social media platforms.

It also offers sentiment analysis, allowing you to gauge the sentiment behind brand conversations. Sprout Social’s robust analytics help measure social media performance, track engagement metrics, and generate customizable reports.

Awario

Awario is a powerful brand monitoring tool that specializes in real-time social media listening and online mentions. It allows you to track brand mentions, hashtags, and keywords across social media platforms, news sites, blogs, forums, and more. Awario provides sentiment analysis to help understand the tone and sentiment behind brand conversations.

The tool offers features such as influencer identification, competitive analysis, and data export options. Awario’s intuitive interface and customizable reports make it easy to analyze and visualize brand data, facilitating data-driven decision making.

Brand24

Brand24 offers real-time tracking of brand mentions, hashtags, and relevant keywords. The tool also offers features like influencer identification, competitive analysis, and crisis management. Brand24’s comprehensive analytics provide insights into engagement, reach, sentiment, and demographics.

These brand monitoring tools provide a range of features to track and analyze your brand’s online presence, engage with your audience. It’s important to evaluate their specific features, pricing plans, and user interface to determine which tool best meets your brand monitoring requirements.

What to Look for in the Best Brand Monitoring Tools

When selecting brand monitoring tools, there are several key factors to consider. Here are some important aspects to look for:

Coverage: Ensure that the tool covers a wide range of online platforms, including social media networks, news sites, blogs, forums, and review websites. This will help you gather comprehensive data about your brand’s online presence and reputation.

Real-time Monitoring: Look for tools that offer real-time monitoring capabilities, as this enables you to stay updated with the latest mentions and conversations about your brand as they happen.

Sentiment Analysis: Effective brand monitoring tools should provide sentiment analysis, which determines whether mentions are positive, negative, or neutral. This feature helps you gauge the overall sentiment towards your brand and identify potential reputation issues or opportunities for improvement.

Advanced Analytics: Look for tools that offer comprehensive analytics, including engagement metrics, demographic information, reach, and influence of brand mentions.

Customization and Filtering: Look for tools that allow you to set specific keywords, exclude irrelevant mentions, and apply filters based on language, location, or sentiment.

Competitor Analysis: Some brand monitoring tools offer features for monitoring your competitors as well. This enables you to benchmark your brand’s performance against competitors, identify emerging trends, and gain insights into their strategies.

Integration and Collaboration: Consider tools that offer integration with other platforms or have collaboration features. Integration with social media management tools, CRM systems, or data visualization platforms can streamline your workflow.

By considering these factors, you can select a brand monitoring tool that aligns with your specific requirements and helps you effectively track and manage your brand’s online presence.

Make the Best Use of a Brand Monitoring Tool

Now you know the reasons why brand monitoring is important and also familiar with some of the top brand monitoring tools.

So, after choosing a brand monitoring tool, you need to know the strategies to make the best use of it. This is why we will discuss how we can use it in the right way to get our ball rolling.

Always Be Aware of Negative Mentions

Positive mentions are always a great thing to achieve. But it doesn’t demand a quick reply. Negative comments, on the other hand, need a quick response before they can do much damage. So it’s crucial that you set up alerts for negative brand mentions and quickly react with the necessary solutions.

Negative mentions can include your brand or product name along with a specific issue. So you can combine your brand and product name with the keywords “problem” or “issue” to find out negative mentions.

Be Alert with Your Next Plan

Monitoring your brand mentions isn’t enough; you need to have a clear idea of what to do with the results. Do you respond to positive comments or only react to them? Do you provide solutions to customer complaints in an open place? Or perhaps you make an attempt to resolve it in private.

You need to prepare this plan along with your team members. Once you are ready with this plan, let your team members know it so that everyone can respond to the audience in a synchronized way.

Decide When to Be Silent

One of the most vital lessons to learn about brand monitoring is that not everything is worth your energy. You may get tons of valuable feedback and genuine complaints from people. However, there may be an equal amount of people complaining about nothing specific and trying to stir up some drama.

In addition, some issues may be too sensitive to respond to. It’s important for your team to identify these conversations and brand mentions, and understand which ones they should engage with and which ones they should leave alone.

Take Lessons from Your Competitors

Your competitors can teach you a lot about customer service and brand engagement; whether it’s through their successes or failures. So make sure you monitor the competition and analyze their strategies to see what works and what doesn’t.

Find out what their customers dislike and like about them. Try to convert your weakness to strength by analyzing your competitors. Don’t feel shy to keep an eye on your competitors as they are also monitoring you in the same way.

Follow Proven Methods of Using a Brand Monitoring Software

At first, clearly outline your goals and objectives for brand tracking. Determine what specific aspects of your brand’s online presence you want to monitor and analyze. This could include tracking brand mentions, measuring sentiment, monitoring competitor activity, or identifying influencers. Here are a few more tips to help you succeed.

• Choose Relevant Keywords: Select keywords and phrases that are relevant to your brand and industry. Consider including variations, misspellings, and commonly used hashtags or terms.
• Refine Your Monitoring Parameters: Set up filters to exclude irrelevant mentions or specify certain platforms or regions for monitoring.
• Monitor Regularly: Set aside dedicated time to review the collected data and identify trends, emerging issues, or opportunities for engagement.
• Analyze Sentiment and Engagement: Pay attention to sentiment analysis provided by the software. Additionally, track engagement metrics like likes, shares, comments, and reach to measure the impact of your brand’s online presence.
• Respond and Engage: Address both positive and negative feedback in a timely and professional manner.
• Monitor Competitors: Analyzing their strategies, customer sentiment, and engagement levels can provide valuable insights and help you stay competitive in your industry.
• Utilize Reporting and Analytics: Generate regular reports to track key metrics, identify trends, and measure the effectiveness of your brand strategies.
• Collaborate with Your Team: If you’re working in a team, collaborate within the software by assigning tasks, sharing insights, and coordinating responses. This ensures a streamlined workflow and enhances your overall brand monitoring efforts.
• Stay Updated on New Features: Keep an eye on updates and new features introduced by the brand tracking software. Technology and algorithms evolve, so staying informed about the latest advancements can help you leverage the full potential of the tool.

By following these tips, you can make the most out of your brand tracking software and effectively monitor and manage your brand’s online presence.

Monitor Your Brand & Keep Updating Your Products

Straight talk? Well, get a brand monitoring tool for your business and start monitoring your brand from now on. It will immensely help you to keep updating your product according to your customer’s demands.

Or, if you’re already using a brand monitoring tool for your business, let us know which one you chose to use.

Those who are new to brand monitoring, don’t let us know if you face any problems while using or choosing a brand monitoring tool. Our comment box is open for you. Good luck!