Monitor: social listening columns for keywords, mentions and hashtags

Monitor (menu Measure, then Monitor, at /app/monitor) is a board of saved searches, one column each, across the public platforms you have connected. Use it to follow your brand name, your hashtags, a competitor or a topic. Matches stay on the Monitor board; they do not go into the Inbox. Viewing it needs the member task Market Watch; adding columns, refreshing, AI triage, replying, Mark handled and the digest need Manage Market Watch and the role Owner, Admin or Editor. Both tasks are ticked per person in Settings → Members (every role except Agent has Market Watch by default, Editors also Manage Market Watch). Anyone else reads the columns only: the add-column form, Refresh, Smart digest, the column arrows and ×, and the buttons under each mention are not shown, and a note says You can read the monitor columns.

Before you start

• Connect at least one account on a platform that can be searched: X, YouTube, Bluesky or Mastodon. You can only monitor platforms you have connected, and searches run through your own connected account.
• Other connected platforms appear in the list marked cannot be searched, with their checkbox greyed out (point at it to read "(platform) does not let apps search its public posts."): their platform offers no public search, so they cannot be picked for a column. When none of your connected platforms can be searched, the form is hidden and the board shows one box, None of your channels can search for mentions, with a Connect a channel button. WhatsApp, website chat, email and newsletters are not offered at all; their messages are in the Inbox.

Step by step: add a column

1. Open /app/monitor.
2. Type: choose Keyword, Mention, Hashtag or Review.
3. Query: what to search for, for example your brand name, #hashtag or @handle. Up to 200 characters; the box stops taking more. It needs at least one letter or digit: a query of only # or @ is refused with A query needs at least one letter or digit. under the box.
4. Exclude (optional): words separated by commas (the Latin , or the Arabic ،), for example promo, giveaway. A match containing any of them is dropped. Matching ignores upper and lower case and also catches longer words (promo also drops "promocode"). You can exclude at most 50 words, each at most 60 characters. With more than 50 words, Exclude at most 50 words, separated by commas. appears in red under the form; with a word longer than 60 characters, Each excluded word can be at most 60 characters. Separate words with commas. appears instead (usually a missing comma). Remove words or add the missing commas and the message goes. A column saved before these limits keeps working, but only its first 50 words of up to 60 characters are used: extra words, and any word over 60 characters, are ignored.
5. Language: Any, Latin alphabet (English, French, Spanish…), Arabic script (Arabic, Urdu, Persian…), Cyrillic (Russian, Ukrainian…), Devanagari (Hindi, Marathi, Nepali…) or Chinese, Japanese or Korean. It goes by the writing system: it cannot tell English from French, or Arabic from Urdu.
6. Platforms: tick the platforms to search. The searchable ones you have connected are ticked by default.
7. Click Add column, or press Enter in Query or Exclude. It is disabled until there is a query and at least one platform (while Query is empty, the form says Type a keyword in Query to add a column.), and while a red message shows under Query or Exclude. If a column of the same Type already searches the same query on the same platforms (upper and lower case, spaces and a leading # or @ do not count as different), the box says The column "[column]" already searches for this on these platforms. and nothing is added; change the query, the type or the platforms. When the column is added, Column "[column]" added. Press Refresh to look for mentions. appears under the form with a Refresh button, and the board scrolls to the new column (the last one; on a phone it is off to the side otherwise).
8. Click Refresh to pull the first matches.

A workspace can have up to 20 columns. With 20, Add column shows A workspace can have 20 Monitor columns. Delete a column to add another. and nothing is added; remove a column with its × first.

