In this digital age, most people share their experiences with specific product brands. A number of negative product reviews can put your business reputation at risk. The power of word of mouth has impacted many businesses in many ways. A customer will talk about whether it is a bad or good experience all the time. That is why you must set up brand monitoring and keep a good reputation for your business.
What is Brand Monitoring?
Brand monitoring is tracking various channels or places where your business is mentioned. Some examples of these channels are social media networks, online communities, forums, etc. People talk about how they feel about trying out your products or how it is to do business with you. Online brand monitoring keeps you updated on your business's issues, inquiries, or compliments. You can address any crisis before it goes viral. You can also express your gratitude to people sharing kind words about your business.
In many cases, a business owner sets up brand monitoring to take care of their brand reputation. Monitoring your brand can also help your marketing strategies. Your PR team can think of ways to twist critical issues and make them favorable on your end.
Image taken from Fosambart website
What Elements You Should Focus on in Brand Monitoring?
It sounds overwhelming and exhausting to track down various channels where your business is mentioned. But you don’t need to check every single mention. You need to keep a watchful eye on elements of your brand. You can choose specific channels to focus on and avoid getting a great amount of unnecessary information.
Here are some of the main channels to focus on:
- Online Forums (Quora or Reddit)
- Social Media Platforms
- Review Sites
- Online News Media
- Blog Websites
- Print Media ( Magazines, Local or National Newspapers)
Once you identify the channels to focus on, you can dig up important elements to use in monitoring your brand. The following are key brand elements to help you track down important brand-related mentions.
1. Brand Name Mentions
In promoting your brand, you know the variation of names people refer to your business. You can take note of these different names, including abbreviations, product names, services, or nicknames associated with your brand. It’s essential to track down all possible name variations that people use to mention your business. You can also use keyword research to see how people search for your brand online.
2. Industry-Related Mentions
Keep an eye out for the latest trend in your business industry. In monitoring your brand, you must not only focus your attention on brand mentions. You can get inspiration on how people commend the industry you’re in. What works for the whole industry is best for your brand. It may not be aligned with your marketing strategies, but maybe it’s time to go with the trend.
Image taken from Unlocked Capital website
3. Competitors
Brand monitoring shouldn’t only revolve around your brand. You can monitor your competitors, too. Watch out for similar brands and how people perceive them. It can give you ideas about the best practices and tactics to get people’s attention. Brand monitoring tools let you compare your brand’s social media presence to other businesses within your niche.
4. Links to Your Website
Brand monitoring lets you see the impact or results of strategies you’ve used for brand awareness. Just like when you collaborate with social media influencers or blog writers, or create ad campaigns. There are brand monitoring tools that can show reports on audience interaction with your brand through inbound links. It keeps you updated about what section or page gets more visitors and specific content driving traffic to your website.
Image taken from Lever&Bloom website
Why Monitoring Your Brand Matters?
The value of brand monitoring is priceless. It’s like a secret code that lets you access essential information for business growth. Keeping a good reputation means your business is on the right track. Here are some of the best reasons why monitoring your brand matters.
- Brand Monitoring Opens Up Many Opportunities
Once you set up brand monitoring, ensure you are fully aware of the goals you want to achieve. You never know what opportunities you will come across. But no matter what it is, always stick to your business goals. Monitoring your brand will provide helpful insights if you want to drive traffic to your online shop or promote brand awareness. Get ready to grab as many opportunities as you can.
- Monitoring Your Brand Can Help Identify Crises and Improvements
What your customers think about your brand is vital in maintaining a good reputation. It helps you identify crises that need urgent solutions. From a customer's perspective, you can work on improving your business. The online reviews, product or service feedback, and customers’ mentions about your brand can help you resolve issues and implement changes.
- Online Brand Monitoring Allows Communication
Brand monitoring allows you to answer inquiries, acknowledge recommendations, and welcome new customers. People will see how you communicate and handle your business. Communication is good for maintaining a positive brand image. It shows how dedicated you are in engaging with your customers or people who are curious about your brand.
Brand Monitoring Tools
Google Alerts
Google Alerts is one of the go-to sites for setting up brand monitoring alerts. You must create your Google Alerts account. Once logged in, you set it up by your name, business name, website address or domain, name of your products or services, even common misspelled names, and primary keyword phrases. You can also include similar business brands, business niches, or industries you’re in.
After you set up brand monitoring alerts, it’s time to set these important parameters.
- How often – Once a day or once a week
- Sources – Blogs, News, web, books, videos
- Language – Any region or designated by country
- How many – Only the best results or all results
Google Alerts is one of the essential sites to help monitor your brand. It provides real-time reports of how people interact with your brand online. Although Google Alters is popular for its versatility, it only gives you basic results of brand mentions without an overview or data analysis.
Image taken from Google Alerts
Talkwalker Alerts
Just like Google Alerts, Talkwalker can help you with brand monitoring. However, it has a unique way of tracking your brand, such as filters, track hashtags, and Boolean searches. According to GoDaddy, “Boolean searches are more effective because they allow you to combine keywords with AND, NOT, and OR to produce more relevant search results.”
You can set up the following parameters:
- Result Type: Everything, Twitter, Blogs, Discussions
- Language: All or select your preference
- How often: As it happens, one a day, once a week
- How many: All results, only the best results
Image taken from Talkwalker Alerts
TweetDeck
If you or your business is active on Twitter, you can use TweetDeck. It is a great tool for monitoring your brand. Get a live feed when you set up search columns for particular mentions or hashtags. Another good thing about TweetDeck is it’s free.
Image taken from TweetDeck
Final thoughts
Brand monitoring doesn’t end after you have set up the alerts. Once they are all in place, you need to be keen on details like different opportunities to enhance your brand reputation. You receive these alerts and the next thing to do is to take action. For sure, you will encounter mean comments about your brand, but don’t let your guard down. Always keep it cool and stay humble when interacting with your customers online.
As you can see, keeping your business on track is a continuous process.
Know the latest trends in your business industry. See how your competitors are working on getting the attention of their target audiences. Ensure you have specified the right keyword phrases for your brand to get accurate alerts. Brand monitoring isn’t that difficult after all. Provided you have done the process right, it will give you the results you need. Moreover, stick to your business goals in maintaining a good reputation for your brand. The rest of your goals will follow if you nail this first.
Image taken from Strikingly
Strikingly has helped millions of website users worldwide. Aside from being ridiculously easy to set up your website with us, it comes with branding and marketing tools ready for your business. We know the importance of monitoring your brand engagements online. That is why you can set up brand monitoring tools like Google on your site. Manage your website on the go with Strikingly mobile app. Get your website activity reports, chat messages, and social media updates in one place. With us, you can run business at your fingertip. Sign up for a free account today.
