TL;DR: What Are Brand Mentions? How to Track and Monitor
Brand mentions are references to your brand across media, websites, and social platforms. They’re crucial for maintaining a strong brand reputation and understanding brand sentiment.
Here’s how to effectively monitor them:
- Use social listening tools like TVEyes to track across multiple platforms
- Set up real-time alerts with tools like Google Alerts
- Track media mentions from news, TV, and radio
- Monitor hashtags and usernames on social media
- Analyze brand sentiment and act quickly when needed
Tracking mentions gives you insights into customer perception, campaign performance, and how to manage your online reputation more effectively.
In today’s always-online world, conversations about your brand happen constantly—whether you’re aware of them or not. These brand mentions are more than casual chatter; they’re powerful indicators of your brand reputation, customer satisfaction, and market presence. If you’re not actively tracking mentions, you’re missing critical opportunities to connect, respond, and grow.
This guide will define what brand mentions are, explain why they matter, and show you exactly how to track brand mentions and manage them using modern tools and strategies.
What Are Brand Mentions?
A brand mention is any time your brand name, product, service, or associated figures (like your CEO or tagline) is referenced online or in media—whether positively, negatively, or neutrally. These mentions can appear across a wide variety of platforms and channels, including:
- News articles
- Blogs and review sites
- Podcasts and video content
- Broadcast media (TV and radio)
- Forums like Reddit
- Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X (formerly Twitter)
Brand mentions are part of a broader category of media mentions, which includes both traditional and digital press. Some mentions tag you directly. Others don’t—but they still impact your visibility, reputation, and customer perceptions.
Why Brand Mentions Matter
Brand mentions offer a live look into how people view and talk about your company. Monitoring them is essential for multiple reasons:
1. Brand Reputation Management
Tracking what’s being said about your brand in real time helps you identify potential PR crises before they spiral. If you can monitor brand mentions, you can respond quickly to misinformation, complaints, or negative publicity.
2. Conversational Awareness
Beyond written posts and social media comments, much of today’s brand conversation happens in spoken form. Conversational awareness means understanding what’s being said about your brand across podcasts, interviews, online videos, and live broadcasts. With advanced monitoring tools, you can capture and analyze the spoken word just like text—tracking key terms, topics, and tone in real time.
3. Customer Engagement
Many customers expect brands to be responsive and engaged online. If someone praises your product or asks a question publicly and you reply quickly, it shows you’re listening—building trust and credibility. This can be a ‘thank you’ shoutout on LinkedIn, a tag on social media, etc.
4. Marketing Intelligence
By watching trends in media mentions, you can identify opportunities, discover influencers organically talking about your product, and see how your competitors are being discussed. This supports smarter marketing campaigns and business development efforts.
How to Track Brand Mentions
Now that we know why mentions matter, the next step is understanding how to track media mentions and collect actionable data. Here are some of the best strategies and tools to do just that.
1. Monitor Broadcast and Media Outlets
Some of the most impactful media mentions come from television, radio, and online news videos—but they’re also the hardest to monitor manually. Specialized tools like TVEyes allow you to search, record, and analyze mentions across global broadcast and digital platforms.
This level of media monitoring is especially valuable for public relations teams and PR professionals managing brand reputation on a national or international level.
2. Set Up Google Alerts
For a lightweight, free solution, Google Alerts can help you track brand mentions on indexed websites. Simply enter your brand name as the search term and set how often you’d like alerts—daily, weekly, or “as-it-happens.”
Pro tip: Include variations of your brand name, common misspellings, and associated products to broaden your reach.
While limited in scope (it won’t track social media or video content), Google Alerts is a good supplementary method for small businesses or startups.
3. Use Social Listening Tools
One of the most efficient ways to monitor brand mentions is with social listening tools. These platforms scan a wide range of sources—including social media, blogs, and news sites—and alert you when your brand is mentioned.
These tools include features like:
- Real time alerts via email or mobile
- Competitive tracking for mentions of rival brands
- Dashboard reports for team collaboration and tracking over time
4. Monitor Broadcast and Media Outlets
Some of the most impactful media mentions come from television, radio, and online news videos—but they’re also the hardest to monitor manually. Specialized tools like TVEyes allow you to search, record, and analyze mentions across global broadcast and digital platforms.
This level of media monitoring is especially valuable for public relations teams and PR professionals managing brand reputation on a national or international level.
5. Review Forums and Online Communities
Communities like Reddit, Quora, and niche industry forums are treasure troves of raw, unfiltered opinions. Set up keyword searches and check popular threads related to your industry or product category. Tools like Reddit Keyword Monitor can help automate this process.
Monitoring these platforms helps brands uncover insights into customer pain points, feature requests, and grassroots brand advocates.
Tips for Better Brand Mention Tracking
- Track competitors as well as your own brand for a complete market view.
- Use analytics to identify which mentions generate the most engagement or traffic.
- Engage thoughtfully—don’t respond to everything, but do respond to high-value interactions.
- Integrate with your PR efforts so your team is aligned on messaging and strategy.
- Benchmark over time to see how your brand sentiment evolves.
The Role of PR in Brand Mentions
Effective PR strategies and tactics should include a component for tracking mentions. After all, what good is a great press release or media pitch if you don’t know who picked it up or how people responded?
PR professionals should regularly monitor media mentions and integrate this data into their larger PR campaigns. Doing so helps optimize content strategy, refine pitches, and strengthen media relationships.
The Bottom Line: Turn Mentions into Meaningful Action
Whether you’re a startup trying to make a splash or a well-known brand protecting your reputation, learning how to track brand mentions is crucial. In an age where a single social post can go viral—positively or negatively—proactive monitoring isn’t optional. It’s essential.
By using the right tools and staying alert to what’s being said, you can ensure your brand’s voice remains clear, consistent, and compelling across all media.
Start tracking mentions today—and take control of your brand’s narrative.
