A customer complained on Twitter at 9pm.

By 9am the next day, it had 50,000 retweets, hit the news, and your stock dropped 3%.

You saw it at 10am—too late.

The truth: 84% of reputation crises start as small, ignored online mentions. A complaint, a negative review, a misleading article. Something you could have addressed in minutes—if you'd known about it.

The solution: Brand monitoring. A system that tracks every mention of your brand across the internet in real-time, alerts you instantly, and gives you the data to respond strategically before small issues become existential crises.

This guide shows you exactly how to build a brand monitoring system: what to track, which tools to use (free to enterprise), how to set up alerts, and what to do when you find problems.

What Is Brand Monitoring (And Why It Matters)

Beyond Vanity Metrics

Brand monitoring is NOT:

• ❌ Checking Instagram likes
• ❌ Counting follower growth
• ❌ Tracking engagement rate

Brand monitoring IS:

• ✅ Tracking every mention of your brand (social, news, blogs, forums, reviews)
• ✅ Measuring sentiment (positive, negative, neutral)
• ✅ Identifying crises before they explode
• ✅ Finding opportunities (influencers, partnerships, customer insights)
• ✅ Monitoring competitors

Related tools: Use social media CRM software to turn mentions into leads, and social media archiving software for compliance and record keeping.

The Business Impact

Real examples:

United Airlines (2017):

• Passenger dragged off plane → video went viral
• Company didn't monitor Twitter in real-time
• Response came 20 hours later
• Cost: $1.4 billion in market cap, global PR disaster

With monitoring: Alert within minutes, immediate response, contained crisis

Small business example:

• Negative Google review posted Friday 6pm
• Owner saw it Monday 10am (too late)
• Review had been seen 500+ times, shared on Facebook
• Lost 3 potential customers over weekend

With monitoring: Alert Friday 6:05pm, responded by 6:30pm, issue resolved

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What to Monitor

1. Brand Name Mentions

Track:

• Your company/brand name
• Common misspellings
• Abbreviations
• Acronyms
• Previous brand names (if rebranded)

Where:

• Social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Reddit)
• News sites and blogs
• Forums (Reddit, Quora, industry forums)
• Review sites (Google, Yelp, Trustpilot, G2, Capterra)
• Videos (YouTube, TikTok)
• Podcasts

Example keywords:

• "Nike"
• "Nkie" (common typo)
• "Just Do It" (slogan)
• "@Nike" (social handle)

---

2. Product & Service Names

Track:

• Product names
• Service names
• SKUs (for specific products)
• Features

Why it matters:

• Specific product issues (defects, complaints)
• Feature requests
• Comparison to competitors
• Usage tips (content opportunities)

Example:

• "AirPods Pro"
• "AirPods Pro 2"
• "Noise cancellation issues" + AirPods
• "AirPods vs [competitor]"

---

3. Executives & Key People

Track:

• CEO name
• Founder names
• Executives
• Spokesperson
• Brand ambassadors

Why it matters:

• Executive reputation = brand reputation
• Crisis prevention (controversial statements)
• Thought leadership opportunities
• Speaking opportunities

Example:

• "Elon Musk" (mentions impact Tesla)
• "Elon" + "Tesla" (combined monitoring)

---

4. Competitors

Track:

• Competitor brand names
• Their products
• "Your brand vs [competitor]"
• "[Competitor] alternative"

Why it matters:

• Competitive intelligence
• Market positioning
• Identify switching reasons
• Find unhappy competitor customers

Example:

• "Switching from Salesforce to HubSpot"
• "Salesforce alternative"
• "Why I left Salesforce"

---

5. Industry Keywords

Track:

• Industry terms
• Problem statements
• Solution keywords
• Trending topics

Why it matters:

• Join relevant conversations
• Identify sales opportunities
• Content ideas
• Thought leadership

Example (for CRM company):

• "CRM software"
• "Need a CRM recommendation"
• "Customer relationship management"
• "Sales pipeline tool"

---

6. Campaign & Hashtag Tracking

Track:

• Campaign hashtags
• Event hashtags
• Branded hashtags
• UGC hashtags

Why it matters:

• Campaign performance
• UGC discovery
• Event engagement
• Community building

Example:

