Are you aware of who is following you on social media and what they are saying about you and your company?
Do you know what your competitors are doing (and what isn't)?
If you're serious about building your company, social listening is an essential component of online marketing. However, trying to keep track of every single mention on the internet takes time and resources, which most businesses lack.
In this post, you'll learn how Brand24 may assist you in locating your online mentions, increasing customer happiness, and generating more leads for your company.
WHAT IS BRAND24
Brand24 is a social media monitoring and analytics platform that allows you to track the online presence of your brand or product. It can also be used to gauge the level of interest in other companies, items, or keywords in your area. It can also be used as an instagram marketing tool
We'll concentrate on three main topics in this overview and tutorial:
- How to set up basic tracking and respond to branded mentions using the platform.
- How to search the platform for non-branded chances such as relevant phrases and hashtags.
- How to keep tabs on your top rivals and compare their social media traction to your own.
Let's get this party started.
Related keywords and hashtags
How do you find hashtags that aren't owned by a company or group?
Here are some things you could do.
hashtags that are relevant to your business or field
So why not enter hashtags that are relevant to your business? You can do this in Brand24. As an example, #blogging

Keep an eye out for influencers in your field.
You can also locate the most influential people in your field. You can find the following under #blogging:

FIND RELEVANT HASHTAGS
If you're not sure which hashtags to track, use a tool like Hashtagify to discover the most relevant hashtags in your niche. For example, if you search for #blogging, you can find related hashtags and top influencers to include in your project:

Monitoring hashtag campaigns
One of the Brand24 blog case studies describes how marketing agency NordicTB Collective used the hashtag #LatviaRoadtrip for a hashtag marketing campaign with Latvia Tourism.
They were able to track the performance of their campaigns in terms of social media reach, number of mentions, and interactions using Brand24:

How to Look for Non-Branded Keywords
You can track non-branded keywords related to your business in addition to hashtags.
Consider the following scenarios, using AWeber (an email marketing service provider) as an example.
Include qualifiers.
People enjoy getting product recommendations through social media. You've probably seen queries like this before:
- "Could someone recommend an email marketing service?"
- "Can you recommend an email marketing service?"
You can use the Required keywords in your project settings to add qualifying terms like'recommend' or'suggest' in Brand24:

Brand24 yields relevant mentions with the terms 'email marketing' and'recommend.' Although not every phrase in the dashboard is visible:

You can see them in full when you open the tweet:

Include keywords related to your products and services.
Using Brand24, you can keep an eye out for people looking for assistance with related products and services.
AWeber, for example, might look for phrases related to email marketing, such as 'increase open rates.'
Add your phrase to the project keywords, and use the Excluded keywords: to ensure that you don't find your brand.

Here's a dashboard mention from the INMA blog about how the Boston Globe uses newsletters to drive engagement:

And here, near the end of the article, is a Q&A session with the keyword:

Bonus: If you read the article, you'll see how tracking this one keyword leads to a slew of other questions that an email marketing service could use.
COMPETITORS
So far, we've focused on tracking both branded and non-branded mentions. We'll look at how to track and compare your main competitors in this section.
Monitoring your competitors
In Brand24, you track your competitors in the same way you track your own brand – by creating a new project with your keywords.
For example, MailChimp is a competitor of AWeber, so let's start a new project with the MailChimp keyword:

Examining your competitors
Brand24 has a Comparison tab that allows you to compare up to 5 different projects. It's a useful tool for comparing basic statistics from your competitors and your brand.
Begin with your project (for example, AWeber), then add your competitors (for example, MailChimp) by clicking Compare Projects in the menu bar:

You now have three data sets to compare.
The first is a 30-day comparison of total daily mentions:

The individual charts for AWeber and MailChimp represent the second and third data sets, respectively.
Each graph displays the following information:
the total, good, and negative mentions scores
The percentage of positive and negative sentiment is mentioned by the sources.

As a result of this comparison, it is clear that:
MailChimp received more mentions than AWeber, but with a slightly higher negative sentiment. AWeber received more mentions on Twitter, whilst MailChimp had a larger social media presence on Facebook and Instagram.
Filtering your data While those are the raw data scores, Brand24 also allows you to apply filters to your projects.
#1: Use influencers as a filter.
I've set the Influencer Score to 7 in this example to see which brand has the most influential mentions:

Although the total sentiment score isn't very different, you can see that MailChimp receives more mentions from a wider range of sources:

#2: Use a text filter.
The Text filter can be used to focus on a certain aspect of your product. The following is how it works:
If you put NOT in front of a term, you'll only see mentions that don't include that phrase. You can also use the OR operator between phrases to get results that include ANY of the words you specify. AND allows you to get results that include ALL of the phrases you specify in a mention.
I've changed the Influencer filter to 0 and added a text filter called 'autoresponder OR list':

The search results now include mentions of either 'autoresponder' or 'list':

AWeber has half the number of mentions as MailChimp, but the majority of them are positive. It's reflected in the positive sentiment scores, with AWeber scoring 97.7 percent and MailChimp scoring only 89 percent.
BRAND24: PRICING
Brand24 offers three subscription plans starting at $49 per month:
Plus – For people who are only interested in one brand.
Premium – For professionals who want to interact with and analyze mentions.
Max – A tool for teams and agencies to collaborate, analyze, and report.
You can begin with a free 14-day trial to determine which plan is best for you.
PROS AND CONS OF BRAND24
PROS
- Learn what others are saying about your brand.
- Keep an eye out for significant changes in discussion volume.
- Filter results by mention source, sentiment, and other criteria.
- Analyze industry buzz to identify potential candidates.
- Receive personalized alerts when positive or negative mentions are made.
- Data can be exported to CSV, Excel, and Infographics.
CONS
- The sentiment analysis is useful, but it isn't always accurate.
CONCLUSION
Brand24 is a powerful tool for tracking online brand mentions that will save you countless hours. Custom alerts keep you up to date on yourself and your competitors, allowing you to jump right in and make the most of any situation.