Evolution of media monitoring as an integral part of PR strategy

It has always been difficult for large enterprises to track the exact picture of the effectiveness of their public relation and marketing campaigns. This requires specific skill sets to monitor and gather relevant information of the media coverage related to these campaigns.

Evolution of online media in different forms has made it more difficult as online media is more viral than traditional print media. Broadcast media also plays an important role in successful implementation of PR and marketing strategies designed by these big enterprises, which involve a big chunk of their investments. So, monitoring media coverage is more important than ever before. Enterprises must be confident that their PR campaigns are creating significant impact in the media. They need comprehensive information how they are being talked about by different forms of media and media influencers.

Media monitoring provides an easy to view and analyze dashboard that clearly shows the effectiveness of these PR campaigns. Media monitoring service providers research and aggregate the media coverage for a particular company, product, brand, event, industry, etc. and synthesize & analyze the relevant coverage. Then, they present the synopsis of the coverage to their clients in an easy, reader friendly format. Enterprises get educated about what's being said about their company, products, brands, etc, in the media. They learn about media perception of their competitors. They learn about the latest industry developments as portrayed by the media. They get an idea of the share of voice that they have in the media and this serves as a backdrop for them to fine tune their communications strategy.

It is always advisable to take a consolidated approach in handling different forms of media. Emergence of social media has made it more obvious for the enterprises to get the information real-time. Consolidated media measurement approach involves media monitoring, media audit, user-generated media monitoring, user-generated media audit, key-influencer analysis, industry trend analysis, company analysis, competitive analysis, audience analysis, etc. Service providers handle the huge volume of information by utilizing several media monitoring tools, online sources and some alert services. Involvement of skilled professionals in mining the relevant information, analyzing, presenting and summarizing it in an easy-to-understand report is very crucial. "Dashboard" view of media performance helps marketing and PR professionals to sharpen competitive edge and demonstrate return on their corporate communication investment. So, media monitoring and measurement has evolved as an integral part of enterprises' public relations campaign management process.

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