Building the company's image is a continuous process that assumes systematic and consistent actions. The image itself is a collection of associations about the company through which it is perceived by customers, but also employees or the media, and therefore its entire environment. They can be both positive and negative, which significantly translates into the company's success or failure. Media monitoring will allow you to verify them.
What is media monitoring?
Sometimes it happens that negative opinions appear on the web about the company. They can come from dissatisfied customers or be an attempt to discredit it by competitors. In such a situation, the most important thing is to react as quickly as possible. The proliferation of unflattering opinions left without any answer will undoubtedly tarnish the company's image. Then the only solution to save them will be crisis managementwhich probably no brand wants to go to. In order to always be up to date with what is said on the Internet about the company, it is best to use media monitoring. What are its advantages, what does it give entrepreneurs and what can be achieved with it? You will learn from our article. We invite you to read!
Media monitoring is a tool used in activities in the field of PRwhich is its indispensable element. It provides a broad view of how the company is perceived externally. In addition, it is helpful in discovering new spaces for its development.
Mentions about the company may appear in all media, whether on the Internet, radio, television or in the press. Hence, it is so important to monitor them systematically. In fact, every company, regardless of the industry, should be committed to keeping up to date with the content that appears on it. And the task of media monitoring is precisely to control corporate image. Keeping an eye on the main competitors in the industry is also very important. It allows you to get to know their strategies, strengths and weaknesses. Thanks to this, the company can draw conclusions for itself and - if necessary - modify its strategy. Another issue is keeping up to date. Observation and implementation of industry trends is the key to building a positive image of the company and thus making it an expert in a given field.
Media monitoring - tools
The brand image is constantly being shaped. In various media, new mentions about the company appear constantly, people create various opinions and share them on many platforms. The effect that each brand strives for is an image that is close to the identity that has been built. Brand identity is a set of features that make up the company. It consists of visible elements (such as logos, colors, product appearance) and invisible elements (quality of customer service, corporate social responsibility, organizational culture). Identity allows a brand to stand out from the competition. This aspect can have a huge impact on its popularity in the market and business success.
Unfortunately, even despite our great commitment to building identity, we do not have a 100% influence on how others will perceive our brand. That is why it is important to carefully follow the media (both traditional and online) and react to all negative mentions of the brand in time.
Manual media monitoring seems almost impossible to implement. Even a large team of professionals cannot analyze all sources. Due to the number of media, it is also impossible to react quickly to all the information that appears. It is best to use one of the intuitive, properly programmed tools to monitor the media.
Media monitoring tools effectively search for references to the company, quickly analyze all messages and enable an immediate reaction in a threatening situation that could lead to an image crisis - which, as we well know, can have a very negative impact on the brand, its development and position on the market.
A popular tool is IMM, i.e. the Institute of Media Monitoring. Analyzes information appearing in the press, radio, television and the Internet (including social media). The tool provides carefully prepared, detailed data in the form of clear charts, summaries and reports. It enables establishing and building relationships with various editorial offices and opinion leaders in Poland (also with influencers). It also allows you to place press materials in the free online press office. What's more, through IMM we can analyze the activities of competitors in the press, radio and TV, monitor advertisements and foreign media.
Another tool for monitoring traditional and social media in real time is Newspoint. Thanks to it, we can analyze the content appearing in various sources of communication, trends and news in the industry we are interested in, and compare the opinions about the brand with the opinions about the competition. The tool provides detailed reports and media analyzes and allows you to react to all negative information on an ongoing basis.
You don't know what they say about your company on the web?
It's high time to change that!
Social media monitoring
Social media plays an important role in marketing today. Brands present in social media reach a much wider audience. This can have a big impact on their market popularity and success. Companies can use social channels to build positive relationships with their customers. How do they do it? By creating engaging posts, interacting in comments or on Instagram, sharing content and photos created by recipients and replying to messages.
On the other hand, social media is a great place to present your opinions - also about companies. Internet users can express their opinion on any topic. They can comment on anything they want, mention the brand in a more or less favorable tone. Sometimes even seemingly innocent information can cause an Internet storm that will negatively affect the company's operations. That is why it is important to catch all potential threats on an ongoing basis and react to them in time. A company that wants to have control over its image should constantly monitor Internet activity regarding its activities, products, services, partnerships and other elements.
