The Complete Guide to Effective

Media Monitoring for PR

 Introduction
Media monitoring has always been critical to the role of PR Bringing together all this data, analyzing it, and measuring
and communications. After all, these teams are the ones against wider business objectives takes an enormous
charged with knowing if and when someone is talking about amount of time, skill, and resources. Even the most well-
their brand, who’s saying it, and what it means for them. equipped PR teams may find themselves overwhelmed by
the sheer volume of channels and conversations happening
Even before the days of digital media, “clipping services” around them – all of which they are expected to turn into
would lift articles from newspapers and magazines, while actionable insight.
broadcast segments from television were recorded to fuzzy
VHS tapes to show when a brand was discussed. But just as there are many different channels to monitor, there
are many different facets of media monitoring to understand.
With the digital transformation of the media industry, there is While media monitoring in isolation isn’t the silver bullet
now an endless amount of content for comms pros to monitor solution for PR, without it, no PR team can be effective at what
and report to their key stakeholders internally. they do.

This guide is here to break it all down for you – what media monitoring is,
why it matters, and how to integrate it into your strategy.

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Contents
What is Media
Monitoring?
Media monitoring refers to tracking, analyzing, and measuring
various media channels for coverage of a particular brand, topic,
or keyword.

These channels can include traditional media (newspapers and magazines),

broadcast (radio and television), and digital media (online websites and social
media). Analyzing the data from these sources enables you to understand
everything from public perception to the growing trends in your your industry
or sector.

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 Types of Media Monitoring

Traditional Digital Social

Media Monitoring Media Monitoring Media Monitoring
Traditional media monitoring focuses on Digital media monitoring tracks online news Social media monitoring involves tracking
tracking coverage in print publications (such as websites, blogs, forums, and other web-based mentions, comments, and shares of your
newspapers and magazines), television (such media like podcasts or YouTube videos. This brand, product, or service across various social
as local and national news or newsmagazines), type of monitoring uses automated tools to media channels like X, LinkedIn, and TikTok.
and radio broadcasts. It involves scanning scan the internet for relevant mentions, articles,
these sources for mentions of your brand, and discussions. Monitoring these channels enables PR
competitors, or relevant industry topics. teams to quickly capture customer feedback,
It allows for real-time tracking of online content, understand audience sentiment around their
Because traditional media monitoring can be providing quick insights into emerging trends brands, identify industry trends, and respond
a laborious task, requiring manual effort or and industry developments. PR teams often to all of it effectively. It also helps you see key
specialized services to collect and analyze rely on digital media monitoring tools that offer influencers in your industry and potentially
data from these offline sources, PR teams often features like sentiment analysis, reach and partner with them.
rely on bespoke tools to gather this data and volume metrics, and content categorization
have a single source of truth. to better understand their online presence
and reputation.

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Why Does Media
Monitoring Matter?
Q

Perhaps the fastest How do you know

way to get a sense if your efforts are
of why media making any sort of
It enables you to gain a deeper knowledge of your audience of
monitoring matters impact if you can’t
customers and potential customers – how they feel about your brand,
your competitors, and the products or services you offer – so you can is to ask yourself see the results in the
craft relevant communication that resonates and differentiates your these questions. media?
brand. It’s also a way to improve your brand reputation by enabling
you to proactively respond to feedback online and address any
concerns or criticisms people may have.

More broadly speaking, media monitoring can be a useful tool for identifying
Q Q
industry trends or following certain sectors or topics. PR pros can use this insight to
capitalize on opportunities that you simply wouldn’t see without trawling through
How can you
myriad media channels one by one.
How can you expect change or shape the
Monitoring is also a way to demonstrate the value of your comms strategy to the to secure a bigger conversation around
C-suite by showing them earned media wins and clear, quantitative evidence that budget if you can’t your brand if you
your team’s efforts are moving the needle in terms of brand reputation
and awareness.
show the business don’t know what that
results of your work? conversation is in the
In short, media monitoring provides critical insight that informs smarter decisions first place?
and more effective strategies.

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Use Cases for
Media Monitoring
Media monitoring can help you explore myriad
sources and journalists covering your brand.
Depending on the tools at your disposal, it can
also dig deeper with analysis of common themes,
geographical breakdowns, and much more.

Before getting into the various metrics media monitoring can

track, let’s first look more closely at its use cases.

