Social Mentions

Social mentions are everywhere and social mentions tools can cover all social platforms in real-time. 10 years ago, managing one’s social media accounts was easy. In today’s world, keeping up with ALL social media platforms is almost a mission impossible:

Social mentions are important for businesses to monitor and engage with in order to build brand awareness, improve customer satisfaction, and drive business growth.

What is social mentions?

Social mentions refer to instances where a particular brand, product, service, or individual is mentioned or discussed on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. These mentions could be in the form of direct posts, comments, or replies by social media users, or could also include indirect references such as hashtags, @mentions, or shares.

Social mentions can be analyzed by individuals and businesses to understand how their brand or products are being perceived by their target audience on social media. This can help in identifying areas of strength and weakness, monitoring customer sentiment, and tracking trends or topics related to the brand or industry. Social media monitoring tools are often used to track social mentions in real-time and provide insights into social media performance.

Social mentions is all about:

1. Identify brand advocates & influencers
2. Discover new target groups
3. Monitor marketing campaign performance
4. Better understand your audience
5. Manage online brand reputation
6. Research new content ideas

Social mentions benefits

There are several benefits of tracking social mentions, including:

1. Brand reputation management: Social mentions can provide insights into how people are talking about a brand or product on social media. By tracking these mentions, businesses can identify potential issues or negative sentiment and take steps to address them before they escalate.
2. Customer engagement: Social mentions provide an opportunity for businesses to engage with their customers and build relationships. By responding to social mentions, businesses can show their customers that they are listening and care about their feedback.
3. Customer feedback: Social mentions provide valuable feedback from customers about their experience with a brand or product. This feedback can be used to improve products, services, and customer experience.
4. Competitive analysis: Social mentions can also provide insights into how competitors are performing on social media. By tracking social mentions of competitors, businesses can identify areas where they can improve their own social media strategy.
5. Product bevelopment: Social mentions can provide valuable feedback on products or services. By tracking social mentions, businesses can identify potential areas for improvement and use this feedback to inform future product development.
6. Marketing insights: Social mentions can provide insights into what topics or trends are popular on social media. By tracking social mentions, businesses can identify opportunities to create targeted marketing campaigns that resonate with their audience.
7. Crisis management: Social mentions can help businesses identify and respond to potential crises in a timely manner, mitigating any damage to the brand’s reputation.
8. Influencer marketing: Social mentions can help identify individuals who are influential in a particular industry or niche. These individuals can be targeted for influencer marketing campaigns.
9. Content creation: Social mentions can provide insights into what topics or trends are popular on social media. This information can be used to inform content creation strategies and help ensure that content resonates with the target audience.

Tracking social mentions can provide businesses with valuable insights into their online presence, customer sentiment, and industry trends, which can be used to inform marketing, product development, and customer engagement strategies.

Social mentions marketing

Social mentions can be a powerful tool for marketing, as they provide an opportunity for businesses to engage with their audience and build relationships. roviding insights into customer sentiment, industry trends, and opportunities for engagement and promotion:

• Responding to social mentions: When a customer mentions a brand or product on social media, it provides an opportunity for the business to respond and engage with the customer. This can help build relationships with customers and show that the business values their feedback.
• Influencer marketing: By tracking social mentions, businesses can identify influencers or individuals who are talking about their brand or products. These individuals can be targeted for influencer marketing campaigns, where they promote the brand or product to their audience.
• Social listening: By tracking social mentions, businesses can gain insights into what topics or trends are popular on social media. This information can be used to inform marketing campaigns and content creation strategies.
• Reputation management: Social mentions can provide insights into how customers perceive a brand or product. By monitoring social mentions and responding to any negative feedback, businesses can improve their reputation and build trust with their audience.
• Customer service: Social mentions can also be used for customer service, as customers often turn to social media to ask questions or report issues. By monitoring social mentions and responding to customer inquiries or complaints, businesses can provide better customer service and improve customer satisfaction.

Social mentions best practices

By following these best practices, businesses can effectively leverage social mentions to improve customer satisfaction and drive business growth:

Monitor social mentions regularly
Regularly monitoring social mentions related to your brand or product can help you stay on top of customer feedback and sentiment.

