In the crowded and increasingly loud landscape of media, there is a silent yet crucial player that ensures organisations know when and where their brand is being mentioned - media monitors.
Businesses, organisations, and individuals need to be on top of the latest news, trends, and developments in their industries, and media monitors play a vital role in this process, helping you keep a finger on the pulse of the media landscape.
In this beginner's guide, we will explore what media monitors do and how Streem's media monitoring platform can empower your business by providing you with the insights you need.
What is Media Monitoring?
With news articles, television broadcasts, social media, and podcasts being published around the world 24/7, it’s hard to keep track of what is being sent into the public domain. That is precisely where media monitoring steps in.
Media monitoring is the process of tracking, collecting, and analysing media content from various sources.
The primary objective of media monitoring is to keep a close eye on what's being said about a particular topic, brand, or entity across different media platforms. This provides you with comprehensive knowledge of the media coverage you’re receiving, gives valuable insight into PR and marketing campaigns, allows greater control over brand reputation, and helps in identifying industry trends and opportunities.
What Should You Monitor?
You’ll likely want to monitor your brand name, product(s) and/or service(s), as well as those of your competitors in order to conduct competitor analyses.
What metrics should you track?
- Positive vs negative media mentions
- Number of mentions/interactions/engagement
- Percentage of reach across different channels
- Reputation score
- Share of voice
- Relevant trending topics
Types of Media Monitoring
There are a number of different media channels and it’s essential that you are across all of them in order to see the full picture.
There is no single source of truth - each channel adds to the story and helps to direct the narrative. Having eyes on every media source will not only allow you to understand the entire story being told, but it will enable you to stay ahead of the trends and act accordingly.
Social Media Monitoring
The big conversations about your brand are happening on social media platforms such as X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. Monitoring the posts, comments, reactions and shares on these channels allows you to be aware of the sentiment around your brand, products and services, based on what people are saying, thinking and feeling about them.
Social media monitoring also enables you to respond quickly and effectively where necessary, becoming part of the conversation and engaging with your customers and target audience. You’ll also discover influencers that need to be on your radar and the topics that your audience connects with the most.
News Articles and Websites
Online news articles and blogs move fast, reacting to stories as quickly as it takes to create a piece of content and hit publish. They can also prompt conversations and debates on social media so keeping on top of brand mentions here is essential. Think of them as a warning signal for inevitable trends, crises or U-turns.
Print Media
Despite the explosion of digital media, there remains a solid and loyal readership of both newspapers and magazines. From news stories and reviews to interest pieces, your brand can be involved in both positive and negative press. In either scenario, you need to know from the moment it’s published.
Print and social media have also become closely linked, especially in the tabloid press which can take trending social stories and heighten them.
Broadcast Media Monitoring
Both television and radio still have a wide audience and can hugely influence the perception of a brand. In Australia, television remains the number one source of news (even if its dominance is being challenged by social media).
Just as social media can be the catalyst for print stories, broadcast media can prompt a storm of social media output. Becoming aware of the story at its source can pre-empt further bad press and allow you to track positive PR by following the narrative as it progresses.
Podcasts
The podcast industry is booming. There’s a podcast for any interest, in any industry, for any demographic. In fact, there are now over 546 million podcast listeners globally, forecast to grow to over 651 million by 2027.
And it really is a global platform - consumers can be listening from any part of the world, at any time. Monitoring podcasts can inform you of both positive and negative sentiment for your brand, plus they’re a good indicator of emerging trends.
Why is Media Monitoring Important?
Media monitoring serves several critical purposes in the realms of communication and business. Here are some of the key reasons why it matters:
Stay Informed: Media monitors keep individuals, stakeholders and organisations informed about what's happening in the media, allowing them to stay updated on current events, industry trends, and public perception.
Reputation Management: Brand reputation is a precious asset that requires constant attention. Media monitors keep a close eye on how your brand is portrayed in the media, identifying positive and negative sentiments. This enables timely responses to any potential reputation threats and opportunities to reinforce a positive image.
Competitive Analysis: Staying ahead of the competition is a top priority for businesses. Media monitoring can help you track your competitors' media presence, revealing their strategies, strengths, and weaknesses. This competitive intelligence is invaluable for refining your own tactics and staying one step ahead in your industry.
Crisis Management: In times of crisis, media monitoring is your early warning system, helping organisations assess the extent of the crisis and take appropriate actions to mitigate the damage.
Customer Feedback: Media monitoring can provide valuable insights into customer feedback and sentiment, allowing companies to make data-driven decisions.
How Media Monitoring Works – Behind the Scenes.
Now that we understand why media monitoring is crucial, let's explore how it works. Media monitors employ sophisticated tools and strategies to gather and analyse data. Here's how we do it:
Data Collection: We use various tools to gather data from sources like news websites, social media, TV broadcasts, radio, and print publications. These tools automatically scan and index content based on keywords, topics, or entities.
Content Analysis: Once the data is collected, we use natural language processing (NLP) and sentiment analysis algorithms to understand the context and tone within the content.
