Did you just get a Slack ping from your manager about a bad brand review?
The very thought makes you sweat, isn’t it? You can escape this hell of a situation with media monitoring.
There are so many buzzwords around this topic, but they are ultimately the pieces of the same puzzle. The term “media monitoring” specifically is when you collect online tidbits that have mentioned a concerned topic.
Basically, the process is all about keeping track of what people are saying about a company, brand, or product in the media. This encompasses social media, news articles, blogs, and other online sources.
If you’re a big fan of Louis Vuitton and want to know what people say about their latest collection. By capitalizing on media monitoring tools, you can track brand mentions on social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram and news articles and blog posts that mention the brand.
This can help you get a better sense of how people are reacting to the brand’s latest collection and what they like or don’t like about it.
Sounds way too simple? Well, the most novice mistake you can make is to track random keywords, thus getting inaccurate results.
So let’s see how you can nail that. But before that, let’s shed some light on why this process is so crucial in the first place.
Why should you actively pursue media monitoring?
Media monitoring is beneficial for individuals and big brands alike because it allows them to track and analyze mentions of their brand, competitors, and industry keywords across various media channels, including social media, news outlets, blogs, and forums.
1. Reputation management
Brand monitoring on media looks after your online reputation, so you respond to negative feedback or complaints in a breeze. For example, run a small online business selling handmade jewelry. You can use media monitoring to track social mentions of your brand and respond to customer feedback or complaints.
2. Crisis management
Media monitoring detects any potential crises before they escalate. Even influencers can track negative comments or rumors about their personal branding online and respond to them before they damage their reputation.
3. Competitor analysis
Media monitoring spies on competitors’ online activity so you stay ahead of the curve. If you are into the gifting business, you can see what offers your competitors are running and come up with a lucrative campaign yourself.
4. Influencer outreach
Want to know which influencers can help you promote your brand or product? Media monitoring will do that. Say you own a line of beauty products; you can use media monitoring tools to find other beauty bloggers with a similar audience and reach out to them for influencer marketing campaigns.
5. Market research
Media monitoring is a great source for insights into target audiences and industry trends. You get to know what’s in the hype and current trend. This way, you can run highly engaging campaigns and lure in more leads.
Tip: Before you start monitoring, define your goals and objectives. What are you hoping to achieve with media monitoring? It will help you focus your efforts and measure your success.
What should you monitor exactly?
Knowing what and how to monitor can make you the pioneer of your industry. The projectile of your brand popularity can be measured by tracking the right keywords at the right time.
You must know these basic keyword categorizations to separate the wheat from the chaff.
1. Brand-relevant keywords
No matter how well you are doing at your business, you must monitor your brand first. The word “first” means you must know where you stand before checking out your competitors.
Also, it will help you know more about the people talking about your brand. This way, you can optimize your brand profile and content better. You would stumble across your biggest supporters and detractors too.
Here’s what all you can track:
- Your brand name
- Product names
- Variations and misspellings of your brand name
- Key products
- Industry terms
- Branded hashtags and mentions
Tip: Don’t limit yourself to just one channel. Monitor social media, news outlets, blogs, forums, and other channels to get a complete picture of your brand’s online presence.
2. Competitors’ related keywords
Next is to check out your competitors; no matter whether you have just entered the field or you are the pioneer already, you have to know your competitors.
From the big fish to newcomers, keep an eye on everyone, and you must know what they are exactly up to and whether they can be the biggest threat to your business.
Here’s what you can monitor:
- Industry terms
- Popular product names
- Brand names in the same space as yours
- Campaign hashtags and mentions
3. Trendy keywords
Always keep yourself up to date with the new trends. This way, you can compete better in the stifling brand race.
Have important dates or occasions coming up; make it a point to monitor them too. People like to associate themselves with woke brands and show an active interest in things happening day in and day out.
Tip: You can use the QuickTrends feature of Keyhole. From your share of voice in the market to monitoring a trend analysis over a custom time period, QuickTrends is simply astounding.
