Verifying a mention spike before you act on it

Verifying a mention spike before you act on it
It was a Monday when an apparel brand's dashboard screamed: mentions up 500%. Before anyone moved, one analyst ran the four-check filter.

The turn was skepticism. Check one: unique authors vs total posts — 500 posts from 12 accounts is a campaign, not a trend. Check two: account age and follower patterns — fresh accounts in clusters mean bots. Check three: are posts near-identical text? Coordinated, not organic. Check four: is engagement real — replies and quotes, or just empty reposts?

This spike was 480 posts from 9 accounts, all under a month old, near-identical. A coordinated push, likely a competitor or a bored botnet. They documented it and did nothing public — exactly right.

Responding would have legitimized a fake spike and confused real customers.

The takeaway: every dramatic spike gets four checks — unique authors, account age, text similarity, real engagement. Volume lies; authorship tells the truth.