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 Reputation Campaign Competitor Crisis
Management Management Monitoring Management
Even the most well-respected brands When you launch a PR campaign, you Media monitoring isn’t just about The ability to identify a potential crisis
face negative online customer can’t just set it and forget it (at least not looking at how people feel about your is like having home insurance before
comments that could harm them. if you want to understand its impact brand, it can also uncover insight into an earthquake. Nobody wants the
Reputation management involves and effectiveness); you need to track what they think of your competitors. worst to happen, but if it does, you at
monitoring and managing the online and manage the entire journey. This Competitor monitoring involves least know you’re covered.
reputation of a brand or individual. involves monitoring and analyzing tracking rivals’ media mentions and
This includes tracking reviews, campaign performance across various activities to identify their strengths Crisis management involves
comments, and ratings on various media channels. Think about your key and weaknesses. monitoring media channels to detect
review sites, such as Yelp, Amazon, or performance indicators (KPIs) such and respond to negative feedback
Google, and addressing any negative as reach, engagement, sentiment, The insight gleaned from this can or crises relating to your brand.
feedback directly. and conversion rates. By closely help inform your communications The need for crisis management
monitoring these metrics, PR teams strategy around your brand. often stems from events like product
How you respond (and how quickly and organizations can assess the For example, if you spot a rival brand recalls, negative reviews, or data
that response comes) can be critical. effectiveness of their campaigns experiencing negative publicity, it may breaches. Media monitoring is an
A measured, timely response can in real time, allowing for quick present an opportunity to launch a essential component of effective crisis
help quell any negativity and reflect adjustments and optimizations. campaign to strengthen your position management, enabling organizations
positively on the brand. A poorly in the market. to detect early warning signs and act
worded or inauthentic response (or no Campaign management also involves quickly to mitigate potential damage
response at all) can result in a customer identifying the messages that resonate to their reputation.
doubling down on their grievances and the most with your target audience,
show the brand in a negative light. measuring the impact of different
channels, and comparing campaign
performance against set goals. This
type of monitoring helps businesses
maximize their return on investment
(ROI) and refine their marketing
strategies for future campaigns.

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The Benefits of
(and Business
Case for) Media
Monitoring

If you’re trying to justify the addition of media

monitoring technology and services, here are four
key considerations to highlight with both your team
and those who make the buying decisions.

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 1 2
“Always on” Monitoring is an
monitoring means effective market
you won’t get research tool
caught off guard
Media monitoring can provide efficient and insightful market research
The internet and social media never sleep. Conversations are happening for your company’s campaigns or new solutions.
all the time, and you need to be monitoring everything that pertains to
your brand, product, or service. By setting up relevant searches, your team can gather essential
information for campaign planning: What are audiences saying about
If a new competitor surfaces, a rival product or service hits the market, or an your company, products, or services? What misconceptions exist?
event happens that can potentially disrupt your business or industry, the last What are they saying about competitors? Where are opportunities to
thing you need are your stakeholders coming to you with news you were change negative perceptions or reinforce positive ones?
completely unaware of.
A good media monitoring solution equips PR and corporate comms
teams with market intel to inform strategy and create resonant
messages for target audiences.

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 3 4
Monitoring helps Monitoring can
execute and complement
adjust campaign your journalist
messaging outreach
Executing a campaign around a product or service launch, upcoming event, Does your organization distribute press releases advertising big events? Or
new piece of content (such as a report or whitepaper), or any other initiative is reach out to local or national influencers to help boost campaign visibility?
only the first step in the communications cycle. Effectively tracking efforts and Complementing your outreach strategies with an all-encompassing media
making the right mid-campaign adjustments to messaging and channels are critical monitoring solution can help you further understand which messages resonate best
to overall success. with your audiences and influencers.

Media monitoring enables your team to continuously track key mentions, competitor Additionally, using this information to pinpoint the most influential individuals can help
reactions, and overall audience engagement throughout your campaign’s lifecycle. you make better decisions about which journalists and media influencers to partner
Gaining real-time insight into campaign performance allows your teams to pivot as with. Furthermore, this type of understanding establishes the groundwork for future
necessary while focusing on the bigger picture. Post campaign, media monitoring can content and helps contribute to your content calendar planning for the year.
help you understand effectiveness and inform your next campaign strategy based on
lessons learned.

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How to Build a
Media Monitoring
Strategy
If media monitoring isn’t part of your overall PR strategy, then is it
an effective strategy at all?

There’s nothing particularly strategic about pushing out different messages and
hoping something sticks. Monitoring shows the impact and value of your efforts,
while also providing valuable insight into where to deploy resources and shape
messaging for the future.

Now that you know what media monitoring is and what it can do for your brand,
it’s time to put it into practice. Let’s look at a five-step framework to build out an
effective media monitoring strategy.