Next up, let’s find out which metrics matter the most when it comes to media monitoring.
Read More: 6 Must-Have Keyword Monitoring Tools For Every Marketing Strategy
What metrics should you look at?
Thanks to the endless tools available, getting lost in the ocean of metrics is quite easy. Though additional insights are always welcome, here are the most fundamental metrics you need to capture when it comes to media monitoring:
1. Mentions
The number of times your brand is mentioned in the media determines your mentions. If your company is mentioned in a news article or a social media post, that’s a mention. You should keep track of the number of mentions you receive over time to see if there are any trends or changes.
2. Sentiment
The tone or feeling expressed in the media mentions about your brand is what typically refers to sentiment analysis. For example, the sentiment is positive if someone writes a positive review about your product. If someone complains about your customer service, the sentiment is negative. Watch out for the sentiment of your media mentions to see how people are talking about your brand.
3. Reach
Reach reveals the number of people who see your media mentions. If your brand is mentioned in a popular news article, the reach could be in the millions. Keep a tab on the reach of your media mentions to see how many people are being exposed to your brand.
4. Engagement
Engagement is simply the number of people who interact with your media mentions. Prioritize tracking of the engagement of your media mentions to see how people are interacting with your brand.
5. Influencers
Influencers are popular for their large following and can influence the opinions of others. Know which influencers mention your brand or your competitors, as they can have a significant impact on your brand’s reputation and reach.
6. Top keywords
These are words or phrases that are relevant to your brand or industry. You should monitor keywords related to your brand to see how often they’re mentioned in the media and to identify new opportunities for engagement.
7. Locations
These are the list of locations where your media mentions are coming from. Note from where your brand is being mentioned to see where your audience is located and to tap into new markets.
8. Type of media
This corresponds to the type of media where your brand is being mentioned, such as social media, news articles, or blogs. Watching these closely will disclose what type of media your brand is getting the most attention from.
Head over to the next segment as we assess the top 3 media monitoring tools.
3 Best media monitoring tools for all your tracking hassles
Tracking and analyzing media coverage every day is a pressing issue for PR professionals and smaller brands. It’s tough to decide which tool is worth your bucks.
To make the entire decision-making affair easier, have a look at the following list.
1. Keyhole
Pricing: Custom
Keyhole is a media monitoring tool that has gained a reputation as one of the best tools available. One of its key strengths is its ability to track hashtags, keywords, and trends across multiple social media platforms in real-time.
Just add your trackers under the social listening tab and sit back. Keyhole will gather all information and crucial metrics in a shareable dashboard. Some of the insights related to online presence, engagement, and sentiment analysis.
The user-friendly interface with easy customization deserves a big shoutout. You can filter data by date, location, language, and media type, making it easy for users to focus on the most relevant data for their needs.
Keyhole levels up its monitoring game by offering QuickTrends. Without running the risk of losing your tracking limits with high-volume keywords, you can run a quick test by first monitoring a keyword using QuickTrends.
From charting trend analysis to comparing your brand with competitors, this is a quick way to know which keywords are worth tracking in the long run.
Why is Keyhole a must-have media monitoring tool?
- Schedule unlimited posts on Keyhole and find your best time to post on social media.
- You can track keywords from news, blogs, forums, and social media platforms in one place.
- You eliminate the risk of running out of monthly tracking limits with QuickTrends.
- You can analyze your social media profiles and even go for optimization.
- It analyzes sentiments of tracked keywords so you get the general performance overview.
- You can manage several social media campaigns at once.
- Generate custom reports on your overall social media presence.
Tip: Use Boolean search operators to create complex search queries that filter out irrelevant mentions and focus on the ones that matter.
Luke W
Keyhole has a great user-friendly dashboard with thorough metrics and a great reporting layout that makes it useful for reporting up. I fully recommend it and we use it year round!
