An essential element to any PR strategy, for big and small businesses alike, is media monitoring. Media monitoring is the practice of tracking news and other mass media mentions of a particular topic. For example, a business might want to see every article and TV news segment about itself, or about its industry. Publicity professionals used to subscribe to “clipping services,” where they could track press mentions and industry news. In the days of print journalism, these services would send physical newspaper clippings to clients. Now, numerous services exist to monitor your digital media presence for you.
Media monitoring services crawl the web and physical publications to retrieve the information you specify. Some services even monitor ads and social media. The advantage of using a service over a DIY combination of Google Alerts and dedicated searching is the amount of human elbow grease saved. This is particularly valuable to businesses with small or non-existent PR teams. Third-party media monitoring services provide you with relevant information to supplement publicity efforts, manage your reputation, and keep tabs on the industry’s role in new markets.
When considering a media monitoring service, be sure to come to the table with your search terms and needs in mind. A service that offers social media monitoring in addition to traditional media monitoring (like Vocus) can save you human hours if your presence across Twitter, Facebook, et al. is rapidly expanding, but it may not be necessary if you already have a good in-house system. Once you’ve chosen a monitoring service with appropriate sources and search methods, you’ll receive a flood of digital clips about your business, and you’ll know what the media has to say about you.
By Prasana William
Image Source: Social Defender