• #ShareACoke (Coca-Cola campaign)
• #NikeWomen
• Company event hashtags

---

How to Set Up Brand Monitoring

Step 1: Choose Your Tools (see recommendations below)

Free option:

• Google Alerts (limited but free)
• Social platform native search
• Manual checking

Budget option ($20-200/month):

• Swello (€19/mo, monitoring included) - European option
• Brand24 ($79/mo)
• Mention ($49/mo)
• Awario ($29/mo)

Professional ($300-1,000/month):

• Sprout Social ($249/mo)
• Hootsuite
• Brandwatch

Enterprise (custom pricing):

• Meltwater
• Brandwatch Enterprise
• Sprinklr

---

Step 2: Configure Keywords

Brand keywords:

"Your Brand Name"
"Your Brand" + typos
@yourbrand (social handles)
yourbrand.com (URLs)

Product keywords:

"Product Name"
"Product Name" + review
"Product Name" + problem
"Product Name" vs competitor

Competitor keywords:

"Competitor Name"
"Alternative to [Competitor]"
"[Competitor] vs [Your Brand]"

Boolean search examples:

"Your Brand" AND (problem OR issue OR complaint)
"Your Brand" OR "@yourbrand" OR "yourbrand.com"
"Your Brand" NOT jobs (exclude job postings)

---

Step 3: Set Alert Rules

Immediate alerts (email/SMS/Slack):

• Brand name + negative sentiment
• Crisis keywords (e.g., "recall", "lawsuit", "scam")
• High-reach mentions (influencer, major outlet)
• Competitor crisis (opportunity)

Hourly alerts:

• Medium-reach mentions
• Customer questions
• Product feedback

Daily digest:

• Low-priority mentions
• Industry trends
• Competitor updates

Example alert setup:

CRITICAL (immediate SMS + Slack):

• Brand name + ("lawsuit" OR "recall" OR "scam" OR "fraud")
• Mention from account with 100K+ followers
• Sentiment: Negative + reach > 10K

HIGH (email within 15 min):

• Brand name + ("complaint" OR "problem" OR "issue")
• Customer service mentions
• Product defect mentions

MEDIUM (hourly email):

• General brand mentions
• Product questions
• Positive reviews

LOW (daily digest):

• Industry keywords
• Competitor mentions (non-critical)
• Broader trend tracking

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Step 4: Create Response Protocols

Crisis response (within 2 hours):

1. Assess severity (who saw it? sentiment? validity?)
2. Notify key stakeholders (PR, legal, exec team)
3. Craft response (or decide not to respond)
4. Monitor escalation

Customer complaint response (within 4 hours):

1. Acknowledge publicly
2. Move to DM/email for resolution
3. Follow up publicly when resolved
4. Log issue for product team

Question/inquiry response (within 24 hours):

1. Provide helpful answer
2. Link to resources
3. Offer additional help

Positive mention response (within 48 hours):

1. Thank them
2. Share (with permission)
3. Build relationship

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Brand Monitoring Tools Comparison

Free Tools

1. Google Alerts

What it does: Email alerts for web mentions

Coverage: News, blogs, web pages (NO social media)

Pros:

• ✅ Free
• ✅ Easy setup
• ✅ Basic monitoring

Cons:

• ❌ Misses 60-70% of mentions
• ❌ No social media
• ❌ Delayed alerts (sometimes days)
• ❌ No sentiment analysis

Best for: Very basic monitoring, tight budgets

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2. Social Platform Native Tools

What it does: Platform-specific mention tracking

Coverage:

• Twitter: Mentions, hashtags (free)
• Instagram: Mentions, tags (free in app)
• Facebook: Page mentions (free)
• LinkedIn: Mentions (free)

Pros:

• ✅ Free
• ✅ Real-time (on platform)
• ✅ Accurate (first-party data)

Cons:

• ❌ Manual checking required
• ❌ No cross-platform view
• ❌ No alerts (must check regularly)
• ❌ No analytics

Best for: Startups monitoring 1-2 platforms

---

Budget Tools ($50-200/month)

3. Brand24

Pricing: $79-399/month

Coverage: Social, news, blogs, forums, podcasts, video

Best for: SMBs, agencies, solid all-around tool

Key features:

