If you’re running your own business, you must have heard a lot about media monitoring. Understanding the impact your company has on both customers and the public is extremely important, and gathering information on what’s happening in your industry is a must. And with so many companies out there, being aware of what your competitors are up to can be very helpful. In case you’re not convinced just yet, here are five good reasons why media monitoring is important for your business.
It helps you control your company’s reputation
One of the best things about media monitoring is that it can help you improve your reputation. Basically, if you decide to invest in media monitoring, you can keep track of what is being written about your company, both in media and social media and react before your reputation has been damaged. When it comes to dealing with bad publicity, speed is the only thing that matters. The sooner you react to any negative comments about your company, the better. And when there’s someone monitoring media for you, you’ll be guaranteed to get a chance to react as quickly as possible. It’s also important to mention that the information you collect by monitoring media can not only help you improve your product or service but your overall approach as well. This can result in increased sales and more customers returning to buy from you.
It gives you an opportunity to learn more about your competitors
No matter what industry you’re in, there are other companies that sell the same product or service you do. And keeping an eye on what they’re doing is a great idea. In fact, monitoring your competition is just as important as monitoring your own company. There are just so many things that could help you improve your company’s approach. Firstly, you could take a look at their PR tactics. This should help you see how their marketing efforts have been perceived by consumers and the media, and use this when coming up with your own marketing strategy. This is also a good way to identify journalists and bloggers who are interested in your industry. Secondly, by monitoring your competition, you should be able to identify any new acquisitions, product developments, and basically any major changes your competitors make. Thirdly, if you have someone monitor media for you, you might just be able to learn more about your competitors’ HR practices, which should help you manage the talent within your own company.
It saves you time and money
If you want your business to do well, being aware of what’s happening outside your office is a must. And just like many new entrepreneurs, you might think that taking an occasional look at the newspaper and scrolling Facebook pages on your breaks is enough. But the truth is, if you want to get a good look at what’s happening in the media, you have to spend a lot more time in order to actually get the job done. According to some reports, it takes you roughly 8 hours a day in order to scan all the newspapers, magazines, and social media platforms and analyze the information you’ve collected. It takes so long, mainly because there are so many social media platforms being used at the moment. However, if you decide to have professionals do this for you, you can save all the time and focus on actually making money. Companies you can turn to know exactly where to look and are able to navigate social media analytics for you.
It allows you to keep an eye on your industry
Another thing media monitoring can help you with is staying updated on what’s happening in your industry. This is the case because media monitoring provides you with information about anyone, from your competitors, business partners, regulatory bodies, and journalists, to your own customers. And with all that information, you learn everything about your industry at the moment and try to predict where it’s headed. And if you’re not sure just yet, try to take a look at it this way; for example – if you monitor media effectively, you’ll be able to learn which journalists want to write about your industry. You can then get in touch with them and try to make that connection get you some good PR. Another good example is how media monitoring can help you identify any potential threats. By staying on top of your external environment, you get a chance to react quickly to any changes in the industry and make sure they don’t hurt your business.
It improves your media relations
It seems like landing media coverage is now all about planning and personalization. Basically, if you want to create stories that can grab people’s attention, you first need to know what’s going on around you. And this is exactly what media monitoring can help you with. By keeping an eye on what’s happening out there, you’ll be able to tune your media relations and move towards completing your goals. For example, if you’re about to start a marketing campaign, you should first take a good look at how the topic you want to cover is being discussed at the moment. This will help you both figure out the message you want your campaign to send and the lingo you should use. And once you kick-start your campaign, media monitoring will help you keep track of how it has been covered by journalists and on important social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
It helps you control your company’s reputation
One of the best things about media monitoring is that it can help you improve your reputation. Basically, if you decide to invest in media monitoring, you can keep track of what is being written about your company, both in media and social media and react before your reputation has been damaged. When it comes to dealing with bad publicity, speed is the only thing that matters. The sooner you react to any negative comments about your company, the better. And when there’s someone monitoring media for you, you’ll be guaranteed to get a chance to react as quickly as possible. It’s also important to mention that the information you collect by monitoring media can not only help you improve your product or service but your overall approach as well. This can result in increased sales and more customers returning to buy from you. If you need help with your reputation, look into Google reputation management.
There’s no doubt monitoring media can help your business on many different levels. Without paying attention to what’s happening around you, you could end up missing perfect opportunities for your business or not being aware of something that’s destroying your company’s reputation. No matter how much money there is in your budget, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t think about investing in it. Turn to the right experts and you’ll be guaranteed to stay updated on the most important things that are happening in the media.