In recent years, media monitoring has become a major part of business intelligence, providing important insights into the conversation surrounding your brand as well as your competitors.
The media is where key business conversations take place. It is important to know how your brand is being portrayed in the media so that you build a positive perception of your brand.
Media monitoring not only allows you to track the conversations around your brand but it also lets you measure the performance of PR campaigns, identify leads and influencers as well as build relationships with the media and other stakeholders. For these reasons, media monitoring can —and should — be considered a necessity.
Not convinced? Here are six more benefits of media monitoring: 1. Keep an eye on all marketing channels With the high volumes of data available today, sifting through it to find mentions of your brand is just about impossible to do on your own, which is why media monitoring is vital.
A media monitoring provider will be able to access an enormous range of publications, radio and television stations, websites, blogs, and social media platforms to ensure that all of your brand mentions, across multiple channels, are captured.
The more data you have to work with, the more in depth your analysis and reporting can be. That’s why choosing the
right media monitoring service can make all the difference.
2. Track and analyse competitorsBrand tracking lets you monitor what your competitors are doing and analyses their campaigns and marketing activities. This insight can serve as valuable competitor research, and with it, you can avoid repeating the mistakes your competitors are making but also identify where your competitors are lacking and strategise to fill that gap.
By tracking your competitors, you will also be able to see where their PR coverage is being published. This will tell you what journalists are worth adding to your own media lists.
3. Identify and analyse the sentiment of your coverage A sentiment analysis can identify whether your media coverage is positive, negative or neutral, which, in turn, can be used to determine the media’s or a customer’s sentiment towards your brand or service.
You can then use these insights to quickly identify unhappy customers and nip any harmful comments or potential crises in the bud. This makes it easier to protect your brand’s reputation. Additionally, you can also pinpoint what media is posting negatively about your brand in order to reach out and forge better relationships.
4. Measure the effectiveness of your communications strategy Media monitoring is a great way to measure and improve the effectiveness of your communications strategy. You can closely follow how much media attention your communication efforts receive. Did your press release reach your target audience? Did you get the engagement you intended?
The data, derived from media monitoring, works as a reliable source for decision-making. Take the insights from past campaigns, events and product launches and apply them to your future strategies.
5. Save time when reporting The best thing about having a media monitoring provider is the convenience factor. It does all the manual tasks on your behalf.
It collects and analyses the data for you and, if your provider is a good one, it will compile a report for you and send it directly to your inbox at chosen times. Therefore, media monitoring saves you time and lets you focus on developing your strategy.
6. Prove your return on investment Media monitoring is a great tool to use when it comes to proving that your brand’s latest communication strategy, PR campaign, product launch or event has met its objectives.
To prove that it was a success, you can look to the data compiled in your brand tracking reports.The reports’ data will give you a comprehensive overview of all the media coverage that was generated over the course of your campaign or event. You can then use this information to check that your brand generated enough publicity, got coverage in the right media and if it was portrayed positively.
With this information, you can prove that your investment has been profitable and that you have achieved concrete results.
The use of a media monitoring provider is no longer reserved for large PR and marketing companies with huge budgets. With the tools and services available to small businesses today, acquiring a media monitoring provider is well within the reach of every communications professional.
With a media monitoring provider, such as Newsclip, which offers a solution that fits every budget, media monitoring is no longer a luxury but rather a necessity.