What Is A Brand Mention and Why Is It Trendy?

Brand mentions are mentions of any company name across the web. Brand mentions were the most importnat component of Digital PR in the past, but it is more than an SEO hack right now.

Brand mentions can be clickable and not-clickable regarding the goal you have for your company’s audience.

Here, we will try to list all the possible brand-mentioning strategies that can make your brand visible and trustworthy for all your potential customers.

#1 Contextual Brand Mentions

                                      Image screen from: https://www.b2w.tv/blog/best-facebook-video-ads

Contextual brand mentions are contextual backlinks combined with the brand name. The image above shows how Picsart gets a link to their HD photo converter page, signaling before a click that it depends on Picsart. It should be relevant to the context in which it appeared and naturally integrated into existing content. Additionally, to create contextual brand mentions, you use all the possible link buidling strategies, from guest posting to link exchanges.

Here you need to know just one importnat thing: If the link is a dofollow link, it will also help you on Google rankings, and if it is a nofollow link, the link is much more navigational rather than for ranking.

#2 Brand Mentions in Listicles

                              Image screen from: https://redblink.com/remote-work-tools/

Brand mentions with listicles are a proven strategy for improving brand awareness. Whether it is clickable or not, when your brand is close to industry leaders, your name can be noticed. Besides that, listicles can allow you to suggest some special trials or discounts because people will compare your esteemed services with the company services above and below your brand name. In short, the better your description on such platform pages better the outcome from it.

#3 Review Sites ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Here, all depends on the niche you have in your business, as the choice on where to be listed, where people can create reviews are different. However, here are the most used review sites where you can register your business and be visible there:

• Hotel: Platforms like Tripadvisor, Airbnb, Booking, etc. Also, make sure to register your business locally.
• Software, AI, Services: G2, Capterra, Clutch, TrustRadius, and so on.
• Agencies: Sortlist, Designrush, and, of course, try to be listed in local review sites.
• Books: Storygraph, Kirkus Reviews, LibraryThing, and Goodreads.

If the niche you are in is not in the list and you can not find it, just search review sites + “niche”, and you will definitely find relevant sites. Plus, do not forget to register your business in as many search engines as possible ragardless the niche of your business you manage.

#4 Brand Mentions in Newsmakers

                      Image screen: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/novo-nordisk-shares-rise-hims-074530459.html

News still works well to remember the brand name. It can be viral news or just static, people who love to know the upcoming changes in the market, like to read news.

Additionally, being mentioned in a reputable newspaper site can have a multiplier effect. As proof of this, the image above. Reuters shared a news story, and Yahoo Finance used this news as a source of information. As an example of brand mention in the news, we used it here. So, once mentioned, duplicated the audience where people can see the brand name.

#5 Brand mentions in Social Media

Image screen from: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-raats-9a928b290/recent-activity/all/

The image above shows how Josh Raats, who is the founder of Staar Sports, mentioned Nike in one of his posts on LinkedIn. The post is historical as the story is much more motivational. People can share your brand name if there are some stories behind it. Besides stories, people also mention technical aspects of your products, their quality, usecases and, etc…

Of course, each social media is unique and targets specific audiences; you need to know where your potential customers are and try to be more active there.

Does not matter what they write, even if it is not a positive thing, when your brand is mentioned, you are recognized.

#6 Brand Mentions in Forums

      Image from:https://www.reddit.com/r/consulting/comments/1k57yk1/time_tracking_for_billing_what_platform_do_you_use/

Nowadays, forums have a great impact in the AI era. Famous forum platforms like Reddit and Quora include millions of human-created questions, and AI platforms bring the information that is included in the questions as well as in the comments.

If real people mention your brand name in comments, you earn trust, the thing that is needed for people who are able to pay.

#7 Brand Mentions in Video or Audio Materials

Screen from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8UgjzJTdHw&list=PL22egh3ok4cNkhPolgIow1i4-CTAvawn1&index=11

Within a popular podcast of “The Diary Of A CEO”, Ben Francis speaks about the success of building a $1.5 Billion business named Gymshark. Being mentioned in Steve’s podcast is also good news, but having an opportunity to share the story is just fantastic.

Brand mentions are crucial for being mentioned in AI answers. People ask questions, and after each investigation, they seek a solution.

