For public relations professionals, media monitoring can be both tedious and exciting. If you don’t have a system in place that automates it for you (and many don’t), it can take a significant amount of time that could otherwise be used for strategizing.
As an employee of a PRTech company, I’m obviously a bit biased in how to handle the media monitoring puzzle. But this post is meant to help PR pros move from media monitoring to media intelligence, so they can see how their PR efforts are impacting the businesses they represent.
Step 1: Automate
If you haven’t automated your media coverage aggregation yet, it could be because you’re having a hard time getting a budget for it; e.g. proving the value of purchasing PRTech.
Consider the fact that PRTech resources enable you to use data to ensure content success, like other facets of marketing, and that’s ultimately a money saver long-term.
Step 2: Investigate
Once you gain access to data related to the outcomes of your work, dig in! Knowing how to analyze and interpret data allows you to identify key metrics rather than rely on subjective determinations of success.
Look for insights around how your earned, owned and newswire media have driven metrics such as social amplification and website visits. Whether what you learn is surprising or not, having data related to your efforts is always valuable. And even if you don’t love math, you can get comfortable with some of this data gradually. Get your feet wet.
Step 3: Recreate
Once you’ve automated and analyzed some of your data, turn your investigation into true detective work. Are there any themes or patterns in the content that drove certain metrics?
After proving or disproving your predictions of what’s driving results, optimize your public relations strategies and tactics. Review your results on an ongoing basis to continue evolving your efforts.
Instead of simply tracking the volume of your media coverage, study the impact it has made on your business. It will make the difference between simply doing what’s expected and what actually works.
Hungry for more? Read “How to prove PR value to your CEO” next…