• Real-time monitoring
• Sentiment analysis (AI-powered)
• Influencer scoring
• Mention analytics
• Alerts (email, Slack)

Full review in Media Monitoring Tools guide

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4. Mention

Pricing: $49-299/month

Coverage: 1B+ sources, social, news, blogs, forums

Best for: SMBs, startups, agencies

Key features:

• Real-time alerts
• Sentiment tracking
• Competitor monitoring
• Boolean search
• Team collaboration

Full review in Media Monitoring Tools guide

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5. Awario

Pricing: $29-299/month

Coverage: Social, news, blogs, forums, Reddit

Best for: Lead generation + monitoring

Key features:

• Affordable pricing
• Boolean search (all plans)
• Lead generation focus
• Competitor analysis
• Influencer identification

Full review in Media Monitoring Tools guide

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Professional Tools ($300-1,000/month)

6. Sprout Social

Pricing: $249-499/month (listening in Advanced plan)

Coverage: Social platforms, limited news/blogs

Best for: Businesses wanting management + monitoring

Key features:

• Social listening
• Publishing + scheduling
• Team collaboration
• Custom reports
• Competitor analysis

Full review in Media Monitoring Tools guide. Looking for lower-cost options? See our Sprout Social alternatives comparison, Sprout Social review, or compare Hootsuite vs Sprout Social.

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7. Hootsuite (with Insights)

Pricing: $739+/month (with listening add-on)

Coverage: Social, news, blogs (powered by Brandwatch)

Best for: Existing Hootsuite users

Key features:

• Integrated platform
• Brandwatch technology
• Social listening dashboards
• Trend identification

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Enterprise Tools (Custom Pricing)

8. Meltwater

Pricing: Custom ($15K-50K+/year)

Coverage: 270K+ sources, broadcast, print, social

Best for: Large enterprises, PR agencies

Key features:

• Most comprehensive coverage
• Advanced analytics
• Broadcast monitoring (TV, radio)
• API access
• Crisis detection

Full Meltwater review | Meltwater alternatives

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9. Brandwatch

Pricing: Custom ($10K-35K+/year)

Coverage: 100M+ sources, deep social analytics

Best for: Mid-to-large enterprises

Key features:

• AI-powered insights
• Predictive analytics
• Image recognition
• Trend prediction
• Crisis severity scoring

Full review in Media Monitoring Tools guide. See also our comparisons: Brandwatch vs Hootsuite and Brandwatch vs Sprout Social. For detailed costs, check our Brandwatch pricing breakdown or explore Brandwatch alternatives for budget-friendly options.

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Quick Tool Recommendation

Budget: $0/month , Google Alerts + manual social checking , Covers: Basic web mentions , Miss: Social media, real-time alerts

Budget: $50-100/month , Awario ($29) or Mention ($49) or Brand24 ($79) , Covers: Social + web + news + blogs , Best value for SMBs

Budget: $200-500/month , Sprout Social ($249-499) or Agorapulse ($159-239) , Covers: Social management + listening , All-in-one solution

Budget: $1,000+/month , Meltwater or Brandwatch , Covers: Everything + broadcast + advanced AI , Enterprise-grade

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Brand Monitoring Best Practices

1. Monitor 24/7 (Not 9-5)

Why:

• Crises don't happen on business hours
• Customers complain on weekends
• Global audience (different time zones)

How:

• Set up mobile alerts (SMS, push)
• Rotate on-call team (24/7 coverage)
• Partner with monitoring service (some offer 24/7 alerts)

Example protocol:

• 9am-5pm: Marketing team monitors
• 5pm-9am: On-call rotation (1 person per day)
• Weekends: On-call person checks 3x/day minimum

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2. Distinguish Signal from Noise

Noise (ignore or low priority):

• Job postings mentioning your brand
• Spam/bot mentions
• Irrelevant context (different company, same name)
• Low-reach, no engagement

Signal (pay attention):

• Customer complaints (any reach)
• High-reach mentions (influencers, media)
• Negative sentiment with engagement
• Recurring themes (multiple people saying same thing)

How to filter:

