There are other ways but this makes it easy to see where competitors are being referenced. If you're trying to grow your personal brand, you could see where people you "compete with" are active, and thus put effort towards contributing content to those sources. There's actually a lot you can do with this information. Yeah, and don't discount the power of contributing quality content on different sites like avc.com comments with a consistent username and a link to your personal site in the profile. :)