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Tag: keywords

5 Tips to Building a Strong Media Monitoring Methodology

Content is everywhere. It’s printed, uploaded, and broadcast through a vast array of media on a daily if not hourly basis.  So how are you ensuring that your media monitoring program is getting through the noise and capturing everything? Follow these five tips for maintaining a methodical approach to news and social media monitoring.

Tip 1: Develop Keywords.

Brainstorm a targeted list of keywords relevant to your client. At The Reis Group, when choosing keywords, we’re mindful of the domain in which our content might be found. Periodically review what you have captured and attempt to identify any emerging trends in coverage. You may find that your brand is mentioned in ways your keywords might not cover. Further refining of what you capture could help you find relevant media.

Tip 2: Prioritize Capturing Types of Media.

Determine the types of media that are important and prioritize how you spend your time capturing content. For example, a client may care more about articles published in online and print sources over blogs. Knowing which type of content you’re after is critical to efficient monitoring.

Tip 3: Use a Media Monitoring Suite.

Once you have your keywords and know what types of media your client values, you can choose a media monitoring suite to help capture articles. Mention, one of many suites, can categorize content by its source. Choose to view content from news sites or blogs, social media posts on Twitter and Facebook, videos, and more.

Tip 4: Track your Key Messages.

Feedly and other media monitoring tools are great resources for finding relevant articles. But what they don’t always help with is capturing metrics such as tone, or key spokespersons, and messages. To counteract this, establish a list of variables (like the above three) by which you will evaluate content. Evaluating this data will contribute to in-depth reporting and help measure the client’s impact.

Tip 5: Create An Integrative, Comprehensive Strategy.

Screening articles can be time-consuming, and studies have shown that readers can miss between 30% and 40% of keywords. This has caused many PR professionals to rely on media monitoring suites. However, it is not enough to rely on these systems alone. You will want to create redundancies. Set Google Alerts for your keywords. Double check that your media monitoring suite is capturing everything. Get in the habit of completing a periodic search, outside of your media monitoring suite and Google Alerts.

By following these five steps, you’re well on your way to creating a comprehensive media monitoring strategy that is optimized for your client’s PR needs.