Media monitoring has been an essential part of PR since the very beginning of public relations as an industry. Today’s market is ever more demanding of media monitoring. No individual PR officer or department can hope to track and analyze the flourishing landscape of online media and publications. Even a seasoned PR agency is usually unable to provide full-scale media monitoring without assistance by specialized monitors and software.
Media monitoring demand growing from PR agencies
More than half of businesses (57 percent) seek media monitoring and social media monitoring from PR companies, a survey by Researchscape International shows. On the other hand, a good one third of respondents (33 percent) are less than satisfied with the basic media monitoring that PR companies provide. This applies particularly to social media, highlighting the need for dedicated media monitoring to respond to growing market demand and also raise standards.
The average PR firm rarely employs specialized media monitoring software. Software featuring advanced capabilities like machine learning or artificial intelligence is well beyond the means and capabilities of PR companies. Listening in on social media and watching online media as a whole are the top trends in PR. This means that, if they are to stay ahead of the competition, public relations should collaborate with media monitors.
Media monitoring and PR: a marriage made in heaven
Both corporates and not-for- profit organizations need to observe the media in a more advanced manner to make PR campaigns work better. Brands need to stay abreast of review sites, influential blogs, and consumer fora to hone their message and respond to negative and positive feedback alike.
Various online tools and software solutions are available for both PR agencies and organizations to perform effective media monitoring and enhance brand public relations strategy. Nonetheless, a wise move for a PR firm is to collaborate with a dedicated media monitor since the online media ecosystem is changing extremely rapidly with new players emerging daily. In addition, measuring PR campaign effectiveness now involves media that did not exist only a few years ago, requiring specialized tracking software only a media monitoring firm can provide.
Analyzing and dissecting: they key to PR campaign efficiency
Though still widely perceived as the stock-in-trade of media monitors, reporting brand mentions in the media is in fact so very Nineteen Nineties. Professional media monitoring companies can provide PRs with much, much more. They can analyze and dissect media coverage in a way that PR officers need when fine-tuning campaigns for best efficiency.
A reputable media monitoring service will provide reports and analysis of both positive and negative comments about a brand on a particular medium, in a specific region, or through a set social communication channel. More advanced media monitoring tools can provide reports on gender, age, household income, and other important details of the overall audience moved to respond to PR campaigns. Those metrics matter because they lay the foundations of future PR success along with brand mentions in mainstream media.
Analyzing impact of a PR campaign is getting ever harder without professional media monitoring. Which is why PR agencies need to work ever closer with media monitoring companies.
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