Google has always dominated traditional search engines, which is why, in the past, companies invested in creating relevant pages for targeted keywords and link building.

So, now everything is not as usual. According to Semrush’s statistics, there is a hierarchy of AI citations by platforms. And you can notice that the platforms from where AI brings the information and gives you the answer to some specific questions. Imagine you asked a question to ChatGPT, they will bring information from platforms where possible to find relevant answers, and if your brand name is mentioned, your product would be found.

You can track your company brand mentions manually or automatically generate them via brand monitoring tools.

Tracking The Brand Name Manually 🕵

To monitor your brand name’s existence manually, you need to search the brand name on each platform manually, sometimes using operators to find the exact name of your brand.

Here are the search operators you may need to find your brand names across the web and countries:

• site:medium.com + “brand name”
• “YourBrandName” AND (review OR alternative OR vs)
• “YourBrandName” site:.uk
• “BrandName” + country name
• “BrandName” + Social media platform

Popular brand monitoring tools

To monitor your brand name’s existence in existing resources, you can use tools that are popular for tracking brand names. I will not share all the tools that can do the same thing, but it will be companies that are special for any additional service. Additionally, I will share the video guides for each tool on how to track them internally on their platforms, so it will be much easier to use them.

Awario

• Website: awario.com
• Best for: Widely used. Covers social media brand mentions, included Youtube and Vimeo, blogs, forums, etc…
• Pricing: Starts from $29 monthly in a yearly plan

Brandwatch

• Website: brandwatch.com
• Best for: Brandwatch is a very useful tool for brand name tracking as well as competitor research with competitors’ brand names.
• Pricing: Pricing is divided into 3 parts: for consumer intelligence, influencer marketing, and social media managers. All after making an action.

Hootsuite

• Website: hootsuite.com
• Best for: Provides social media analytics with brand mentions.
• Pricing: The cheapest option is a monthly 199$ in annually plan.

Google Alerts

• Website: google.com/alerts
• Pricing: Free; you just need an account.
• Best for: Best for beginners. Mostly useful for mass brand monitoring across the whole database that is open in Google. Best choice to start.

Okay, let’s say you understand the importance of brand mentions and now want to proceed with that. It is normal that you may be mixed on whom to outsource brand mention building.

Below, you can see the types of agencies you can collaborate with on hunting brand mentions. I suggest handling all for aggressive marketing, but if you want to start with a low budget, it is better to work with link building companies, as it is the cheapest on the list.

Here you have 3 options for whom to outsource the brand mentions.

1️⃣ Link Building Agencies 🔗

A responsible link-building agency can organize a plan for your brand mentions across the web. In the past, they were doing the same tasks to provide contextual links, so now they just switched to brand mentions.

• The advantage of outsourcing link building with brand mentions to link building agencies is that they can create more brand mentions in quantity than other types of companies. Additionally, they will reach out to relevant websites where your audience is also active, so they can naturally place your brand name close to people who can be your potential customers.

As an example, GoPeak.io handled brand mentions for our clients, and you can check the examples in our link building case studies. Plus, GoPeak is also focused on brand mentions in other platforms like Reddit and Quora, which is an additional bonus to our clients.

2️⃣ PR companies 📢

PR companies are in high demand in the AI era. Mostly, they will be very useful in providing company news in popular newspapers and in creating your brand name, taking into account the psychological demand of your potential customers.

• The advantage of outsourcing brand mentions to PR companies is that they can help you get your brand mentioned in famous newsmakers, and that can work as a multiplier effect.

3️⃣ Influencer Marketing Services 🤳

Influencer marketing companies focus on finding the audiences that are relevant to your product and try to pursue the right people who mention you in any format possible. It can be a video presentation, social media stories, a social media post, or maybe an article.

• The advantage of outsourcing brand mentions to influencer marketing companies is that they can communicate in any format of brand mentions you need.

• Brand mentions are an essential part of nowadays SEO
• Brand mentions work well to appear in AI chats
• Your brand mention strategy can be changed regarding the audience you want to reach out to
• If you can not handle the brand mention task by yourself, you need to outsource it to link building, influencer marketing, or a PR agency
• You can track your brand mentions manually and automatically
• After every brand mention, you are stronger than before