Online Brand Monitoring 101

Obviously, not every company can afford online brand monitoring services. But regardless of your company's size and budget, there are a few free ways to monitor your online reputation. But first of all, why is online brand monitoring necessary? With the incredible growth of online social media, your customers or potential customers are relying more and more on peer reviews. What happens when a distraught customer vents about your company’s products or services?

Unfortunately, a single blog post or forum thread can cause immeasurable damage to a brand. If people begin linking to this item, it can start to rank on search engine below or even above your company website. In addition, online brand monitoring will allow you to identify positive feedback, and react accordingly. Below I’ve listed the tactics I currently use to monitor PalmerWebMarketing.com as well as other client’s brands.

Do an Omgili Search:

Search for your company or product name on Omgil which is a search engine that focuses exclusively on Forum threads, and other customer generated content. You’ll probably be surprised to find how many people are talking about your brand.

Setup Google Alerts:

Setup Google alerts for your company and product or service names. Google will email you every time it finds a blog post, press releases, or other document that contains the keyword(s) you specified. For more ideas on what to monitor, checkout 10 things you should be monitoring by Pronet Advertising.

Check Your Server Logs:

Surprisingly, angry customers venting about your company will sometimes actually link to your site. By monitoring your web analytics, you’ll find abnormal sources of traffic from these sources.

Online brand monitoring is a crucial aspect of managing an online business. Forgotten by many online retailers until it's too late, your brand deserves this important attention. For more ways to monitor your brand online, please visit the Palmer Web Marketing Web usability blog.

Justin Palmer is the owner of Palmer Web Marketing, which offers an Ecommerce e-Book and other internet marketing e-Books.