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 Step 1 Create Your Goals Step 2 Identify Topics and & Media Sources

As the Barcelona Principles explain, the guiding rule for PR measurement Once you’ve defined your goals, it’s time to identify what you want to monitor. Make
is: “Setting goals is an absolute prerequisite to communications planning, a list of important terms, topics, and keywords you want to track – these should be
measurement and evaluation.” related to your organization, industry, and competitors.

What do you want to achieve with media monitoring? Do you want to build your Then decide on which media sources you want to track – and there is a lot to
reputation? Understand the competitive landscape? Stay ahead of industry trends? choose from: Today you have traditional media outlets (like newspapers, magazines,
Be better positioned to manage a crisis? All of the above? We recommend using the TV, and radio) and online news sites, social media platforms, industry-specific
SMART framework for effective goal setting: publications, podcasts, and even review sites like Yelp! to consider.

Specific: Clearly state what you want to accomplish While much of this can be done in-house using free tools like Google Trends
Measurable: Determine how you’ll quantify success and Google News, these will only take you so far. Depending on your goals and
Achievable: Ensure goals are realistic given your resources the scope of your work, consider investing in a media monitoring tool, which will
Relevant: Make sure your goals are aligned with broader organizational goals provide more efficiency, accuracy, and analysis. (More on media monitoring tools a
Time-bound: Set a time frame for achieving objectives bit later.)

This framework will help ensure you choose the right tools and focus on the right
metrics from the very beginning.

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 Step 3 Choose the Right Metrics Media Impressions Engagement
PR and comms teams have traditionally relied on advertising value This foundational metric measures These metrics include actions such
equivalency (AVE) to measure the success of their outreach, but it the potential audience reach of your as likes, shares, and comments.
comes with limitations. content, offering an early view of its Analyzing engagement helps identify
distribution scope. Media impressions which aspects of your campaign are
For one, comparing earned media mentions and advertising is like set the stage for deeper engagement resonating with your audience, moving
comparing apples to oranges. Not to mention that people generally analysis, indicating visibility across beyond mere numbers to assess the
trust earned media more than paid ads, so AVE has the potential to media platforms. quality of these interactions.
undervalue the impact of PR.

So which metrics should you target? Thanks to the sophistication

of today’s media monitoring tools, there are dozens of metrics
available by which you can track and analyze mentions of your
brand, your competitors, and the industry. While more metrics mean
more opportunity to understand your brand, it also means more
opportunity to get overwhelmed. If you’re new to media monitoring, Sentiment Brand Mentions
we suggest starting small and narrowing it down to the following six.
This metric evaluates the tone and Monitoring brand mentions across
Once you’ve gotten some experience under your belt, it’s worth context of audience interactions, print, online, and social channels sheds
experimenting with more metrics and digging even deeper into your providing insights into public reaction light on conversations and perceptions
data and insight. to your content. Positive sentiment outside your owned channels. This
is valuable, of course, but neutral or metric captures the public’s unfiltered,
even negative sentiment can also authentic opinions and comments
offer insight into areas that need about your brand, which can inform
improvement – from customer service strategic decisions that lead to
to campaign messaging. meaningful outcomes.

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 Share of Voice
(SoV)
This compares your brand’s visibility and
influence in the industry against that
of your competitors. It’s a key indicator
of your market position and brand
influence, informed by both the volume
of mentions and the prominence of
the journalists and media influencers
discussing your brand.

Reach and Coverage Volume & Potential Audience ReachTimeline

Conversion Buzz
BuzzCola
Cola Duff Beer Print Online TV Radio Magazine Podcast Potential Audience Reach

This includes website traffic metrics Over 29 days

Coverage Volume Potential Audience Reach
such as views, repeat visitors, and 8,000 2b

time on page, as well as more tangible 1.8b

1.6b
6,000
conversion metrics like shopping cart 1.4b
1.2b
revenue, orders, or sign-ups. It’s hard to 4,000 1b
800m
argue that a PR campaign is ineffective 600m
2,000
if it’s driving revenue. 400m
200m
0 0

ay

ay

ay

ay

ay

ay

ay

ay

ay

ay

ay
r

r
r

Ap

Ap
Ap

Ap

M
28

30
24

26

02

04

06

08

10

12

14

16

18

20

22
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 Step 4 Analyze Your Resultss Step 5 Refine Your Strategy (and Repeat)

You have the data, now comes the next step. Whether it’s on a weekly, monthly, Make the necessary adjustments and execute accordingly. Then measure again, but
quarterly, or annual basis (and it will likely depend on the scope of the campaign keep your measurement approach consistent so you can make accurate comparisons
and your goals), review the metrics you’ve pulled with your team and see what over time. Keep measuring, keep evaluating, keep refining.
insights you can glean.

pe titors
M
ou r co m
What are y

ea
n d ca n y ou
l, a
Which journalists doing wel

sure
re som e o f those
and media outlets a apply
y ou r o w n?
to
covering you? Whic
h strategies
ones are covering
your competitors?