Respond to social mentions promptly
Responding to social mentions in a timely manner can help show customers that you value their feedback and are committed to providing good customer service.

Personalize your responses
Personalizing your responses to social mentions can help make customers feel valued and appreciated.

Use a positive tone
Responding to social mentions in a positive tone can help diffuse any negative feedback and turn the conversation around in a positive direction.

Acknowledge positive feedback
Acknowledging positive feedback can help reinforce positive sentiment and build brand loyalty.

Use social mentions to identify influencers
Social mentions can be used to identify individuals who are influential in your industry or niche. These individuals can be targeted for influencer marketing campaigns.

Use social mentions to inform content creation
Social mentions can provide insights into what topics or trends are popular on social media. This information can be used to inform content creation strategies and help ensure that your content resonates with your audience.

Social mentions analysis by BrandMentions.

“The better we understand people, the more likely we are to get a sense of how they see the world and, ultimately, how they like to behave,” according to Marcus Collins, PhD, clinical assistant professor of marketing at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and head of strategy at Wieden+Kennedy.

Social listening misconceptions

According to eMarketer, here’s how marketers can avoid four common misconceptions:

1. Social listening doesn’t mean scrolling through product reviews
Social listening provides an understanding of the entire culture surrounding a market, not just feedback on a single product or brand. Marketers “mistake information for intimacy” by working from a glut of data that doesn’t actually tell them much about how customers think, according to Marcus Collins, PhD, clinical assistant professor of marketing at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and head of strategy at Wieden+Kennedy. While understanding discrete KPIs like clickthrough rates and cart abandonment is important, brands should use social listening to build a bigger picture of their base. “The better we understand people, the more likely we are to get a sense of how they see the world and, ultimately, how they like to behave,” he said.

2. The most popular platforms aren’t necessarily the best ones
Browsing Facebook and Instagram hashtags can show how people view a brand, but community-based spaces like Reddit and Discord have more specific information. Social listening is “less about massive, big networks and more about small, curated networks,” said Collins. Those networks will be different depending on who your key customers are. A brand targeting older consumers may have more luck analyzing a Facebook Group’s commentary. But for brands selling to younger audiences or a particular community like gaming or crafting, Reddit and Discord are far more effective because the forums focus on specific communities and self-moderate to ensure posts remain relevant. “Being more specific about our people helps us choose the best platform to leverage,” said Collins.

3. How the public thinks matters way less than how your consumer does
Use social listening to understand how your brand’s community will react, but ignore the noise beyond that segment. For instance, a lot of people online made fun of MSCHF’s Big Red Boots when they launched earlier this year. But people interested in tech and streetwear bought the shoe and posted about it. And MSCHF has since launched yet another quirky footwear item—a backward sneaker—showing the brand was encouraged by its base even as others criticized the shoes. Collins said marketers need to focus less on reach and more on significance. “Who are the people that see the world the way we do that we want to connect with? Who are the folks that we’re trying to get to adopt behavior?”

4. Social listening is not community-building
However tempting it may be, social listening is about observing consumers, not engaging with them. A Reddit thread about camping supplies provides far more useful information to a brand if it isn’t actively pushing products within the thread. A Facebook Group dedicated to wedding planning is more fruitful without a dress company commenting on and liking posts. Community-building is vital to customer loyalty, but brands should approach it separately from social listening.

Social mentions tools

There are many social media monitoring tools available that can help individuals and businesses track social mentions across various social media platforms. Some popular social mention tools include:

1. Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a social media management tool that allows users to track social mentions in real-time across multiple social media platforms. It also provides analytics and reporting features.
2. Mention: Mention is a social media monitoring tool that helps users track social mentions and brand mentions across various platforms. It also provides sentiment analysis and competitor tracking features.
3. Brandwatch: Brandwatch is a social media listening tool that allows users to track social mentions, hashtags, and keywords across multiple social media platforms. It also provides sentiment analysis, influencer identification, and crisis management features.
4. Awario: Awario is a social media monitoring tool that helps users track social mentions, brand mentions, and industry trends across various social media platforms. It also provides sentiment analysis and competitor tracking features.
5. Sprout Social: Sprout Social is a social media management tool that allows users to track social mentions, messages, and comments across multiple social media platforms. It also provides analytics and reporting features.
6. Brand24: Brand24 is a social media monitoring and analytics tool that tracks brand mentions across social media, blogs, news outlets, and forums. It provides real-time notifications, sentiment analysis, and influencer identification features.
7. Google Alerts: Google Alerts is a free tool that allows companies to monitor brand mentions and keywords across the web. It sends email alerts whenever the brand or keyword is mentioned on a website, news article, or blog post.
8. Talkwalker: Talkwalker is a social media analytics and monitoring tool that tracks brand mentions across social media, news outlets, blogs, and forums. It provides real-time monitoring, sentiment analysis, and influencer identification features.
9. BrandMentions: BrandMentions is a social media listening tool that helps you see what’s being said about your brand, competitors or hashtags. It helps you engage with consumers everywhere, and spy on the competition.

Social media analytic tools are software applications that allow users to measure, track, and analyze social media data. Here are some popular social media analytic tools:

1. Google Analytics: A free web analytics tool that can also track social media traffic to your website, and provide insights into which social media channels are driving the most traffic and conversions.
2. Hootsuite: A social media management tool that also includes analytics features. It allows you to track social media mentions, monitor brand sentiment, and measure social media ROI.
3. Buffer: A social media scheduling and analytics tool that provides detailed data on your social media performance, including engagement rates, reach, and clicks.
4. BuzzSumo: A content marketing and analytics tool that allows you to find popular content and identify key influencers in your industry. It can also track social media engagement for specific content pieces.
5. Agorapulse: A social media management tool that includes analytics features such as audience insights, content performance tracking, and competitor analysis.

By using social media analytic tools, businesses can gain valuable insights into their social media performance, understand their audience better, and make data-driven decisions to improve their social media marketing strategy.

Social mentions data

Social mentions data can come from a variety of sources – social media, news, blogs, videos, forums, podcasts, reviews, and more:

1. Public social media posts: Social listening tools can gather data from public social media posts that mention a particular brand, product, or keyword. This can include posts on platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
2. News articles: Social listening tools can also gather data from news articles that mention a particular brand or keyword.
3. Blogs and forums: Social listening tools can scan blogs and forums for mentions of a brand or keyword.
4. Customer reviews: Social listening tools can gather data from customer reviews on sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Amazon.
5. Customer service interactions: Social listening tools can also gather data from customer service interactions on social media platforms.

Social listening tools are designed to gather data from a variety of sources in order to provide a comprehensive view of social mentions related to a particular brand or topic.

Social mentions metrics

There are several metrics that can be used to measure social mentions, including:

• Volume: Volume refers to the total number of social mentions related to a brand or product over a given period. This metric provides an overall picture of the level of conversation surrounding the brand or product.
• Reach: Reach refers to the number of unique users who have seen or been exposed to social mentions related to a brand or product. This metric provides insights into the potential audience that the brand or product is reaching.
• Sentiment: Sentiment refers to the overall tone or attitude of social mentions related to a brand or product. This metric can help businesses understand how their brand or product is perceived by their audience.
• Engagement: Engagement refers to the level of interaction or engagement that social mentions related to a brand or product are receiving. This metric can help businesses understand how their audience is engaging with their brand or product on social media.
• Share of Voice: Share of Voice refers to the percentage of social mentions related to a brand or product compared to those of competitors. This metric can help businesses understand how they are performing relative to their competitors on social media.

Social mentions benchmarks

Social mention benchmarks vary depending on the industry, brand, audience, and social media platform. However, these benchmarks can provide a general idea of what to aim for in terms of social mention volume, reach, sentiment, and engagement:

Twitter benchmarks:

• Volume: On average, a brand can expect to receive around 500 social mentions per day on Twitter. However, this can vary significantly depending on the size and popularity of the brand.
• Reach: The average reach of a social mention on Twitter is around 2,000 users. However, this can vary depending on the size of the brand’s audience and the level of engagement the social mention receives.
• Sentiment: The average sentiment of social mentions related to a brand on Twitter is around 60% neutral, 20% positive, and 20% negative. However, this can vary depending on the brand and the nature of the social mentions.
• Engagement: The average engagement rate for social mentions on Twitter is around 0.05%. However, this can vary significantly depending on the level of engagement the social mention receives.

