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Introduction to Mention Alerts
Introduction to Mention Alerts

Learn what an Alert is and how they can benefit your search needs!

Rodrigo Araujo avatar
Written by Rodrigo Araujo
Updated over a week ago

Alerts are the foundation of your media monitoring within the Mention platform. You need to have an alert created on your account in order to fetch mentions and data. Once an alert is created and fetching data, you will be able to access the Mention Feed and Analytics such as Reports and the Dashboard.

In this article, we will go over each Alert that is available within Mention and explain their benefits. Here are the topics we will cover today:

💡 This article will provide an overview of the Mention Alerts. For more resources on configuring your alerts, head over here: Mention Alerts


How Do Alerts Function?

Mention Alerts monitor the web in two ways :

  • Keyword Monitoring: Mention will search for text or phrases that appear online after your alert is created.

  • Monitored Pages: Mention will fetch all posts made on specific URLs.

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Keyword Monitoring:

Mention primarily monitors the web and social media using text keywords. When you create a Mention Alert, you will be required to add at least one keyword to your search. However, we recommend adding multiple keywords to ensure that you are monitoring the exact topics you need.

Let's take a look at a quick example:

⚙️ If you write the word "Mac" in an alert, Mention will fetch content related to:

  • People named Mac

  • Mac computers

  • MAC cosmetics

  • And more!

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If you write the word "Mac" and "Apple" in an alert, the search will be refined to primarily searching for content related to Mac computers!

As you can see, Mention understands your keywords in a very literal manner! For Mention Alerts, your keywords will follow this structure:

  • Keywords are space-sensitive

  • Keywords are accent-sensitive

  • Keywords are not case-sensitive

💡 For more information and examples, please check here: Keyword Rules

It is very important that you understand the topics you want to monitor before creating your alert to ensure that you begin monitoring content correctly right from the beginning. Once your alert is created, Mention will begin fetching new content from the web and social media that appears online.

❗Mention does not fetch historical content unless you are using an Advanced Alert that has access to Historical Data. To learn more, please check this: Historical Data

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Monitored Pages & Reviews:

On top of keyword monitoring, Mention offers the ability to monitor specific URLs for social media and review websites. For this type of monitoring, you can add the URL of the account or page and Mention will fetch all of the posts that are published on these URLs.

Monitored Pages & Reviews are available for the following websites:

  • Facebook Business Page URLs:

    • Mention will fetch new posts from the page and the comments on posts.

  • X (formerly known as Twitter) Account URLs:

    • Mention will fetch new tweets from the page, replies to the tweets, and profiles that retweet the original post.

  • Instagram Business Page URLs:

    • Mention will fetch new posts from the business account.

  • LinkedIn Company Page or School Page URLs (Company Plan):

    • Mention will fetch new posts from the page.

    • Mention has a dedicated list of URL websites that can be monitored. This list will appear in your alert.

💡 For more information on Monitored Pages, check this article: Monitored Pages & Review Sites

In the next few sections, we will go over each type of Alert in Mention. Once you understand the function of each alert, you can begin creating your own!


★ Basic Alert

The Basic Alert allows you to monitor the web and social media with an easy-to-use interface that utilizes simple monitoring rules and limitations for your search needs.

We recommend using the alert if:

  • You are new to online media monitoring.

  • You want to monitor any topic on the web using a few keywords.

For the Basic Alert, your keyword monitoring is divided into 3 search boxes:

  • Required Keywords: all of the keywords that appear in this box must appear in an online post in order for Mention to bring the post into your account. If a keyword from this box does not appear, Mention will disregard the post.

  • Optional Keywords: only one of the keywords that appears in this box has to appear in an online post in order for Mention to bring the post in.

  • Excluded Keywords: if any of the keywords from this box appear in an online post, Mention will not bring the post into your account.

⚙️The search boxes in the Basic Alert work together to search for mentions on the web. In the photo above, we have this configuration:

Required: Apple

Optional: iPhone , Mac, Watch

Excluded: oranges, bananas

This means that the alert is monitoring for:

  • Apple AND iPhone when oranges and bananas do not appear in the post

  • Apple AND Mac when oranges and bananas do not appear in the post

  • Apple AND watch when oranges and bananas do not appear in the post

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Configuration of the Basic Alert:

Keyword Monitoring

The Basic Alert allows you to monitor keywords on the web and social media with these configurations in mind:

  • Monitor up to 15 keywords or phrases:

    • 5 Required Keywords

    • 5 Optional Keywords

    • 5 Excluded keywords

  • Monitor the following Sources:

    • Facebook (Only available on Pro, Pro Plus, and Company Plan)

    • Instagram

    • X (Twitter)

    • Forums

    • Reddit

    • Blogs

    • Videos

    • News

    • Web

    • LinkedIn (Only Available on the Company Plan)

    • YouTube (Only Available on the Company Plan)

    • Pinterest (Only Available on the Company Plan)

    • TikTok (Only Available on the Company Plan)

    • Radio & TV* (Only Available on the Company Plan)

  • Monitor a website URL of your choosing.

  • Block any URLs that you do not want to monitor.

  • Choose up to 10 languages and 10 countries to monitor content from.

❗The Radio & TV source is an add-on feature. Please contact us for more information.

Monitored Pages & Review Pages

Mention allows you to add the URLs of social media accounts or review websites with these configurations in mind:

  • Monitored Social Profiles:

    • Facebook Business Pages URLs

    • Instagram Business Account URLs

    • X (Twitter) Profile URLs

    • LinkedIn Business Page URLs (Only Available on the Company Plan)

  • Mention has a dedicated list of accepted Review Website URLs listed in your alert.

❗The number of URLs that you can add to your Basic Alert will be listed on the Monitored Pages & Review page. This quota is based on your Mention Subscription.