Filtering and Categorisation: We then filter out irrelevant information and categorise relevant content to ensure that our clients receive only the most pertinent data.
Reporting and Visualisation: The collected data is transformed into easy-to-understand reports and visualisations, enabling clients to quickly understand the insights and trends within the media landscape.
Industries that Benefit from Media Monitoring – A Multifaceted Tool
Media monitoring has a broad range of applications across various industries. Here are some specific sectors that benefit from media monitoring:
- Public Relations (PR): PR professionals use media monitoring to track media coverage, assess public sentiment, and manage their clients' reputations.
- Marketing and Advertising: Marketers rely on media monitoring to measure the impact of their campaigns, identify influencers, and track consumer feedback.
- Government and Politics: Politicians and government agencies use media monitoring to gauge public opinion, track policy discussions, and anticipate potential crises.
- Healthcare: The healthcare industry uses media monitoring to stay informed about medical research, track patient feedback, and manage public health issues.
- Finance: In the financial sector, media monitoring helps investors keep tabs on industry trends, analyse company performance, and detect early warning signs of financial crises.
- Consumer Brands: Consumer brands leverage media monitoring to track consumer feedback, assess the impact of product launches, and identify emerging trends.
The Role of Keywords in Media Monitoring – The Building Blocks.
Keywords are the foundational elements of media monitoring. We select specific keywords or phrases related to the topics or entities businesses want to track. These keywords are instrumental in ensuring that relevant content is captured.
Here's how keywords play a central role in media monitoring:
- Precision: Well-chosen keywords narrow down the focus of monitoring efforts, ensuring that only pertinent information is collected.
- Relevance: By using keywords directly related to the topic of interest, we can filter out unrelated or extraneous content.
- Scalability: Keywords can be adjusted or expanded as needed, allowing communications professionals to adapt their strategies to changing circumstances or priorities.
- Alerts: We use keyword-based alerts to receive realtime notifications when specific terms or topics are mentioned in the media.
- Competitor Analysis: Keywords are vital for comparing media coverage and sentiment regarding different brands or entities.
What Is the Difference Between Media Monitoring and Media Analysis?
The terms media monitoring and media analysis are often used interchangeably, but there are crucial differences between the two.
Media monitoring refers to the tracking of keywords in realtime across multiple media channels, whilst media analysis takes what’s been monitored and measures that against key performance indicators (KPIs).
A good way to think about media monitoring vs media analysis is performance vs impact.
Media monitoring is the first necessary step - knowledge gathering, understanding what is being talked about and in what light, and how your brand is performing.
Media analysis takes that knowledge and evaluates its impact (both immediate and over time), allowing for strategic insight and crisis management. It involves both quantitive and qualitative analysis, enabling you to more accurately measure KPIs. Ultimately, any effective media monitoring must also offer media analysis.
How to Choose the Best Media Monitoring Tools for You
Media monitoring is only as good as the tools it employs and the features it offers. Here are some key features you should be looking for when choosing a media monitor:
Single view realtime coverage
The ability to view coverage including the keywords you’ve highlighted in a single view on your screen allows you to instantly see comprehensive content across various media channels in real time.
Look for tools that enable you to add and remove keywords related to brands, topics, industries, products and issues as you need to.
Analytics
A good media monitoring tool will offer comprehensive analytics but in an easy-to-view and understand format.
Look for the ability to compare data from multiple search queries simultaneously, with the option to alter the date ranges to view how coverage has evolved over a certain period of time. You want to be able to track fluctuations in media mentions in order to monitor conversation trends and brand appeal.
A view on share of voice is also important to analyse your brand’s visibility in your industry. Most importantly, the analytics dashboard should be highly visual, allowing you to quickly and easily view, compare and assess.
Daily email reports
Easily distributed daily reports will help to inform the entire organisation of relevant media mentions and coverage. Seek out media monitoring that will curate concise reports for you, only including the most important and pressing coverage.
User friendly
A user-friendly platform is essential. You don’t want to be spending valuable time getting to grips with a piece of software that should be saving you time and providing you with instant insights. Accessibility and a good onboarding service are key so that your team can make the most of the features it offers and maximise the media monitor’s ROI.
Bespoke Reporting
Look for services that offer bespoke reporting with human-created reports. These reports provide comprehensive quantitative and qualitative analysis of your organisation’s media coverage, incorporating both innovative and traditional measurement methods. The insights team can offer deep, human-curated insights into media coverage, including sentiment, share of voice, key themes, and competitor analysis, ensuring a level of depth and understanding that technology alone can't provide.
Media Monitoring - An Essential Tool
Media monitoring plays a vital role in helping you stay informed, protect your brand's reputation, and gain a competitive edge. The insights and information it provides are essential in today's fast-paced media landscape.
Streem's media monitoring platform is a powerful tool that simplifies the media monitoring process, providing comprehensive coverage, realtime alerts, and valuable analytics. With Streem, you'll be better equipped to navigate the ever-evolving world of media and make informed decisions.
Get in touch to find out how Streem could improve your media intelligence.