Facebook benchmarks:

• Volume: According to a study by Talkwalker, the average number of social media mentions per brand per month on Facebook is around 450, but it can vary widely depending on the industry.
• Reach: According to Hootsuite, the average organic reach for a Facebook post is about 5.5% of a page’s total likes, but it can range from 2% to 10%. The paid reach for a Facebook post can range from $0.10 to $0.30 per engagement, according to WordStream.
• Sentiment: According to a study by Sprout Social, the average positive sentiment on Facebook is around 73%, with 14% being neutral and 13% negative.
• Engagement: According to a study by Socialbakers, the average engagement rate on Facebook is around 0.09%, but it can vary depending on the industry. For example, the average engagement rate for the retail industry is around 0.33%, while for the media industry, it’s around 0.16%.

LinkedIn benchmarks:

• Volume: According to Talkwalker, the average number of social media mentions per brand per month on LinkedIn is around 1,000, but it can vary widely depending on the industry.
• Reach: According to Hootsuite, the average organic reach for a LinkedIn post is about 2% to 4% of a page’s total followers. The paid reach for a LinkedIn post can range from $2.00 to $5.00 per click, according to WordStream.
• Sentiment: According to a study by Sprout Social, the average positive sentiment on LinkedIn is around 50%, with 29% being neutral and 21% negative.
• Engagement: According to a study by SocialPilot, the average engagement rate on LinkedIn is around 0.54%, but it can vary depending on the industry. For example, the average engagement rate for the healthcare industry is around 1.3%, while for the education industry, it’s around 0.9%.

Instagram benchmarks:

• Volume: According to Talkwalker, the average number of social media mentions per brand per month on Instagram is around 1,500, but it can vary widely depending on the industry.
• Reach: According to Hootsuite, the average organic reach for an Instagram post is about 6% of a page’s total followers. The paid reach for an Instagram post can range from $0.20 to $2.00 per engagement, according to WordStream.
• Sentiment: According to a study by Brandwatch, the average positive sentiment on Instagram is around 65%, with 20% being neutral and 15% negative.
• Engagement: According to a study by Socialbakers, the average engagement rate on Instagram is around 1.22%, but it can vary depending on the industry. For example, the average engagement rate for the fashion industry is around 1.45%, while for the food and beverage industry, it’s around 0.99%.

Social mentions latest trends and stats

Here are some of the latest trends and statistics related to social mentions:

1. Social listening is becoming more popular: According to a recent survey by Hootsuite, 64% of businesses are using social listening tools to monitor and analyze social mentions related to their brand.
2. Video content is driving engagement: Video content is becoming increasingly popular on social media platforms, and is driving higher levels of engagement compared to other forms of content. According to a report by Sprout Social, video content on Twitter drives 10 times more engagement than other types of content.
3. Influencer marketing is on the rise: According to a report by Influencer Marketing Hub, the influencer marketing industry is expected to grow to $13.8 billion in 2021.
4. Customer service is a key area for social mentions: According to a report by Salesforce, 71% of consumers who have a positive customer service experience on social media are likely to recommend the brand to others.
5. Social media usage is increasing: According to a report by We Are Social, the number of social media users worldwide increased by 13% in 2020, reaching 4.2 billion users.
6. Social commerce is gaining traction: Social media platforms are increasingly being used as a platform for e-commerce, with features such as shoppable posts and in-app checkout becoming more common. According to a report by eMarketer, social commerce sales in the US are expected to reach $36.6 billion in 2021.

Social media marketing guide

A social media work through for marketers. Find platforms and audience for your business. Social media analytic tools, metrics and benchmarks. Read more here.

More information

Hootsuite: 7 Top Social Media Monitoring Tools and Why You Need Them
Mention: Easy Social Media Monitoring Tools
Keyhole: 22 Social Media Monitoring Tools To Track Brand Mentions In 2023
HubSpot: 15 Best Social Listening Tools to Monitor Mentions of Your Brand
Brandwatch: Twitter Statistics
Talkwalker: How to measure social media engagement
Hootsuite: Social Media Benchmarks