We’ve been in the media monitoring game for a long time, and over the years we’ve seen many creative and effective ways organizations and PR agencies leverage media monitoring. We’d like to share some of the most tried and true ways that organizations, even your competitors, are using media monitoring to win the coverage war.
1. PR crisis management
During a crisis, responding quickly is critical to protecting your brand reputation. And with crisis containment becoming even harder, as millions of users on social media can very quickly take an incident viral (just look at United Airlines), it’s necessary these days to be on top of the conversation from the get-go.
Consistently monitoring both social and traditional media coverage before a crisis hits, as well as during and after, is the least you can and should do. Here are three ways your competitors are using media monitoring to aid in crisis management:
- Crisis planning: Using media monitoring and analysis to study past crises, whether your own or those of competitors or other similar organizations, can provide valuable insight into the tactics that worked – and those that didn’t – in minimizing any lasting damage. Though each crisis is unique, and details can’t be predicted in advance, proactively developing a crisis management plan will help keep heads cool and response times quick.
- Crisis detection: Detecting a developing crisis early can enable PR professionals to get in front of it before it boils over, or at the very least, lessen the blow. By setting up media monitoring alerts, organizations can also be tipped off about the main influencers discussing the topic and gather intel to craft their response to the situation.
- Crisis aftermath: Continuing to monitor media coverage during and after a crisis will enable the organization to see when the attention has died down, and if audiences are beginning to speak more positively about the brand. It also provides great information for the post-mortem on the crisis – was the general consensus that the organization responded well to the crisis? Was there anything they should do differently next time?
Read more on crisis management in 8 crucial lessons in crisis communication.
2. Competitor monitoring
Yes, one of the ways your competitors are using media monitoring is to monitor you. Keeping tabs on your competitors is just as important as keeping track of your own coverage. It’s a mirror: the insights gleaned from competitive media monitoring can provide you with strategies for your own PR tactics. Some of the benefits of monitoring competitors include:
- Understanding PR tactics: Learn what’s working for them and what’s not when it comes to PR campaigns. You’ll also pick up on if there are certain journalists that cover your competitors frequently.
- Anticipating changes: By following competitor news coverage you’ll keep tabs on new acquisitions, product developments, and more to help you better predict the major changes ahead in the competitive landscape. As they say, knowledge is power.
- Mitigating operational risk: Learn what’s gotten your competitors into hot water and avoid the same mistakes across all areas of your business.
- Gaining knowledge on HR practices: Media monitoring can also help you dive into how your competitors acquire and manage their talent.
Learn more about competitive media monitoring in More than just PR: a holistic approach to media monitoring.
3. Industry monitoring
Tracking your industry or market news can be an imposing task – it can seem that there are just too many key players and factors to consider. But it’s worth it, and Agility PR Solutions makes it wonderfully easy. The truth is that keeping tabs on everyone, from competitors, to partners, vendors, regulatory bodies, political influencers, to your own customers, can reveal so much about the current industry landscape and where it’s headed.
Although media monitoring is of utmost importance to PR and marketing professionals, when it comes to industry monitoring, every department can gain insights from the information. Below are a few of our favorite reasons to monitor your industry (yes, we said “favorite”; we love this stuff):
- Find journalists: Use media monitoring to identify the journalists with the most clout in the industry, those who seem to love or hate you, and the up-and-coming ones who are always accepting good pitches.
- Identify opportunities and threats: Staying on top of your external environment will help you keep up to date with the latest emerging trends that could positively or negatively affect you, or your client’s, organization.
- Learn the latest lingo: Be sure you’re informed of the latest conversations and terms getting buzz in your industry. You do not want to be out of touch.
Read more on gaining industry insights in Using media monitoring and analysis to disrupt your industry.
