Can media monitoring motivate and not frustrate?

Originally published 3 December 2020

Monitoring and evaluation can feel increasingly complex. PR teams must bring together data from traditional media, social channels and website analytics, often using multiple platforms and sources.

At the same time, PR professionals are taking on broader responsibilities, making time one of their most valuable resources. Monitoring and evaluation can therefore slip down the priority list because it appears to demand additional time and effort.

In reality, effective monitoring can help PR teams manage both more efficiently. By providing timely, relevant insight, it enables faster, better-informed decisions.

Research from Talkwalker found that 52% of global marketing and communications practitioners reported on traditional media coverage. Among respondents looking for a monitoring solution, 49% wanted one that brought together all channels and data sources, 42% wanted trend analysis across relevant themes, and 41% prioritised clear, easy-to-understand reporting.

Can media monitoring motivate and not frustrate?

Can media monitoring motivate and not frustrate?

The key challenge
PR professionals are responsible for a wide range of activities, often with limited time and resources. Managing monitoring data, identifying meaningful insights and turning those findings into useful reports can be challenging.

This may help explain why, according to Talkwalker’s research, 48% of marketing and communications practitioners did not report on traditional media coverage.

The difficulty is not necessarily a lack of data. More often, it is knowing which metrics matter, how they should be interpreted and how they can support future decisions.

Choosing the right metrics
The sheer volume of available data can make reporting feel overwhelming. Which metrics should you choose? How should you put them into context? And how can they help shape your future communications strategy?

A project with one of our clients provides a useful example.

The client wanted to understand how brand affinity differed across its key markets, including Europe, EMEA and the Americas. Working with loop, the team monitored and compared two relevant measures across these regions: media sentiment and press release performance.

Sentiment assessed the tone of coverage towards the brand, while press release performance examined how publications engaged with releases hosted on Newspress and how much media coverage those releases generated.

Neither metric would have provided the complete picture on its own. Sentiment is most valuable when considered alongside other measures, while press release performance helps demonstrate which stories gained attention and achieved meaningful reach.

By combining the two, we were able to build a clearer narrative around the brand’s momentum. We could identify whether coverage was positive, negative, neutral or mixed, while also determining which announcements generated the strongest engagement and the greatest volume of high-reaching, positive coverage.

This enabled us to assess brand affinity across each market and, importantly, understand what was driving it. The analysis showed which markets engaged with the brand’s news most frequently, generated the most coverage and responded most positively.

Turning monitoring into insight
The right evaluation partner can help you identify the most useful metrics and build a stronger, more credible account of PR performance.

Our Monitoring and Insights team works alongside clients to develop meaningful measurement frameworks and create clearer links between communications inputs — such as campaigns, activities and press releases — and their wider outcomes.

Whether you are demonstrating return on investment to senior leadership or reviewing a recent campaign to identify best practice, monitoring the right metrics can help you:

Media monitoring should not create more frustration. When it is focused on the right objectives and supported by meaningful analysis, it can give PR teams greater clarity, confidence and control.

loop can support you at every stage, from researching your customers and identifying the right media, to securing valuable coverage and monitoring its impact. Through media intelligence and analysis, we help you focus on the insights that matter.

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If you’re looking for people who understand the industry, the media and the moving parts behind a good story, we should talk.

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