Whether you are a member of an advocacy group, the director of a nonprofit organization or the candidate at the center of a political campaign, you need to know what others are saying about you. The age of ignorance is over, and being ill-informed or uninformed could be deadly to your future or the future of the organization you care about.
In the digital age, nothing is more important, or more valuable, than information; information is the basis for entire industries, specifically the social media world.
If your advocacy group, nonprofit organization or political campaign does not have a formal media monitoring program in place, you are literally flying blind. In the end, that willful blindness could be your undoing, and it is important to be properly informed. Here, we describe why media monitoring is critical in the digital age.
What is Media Monitoring?
So what is media monitoring, and why is it so important? Whether you are a for-profit company building brand awareness, a politician looking for name recognition or a nonprofit agency getting the word out about a worthy cause, media monitoring can ensure your message resonates with the public. It’s not easy to tell how a given story will be received, or which social media sensation will go viral. Trying to predict public reaction can be difficult in the best of times, and in the heat of a political campaign, it can be nearly impossible.
That is where media monitoring comes into play. “By monitoring customer reaction and gauging the effectiveness of the message, PR professionals and strategists help businesses, nonprofit agencies, political campaigns, and others effective messages,” suggested Neal Kwatra, expert political strategist and CEO of Metropolitan Public Strategies (MPS).
Questions Answered = Information Gained
Whatever your business’s focus, without the right message all your hard work will be futile. The right media monitoring can focus your efforts and enhance the effectiveness of your message; this starts with answering some critical questions.
A good media monitoring company will work with you to determine the effectiveness of your most recent messages and awareness campaigns. The company will notify you how far the story has traveled, the influence it has had, which influencers have responded and how widely the information has been shared.
The answers to these questions are critical, and they could mean the difference between success and failure. If your business or campaign is not currently engaged in media monitoring, it is time to add this powerful tool to your arsenal.
