If you’re tired of missing out when your brand gets mentioned online—or sick of paying through the nose for half-baked “social listening” tools—this guide is for you. We’re going to use Apify, a web scraping and automation platform, to set up a straightforward, no-nonsense system for tracking brand mentions across news sites and social media. No coding experience? No problem. Experienced dev? You’ll still pick up a trick or two.
Let’s cut through the fluff and get your brand monitoring set up with tools that actually work.
Why Use Apify for Brand Monitoring?
Most “brand monitoring” tools are black boxes. They scrape, filter, and summarize—but you’re never sure what’s missed, and you can’t tweak much without opening your wallet.
Here’s where Apify stands out: - Customizable: You decide what sites to monitor. - Transparent: You see exactly what’s scraped and how. - Not just social: Works on news, forums, blogs—any site, really. - Automatable: Set it and forget it. Or tweak as needed.
But it’s not magic. Scraping can break if sites change, and some platforms (like Instagram or Facebook) are walled gardens. Still, for public news, Twitter/X, Reddit, and many blogs, Apify works better than most.
Step 1: Figure Out What You Want to Track
Before you mess with any tools, get specific: - Where does your brand get mentioned? News, Reddit, X/Twitter, niche forums, blogs? - What keywords matter? Your brand name, product names, key people, common misspellings? - How often do you need updates? Instant alerts or daily digests?
Write this down. It’ll save you time (and money) later.
Pro tip: Don’t try to monitor everything at first. Start with your top 2-3 sites. You can always add more.
Step 2: Set Up Your Apify Account
Head to Apify and sign up. The free tier is generous for small jobs, but heavy use (or scraping big sites) may cost a few bucks. Their UI is straightforward, but a bit utilitarian—don’t expect fancy dashboards.
Once you’re in: - Explore the Apify Store. This is where you’ll find “Actors”—prebuilt scrapers for popular sites. - Bookmark your dashboard. You’ll be back here a lot.
Step 3: Choose Your Scrapers (“Actors”)
Apify calls their scraping scripts “Actors.” Think of them like little robots that fetch stuff for you.
Here’s what works well out of the box: - News sites: Use the “Website Content Crawler” or search for specific news scrapers (e.g., “Google News Scraper”). - Reddit: The “Reddit Scraper” is solid for public subreddits. - Twitter/X: There’s a “Twitter Scraper”—it works for public tweets, but can be flaky if Twitter changes their site. - RSS feeds: Many news sites still offer these. The “RSS Feed Scraper” is dead simple.
What doesn’t work: - Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn: These block scrapers aggressively. Apify has Actors for them, but results are hit-or-miss (usually miss). - Behind logins/paywalls: Apify can technically handle this, but it’s fiddly and sometimes not worth the headache.
Pro tip: Always test each Actor with a small run before committing real time or money.
Step 4: Configure Your Actors
Let’s walk through a typical setup for, say, Reddit mentions:
- Find the “Reddit Scraper” in Apify Store.
- Click “Try for free.”
- Configure your input:
- Keywords: List your brand names, products, etc.
- Subreddits: Leave blank to search sitewide, or specify if you only care about a few.
- Date range: Recent posts/comments only, or a wider window.
- Set max results to something reasonable (start small).
- Save and “Run” the Actor.
Do the same for news sites, blogs, or whatever else you need. Each Actor has its own quirks—read the docs, but don’t be afraid to experiment.
Heads up: Some Actors have usage limits or cost credits per run. Check before you queue up a giant scrape.
Step 5: Automate and Schedule
Manual scrapes get old fast. Fortunately, Apify lets you schedule Actors:
- Go to your Actor’s page.
- Click “Schedule.”
- Choose how often to run (hourly, daily, weekly).
You can also set up notifications (email, Slack, webhooks) when new mentions are found. This part’s a bit nerdy, but their docs explain it well. Webhooks are best if you want results piped into another tool (like Zapier, Airtable, or a custom dashboard).
Pro tip: Start with daily runs. If you’re not getting swamped, try hourly. If you’re getting flooded, dial it back.
Step 6: Review and Export Your Results
Once your Actors run, results show up as datasets—think spreadsheets with all the scraped mentions.
- Preview results in the Apify UI.
- Export to CSV, JSON, or Excel for more analysis.
- Filter for duplicates or junk (common with brand names that are also common words).
If you want to get fancy, plug your data into Google Sheets, Airtable, or a simple reporting tool. But honestly, don’t overengineer it—CSV + Excel works fine for most.
What to ignore: Don’t chase “sentiment analysis” unless you really need it. Most automated sentiment tools guess wrong a lot. You’re better off reading top mentions yourself.
Step 7: Deal with the Limitations (and Annoyances)
Let’s be straight: scraping isn’t perfect. Here’s where Apify shines, and where it doesn’t:
- Reliability: Public news and Reddit? Usually works well. Twitter/X? Sometimes breaks when Twitter changes things. Instagram/Facebook? Nearly useless.
- Speed: Not instant. Scrapes can take a few minutes, sometimes longer.
- Data quality: You’ll get raw posts/titles. Don’t expect deep context or AI-powered summaries.
- Maintenance: Sites change, scrapers break. Apify updates Actors, but you may need to tweak settings or wait for fixes.
If you need 100% reliable, real-time alerts for every possible mention, you’re better off with an expensive enterprise tool (and even then, good luck). For most people, Apify covers 80% of needs for a fraction of the price.
Pro Tips and Pitfalls
- Don’t scrape just because you can. Focus on sites where your audience actually hangs out.
- Start small. Monitor one or two sites, see what you actually use, then expand.
- Keep your keywords tight. Generic names (like “Apple”) will drown you in noise.
- Mind the rules. Scraping is legal for public data, but don’t go nuts or break terms of service. If a site blocks you, respect it.
- Set a review routine. Weekly check-ins work for most brands. Don’t obsess over every mention.
Wrap-Up: Keep It Simple
Brand monitoring doesn’t have to be a mess of overpriced tools and broken dashboards. With Apify, you can set up a scrappy, effective system that actually tells you when your brand pops up in the wild.
Start with just a couple of Actors. Check your results. Tweak a little. Don’t chase perfection, and don’t let the perfect be the enemy of “good enough.” Iterate as you go. Your future self will thank you.