• Use negative keywords (e.g., exclude "jobs", "hiring")
• Set reach thresholds (only alert if 1K+ followers)
• Review filters weekly (refine based on noise)

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3. Respond Strategically (Not to Everything)

When to respond:

• ✅ Customer complaints (always)
• ✅ Misinformation (factual corrections)
• ✅ Crisis situations (mandatory)
• ✅ Positive high-reach mentions (thank them)
• ❌ Trolls (don't feed them)
• ❌ Competitor trash talk (ignore unless severe)
• ❌ Minor negative comments (not everything needs response)

Response decision tree:

1. Is it factually wrong? , Correct it
2. Is it a legitimate complaint? , Resolve it
3. Is it a troll? , Ignore
4. Is it positive/neutral? , Engage if high-value

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4. Track Sentiment Trends (Not Individual Mentions)

What to track:

• Overall sentiment score (aim for +30 to +50)
• Sentiment trend (is it improving or declining?)
• Sentiment by topic (product, service, support)
• Sentiment vs. competitors

Example analysis:

Month 1: +35 sentiment (good) Month 2: +28 sentiment (declining, investigate) Root cause: Product update caused complaints Action: Roll back feature, communicate fix timeline Month 3: +40 sentiment (recovered)

Set up alerts:

• Sentiment drops 10+ points in 24 hours → Crisis alert
• Sentiment drops 5 points over 7 days → Investigate
• Sentiment improves 10+ points → Share win with team

---

5. Build a Knowledge Base

Create response templates:

Customer complaint:

"Hi [Name], we're sorry to hear about your experience.
We'd like to make this right. Please DM us your order
number and we'll resolve this ASAP. - [Your Name]"

Misinformation:

"Thanks for sharing. Just to clarify: [factual correction].
Happy to provide more details if helpful. - [Your Name]"

Positive mention:

"Thank you so much! We're glad [product/service]
is working well for you. 🙏 - [Your Name]"

FAQ database:

• Common questions + approved answers
• Product info
• Company policies
• Crisis talking points (pre-approved by legal/PR)

---

Crisis Detection & Response

Early Warning Signs

Monitor for these crisis indicators:

1. Mention volume spike:

• 3x normal volume in 1 hour = investigate
• 10x normal volume = crisis mode

2. Sentiment cliff:

• 20+ point drop in 24 hours = crisis
• 10-20 point drop = investigate

3. High-reach negative mention:

• Influencer (100K+) shares negative content
• Media outlet publishes critical article
• Viral post (10K+ engagement)

4. Recurring negative theme:

• Multiple customers reporting same issue
• Pattern of complaints (e.g., "product breaks after 2 months")

---

Crisis Response Protocol

Within 15 minutes:

1. Assess severity:

   • Who saw it? (reach)
   • Is it spreading? (shares, retweets)
   • Is it factual? (truth vs. misinformation)

2. Notify key people:

   • PR lead
   • Legal (if necessary)
   • Exec team (CEO, CMO)
   • Customer support (if customer-facing)

Within 1 hour: 3. Decide response strategy:

• Acknowledge immediately?
• Investigate first?
• Legal review needed?
• No response (if not factual/troll)?

4. Craft response:
   • Be empathetic
   • Be transparent
   • Take responsibility (if appropriate)
   • Explain what you're doing to fix it

Within 2 hours: 5. Respond publicly (if decided)

6. Monitor escalation:
   • Is it spreading or contained?
   • Additional responses needed?

Within 24 hours: 7. Follow up:

• Update on resolution
• Thank those who helped
• Internal debrief (what went wrong? how to prevent?)

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Crisis Response Examples

Good crisis response (Airbnb, 2020):

• Crisis: COVID-19 → mass cancellations → hosts angry
• Response time: 24 hours
• Action: CEO published letter, $250M host fund, policy changes
• Result: Sentiment recovered, prevented long-term damage

Bad crisis response (United Airlines, 2017):

• Crisis: Passenger dragged off plane, video viral
• Response time: 20 hours
• Action: Defensive, blamed passenger initially
• Result: $1.4B market cap loss, global PR disaster

Lesson: Fast, empathetic response = crisis containment. Slow, defensive = disaster.

