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Media Monitoring & Measurement begins with your Needs Assessment

By Gina Milani

May 20, 2024

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Illustration depicting Media Monitoring & Measurement

There are so many dimensions to media monitoring and measurement that it’s hard to know where to begin. PRToolFinder.com simplifies the process by categorizing a wide array of PR tools, making it easy to evaluate them before making a purchase. Through our blog, we spotlight valuable thought leadership and industry resources to aid in decision-making. This post explores why media monitoring and measurement should start with a needs assessment.

Measurement Assessment for Long-term Insights

Let’s start with a helpful article from Carma’s Measurement Standard Blog, Assessing the Long-Term Impact of PR Work. While delivering clips to clients is a clear indicator of PR performance, clients increasingly seek to understand PR’s long-term ROI. The right processes and tools enable this, and the decisions about which to use depend on the company. The guidance in this article provides a great starting point for using media monitoring to determine the long-term impact of PR.

As the article points out, launching a new program lets you establish meaningful parameters and evaluate effectiveness. You can also review previously collected data, but either way, adopting a deep, time-based analysis will reveal insights that shape future PR decisions and investments.

Another valuable resource is the Public Relations Review Podcast, hosted by Peter Woolfolk. In his April 8 episode, Mastering Data-Driven Public Relations: Insights with Measurement Expert Katie Paine, Woolfolk interviews Paine, an industry expert. I highly recommend listening to this episode to learn how to link PR efforts to organizational priorities.

Identify Organizational Priorities

The first step in measurement is identifying how communication supports organizational priorities, such as building and protecting the brand. Katie Paine stresses that this requires brand research beyond typical media measurement platforms. She emphasizes that human understanding is crucial when drawing conclusions from data. Paine reiterates that every measurement metric must tie back to organizational priorities.

What Role Does Sentiment Analysis Play?

Understanding how people feel about your brand doesn’t necessarily require sentiment analysis. Paine explains that knowing your audience is more important. As she suggests, take a cue from politics—people care most about their immediate environment. Ask your audience which publications they trust. Paine cautions that sentiment is just an algorithm applied to a bucket of words, which may not always be accurate. What matters is using the right tools and metrics to measure what’s most relevant.

For those interested in diving deeper into sentiment analysis, Datamation recently published their Essential Guide.

Paine’s insights into human nature and how they apply to measurement offer valuable lessons. If your audience perceives you as a game company, but you’re delivering an enterprise software message, you’re missing the mark. If you haven’t surveyed your audience recently, you may be out of touch. Paine advises surveying quarterly or conducting a substantial study every six months to understand how people are consuming information. You can also gain insights from digital data, like tracking where website traffic originates.

Putting Data Together

Combining data from multiple sources will help you and your organization gain meaningful insights. Paine emphasizes that no single tool provides all the answers. You must weave different data points together to reflect your unique goals. Unfortunately, most people don’t measure against their actual objectives.

Thanks to Peter and Katie for such an enlightening podcast! For more episodes, visit the Public Relations Review website. To explore Katie Paine’s resources, including measurement courses, eBooks, newsletters, and more, visit Paine Publishing.

Measurement Categories in PRToolFinder

Media Monitoring and Measurement Tools
Media monitoring and measurement tools provide insights into how your PR efforts resonate with your audience. They track and analyze media mentions, brand sentiment, and engagement across various channels, crucial for managing reputations in today’s information-saturated environment.

Social Media Monitoring & Analytics
Social media monitoring tools act like modern-day clipping services, sifting through the immense flow of data on social networks. These tools track and analyze vast amounts of information, helping businesses stay informed about their online presence. AI has improved their capabilities, providing advanced analytics for better decision-making.

Video/TV Search Engines and Monitoring Tools
Video and TV monitoring tools enable tracking and analyzing video content. These tools consider reach, cost, and ranking criteria, helping content creators make data-driven decisions to improve their digital presence.

To explore all the PR tool categories in the PRToolFinder database, download the free comprehensive guide to PR tools.

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