| Media monitoring is the process of carefully reading, | | | | old-fashioned press clipping services, software seldom |
| watching or listening to the editorial content of media | | | | misses valid articles because it reads the entire article |
| sources (including newspapers, magazines, trade | | | | word for word. |
| journals, broadcasters and the Internet) on a continuing | | | | Advantages of Online News Monitoring |
| basis and of identifying, saving and analyzing content | | | | The commercial monitoring services offer multiple |
| that contains specific keywords or topics. | | | | advantages when compared to old-fashioned |
| Monitoring the News Media | | | | print-based press clipping services or in-house media |
| Monitoring editorial content of news sources including | | | | monitoring by staff. |
| newspapers, magazines, trade journals, TV and radio | | | | Today, with rare exceptions, every print publication |
| stations is by far the most common type of media | | | | publishes its editorial content on the publication's Internet |
| monitoring. This typicalls is called "news monitoring". | | | | Web site. By monitoring print publications on the |
| Most companies, government agencies, not-for-profit | | | | Internet (World Wide Web), online media monitoring |
| organizations (e.g. hospitals, universities, associations, | | | | services can monitor news media sources in all |
| etc.) and individuals such as authors and celebrities | | | | countries in virtually all languages. Online news |
| utilize media monitoring as a tool to identify mentions of | | | | monitoring services currently monitor between 20,000 |
| their organization, its brands, and executives in news | | | | and 50,000+ online news sources in multiple languages. |
| media. Some organizations also deploy media | | | | Many of the online monitoring services utilize |
| monitoring tools to track the success of their news | | | | embedded translation software to include instant |
| releases, to find information about competitors and | | | | software-based translation of foreign language news |
| specific issues relevant to the organization, to | | | | clips. |
| benchmark performance against competitors, to | | | | Whereas the old-fashioned press clipping services |
| manage corporate or brand reputation, to gather | | | | required 2 to 3 weeks to deliver clips, online media |
| industry intelligence, to better understand the strengths | | | | monitoring services deliver clips overnight as a |
| and weaknesses of corporate communications, to | | | | standard service and usually offer near real time |
| identify new business opportunities, and other | | | | delivery at additional cost. Most clips are delivered by |
| purposes. | | | | e-mail in text or HTML format but other delivery |
| In addition to monitoring news, many organizations now | | | | methods are available including RSS feeds, XML and |
| also monitor social media on the Internet, tracking word | | | | PDF via FTP transfer. The daily e-mail reports enable |
| of mouth mentions about their organization in social | | | | executives in client organizations to keep up-to-date |
| media such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, message | | | | with a fast and comprehensive overview of how their |
| boards and forums. This is commonly known as social | | | | organization is being portrayed in the news and social |
| media monitoring, word-of-mouth monitoring, or buzz | | | | media. The daily e-mail clip report also can provide |
| monitoring. | | | | early warning of brewing issues and problems. |
| Media Monitoring Profile & Search Terms | | | | With the use of Boolean logic in client queries, online |
| The monitoring process starts with the search profile | | | | media monitoring services can meet very specific and |
| and the search terms or keyword(s) or keyword | | | | specialized media clipping requirements with great |
| phrases. The search profile contains the service terms: | | | | accuracy. Instead of delivering "all mentions" of a |
| the media to be monitored, the type of articles and/or | | | | specific word, the media monitoring service can deliver |
| mentions to be delivered, the time period of the | | | | a specific subset of articles and postings such as: |
| monitoring, and the method of article delivery. | | | | (Orange OR Sprint) AND (mobile OR phone OR cell) |
| The search terms are those key words or phrases | | | | AND NOT -fruit OR Julius OR Crush OR "track and |
| that must appear in the article such as the name of | | | | field" within 25 characters. |
| the organization or its affiliates or brands. An article | | | | Because online media monitoring services deliver clips |
| containing a key word is usually referred to as a "clip" | | | | as digital computer-based files, clip storage, |
| or "clipping," "news clip," or "press clipping." The clips are | | | | management and distribution are far more easier than |
| delivered either physically by mail or as a digital file, | | | | with old-fashioned paper-based clips. Most online |
| usually via e-mail. | | | | services store each client's clips in a digital online |
| While some organizations use in-house staff to monitor | | | | archive that is available at anytime from anywhere by |
| news and social media, most companies and PR | | | | anyone the client authorizes. Using standard database |
| agencies outsource the function to commercial | | | | methods, clients can easily organize and manage their |
| services. The commercial services can usually provide | | | | clips in the online archive. Most digital archives include |
| more comprehensive media coverage than in-house | | | | keyword search capabilities - that is, clients are able to |
| staff using online news monitoring tools such as | | | | search their digital clip book for any key word or |
| Google News. Commercial media monitoring services | | | | phrase. Most of the digital archives also make it easy |
| often deliver better results at lower cost than the | | | | to circulate clips via e-mail to others within the client |
