Do brand mentions without a link do anything for you, and how do you keep track of them?

Google Alerts is a free way to watch for mentions, as Google says you can get emails when new results for a topic show up in Google Search.
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/4815696?hl=en
The full answer on brand mentions and SEO is on the blog:
https://aiwebpageseo.com/blog/are-brand-mentions-good-for-seo
How do you track mentions of your own brand, and have you seen any link between mentions and your rankings?