1. Utilize Google Alerts. This is probably one of simplest but most effective tools available for brand monitoring. Google Alerts allows you to create keyword specific alerts that will email you each time content appears on the web that contains those keywords. Since my company name is SpinWeb, I have an alert set up to monitor the word “SpinWeb”, which means I get emails every time my company is mentioned on the web.
2. Set up alerts on TweetBeep. TweetBeep is a free service (for up to 10 alerts) that monitors conversations on Twitter and then sends you emails listing all the tweets containing your keyword. An alert set up for “SpinWeb” sends me a daily (or hourly, if I prefer) email containing all tweets talking about my company. This makes it easy for me to selectively jump into conversations that interest me.
3. Scan social networks with SocialMention. This service tracks over 80 social networks for your keyword, including Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Google etc. SocialMention also has some nice additional features that monitor strength and influence of conversations.
