Do you control your brand? Do you know what people are saying about your company online? If not, it could be time to start monitoring.

Business owners need to find out if their employees are running the company in a way that will hurt them in the long run.

If they are not, it’s time for some major changes before too much damage has been done. But, again, monitoring can help by providing clear insight into how people feel about certain aspects of your company or product line.

This article can help guide future decisions and strategies and give insights into new ideas and ways of doing things better than before! So, let’s get started!

What Is Brand Monitoring?

Brand monitoring is nothing magical or complicated, but it can do so much for your company. In general, it is a process that allows you to measure the effects of certain events and activities on consumer opinions.

In other words, if you’re trying something new with your branding strategy, brand monitoring will help you understand how people feel about the changes you’ve made.

Some businesses use this information to make changes that will further enhance their doing, while others may decide it’s time to back off and stop making any changes altogether.

Either way, brand monitoring is useful because it gives you a clear idea of how people react positively and negatively — to your actions.

Why Is Brand Monitoring Important?

When you start monitoring, you will quickly understand why it’s important for your business. In addition, it can open up a whole new world of knowledge to help you make better decisions regarding your branding strategy. 

You’ll be able to see what people are saying about your company when they’re not asking for anything in return. This takes the guesswork out of marketing efforts, too.

It’s not always easy to make changes on your own when you’re trying to please everyone. Brand monitoring will help you understand exactly what people are saying to take action and possibly save your business in the process.

How Can I Monitor My Brand?

You probably want to get started now that you know why it’s important to monitor your brand. Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done in some cases. So let’s take a look at some of the best ways to monitor your brand.

Check Your Brand Mentions

First, you will want to check your brand mentions. Social media has made this process much easier than ever before because you can see at least some things people say about your business in real-time.

There is no need to wait for a report from an outside organization anymore, which would only provide a general idea of what’s going on anyway.

Use Brand Monitoring Tools

Using a brand monitoring tool to monitor your brand is the next logical step. There are several options in this regard, with some being more helpful than others. Google Alerts is a free monitoring tool, and it can provide information on both your brand.

You want to keep things simple when monitoring your brand because it could quickly become an overwhelming process otherwise.

It doesn’t matter which tool you ultimately decide to use. The point is to monitor your brand so you can always be on the lookout for new information that may benefit or hurt it.

Keep Employees Under Control

If you have employees, this is especially important because they might not understand the consequences of their actions. Just one poorly thought outpost on social media could negatively impact your brand, so you need to monitor them too.

For example, if an employee was fired and wrote something negative about the company on social media, that could cause serious problems for your business. Brand monitoring will help you stop issues like this before they happen.

Plan Ahead

If you’re looking into brand monitoring, chances are you’re already thinking about your business. This is a good thing! Since you’ve been doing that, it should be easy to plan and make sure your brand monitoring efforts are effective moving forward.

You will never go wrong with your branding strategy when you do this, no matter what happens in the future. Of course, you can’t predict everything that could happen, but you can prepare yourself for anything.

Maintain Realistic Expectations for Success

You should maintain realistic expectations. Brand monitoring will give you knowledge that you can use to make decisions, but it won’t always be perfect.

For example, you may find out that your profits are down because your employees or managers aren’t trained enough to do their jobs right.

Be Consistent

You want to be consistent when it comes to monitoring your brand. This allows you to keep a close eye on all the information coming in so you can find any patterns over time. If something is working well, don’t stop doing it! However, if it backfires or isn’t helping your business grow, you need to make a change.

Brand monitoring is the foundation of any good marketing strategy because it will keep your company on track throughout the years. If you neglect this important step, you could end up losing control of your business without even knowing what hit you.

Be Proactive

Please don’t wait for problems to arise before you do something about them. You should always be proactive when it comes to monitoring your brand because that’s the only way you can prevent issues from occurring in the first place! This is especially important if social media is involved, which it is usually these days anyway.

