Monitoring Media Mentions: 9 Tools and Strategies
In the fast-paced world of media, staying on top of your company’s mentions is crucial for managing potential liabilities. We’ve gathered insights from CEOs, Marketing Heads, and other digital experts on effective tools and strategies for media monitoring. From setting up Google Alerts to customizing searches with social listening platforms, explore the nine diverse approaches recommended by our specialists.
- Evaluate Google Alerts’ Limitations
- Leverage Social Listening for Online Reputation
- Utilize Agility PR for Comprehensive Monitoring
- Monitor with Talkwalker via Hootsuite
- Track Weekly Mentions Using Google Alerts
- Reputation.com for Media Monitoring
- Brandwatch and Rapid Response for Mentions
- Combine Social Media Listening and Sentiment Analysis
- Customize Searches with Social Listening Platforms
Evaluate Google Alerts’ Limitations
At Parachute, we use Google Alerts to monitor media mentions of our company. It’s a free tool that provides a simple way to track when our name appears online. While it’s budget-friendly and easy to set up, we’ve noticed several limitations in its coverage. Google Alerts often fails to catch many discussions about our brand, leading to gaps in the information we receive.
The main drawback is its inconsistency. Sometimes, Google Alerts fails to capture relevant mentions, causing us to miss critical conversations. This can be particularly problematic in our fast-paced industry, where timely responses are crucial. For example, during a recent security incident, we only learned about a customer concern from another source long after the fact. This delayed notification hindered our ability to address the issue promptly.
Given these challenges, I recommend using Google Alerts as a starting point rather than relying solely on it. Consider integrating more advanced media monitoring tools as your budget allows. These tools offer broader coverage and more detailed insights, helping you stay on top of your brand’s online presence.
Elmo Taddeo
CEO, Parachute
Leverage Social Listening for Online Reputation
In this digital era, businesses must maintain a positive online reputation, which is key for fostering trust and attracting high-net-worth clientele.
At our company, for example, we leverage social listening tools like SEMrush and Hootsuite to monitor brand mentions across social media platforms, industry blogs, and review websites.
What are its benefits for our business?
1. Customer Insights: We gain valuable insights into customer sentiment, enabling us to tailor services and messaging to better resonate with our target audience.
2. Proactive Issue Management: Early detection of negative mentions allows us to address concerns swiftly, minimizing reputational damage and strengthening client relationships.
3. Competitive Advantage: By monitoring our competitors’ online presence, we identify industry trends and potential areas of differentiation for our brand.
4. Real-time alerts ensure prompt responses to brand mentions, while sentiment analysis helps us distinguish positive feedback from negative comments. These data-driven insights inform strategic marketing decisions and continuous refinement of our brand image.
This proactive approach to monitoring our brand mentions safeguards our reputation, empowers data-driven decisions, and ultimately drives business success.
Ernest Yap
Digital Marketer and Offshoring Success Advocate, Shore360, Inc.
Utilize Agility PR for Comprehensive Monitoring
At Tech Advisors, we use Agility PR Solutions to monitor media mentions of our company. This AI-powered platform lets us stay informed about our media coverage across various channels, including online, print, broadcast, podcasts, and social media. We can promptly address any potential liability concerns by receiving automated coverage alerts.
For instance, using Agility PR Solutions, we recently identified a potentially harmful article about a client project. With real-time alerts and detailed media briefings, we quickly engaged with the media outlet to provide accurate information, effectively mitigating the issue.
Agility’s intuitive interface and powerful reporting features have greatly enhanced our media monitoring capabilities. We can effortlessly share insights with our team and clients, ensuring everyone is updated on media impacts and helping us maintain a proactive approach to managing our brand’s reputation.
Konrad Martin
CEO, Tech Advisors
Monitor with Talkwalker via Hootsuite
The thing that I recommend for this kind of monitoring, as well as for a fair few others, is Talkwalker, a free online monitoring tool by Hootsuite. Talkwalker scours the web for keywords that you provide, bringing back links to blogs, social media, and forums where your words have been mentioned.
Providing your brand name is something distinctive—and ours definitely is—this process can be as easy as providing one single word to the tool and then checking the emails as they roll in. At Mojeek, it has saved us a lot of time and given us the ability to have a web-wide view of problems and praise that has occurred in parts of the web we’d not normally visit.
Joshua Long
Head of Comms, Mojeek Limited
Track Weekly Mentions Using Google Alerts
We monitor media mentions for CloudTech24 using Google Alerts. This free tool is ideal for small businesses and start-ups. If you already have a Google account, it’s easy to set up an alert for your company name and any other brands you want to track.
Every week, we receive an email with a list of websites that mention our company. This gives us an overview of anything that might cause concern. In particular, we’re looking for complaints, compliance issues, and inaccuracies that need addressing.
Though we’ve never received any negative press attention, it pays to monitor what people are saying about your company. If you notice anything unfair or inaccurate, you should address it swiftly to limit damage to your reputation.
Craig Bird
Managing Director, CloudTech24
Reputation.com for Media Monitoring
One effective tool companies can use to monitor media mentions and promptly address potential liability concerns is Reputation.com.
I like this platform because it provides comprehensive monitoring across various media channels, including social media, news outlets, and review sites. The service leverages advanced analytics and real-time alerts, helping businesses to quickly identify and respond to negative mentions or emerging issues.
This proactive approach can mitigate potential liability by allowing companies to address concerns before they escalate. What’s more, Reputation.com offers reporting features that track sentiment trends, providing valuable insights into public perception and aiding in strategic decision-making.
Michael Gargiulo
Founder, CEO, VPN.com
Brandwatch and Rapid Response for Mentions
Here are the two methods I use:
1. Social Listening Platforms:
These platforms, like Brandwatch or Sprout Social, track brand mentions across social media, news outlets, and even blogs. Set up alerts for your company name, key products, and even misspellings to catch everything. This way, you’ll be notified in real-time of any potential issues.
2. Follow a Rapid Response Protocol:
Having a clear plan for addressing negative mentions is important. Identify a dedicated team to monitor alerts and categorize mentions by severity. For low-level concerns, a prompt and polite response on the platform can often defuse the situation. For serious issues, escalate quickly to your PR or legal teams to craft a measured response that protects your brand reputation.
Dylan Young
Marketing Specialist, CareMax
Combine Social Media Listening and Sentiment Analysis
Social media listening is a great way for a company to monitor mentions and address concerns. There are multiple ways businesses can go about doing this, depending on their needs. First off, companies can set up alerts for when they receive a mention. This will ensure they don’t miss what users are saying, especially if it’s something negative.
Another tool they use is sentiment analysis, which helps categorize the types of mentions coming through. Are they positive, negative, or neutral? Sentiment analysis groups them together based on these traits, allowing companies to sort through the mentions easily.
Lastly, another helpful tip is simply to engage with users when they leave legitimate mentions—good or bad. It reflects well on a business when they’re in contact with users and are able to address questions or concerns.
Lark Allen
Content Marketing Specialist, Drive Research
Customize Searches with Social Listening Platforms
Many social media management suites offer social listening platforms. These social listening platforms typically offer Boolean-operated search queries, allowing for customized searches for specific date ranges that can include key names, phrases, and hashtags on open API social media platforms.
Think of it like a web search, but only for social media platforms, which will help you locate high-priority mentions, even if the author did not @mention your company in their post. Many tools will also offer automated reporting dashboards that can be shared to provide additional consumer and marketing insights.
Fey Grimm
Social Media Manager, Starkey
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