| actual labor costs of in-house news monitoring with | | | | organization. |
| staff. | | | | Social Media Monitoring |
| Media Monitoring History | | | | While news is clearly the core content to monitor, |
| Media monitoring started in the 1800s as press clipping | | | | most organizations now recognize the growing |
| services. Press clipping services (called "press cutting" | | | | importance of monitoring social media such as blogs, |
| in Europe) employed human readers to scan articles in | | | | message boards, forums, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter |
| printed news publications looking for the key words of | | | | and video sharing sites such as YouTube. What is |
| multiple clients. The readers marked the keywords in | | | | published or uploaded in these online social media sites |
| articles, then used razor blades to cut out the marked | | | | has gained significant credence and influence. As a |
| articles, put the clipped articles into client folders and | | | | result, monitoring social media for criticism and |
| delivered the clips via mail to the client. Most press | | | | complaints is now crucial to protect corporate and |
| clipping services served a limited geographic area - | | | | brand reputation - and to better understand what |
| one country, for instance - and monitored publications | | | | consumers think about the organization, its brands, and |
| in only one language. According to studies by GE, | | | | its customer service. |
| Kodak and other organizations in the 1970s, the human | | | | It's possible, but inefficient, to utilize in-house staff to |
| readers typically missed 30 to 40% of articles | | | | monitor social media using free online social media |
| containing clients' key words, largely because the | | | | search engines. For the most part, however, social |
| readers were quickly scanning the articles for multiple | | | | media monitoring services are more comprehensive |
| clients' keywords, not actually reading the articles word | | | | and more time-efficient. |
| for word. | | | | Most news monitoring services offer separate or |
| Broadcast Monitoring Services | | | | integrated social media monitoring services. As in news |
| In the 1950s, specialized broadcast monitoring | | | | monitoring, the key is comprehensive monitoring across |
| companies started to monitor TV news broadcasts | | | | a wide range of social media, especially blogs, |
| for mention of their client company key words. Initially, | | | | message boards, forums, complaint sites and Twitter. |
| the broadcast monitoring companies used humans to | | | | With over 50 million blogs worldwide, it is not sufficient |
| watch programs, write abstracts of the content and | | | | to monitor only the so-called "influential" blogs. It's crucial |
| log mentions of clients' key words. The development | | | | to monitor as many blogs as possible because it's |
| of Betamax and VHS videotape recorders, along with | | | | impossible to predict where critical information will |
| closed caption text for hearing impaired, enabled the | | | | surface. It's also important to use key words on a |
| broadcast monitors to record the programs and use | | | | continuing basis to monitor social media. Monitoring |
| software to search the closed caption text for clients' | | | | social media sources for criticism and complaints can |
| key words. | | | | be especially effective as a customer service tool - |
| In the United States, that closed caption system is still in | | | | correcting problems and issues and earning the |
| use although computers (not videotape recorders) are | | | | customers' gratitude before complaints spread virally. |
| now used to record the programs. In countries that do | | | | Media Monitoring Summary |
| not have closed caption text embedded in the TV | | | | Most commercial media monitoring services are |
| broadcast signal, broadcast monitoring companies now | | | | subscription based with a monthly fee for on-going |
| often use speech to text software to create a | | | | service. While some services - usually ones that |
| character-based document which can be searched | | | | evolved from old-fashioned press clipping services - |
| for key words. Closed caption text and the latest | | | | charge an additional fee for each delivered clip, most |
| generation speech to text software are each about | | | | of the newer online services do not have per clip fees. |
| 70% to 80% complete and accurate. | | | | To better understand the quality of each service and |
| Online Media Monitoring | | | | the differences in services, it's best to use multiple |
| The growth of the Internet and World Wide Web in | | | | services on a free trial for a few weeks before |
| the 1990s gave rise to online media monitoring services | | | | committing to purchase. |
| with automated processes to monitor online news. The | | | | In summary, monitoring news and social media is a vital |
| online services deploy specialized software called | | | | function to track news release placements, identify |
| robots, bots or spiders running on high-powered | | | | other mentions in the media about the organization, |
| computer servers to quickly scan the new editorial | | | | manage corporate and brand reputation, monitor |
| content of online news sources and social media and | | | | competition, stay current on industry issues and other |
| to index all the words in the news content and social | | | | purposes. Commercial media monitoring services, |
| media postings. Once the software has compiled the | | | | especially online services, offer superior results and |
| content, it identifies all articles containing each client's | | | | lower costs than in-house monitoring by staff. |
| search terms (keywords or phrases) and then | | | | © Copyright 2010, CyberAlert, Inc. |
| automatically clips and delivers those articles or social | | | | Article may be reprinted in whole or part with proper |
| media postings to the client. Unlike human readers in | | | | attribution. |