Some things are out of your control, but you can always minimize the possibility of issues by getting ahead of them. For example, if someone does something negative about your business online, act quickly to stop it from having an impact.

See Everything

You need to see Everything when it comes to brand monitoring. This means looking at every social media outlet you’re on and even Internet discussion forums.

You may be surprised when it comes to what you find out by doing this, but that can work in your favor in the long run. For example, if someone is posting about a problem with your product or service online, you can quickly fix it and make a customer for life in the process.

Use Multiple Social Media Platforms

Since social media is important to your brand, you need to use as many platforms as possible. This allows you to access a greater amount of people, which can work out in your favor if you know how to reach them.

Monitor Your Overall Brand Reputation

You should monitor your overall brand reputation. This means you need to look at multiple aspects of your business to get a comprehensive picture. Your goal is to know what needs improvement and what’s working well so that you can focus on the right aspects moving forward.

Things You Should Avoid Doing

Don’t Monitor Your Brand Too Little or Too Much

You want to monitor your brand just enough, but if you do it too little, you’re giving up the chance to improve and get ahead of potential problems. On the other hand, you can’t go overboard with monitoring either because that takes time away from your other responsibilities and leaves an opening for someone to take advantage of.

Don’t Ignore Everything You Find Out

It would be best to address whatever you find out through brand monitoring, both big and small issues. If this means firing someone who isn’t doing their job, do it! If it means making a change to an ad campaign that’s not working, make the change!

The worst possible thing you can do is ignore Everything you find out through brand monitoring. But, unfortunately, this will allow problems to fester and take bigger chunks out of your business over time, which can become extremely costly in the long run.

Don’t Gather Data for Data’s Sake

While it’s important to gather as much data as possible, you can’t go overboard with it. If you’re spending too much time gathering data and not doing other things that are important for your business, you need to cut back on what you’re doing.

Don’t Fail to Analyze What You Find Out

There’s indeed a lot of data to find, but you need to analyze it properly if you want to make a difference. If you don’t break the data down and make sense of it, it won’t be of any use to your company.

Don’t Only Monitor Negative Things About Your Brand

If you only monitor negative things about your brand, then that’s all you’re going to be able to see. This isn’t a good thing because that will leave you with a wrong idea about the bigger picture.

You should monitor both positive and negative things but focus more on what needs improvement overall instead of just trying to maintain what’s already there.

Don’t Ignore Your Customers

It would be best if you embraced brand monitoring. This means you can’t ignore your customers and pretend they don’t exist for the sake of saving time or money. If you want your business to grow, then it’s important not to ignore them at all costs.

It’s indeed expensive to provide good customer service, but as with Everything else, you need to allocate the proper funds to do so. Otherwise, your business is going to suffer for it in the long run.

Don’t Keep All Your Data Private

If someone wants information about your brand, then you should provide it to them. This is important because social media has made most people feel that they have the right to know all there is to know about a certain brand. If you don’t give them this information, then they’ll look elsewhere for it and possibly create a bad reputation for your company because of it.

Don’t Make Excuses

If customers or other people have complaints towards your brand, you need to take responsibility for any issues instead of making excuses or trying to justify yourself. The best thing you can do is move on from whatever the problem was and make sure it doesn’t happen again in the future.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I make sure that my brand is monitored correctly?

Make sure the people you hire to monitor your brand are doing it properly. If not, then try finding someone else who will take their place!

How long should I monitor my brand?

You should monitor your brand every day, but in small chunks of time because it’s important to keep your eye on the bigger picture as well.

Will I be able to monitor anything if I’m not on social media?

Yes, you can monitor your brand through other means as well. This could include monitoring how many people are coming to your store and what they’re saying about it!

Last Thoughts

Brand monitoring is a critical part of managing your business. It can help you improve customer experience, monitor competitive activity and maintain the integrity of your brand online. If you have any questions about getting started with this important process, please post a comment below or contact us!