What can brand mentions really tell us?

In our recent expert panel debate with Helen Precious, a Wordnerds Big Data Consultant; Jackie Cuyvers, CEO at Convosphere; and Tania Benade-Meyer, Head of Consumer Insights at Navico, we explored the possibilities that can be unlocked using insights from brand mentions.

What do brand mentions really tell you? What kind of value do they provide?

According to Tania, the value lies in understanding the underlying sentiment. She explains that brand mentions are great for keeping track of the moments that can impact the peaks and drops in your data. So, over time, you'll be able to understand people’s perceptions about your brand, and you'll learn what is at the core of those perceptions.

A nuanced view on consumer sentiment

Automated sentiment analysis tools only give you a limited view of people’s sentiment around your brand though, as mentions are broadly labelled as positive, negative or neutral.

The Convosphere team tackles this challenge by taking a more complex approach. They map out different stages of the customer’s journey, and apply Plutchik’s wheel of emotions - a behavioural science model that looks at the 8 basic emotions that people feel (e.g. joy, anger, fear). This helps to identify the emotion at a specific point of the journey and ultimately, highlight barriers, drivers, and inflection points.

Understanding the emotions behind the sentiment gives you the opportunity to address issues or make crucial business decisions.

Shifting your approach to tracking brand mentions

Tracking brand mentions brings the most value when you understand the people behind the conversations.

Jackie suggests that instead of focusing on brand mentions, first look at who your audience is, what they’re talking about, and then deep dive from there. You need to understand the topics and interests that your audience finds important and then look at how your brand is mentioned within that context.

Looking beyond tagged data

Helen also recommends looking at more than just the tagged data. There are brands out there that people are talking about but aren’t tagging in their conversations.

Depending on the industry you work in, if you’re only looking at mentions in which people directly tag your brand, you might find yourself drowning in a sea of negativity. So, it’s important to understand the context around these. By tracking those untagged conversations you get a much bigger picture of what people are saying about your brand.

The industry factor

To build the wider context of your brand mentions, you also need to look at the competitive landscape. The goal is to figure out the level of conversation across your market. Is your brand performing better or worse compared to others in your industry? What can you learn from all the data to make improvements? Can you assess how they tackle common industry challenges, and adopt a similar communication strategy?

The context around brand mentions is what makes them useful. It’s important for brands not to analyse them in isolation, instead build that bigger picture before making strategic decisions.

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