Media monitoring: the competitive advantage
I have had a number of recent conversations with B2B companies and it's come to my attention that many don’t monitor their media. Media monitoring allows companies to track mentions, reviews and discussions about their companies across various media channels. It's an effective tool for all B2B companies because it aggregates all of the keywords you want to be across in real time. It also creates efficiencies when reporting back to your organisation on key areas of focus, such as your competitors, customers and your company’s reputation and is a useful tool for Executive teams, Sales, Legal, Marketing and Operations. It can provide a real competitive advantage if you use this wisely and to its full potential.
Just as an effective security system has multiple sensors and cameras covering all entry points and blind spots, media monitoring tools scan a wide range of online sources (social media, news, forums, etc.) to ensure no mention goes unnoticed…
Here are some reasons why companies need media monitoring:
Competitive intelligence - It's important to be across your competitors. It is also key to cross check this intelligence against your marketing strategies and continue to make sure your competitor analysis is up to date.
Reputation Management - Media monitoring enables companies to proactively manage their reputation by addressing negative publicity and leveraging positive mentions to build their brand.
Measuring Media ROI - Media monitoring enables companies to evaluate the effectiveness of their media campaigns and measure their return on investment (ROI) by tracking media mentions, reach, sentiment, and engagement levels. This data allows companies to refine strategies and optimise their media spend.
Crisis Management - By monitoring media channels in real-time, companies can identify upcoming issues or crises. This allows companies to be on the front foot, respond swiftly, manage the narrative and minimise potential damage to their brand.
Media Monitoring has been one of my best corporate friends and a trusted adviser for many many years. Every morning it was a ritual for me to read our daily media report. The alert would come out shortly after 7am each day and it would quickly update me on the company’s mentions, our competition, customers, political and policy influence and the good work we were being recognised for in the community. This would assist when I was talking to sales teams on what our competitors were focused on, government initiatives that influenced our work, customer initiatives and the good work that we were delivering in the community. These insights created robust conversations amongst the organisation.
I also valued the platform as it would give me an instant alert with any media or social mention. While Google alerts are handy they don't always pick up company mentions across all titles or hit your inbox instantly. These instant alerts from our media monitoring partner really did assist with me being on the front foot and immediately escalating where required.
Marketing teams are expected to share results around any media investment and its performance. Having pulled together monthly reports for the executive team for many years to demonstrate coverage, reach, share of voice and sentiment, this was very helpful for them to understand who was talking about the organisation, where and how. Most leadership teams are grateful to be across the media in real time so they too can be on the front foot.
Finally, over the years when we did have the occasional crisis. Our platform was able to pull instant reports which could be shared with the key stakeholders, so they were across what was unfolding in real-time.
Are you ready to implement media monitoring in your business?
Next steps:
Speak to your marketing team about selecting the right provider for your business. Make sure your team does their research to make sure there is coverage across the titles you or your competition are likely to be mentioned in. Also, make sure the provider has a helpful team to set you up well and to start you on your media journey.
Talk to key stakeholders across the business to identify key words and set up searches. This can really make or break how your platform delivers.
Make sure your platform has excellent reporting capabilities. To demonstrate where the media is distributed, share of voice, eyeballs and sentiment.
If you need help to investigate the best media monitoring platform for your company, get in touch - Book here.