# How to monitor brand mentions on social media

> Start with free tools: platform notifications, saved searches & alerts for your brand name & common misspellings. A paid listening tool only makes sense once volume grows. DunSocial doesn't do social listening.

Updated: 2026-10-05.

## What monitoring means

Monitoring is finding out when people talk about you, whether or not they tag you. Tagged mentions arrive as notifications. Untagged ones, a name typed without the handle, only show up if you look.

The goal is simple: hear what people say early enough to reply, learn from it or step in.

## Start with free options

- Notifications on each platform for mentions & replies
- A saved search for your brand name on X, Threads & Bluesky
- Search alerts from a search engine for your name
- A watch on relevant subreddits & discussion places

Include common misspellings & your product name. People rarely spell things the way you do.

## Check on a schedule

Pick a time each day to run your searches. Ten minutes is usually enough for a small brand.

Note anything that needs action: a question, a complaint or a good story to share. Pass it to whoever can handle it.

## When a paid tool makes sense

Listening tools collect mentions across platforms, add sentiment scoring & send alerts. They're useful once volume is too high to check by hand, or when reputation is tied to revenue.

For a small brand, the cost often outweighs the benefit until mentions reach a level you can't track manually.

DunSocial isn't that kind of tool, & it doesn't try to be one.

## What DunSocial doesn't do

DunSocial doesn't do social listening or collect mentions. It's a tool for planning, writing & publishing, not for watching the wider conversation.

Pair it with the free options above, or with a dedicated tool if you need one. Being clear about that avoids a gap where everyone assumes someone else is watching.

## Turn mentions into content

Good mentions can become posts. A customer's praise, with permission, is better proof than anything you write yourself.

DunSocial can then schedule that post, & its MCP tools let an AI assistant draft & queue it once you've chosen what to share.

## Related guides

- [What is social media community management?](https://www.dunsocial.com/hub/social-media-community-and-reputation-management/what-is-social-media-community-management.md)
- [How to handle a social media crisis](https://www.dunsocial.com/hub/social-media-community-and-reputation-management/how-to-handle-a-social-media-crisis.md)
- [How to track social media performance across platforms](https://www.dunsocial.com/hub/social-media-analytics/how-to-track-social-media-performance-across-platforms.md)
- [How to use social media trends without sounding generic](https://www.dunsocial.com/hub/social-media-content-creation/how-to-use-social-media-trends-without-sounding-generic.md)

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