Fatima M
The dashboard encapsulates a detailed overview of your entire campaign and mentions all details and KPIs that you need. The metrics given on keyhole are unmatched and help us in setting KPIs and measuring results accordingly. The layout is also very user friendly and everything is exportable so that’s wonderful.
2. Brand24
Pricing: $79/mo – $399/mo
Brand24 is one of the many media monitoring tools that is highly effective. It offers a wide variety of features that helps you in making your everyday task at ease.
This tool collects data mainly from social media platforms, podcasts, newsletters, blogs and forums, and news sites.It also offers a wide range of filters, including sentiment, influence, or interaction type.
Pros
- Brand24 lets you set up customizable alerts for specific keywords or mentions.
- You can also track influencers who mention your brand or industry keywords.
Lisa S
I love that I can find mentions of my brand or name on social media and on blogs and the web. It’s easy to set up and have the reports emailed daily or weekly. The mobile app is awesome too so you can respond to mentions even quicker.
Cons
- It only stores data for up to a year, which can make it difficult to analyze long-term trends.
- Brand24’s sentiment analysis may not always accurately reflect the tone or feeling expressed in a social media mention.
- Limited capabilities in lower plans.
Brea W
The UI is pretty rough – the site feels crowded and sometimes it’s difficult to navigate. It’s rather expensive for what’s being offered and you don’t get to create many projects for the lower price tiers.
Tip: There are many media monitoring tools available, so choose the one that best suits your needs and budget. Look for features like sentiment analysis, real-time alerts, and customizable reports.
Read More: How To Create An Efficient Instagram Hashtag Strategy
3. Meltwater
Pricing: Custom
With over 20 years of experience, Meltwater is a powerful media intelligence tool. It streamlines tasks by monitoring social media, podcasts, newsletters, blogs, forums, and news sites. Featuring filters for sentiment, influence, and interaction types, it provides efficient data analysis and comprehensive coverage, keeping you ahead in the dynamic media landscape.
Pros
- Meltwater covers a broad spectrum of media channels, providing an extensive overview of online discussions and trends.
- The platform’s diverse filters for sentiment, influence, and interaction types enable users to tailor their data analysis for more meaningful insights.
Shantel C
My team benefits from saving time while searching for media coverage and Meltwater has great reporting analytics to show each client the amazing weekly progress.
Cons
- Meltwater’s pricing may be on the higher side, posing a potential challenge for smaller businesses or individuals with limited budgets.
- While user-friendly, Meltwater may have a learning curve for new users.
Lizette O
On the downside, while Meltwater offers a wealth of features, the richness of its offerings can be somewhat overwhelming for new users, and there is a learning curve involved in utilizing the platform to its full potential. Additionally, the cost may be a consideration for smaller organizations or departments with limited budgets, as the comprehensive services provided come at a premium price point.
Final Words
In a world where online presence can make or break your brand, media monitoring is not a choice but a necessity. By tracking your brand, competitors, and industry keywords across various media channels, make informed decisions to improve your overall brand awareness strategy.
If you’re looking for an easy-to-use tool that packs a punch, we highly recommend giving Keyhole a try. With features like real-time alerts, sentiment analysis, and customizable reports, Keyhole is the perfect solution for anyone looking to up their media monitoring game.
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to take your online presence to the next level!
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are media monitoring tools?
Media monitoring tools are used to track and analyze various forms of media, including news articles, social media posts, online reviews, and other forms of digital content. These tools use specialized algorithms and search techniques to scan millions of sources for specific keywords, topics, or brands and provide users with real-time updates, reports, and alerts.
2. Why is media monitoring important?
Media monitoring tools are important because they help you connect with your potential audience. You come to know who is talking about your brand and what they are saying. You get a fair idea of your position in the market.
3. How much does a media monitoring tool cost?
The cost of a media monitoring tool can vary depending on the features and level of service you need. Some tools offer free plans with limited features, while others can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month. It's important to choose a tool that fits within your budget and provides the features you need to achieve your goals.