Step by step: work through the mentions

1. Click Refresh (greyed out until there is a column). It shows Working…, then Fetched [n] new mentions. While it runs you can still triage and reply. When a column or a platform was not searched, a box Some searches were skipped: lists each one with the reason (see "If something goes wrong" below); when not a single search could run, the box is titled No search could run: and no "Fetched" line is shown. The box stays until the next Refresh or until you close it with ✕. Refresh searches two columns at a time and starts no new column after about a minute, so it always finishes quickly; a column it did not reach is listed as [column]: not searched this time, to keep Refresh quick. Press Refresh again to search it. and is searched first by the next Refresh (it does not count as searched).
2. Each card shows the platform, the author (with @ for a handle on X, Bluesky or Mastodon, u/ on Reddit, the plain name for a YouTube channel), how long ago it was posted (hover it for the full date and time), the text and the link View on [platform] (for example View on X), which opens the post on the platform in a new tab. The link is shown only for an ordinary web address (http or https); a mention whose server sent anything else has no link.
3. Click AI triage to get the sentiment (positive, neutral or negative), a priority (low priority, medium priority, high priority) and a suggested reply.
4. On X and Reddit mentions there is no reply box: OmniBrand cannot post replies there, and the card says Replies to [platform] mentions are not available yet. Open the post to reply there. Use View on [platform] to reply on the platform itself. On the other platforms, type in Quick reply…, or click Use AI to paste the suggested reply, then click Reply. If you had already typed something, Use AI replaces it and Restore my text brings your text back (until you type again). The reply is posted on the platform from your first connected account for that platform, and the mention is marked handled. The card itself says Reply sent. under the mention. If the reply fails, the reason is shown in red on the same card, under the reply box, and the mention stays open. The reply box takes the card's full width, with Use AI and Reply under it, and counts the characters as you type (for example 12/300). A reply can be up to 2,000 characters, or the platform's own limit when that is shorter (300 on Bluesky); the box stops there. The box grows with the reply so you can read all of it before it is posted. Press Enter in the box to send it, the same as Reply; Shift+Enter starts a new line. A reply that is still too long for the platform is refused with This reply is too long: use at most [n] characters. and the box is marked in red.
5. If no reply is needed, click Mark handled. A message Marked as handled. appears at the bottom of the screen with Undo for a few seconds.
6. A handled mention shows the label Handled and, for those who can act on mentions, a Reopen button. Click Reopen (or Undo in the message) to make it open again: the label goes, and AI triage, Mark handled and the reply box come back.

Managing columns

• Move left and Move right arrows reorder the columns.
• The × at the far end of a column header (labelled Remove column "[column]" for screen readers) removes the column. A box Remove this column? says The column "[column]" and the [n] mentions it has collected will be deleted for good. This cannot be undone. Click Remove column to delete it, or Keep column to cancel.
• The chip Excludes [n] on a column shows how many exclude words it has. Click it to show the words (Excluded words: …, separated by commas; by the Arabic comma "،" in Arabic); click again to hide them.
• Smart digest (top of the page) writes an AI summary of up to 50 mentions posted in the last 7 days, across all columns of this workspace, in the language the app is set to. A line above it says which dates it covers, for example Covers mentions posted Mon 28 Sep – Sun 4 Oct (or Covers mentions posted on [date] when they are all from one day). Dismiss hides it.

