What Is Media Monitoring?
Media monitoring is the practice of tracking and analyzing content across various media platforms – from TV and newspapers to social media and websites. Using specialized tools, it provides real-time insights on brand reputation, market trends, and public sentiment, helping businesses make informed decisions and build effective communication strategies. It’s a key component for public relations, marketing, and business growth.
I Get an Amazing Report When eReleases Distributes My Press Releases, Do I Still Need Media Monitoring?
Yes, while it is true that you receive a very powerful Wire WatchTM report for every press release distributed by eReleases (including proof of distribution, traffic, audience reach, engagement and links to online sites that ran your press release) media monitoring is still a good idea which you may want to consider.
Why Use Media Monitoring?
When a Fortune 500 company, government agency, startup, nonprofit, or public relations pro wants to know what’s being said about them in the news, they turn to a media monitoring service. Media monitoring services track information on television, radio, in print, and on the ‘net so that enterprises keep on top of publicity, trends and the success of media campaigns. Want to know if your satellite media tour aired in all the broadcast markets you booked? Check with your media monitoring service. Do you want to know if your new product is being talked about on the morning show in Kansas City, MO? Ask your media monitoring service.
What Media Monitoring Services Provide
Media monitoring services are essential in this day and age of information overload. And if you are a PR pro, they can be your best friend. Not only can a media monitoring service send you a full report of every media mention of your company, product, or brand, it can help you analyze and dissect that coverage. For a PR pro who is doing a good job and getting the word out, the media monitoring report is proof that she’s delivering for her boss or her client. For the PR pro who isn’t doing so hot getting her client or product in the spotlight, the media monitoring report is cold hard proof that something has gone wrong with the campaign.
But what else do media monitoring services do aside from provide a list of media mentions? First off, they can provide the mentions themselves. If you do find that your product was mentioned on the morning show in Kansas City, your media monitoring service can obtain you an electronic or DVD clip of the anchor saying your company name and using your product. Talk about a great way to show off your business. And you might never have known about the mention at all if you hadn’t used a media monitoring service.
Media Tracking Analytics
Media monitoring services can also provide analysis of your media mentions. Were mentions positive or negative? It can be critical to have this information at your fingertips when your company is enduring a public relations setback. Do negative mentions of your company name or product crop up often in a certain market or on a certain program? If so, then you know to focus your PR crisis management efforts in that direction. Not to mention, media monitoring reports can provide the number of people that viewed a press mention and calculate how much that publicity was worth.
Media Monitoring Options
Keep in mind that there are several types of media monitoring services. A hundred years ago, all news media was written media, so media monitoring services were clipping services that physically cut information out of newspapers and magazine and then mailed them to their clients. These days, a media monitoring service may specialize in print media, broadcast, the internet, or all three. And specialized media monitoring services may focus on tracking product placement, commercial mentions, or even infomercials.
Social Media Monitoring
In today’s world, what is being said about you on social media is oftentimes more important than what’s being said in the media. That’s why most media monitoring tools report on both. You’ll see that as you investigate the options shown below.
Media Monitoring Services
There are many different media monitoring services available, with pricing and services varying widely. We encourage you to spend some time researching them. Here are a few options to get you started:
- Brand24: https://www.brand24.com/ A user-friendly tool offering real-time monitoring across social media, news, blogs, forums, and more.
- Buzzsumo: https://buzzsumo.com/ A tool for content marketing and SEO agencies to discover trending topics and monitor brand influence.
- Mention: https://mention.com/ A comprehensive solution for media monitoring, social media listening, and competitive analysis.
- Meltwater: https://www.meltwater.com/ A global leader in media intelligence that provides a broad view of brand mentions and sentiment.
- Hootsuite: https://www.hootsuite.com/ Known for social media management, it also offers effective social media monitoring and listening features.
- Awario: https://awario.com/ A social media and web monitoring tool that also offers lead generation and competitor analysis.
- Talkwalker: https://www.talkwalker.com/ A social listening and analytics company that helps brands optimize engagement and increase reach.
- Sprout Social: https://sproutsocial.com/ A social media management tool with strong monitoring capabilities to gauge brand and competitive sentiment.
- Critical Mention: https://www.criticalmention.com/ A real-time media monitoring platform for TV, radio, online news, and social media.
When PR pros need proof of media coverage, expert analysis, and metrics to calculate the success of their PR campaigns, they turn to media monitoring services. And, given the importance of social media, many, if not most, of the media monitoring services also offer social media monitoring and sentiment analysis too.
This article is written by Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases (https://www.ereleases.com), the online leader in affordable press release distribution. To subscribe to PR Fuel, visit: https://www.ereleases.com/prfuel/subscribe/.
Glynn
We deem this so important at work that we have an internal news research team (four people) that do both monitoring and analysis.
Patricia Horan
How do you find out which are the best media monitoring services? Thanks.
prfuel
Patricia, I would recommend asking around. I have a roundup of clipping services here: https://www.ereleases.com/clipping_services.html eReleases offers the MediaClipping(TM) service, which specializes in online and social media monitoring.