Are you mee

ting your
Are ther goals? If not,
what could
Re Ev
e other you be doing
channel more of, less

a lu
fin
s you co of, or in a diff
explore, uld erent way?

e
like paid

ate
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sored co
ntent?

ta in e ff orts o r c hannels
Are cer
re e n ga g e m e nt than
driving mo
(so c ia l m e dia ve rsus
others
)?
email, for example

It should come as no surprise that monitoring and measurement is not a one-and-done

effort. The process should be ongoing, with consistent and continual time and effort
Chances are, after a careful review of the metrics you’re gathering, you’re going (and even some experimentation along the way), but if you keep at it, the payoffs will
to find areas for improvement and uncover new opportunities and tactics you be significant. The more your media monitoring strategy evolves over time, the more
hadn’t considered before. effective your PR and corporate comms strategy will become as a result.

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How to Choose
the Right Media
Monitoring Tools
The are plenty of media monitoring tools on the market – and many
of them include a database, social listening, outreach, and reporting
features an all-in-one solution.

You should establish exactly what you want to get out of your media monitoring
tools, and if there’s value in consolidating your efforts into a single platform. A
single, unified public relations software solution should offer features to help
facilitate your PR efforts and give a full picture of how they’re performing.

But how do you choose the right one?

Let’s look at content, functionality, and customer support – and the key questions
you should be asking for each.

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 What type of content is collected?

Q Q Q Q

What types of How far-reaching How do I get updates

Will I be able to
metrics can the are the monitoring and info on the results
monitor the channels
solution measure? capabilities? of my searches?
and outlets that are
What insights will I be Do they cover local, How easy is it to
most relevant to
able to derive from regional outlets, and remove the noise of
my brand?
the data gathered? national, worldwide? unwanted content?

Q Q Q Q

Can I monitor the

What channels does Will I be able
Can it monitor channels and outlets
the solution monitor? to monitor my
paywalled and where my audiences
Social, print, broadcast, competitors and
premium content? are most active and
podcasts, etc.? to what extent?
engaged?

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 What is the user experience like?

Q Q Q

How user friendly is the platform?

Is it mobile friendly? What are the custom
Will it require extensive training
Can it be used on the go? search capabilities?
or is it intuitive?

Q Q Q
Is there an easy and intuitive
Is there a limit to the number of way to view the metrics I’m Are you able to get
searches my team can perform? tracking? Are results easy to a personalized demo of
access, share, and turn into the platform?
executive-ready reports?

Q Q Q

Can I set up alerts for real-time

How many searches can What are the search
insight or do I have to manually
I set up at a given time? filters available to me?
check the platform?

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 How is customer support?

Q Q Q Q

What level of support Are there training

Is customer support
can my team expect How do I contact and troubleshooting
provided in the cost
to receive – both customer support materials my team
of the solution,
during initial setup when I need it? can access live or
or is it extra?
and ongoing? on demand?

Q Q Q
Final thought:
Is there custom A good media monitoring
What are the hours
support available for provider will take the time to
of support?
ongoing or on-demand What are the answer these questions and
What is the typical
monitoring and in- associated costs? understand your specific
turnaround time for
depth reporting on goals, needs, and concerns
responding to issues?
custom projects? to help you find a solution
that’s best for your team.

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 The Bottom Line
Media monitoring is crucial for organizations who need to stay informed about
their public image, track industry trends, and gauge public opinion. With an
aligned and thoughtful approach to media monitoring, brands can gain valuable
insights that steer their decision-making processes and strategic planning.

For modern PR teams, an effective media monitoring strategy requires both the right
planning and the right tools, which will help streamline workflows, derive greater
insights at scale, and make an even bigger impact.

Perhaps even more importantly, such an approach will ultimately free up your
team’s time to focus on the work you originally got into PR to do: Build meaningful
relationships, create strategic campaigns, and tell stories that make a difference.

If you’re ready to talk more, find out how CisionOne Monitoring can help bring this
all together. Explore the platform or schedule time to speak with one of our experts.

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About Cision
Cision is the global leader in consumer and media intelligence, engagement, and communication solutions.
We equip PR and corporate communications, marketing, and social media professionals with the tools they
need to excel in today’s data-driven world. Our deep expertise, exclusive data partnerships, and award-
winning brands and products, including CisionOne, Brandwatch, and PR Newswire, enable over 75,000
companies and organizations, including 84% of the Fortune 500, to see and be seen, understand and be
understood by the audiences that matter most to them.

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