---

Competitor Monitoring Strategy

What to Track

1. Competitor mentions:

• Brand name
• Product names
• Campaigns
• Executives

2. Comparative mentions:

• "Your brand vs [competitor]"
• "[Competitor] alternative"
• "Switching from [competitor]"

3. Competitor sentiment:

• Overall sentiment
• Complaint themes
• What customers love/hate

---

Competitive Intelligence Goldmine

Find opportunities:

Unhappy competitor customers:

• Monitor: "hate [competitor]", "switching from [competitor]"
• Action: Reach out with your solution

Competitor product gaps:

• Monitor: "[Competitor] doesn't have [feature]"
• Action: Highlight your strength, build missing features

Competitor crises:

• Monitor: Competitor brand + negative sentiment spike
• Action: Position yourself as alternative (tactfully)

Example:

Monitored: "Salesforce pricing is too high" Action (by HubSpot): Share blog post "Affordable Salesforce Alternatives"

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Measuring Brand Monitoring Success

Metrics to Track

1. Response time:

• Average time to respond to mentions
• Goal: Under 2 hours for customer issues

2. Sentiment score:

• (Positive - Negative) / Total × 100
• Goal: +30 to +50 (positive scale)

3. Share of voice:

• Your mentions / (Your + Competitor mentions) × 100
• Goal: 40%+ in your category

4. Crisis prevention:

• of issues caught early (before viral)

• of crises prevented

• Estimated cost savings

5. Opportunity identification:

• of sales leads found

• of influencer partnerships started

• of content ideas generated

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ROI Calculation

Cost:

• Tool: Brand24 ($79/mo × 12) = $948/year
• Time: 1 hour/day × 250 days × $50/hour = $12,500/year
• Total: $13,448/year

Value:

• 1 prevented crisis (avg cost: $1.4M) = $1,400,000
• 10 sales leads found → 2 customers × $10K LTV = $20,000
• 5 influencer partnerships → 500K reach = $15,000 (equiv. ad value)
• Total value: $1,435,000

ROI: 10,576%

Even preventing ONE small crisis justifies the investment.

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Brand Monitoring Checklist

Daily (30 min):

• Review overnight mentions
• Check sentiment trends
• Respond to customer issues
• Monitor competitor activity

Weekly (1 hour):

• Sentiment analysis (is it improving/declining?)
• Share of voice vs. competitors
• Identify top influencers mentioning you
• Review and refine keyword filters

Monthly (2 hours):

• Generate reports (sentiment, SOV, top mentions)
• Share insights with team
• Identify content opportunities
• Optimize monitoring keywords

Quarterly (4 hours):

• Deep competitor analysis
• Tool evaluation (is current tool working?)
• Crisis response protocol review
• ROI calculation

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Related Resources

Tool Pricing & Comparisons:

• 15 Social Media Tools Compared - Complete comparison guide
• Sprout Social Pricing - Enterprise monitoring costs
• Hootsuite Pricing - Monitoring plans explained
• Loomly Pricing - Affordable scheduling option

Research & Monitoring:

• Brand Reputation Management Software - Top 10 reputation software tools with pricing and features
• Media Monitoring Tools - 15 tools compared
• Brand Reputation Metrics - 12 KPIs to track
• Online Reputation Management - DIY reputation guide
• Social Listening Tools - Social-focused monitoring
• Sentiment Analysis - Understanding sentiment

The bottom line: You can't protect what you can't see.

84% of crises start as small, ignored mentions. By the time you notice organically, it's too late.

Brand monitoring gives you:

• Real-time crisis detection (respond in minutes, not days)
• Competitive intelligence (find opportunities before competitors)
• Customer insights (what they love, hate, want)
• Opportunity identification (partnerships, content, leads)

For organizations facing security-specific risks like impersonation, phishing, and data leaks, see our Social Media Threat Intelligence guide.

Start today:

1. Choose a tool (Awario $29/mo, Mention $49/mo, or Brand24 $79/mo)
2. Set up keywords (brand, products, competitors)
3. Configure alerts (immediate for crises, daily digest for trends)
4. Create response protocols (who responds? when? how?)
5. Monitor daily (30 min routine)

One prevented crisis pays for years of monitoring.

Don't wait until you need it.

Start monitoring now.