Glossary
What is social media monitoring?
Social media monitoring tracks posts, comments and discussions in real time to spot brand mentions, industry keywords and potential crises. Unlike social listening, which looks for long-term themes and sentiment, monitoring is all about instant awareness and swift action.
Jul 10, 2025
How it works
Mention tracking: catch every public reference to your brand, products or executives.
Keyword alerts: follow campaign hashtags and industry buzzwords.
Real-time notifications: get a ping the moment a post matches your criteria.
Crisis detection: flag negative spikes early so PR and support teams can jump in.
Tools such as PitchGhost scan LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Reddit and forums, then send alerts to Slack, Discord or email so you can reply before the conversation cools.
Why monitoring matters
Benefit | Impact |
|---|---|
Real-time awareness | Around 70% of consumers expect brands to reply on social within 24 hours, and 40% want an answer in under an hour. Quick alerts help you meet — or beat — those expectations. |
Customer-service boost | Teams can intercept complaints even when the customer forgets to tag the brand, turning frustrations into loyalty moments. |
Campaign optimisation | Live feedback shows which messages resonate so you can tweak copy, visuals or spend on the fly. |
Getting started
Pick an aggregator
Choose a platform that covers every network your audience uses. PitchGhost, for example, centralises keyword, hashtag and competitor monitoring across four major channels.Set layered alerts
Combine branded terms, competitor names and product keywords so no important post slips past.Route alerts to the right team
Pipe urgent issues to customer success, route sales-ready signals to reps and archive FYI chatter for the marketing team.
Measuring success
KPI | What it shows |
|---|---|
Mention volume | Brand visibility and conversation spikes |
Response rate | How consistently the team replies to monitored posts |
Sentiment trend | High-level mood shifts you can investigate further with social listening |
The bottom line
Social media monitoring keeps brands responsive and reputations intact. By combining real-time alerts with clear workflows — and a tool like PitchGhost that automates the heavy lifting — you can handle issues faster, optimise live campaigns and never miss a chance to engage.
Key takeaways
Monitoring focuses on immediate alerts; listening focuses on deep analysis.
Fast replies improve customer satisfaction and protect brand image.
Automated tools broaden coverage while saving teams time.
Written by Ardana Izimova
