Do you wish you could stay on top of Twitter mentions more easily, without having to spend hours on the channel?

Is it crucial to your clients or brand that tweets are responded to quickly?

As well as being heard, listening has become the all-important “go to” social media method that all brands want. Working out a social media monitoring strategy, particularly for the fast pace of Twitter, is essential to keeping on top of what’s going on.

If you’re looking to monitor your client’s Twitter presence more effectively, here are five essential tips to help you do just that.

Twitter Management Guide

Monitor Tweets Sent Both to and About the Nrand

If you’ve been using Twitter search a while, you’ll know that there are different ways to search by user in order to see different types of tweets. For example, searching to:pepsi would show you tweets sent to the user @pepsi. Searching @pepsi would show you tweets mentioning the user @pepsi.

Tweets sent to the user are usually expecting a reply. This may be a question, a complaint or some feedback. By searching to:user, Pepsi’s social media team can see all of the tweets needing a response, fast. You could save this in Twilert as a Twitter alert so that you get an email each time a tweet is sent to @pepsi. 

As well as monitoring tweets sent to the user, you also need to monitor tweets sent about the user. By searching @pepsi you will see all of the tweets mentioning the user @pepsi. Unlike to:user these are not tweets sent directly to Pepsi, but are where Pepsi is mentioned within the tweet at some point. Often, these would be comments, feedback or even brand advocacy from social media users.

By responding to tweets sent both to: Pepsi and @ about Pepsi, you are providing a 360-degree approach and are ensuring the brands you look after get the most out of every single Twitter mention available.

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Monitor Brand Name mentions on Twitter

Many Twitter users will share feedback, advice and comments on a brand without ever officially “tagging” the brand in question.

This makes for a whole lot of mentions that are usually never seen or responded to. When a user mentions your brand, rather than tagging your handle, you don’t get a notification. Yet the tweet is still out there, waiting to be listened to.

By setting up a Twitter alert or search where you monitor instances of the brand name, you could uncover an entirely new set of feedback or social reach that you may never have discovered before.

Monitor Twitter Questions & Searches

The question most asked by social media managers today is: how do we gain attention and “disrupt” a user enough for them to glance over? Previously it was a case of tweeting good content, but even good content can now get lost in algorithms which take into account many other factors.

One way to still gain attention on Twitter is to become genuinely useful on a one-to-one basis. This means finding the users who need help with something you can offer and speaking to them directly. In the past this has been a way big brands have “hijacked” tweeting trends.

Here’s an example where sandwich brand Jimmy John’s used the trend “#KissAGingerDay” to pull in fast-food chain Wendy’s with its red-haired mascot.

Brands without such a huge following can do something similar by listening to the subjects users are tweeting about. For example, if you are a map app for runners you could search: best running app ? on Twitter:

This would pull out a ton of tweets sent from users requesting a new running app recommendation, or tweeting about the ones they recommend. You can then reply to the users as the brand, follow the users or join in the conversation, which is an easy way to gain new followers and find your target audience through Twitter.

Monitor Competitors on Twitter

Another way to effectively monitor the entire Twitter landscape is to keep an eye on what your competitors are tweeting or talking about. With the same user search as above, you can find tweets sent to, from or mentioning the user. For example:

to:cocacola

This search helps to uncover what people are saying to a brand.

from:cocacola

This search helps share what a brand is saying back to fans.

@cocacola

This search shares how people are mentioning a brand.

Keeping a 360-degree view on your own brand, plus those of any competitors, will help you to garner more opportunities and be more tuned-in to what’s happening within the social landscapes of the brands you look after.

 Monitor Twitter Campaigns

As well as keeping an eye on your brands which is a 24/7 job, you can also set up short-term monitoring for any campaigns or events you’re running. This is as simple as setting up a Twilert or Twitter search which follows the event name, campaign name or hashtag. Setting up a Twitter alert as a reminder is a great way to ensure that when the campaign gets going, you capture every single mention without having to log onto Twitter.

Get started today with Twitter monitoring for brands and social media managers.