Monitoring social media is an effective way to build brand awareness - by creating solid, positive relationships with the online community. A detailed analysis of social media allows you to reach and join the places where discussions about the company are taking place, which helps to prevent image crises. The use of social media monitoring tools is also an opportunity to learn about current trends and hashtags and a way to reach all industry news. Thanks to this, the brand can tailor its offer to the expectations of customers and build a strong, loyal group of recipients.
Monitoring social media is of great importance in influencer marketing. Working with influencers is a great way to reach new recipients and increase the brand's popularity on the market. The company that runs the ambassador program is closer to its recipients. It can be recognized from a different side - creative, "human", moving with the times. Social media monitoring tools make it easy to choose the right creators to collaborate with. They analyze in detail the profiles of influencers, their activities, ranges, etc.
How to monitor the internet?
We already know that social media is an important element of PR activities. Every brand that wants to have control over its image should regularly monitor the activity of Internet users. How to choose the right social media monitoring tool? Above all, the program should be distinguished by high quality - availability of various functions, clear and legible interface, intuitive operation. It is worth betting on a tool that updates the results in real time (this will allow for a quick response in the event of possible image threats), provides data from various websites, and provides access to logical, detailed analyzes and reports.
There are many internet monitoring tools on the market. One of the most popular is Brand24. The platform enables quick access to information about the company and its products on Polish-language social media and websites. Updating mentions in real time and immediate e-mail notifications (about all entries - both positive, neutral and negative) enable an immediate reaction in a crisis situation. Brand24 provides a stream of mentions (it is easy to navigate to the information we are interested in and answer to it) and a graph of the intensity of discussions (a clear presentation of memories about the brand; how much is said about it, how many interactions are triggered by entries, what reach is generated by the brand). Moreover, it allows you to filter mentions by source, interaction or sentiment. Creating an account on the Brand24 platform and the first 14 days of using the tool is free. During this time, you can test all its functions and capabilities. After 2 weeks of trial, you need to purchase a package.
A popular internet monitoring tool is Google Alerts which, unlike the previous item, is free. The program allows you to search for information containing specific links on a given page. The effectiveness of the analysis of mentions depends on the selection of keywords. The tool presents a report on the indicated activities.
Unamo is another monitoring program. Thanks to it, we can track statements about the brand in social media and on websites in real time and react to comments immediately. What's more, the tool allows you to analyze the website for optimization errors, and also makes it easier to find potential customers.
Other social media analysis tools include:
- SentiOne - sentiment analysis, email alerts, PDF reports,
- NapoleonCat - social media monitoring, competition analysis, the ability to add posts in several social channels at the same time,
- Keyhole,
- Hootsuite,
- Mention.
Why is it worth being up-to-date?
By using the monitoring capabilities, the company will not miss the most important mentions in the media and will always be up to date with them. Therefore, it can be safely said that by providing information about how a brand is perceived, media monitoring supports building a positive brand image. Here are the areas in which it can help:
Obtaining information about the company's customers - media monitoring can help the company define the customer profile. It will also determine which communication channels are the most effective and most popular for the brand among customers. What's more, it makes it much easier to get to know and reach potential customers.
Measurement of the effects of PR and marketing activities - media monitoring tools report the results of marketing and PR activities. They will indicate both positives and what could be improved.
Crisis prevention in social media - as you know, crises in social media occur at the least expected moments. That is why it is worth having your finger on the pulse. It is much easier with media monitoring. Why? Because it will allow you to avoid the aggravation of the problem, and in the event of any trouble, it will allow you to act quickly on the target warming the image.
What they say about the company in the media matters.
Check what measurement tools we recommend and use them to increase sales.
Media monitoring is also a good way to easily and quickly identify customers potentially interested in the company's offer and provide them with the necessary advice and encourage them to familiarize themselves with the products or services. It also allows you to increase the awareness of the company. And it does not matter whether the company is just starting its activity or has been on the market for many years. Media monitoring will always be a useful tool to raise awareness. How? First of all, by building relationships with customers. Observing information about your company allows you to quickly reach and join the threads in which conversations about it are taking place. Such clients often respond with recommendations that are of great importance to reference marketing.
Media monitoring - entrust it to specialists
Media monitoring can be done independently, but it requires some experience in this field. In addition, it takes a lot of time and work, because - as we wrote at the beginning - it is a very demanding task. You have to be systematic and consistent in this. If you want to save time, entrusting this area of activities to specialists is the best solution. They use the most modern and effective tools that analyze in an advanced manner many factors influencing the brand image on the Internet. contact us - we will help you implement them.