Online brand monitoring is now a business necessity. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the internet has become the primary point of contact with our customers. So how do you properly monitor your brand? What should you pay attention to? What mistakes should you avoid? We'll discuss all of this in this article.
Brand monitoring – definition and importance for business
Brand monitoring is a branch of social listening—that is, monitoring data flowing from the internet and drawing conclusions that will shape a company's image strategy. Since the explosion in popularity of social media, we have access to a vast amount of knowledge about customer preferences and behavior. Analyzing this data allows both corporations and small businesses to better tailor their business strategies to consumer expectations.
Brand monitoring, therefore, involves analyzing data that directly relates to a company's image among consumers. Statistical analysis of online comments on specific topics allows us to obtain information in a matter of moments that, just a few years ago, would have required costly focus group research. Now, finding out how we stack up against the competition is just a few clicks away.
Social listening – effective methods of listening to customers
Of course, that's not all: thanks to brand monitoring, we can find out where we are most often talked about (both online and in the real world), how our marketing activities are received and what topics are most often discussed in our industry.
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Modern social listening tools like SentiOne allow you to analyze any topic in terms of emotional attitude. An advanced AI algorithm can recognize whether a given statement is positive or negative. We can analyze mentions of your latest marketing campaign and learn what internet users think about it.
Just one more click, and we'll also discover which keywords are most frequently used in relation to the campaign. This way, we'll identify which aspects of the campaign were well-received and which ones were completely missed. Click again, and we see the demographic data. Who was the target audience?
This all sounds complicated. Indeed, the level of detail shared by social media platforms allows for hours of analysis, from every angle imaginable. Fortunately, this doesn't require a significant investment of effort and resources. On the contrary, thanks to automation, we can receive reports and analyses on any topic weekly, daily, or even hourly, if we need such precision.
Brand monitoring – proven practices and pitfalls to avoid
What does brand monitoring look like in practice? What should you pay attention to and what should you avoid?
First of all, we can't limit our monitoring to just a few channels. In today's internet, it's easy to forget that there are communication platforms other than Facebook or Instagram. That's a big mistake! Our clients aren't a monolith—they can be found everywhere. A solid monitoring strategy involves collecting data from as many sources as possible, from social media platforms (not just Facebook, but also LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, Reddit, etc.), through industry websites, to blogs, and even discussion forums!
This, of course, means choosing the right software. The number of sources monitored is one thing—data processing capabilities are another. Why do we need access to tens of thousands of mentions if we have to analyze them all manually? The software we choose must be able to process the content found: keywords used, hashtags, sentiment (positive/negative) , and so on . Automatic reporting is also desirable.
It's a serious mistake to ignore the insights we can draw from monitoring. If data shows that consumers are talking about us on Twitter, and we're not using this channel for marketing, that's a missed opportunity to reach customers! If negative mentions of a competitor's product indicate a missing feature we offer, why aren't we leveraging this in an upcoming marketing campaign targeting dissatisfied competitor customers?
Brand monitoring and the skillful use of the data it provides opens up a wide range of possibilities. We can regularly review negative reviews about us to identify our weaknesses. We can observe trends in our industry—or popular culture—to create RTM campaigns. We can keep an eye on the competition to ensure they never catch us off guard.
Real-time monitoring – immediate response to image threats
Most importantly, we can also monitor mentions of our own brand to detect and respond to potential image crises.
There are many potential indicators of a growing image crisis. A sudden spike in mentions of our brand is one of the most significant, especially if it's not linked to the launch of a new campaign or product launch. This is where automated sentiment analysis comes into play. Are the new mentions negative? If so, which keywords are most frequently used?
We can't predict an image crisis. A faulty product or a serious service access error will happen to everyone sooner or later. The only thing we can control is how we respond to a crisis. Brand monitoring gives us a time advantage, allowing for an almost immediate response.
In some cases, we may even be able to stop a potential crisis before it escalates – if social media posts start appearing about a bad experience with our brand, we will be able to apologize and offer compensation right away.
We can also respond to mentions containing particularly sensitive keywords. The choice of these terms varies across industries; for example, cosmetics brands may want to monitor terms like "animal tested" or "side effects."
Modern brand monitoring solutions allow us to automatically monitor our mentions 24/7. If they detect a sudden spike in mentions or a brand's association with a sensitive topic, they automatically notify the appropriate people, such as the brand manager or customer service team.
Why is brand monitoring essential? Specific benefits
As you can see, modern brand monitoring is an indispensable tool for any company with an online presence. Since the pandemic has forced us to almost completely transition online, it's hard to imagine a brand that wouldn't be able to take advantage of the benefits of social listening.
Our verdict is clear: if you're not already monitoring your brand, it's worth considering. It's a "magic bullet" that will take care of both marketing campaign research and image/competition analysis, and protect your company from escalating potential image crises!
Summary
The above article covers the following topics:
- The definition of brand monitoring and its role in the company's business strategy
- Effective social listening methods for analyzing consumer opinions and behavior
- Proven practices for brand monitoring and the most common mistakes in this area
- Real-time monitoring as a tool for rapid response to image crises
- Concrete business benefits of systematic brand monitoring
