How to Monitor Twitter Mentions: A Complete Guide (2025)

Twitter is more than just a social platform—it's a place for brands looking to manage reputation, engage customers, and spot growth opportunities. That's why monitoring Twitter effectively is super important for any brand.

Manually tracking mentions can quickly become overwhelming - especially as you grow.  Learning how to monitor Twitter mentions without manually scouring Twitter can improve your brand’s responsiveness and understanding of your market. 

This guide will show you exactly how to monitor Twitter mentions using modern strategies, AI-powered Twitter monitoring tools, and best practices.

Important Twitter mentions for your brand to monitor are where your brand, product, or relevant keywords are used by your audience—either directly (tagging your handle) or indirectly (mentioning your brand without tagging).

Types of mentions to track on Twitter include:

1. Your brand name - and your social handles, you won’t want to miss any posts that actually mention your brand directly. If your brand name is a common word, include some context (e.g. track “Notion.so” or “@notionHQ” instead of “Notion”).

2. Your product’s category – think like a user who doesn’t know your brand. For example, Typeform might track “form builder” or “online form tool”. Docusign tracks “e-signature tool” or “signing software”. Include variations and related terms. A tool like Attio or Pipedrive might search for “CRM tool” or “SaaS CRM”.

3. Competitor names – list your direct competitors and even adjacent solutions. If people mention them, you want to know (could be an opportunity if they’re unhappy or looking around).

4. Pain point phrases – things your target user might say when experiencing the problem your SaaS solves. E.g., if you have a server monitoring SaaS, track phrases like “server downtime alert” or “monitoring our servers”. Or “high SaaS CACs”, “high churn rate” or “slow sales cycle” if your product helps fix those pain points. These can lead you to discussions where your solution is relevant.

5. Buying intent triggers – words like “recommendation, alternative, vs, choosing, looking for, anyone use...” combined with category terms. For example, “recommend CRM” or “alternative to Salesforce”.

6. Industry terms - words that are used a lot by your ICP and allow you to start a meaningful discussion on social. Example: “MRR reporting” (for SaaS industry, e.g. if you’re a financial tool for SaaS companies) or ‘cart abandonment rate’ (for e-commerce)

Why monitor for these types of mentions?

• Immediate customer support opportunities → make your brand seem supportive, proactive, and a great long-term partner.

• Insight into brand perception and sentiment → understand how your market is perceiving your brand and if it's trending up or down as well as why.

• Competitive intelligence and market insights → see how your competitors are doing, do users love or hate certain features, are people looking for alternatives?

• Lead generation through proactive engagement → find people actively searching for a tool like yours by posting about your product category.

Manual tracking involves regularly searching for mentions of your brand. While this can work for small brands initially, it quickly becomes impractical due to scalability limitations, the volume of mentions, and missed real-time opportunities. 

For instance, a busy brand might overlook an important mention amidst numerous irrelevant posts.

When you do monitor Twitter manually, you can make use of twitter search and advanced search.

Twitter's built-in search function can help locate mentions but lacks proactive notifications and sophisticated filters. This can lead to missed mentions if not constantly checked.

Dedicated social listening tools automate monitoring by providing real-time alerts, advanced filters, and some even use AI-driven relevance scoring, improving efficiency in tracking Twitter conversations.

Clarify your objectives clearly, such as:

• Reputation management

• Competitive intelligence

• Lead generation

• Customer support

Your goals will help you choose the right keywords to track for mentions.

Carefully select your keywords. Use the list of 6 different categories we went over above. 

For example, if your primary goal is reputation management you should cover all versions of your brand name and products. 

For competitive intelligence, obviously your competitors. 

Ideally, you have a mix of keywords to cover your different goals.

Octolens example:

• Enter relevant keywords into the Octolens dashboard. 
• Configure notification preferences (Slack, email, real-time alerts).
• For a detailed breakdown of how Octolens monitors Twitter see here.

Respond swiftly, contextually, and authentically:

• Answer customer queries promptly.

• Engage meaningfully with positive mentions.

• Address negative mentions transparently to protect your reputation.

• Check mentions consistently every day if you are doing it manually. 

• If with a tool, send the mentions to your preferred channel (Slack, Email, or somewhere else with a Webhook).

• Respond quickly—ideally within a few hours.

• Personalize responses to context and sentiment.

• Proactively manage crises by identifying and addressing negative sentiment transparently.

• Continuously adjust keywords based on insights and trends.

Octolens

• AI-powered relevance filtering, real-time notifications

• Specialized primarily for B2B SaaS

Mention

• General Monitoring
• Both for B2C and B2B

Hootsuite

• Comprehensive social media management

• Can be overwhelming for beginners

Brandwatch

• For large enterprises
• Advanced analytics with Higher cost, complex setup

• Ignoring indirect mentions: A customer might tweet positively about your brand without tagging your account, and missing this can lose valuable engagement opportunities.
• Not using targeted alerts: Without proper alerts, you may drown in irrelevant notifications, missing crucial, actionable mentions.
• Delaying responses: A delayed reply can frustrate customers, harming relationships. For instance, waiting days to respond to a complaint can drive customers toward competitors.

Monitoring Twitter mentions is essential for modern brands, not just for B2C but also in the B2B SaaS environment. By clearly defining goals, leveraging powerful social listening tools, and following best practices, you will can enhance your brand awareness, customer satisfaction, and competitive positioning.

Ready to optimize your Twitter monitoring strategy? Start your free trial of Octolens.