💡 If you would like to learn more, check out this article: Create a Basic Alert


★ Standard Alert

The Standard Alert is your introduction to boolean operators and complex search queries. This alert will provide you with a list of search operators that will help you create very specific searches on the web.

We recommend using this alert if:

  • You are ready to take your online monitoring skills to the next level.

  • You want to monitor specific topics on the web.

  • You want to monitor multiple topics at the same time.

The Standard Alert offers these 4 unique search operators to build your query:

  • AND: this operator will link two keywords together. Both keywords must appear in a publication in order for Mention to bring it into your account.

  • OR: this operator will monitor the keywords separately. Only one keyword needs to appear in the publication in order for Mention to fetch it.

  • AND NOT: this operator will exclude keywords. If the keyword appears in the publication, Mention will disregard it.

  • NEAR: this operator is a proximity operator that will link keywords with a set proximity. If the keywords appear within this proximity of each other, Mention will fetch it.

⚙️ Let's take a look at the example above. This alert is monitoring two separate searches at the same time:

  • In the first box, the alert is monitoring the following search:

    • Apple AND Watch when oranges do not appear in the text

  • In the second box, the alert has another search which is monitoring:

    • Samsung AND Galaxy

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Configuration of the Standard Alert

Keyword Monitoring

The Standard Alert allows you to monitor the web and social media with these configurations in mind:

  • Monitor up to 40 keywords (10 keywords per query box).

  • Utilize up to 4 logic operators to enhance your search combinations.

  • Preview the potential number of mentions your alert query will fetch to calculate how much quota you may consume.

  • Monitor the following Sources:

    • Facebook

    • Instagram

    • X (Twitter)

    • Forums

    • Reddit

    • Blogs

    • Videos

    • News

    • Web

    • YouTube (Only available on the Company Plan)

    • Pinterest (Only available on the Company Plan)

    • TikTok (Only Available on the Company Plan)

    • Radio & TV* (Only Available on the Company Plan)

    • LinkedIn (Only Available on the Company Plan)

  • Block any URLs that you do not want to fetch content from.

  • Choose up to 10 languages and 10 countries to monitor content from.

❗The Radio & TV source is an add-on feature. Please contact us for more information.

Monitored Pages & Reviews

Mention allows you to add the URLs of social media accounts or review websites with these configurations in mind:

  • Monitored Social Profiles:

    • Facebook Business Pages URLs

    • Instagram Business Account URLs

    • X (Twitter) Profile URLs

    • LinkedIn Company Page or School Page URLs (Only Available on the Company Plan)

  • Mention has a dedicated list of accepted Review Website URLs listed in your alert.

❗The number of URLs that you can add to your Standard Alert will be listed on the Monitored Pages & Review page. This quota is based on your Mention Subscription.

💡 If you want to learn more, check this out: Create a Standard Alert


★ Advanced Alert

The Advanced Alert is your fully optimized monitoring tool that will provide you with everything you need to monitor the web and social media. The Advanced Alert offers over 20+ search operators that will allow you to build robust search queries.

We recommend using this alert if:

  • You are ready to begin programming alerts using boolean operators.

  • You want to monitor key topics on the web with specific parameters in mind.

  • You want to monitor mentions from the past if you have access to Historical Data.

❗In order to create an Advanced Alert, you will need to have an understanding of how to write a boolean query. If you have any questions or would like some assistance creating your alert, please contact your dedicated account manager.

The Advanced Alert is designed to be a blank template where you will create your entire search query using boolean operators. These operators will allow you to manipulate the text and data that Mention will search for on the web.

⚙️ Let's take a look at the example above. This alert is monitoring 3 separate searches with data operators that will manipulate the mentions that are fetched:

  • The first search is for Spanish language mentions of Apple AND iPhone.

  • The second search is for French language mentions of Samsung AND Galaxy.

  • The third search is for Italian language mentions of Google AND Pixel.

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Configuration of the Advanced Alert:

Keyword Monitoring

The Advanced Alert allows you to monitor the web and social media with these configurations in mind:

  • Monitor over 2,000+ characters in your query search.

  • Utilize over 20+ search operators to control your text and data monitoring.

  • Monitor as many languages or countries that you would like utilizing language and country codes in your query.

  • Fetch data from up to 2 years if your subscription includes Historical Data.

  • Block any URLs that you do not want to fetch content from.

  • Preview the potential number of mentions your alert query will fetch to calculate how much quota you may consume.

  • Monitor the following Sources:

    • Facebook

    • Instagram

    • X (Twitter)

    • Forums

    • Reddit

    • Blogs

    • Videos

    • News

    • Web

    • YouTube

    • Pinterest

    • TikTok

    • Linkedin (Add-On Bundle)

    • Radio & TV* (Add-On Bundle)

Monitored Pages & Review Sites

Mention allows you to add the URLs of social media accounts or review websites with these configurations in mind:

  • Monitored Social Profiles:

    • Facebook Business Page URLs

    • Instagram Business Account URLs

    • X (Twitter) Profile URLs

    • LinkedIn Company Page or School Page URLs

  • Mention has a dedicated list of accepted Review Website URLs listed in your alert.

❗The number of URLs that you can add to your Advanced Alert will be listed on the Monitored Pages & Review Page. This quota is based on your Mention Subscription.

💡 If you want to learn more, check this article: Create an Advanced Alert


Create an Alert

Now that you understand how each alert functions, you can begin creating your first Mention Alert! If you would like to create a new alert, you can head over to your Mention Feed and click on the Create Alert button:

Once you have clicked on this button, a new page will open with the available alerts that you can create on your account. Please choose the alert you would like to create and begin and configuring the keywords you would like to monitor:

You can now begin creating your Mention Alerts!


If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact [email protected]!

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