If something goes wrong

• We couldn't load this page with the reason under it, in place of the columns → the board could not be read just now (for example the connection dropped); it does not mean you have no columns or no connected accounts → click Try again.
• No monitor columns yet → click Add your first column: it takes you to the Query field of the form above. Add a column, then click Refresh. When none of your channels can be searched, Owners and Admins see an Accounts button there instead, to connect one.
• No matches yet — hit Refresh. → the column has never been refreshed, or nothing matched.
• Mentions can be searched on X, YouTube, Bluesky and Mastodon. Connect a channel on one of them to add a column; Facebook, Instagram and the other platforms have no mention search here. → connect X, YouTube, Bluesky or Mastodon on /app/channels.
• Refresh brings nothing new → a column is searched at most once every 5 minutes, whatever the number of clicks (also when two people click at the same moment); the box says “[column]” was searched [n] min ago. Each column is searched at most once every 5 minutes. When several columns were skipped this way, one line lists them all: [n] columns were searched less than 5 minutes ago, so they were skipped this time: “[column 1]” and “[column 2]”. Wait and try again. A refresh in which no platform of a column could be searched (each one needed a reconnect, has no mention search, was refused for your plan or failed) does not start this wait, so after you reconnect an account you can click Refresh again at once.
• “[column]” on [platform]: the channel refused the search. Reconnect it on the Accounts page. → the account's sign-in expired, was revoked or lacks a permission. When a token has only expired, Refresh first renews it and searches again; only when that fails is the line shown. The account is then marked on the Accounts page so that it offers Reconnect: click Open Accounts → and reconnect it. The platform's own explanation follows in brackets when it gave one in words. A refused sign-in, refused access, too many requests or a server error at the platform is said in words, for example (the platform did not accept the sign-in); any other technical error is shortened to its status, for example (404 Not Found).
• “[column]” on [platform]: [platform] does not allow this search on your account's API plan or access tier. Reconnecting will not change this. → the platform refused the search for the plan of your account, not for its sign-in. For example, X search needs a paid X API tier (Basic or higher); the X Free tier has none. Remove the platform from the column or upgrade the plan with the platform.
• When the same reason applies to several columns on one platform, one line names them all, for example “acme” and “#deal” on X: ….
• “[column]” on [platform]: the channel's search limit was reached. Try again later. → the platform is rate-limiting your account; wait before refreshing.
• “[column]” on [platform]: this channel has no mention search here. → that platform offers no search on this server; remove it from the column.
• “[column]” on [platform]: the search failed. Try again later. → a temporary error on the platform's side.
• The digest could not be generated right now. No AI credit was used. Please try again in a few minutes. on Smart digest → the AI provider did not answer; nothing was charged.
• You do not have permission to do that. → an Owner or Admin unticked Market Watch or Manage Market Watch for you in Settings → Members; ask them.
• A reply, Mark handled or Reopen fails → the reason is shown in red on that mention's card, not at the top of the page.
• Replies to [platform] mentions are not available yet. Open the post to reply there. → OmniBrand cannot post replies on that platform (X, Reddit); click View on [platform] and reply there.
• "Connect a [platform] account to reply to its mentions" → connect an account on that platform.
• "Your [platform] account needs reconnecting before you can reply. Open Accounts and press Reconnect on it." → the account is there but its sign-in expired or was refused: press Reconnect on it in Accounts.
• Nothing to summarise yet. Press Refresh to collect mentions first. on Smart digest → refresh at least once first.
• No mentions were posted in the last 7 days. Press Refresh to collect new ones. on Smart digest → every mention on the board is older than 7 days; click Refresh, then try again.

Good to know

• Refresh is manual: Monitor does not search by itself in the background and does not send alerts. The line under the Monitor title says so too. Open the page and click Refresh whenever you want new mentions.
• Each refresh pulls up to 25 new matches per platform per column. Each author of a new match is added to Contacts (or their existing contact is updated), with Source shown as Monitor (public mention). A YouTube author is recognised by their channel, not by the channel's name, so two channels with the same name stay two contacts and someone who also comments on your own videos is one contact. A match whose platform does not say who wrote it gets no contact.
• Filters (Exclude, Language) apply to the next refresh, not to what is already on the board.
• Each column shows its newest 25 mentions first, in the order they were posted (newest at the top; a mention without a date goes last). Under the last one, Showing [n] of [total] and the button Load older mentions bring in the next 25; click it again for more. If they cannot be loaded, the reason is shown under the button; click it again to retry.
• A long search in a column's header wraps to two lines and is then cut short with "…"; hover it to read it all.
• AI triage and Smart digest use AI credits from your plan when they run on OmniBrand's AI; on your own AI key they are not counted.
• Old mentions are removed automatically after a while.
• To follow competitor prices and campaigns rather than conversation, use Market Watch.

Related

• Market Watch
• Connecting accounts
• The Inbox