How do I find out what people say about my brand online?

Track your brand, product and competitor names across networks and the web, and answer or act while it matters. Tools that do it: Sprout Social, Hootsuite, Later, Metricool.

Hear what people say about your brand: guide, DIY and tools

Start here

The guide What Is Social Listening? Meaning, Method and Brand Mentions How it works and how to do it well Read → Do it yourself Free Social Listening Tools: How to Track Brand Mentions Yourself Build it in Excel or Google Sheets Read → The tools Social Listening Tools: What a Full Setup Needs and Who It Fits Which apps do it for you, and where each stops Read →

Tools that do it

Each one's way of doing it, and the point where it stops.

Sprout Social Does it

The Listening add-on builds topics from your brand and competitor terms using templates such as Brand Health and Competitive Analysis, then scores sentiment, measures share of voice and sends Listening Spike Alerts. Where it stops: Bought through sales, not in trials; 30 days of automatic backfill, 12 or 24 months bought separately; Instagram public data has no backfill.

See Sprout Social → checked Oct 2026

Hootsuite Does it

Quick Search finds mentions, keywords and hashtags with AI summaries and peak detection, and compares searches side by side; on Enterprise, Lumen by Talkwalker saves topics, keeps 13 months and alerts on spikes. Where it stops: Standard keeps 7 days and compares 2 searches; Professional and Advanced keep 30 days and up to 5. Alerts on brand mentions need Enterprise.

See Hootsuite → checked Oct 2026

Later Partly

Brand Mentions collects posts that mention you on Instagram and TikTok, sentiment scores comments from -1 to +1, and benchmarking compares you with up to 20 Instagram competitors. Where it stops: No open-web, news or forum tracking; Brand Mentions needs the Instagram profile connected to a Facebook Page.

See Later → checked Oct 2026

Metricool Workaround

The Hashtag Tracker monitors a campaign hashtag on X and Instagram for the days you choose, so you can see who posted under it during a launch or contest. Where it stops: Hashtags only, on X and Instagram; it does not track mentions of your brand name.

See Metricool → checked Oct 2026

Every verdict rests on the data in our product reports, never on a fee. How we score →