Why You Should Monitor Your Brand in Social Media

The worldwide web and social media allow everyone to express their opinion, and in the past few years we have been witness to an informational revolution. The rise of social media means that over 50 per cent of internet users share their thoughts via various platforms. Over 700,000 status updates and half a million comments appear on Facebook every minute. In the same time, over 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube.

What does it mean for my Brand?

The information shared via social media can influence brands and individuals. Over 36 per cent of all social media users post updates which are connected to brands, and over 50 per cent ‘follow’ brands online. This means your brand can be mentioned many times online and, as there is so much information online that manually tracking your brand is impossible, you may be too late in discovering a negative mention that could cause reputation damage to your brand. However, luckily there are many ways of monitoring your brand’s reputation on social media, which makes it possible for you to react in time.

Online Brand Monitoring

Online brand monitoring means using software designed to find out who is talking about your brand and where they are posting. What’s more, you can have real time access to this information and, in some cases the software comes with sentiment analysis.

Who should Monitor?

Everyone! It doesn’t matter if you are a business owner, PR professional or just an individual. You don’t need a massive budget and there is even free software available.

What should you Monitor?

Start with your brand name. It will give insight into all direct mentions of your brand. You might follow with your competitors’ names, key terms, and the names of your products. The more information you gather and analyse, the better outcome of online monitoring you’ll get.

What exactly does Online Brand Monitoring Software provide?

Knowledge of when and where someone is talking about you or your brand
The opportunity to get to know potential customers and their online habits
The opportunity to timely respond to comments which could potentially damage your brand’s reputation. Quick replies to negative comments and good online customer service are crucial to avoiding a crisis.
Better customer service – you can contact customers directly
Better analysis of your marketing’s success
“Golden opportunities” – getting involved in talks about your industry or products, sourcing customers
“Front-End Interaction”