Keeping up with your brand’s media coverage is no small task – but it can be an easy one. Brand tracking is paving the way for businesses and allowing them to know exactly where they are receiving media coverage. Choose your brand tracking service provider wisely, and you’ll end up with a stronger brand image, as well as PR and marketing results.
The online publication
media update interviewed Catherine Dabbs, a representative of Newsclip, about brand tracking, its benefits and what to look for in a service provider.
Why is it important for businesses to keep track of their media coverage?
You need to know when you are being mentioned in the media so you can ensure the information is correct. When you’re aware of the coverage being received by your brand, via print, broadcast, digital and social media, you can build on positive coverage and take action if it is negative.
Without knowing about all your coverage, there’s no way to calculate the return on investment of your communication, PR and marketing activities. Staying on top of your coverage is also a great way of gauging public sentiment towards your brand and understanding the factors that influence your brand image.
What is brand tracking, and how does it help brands monitor the media?
The modern world is a busy one, and information is transmitted through a variety of channels, both online and offline. News spreads at a rapid pace, thanks to online and social media, and the sheer volume of data can make it difficult for brands and businesses to keep up with all the media coverage they receive.
With so much Big Data to deal with, it is tough for brands and agencies to ensure they catch everything that is said about them and their clients. This is where brand tracking comes in – it makes it easy to know what is going on, as soon as it happens.
Brand tracking is a collection of services that enable brands to stay on top of where they are being mentioned in the media, how they are being portrayed and what helps them understand the impact of their brand messages on consumers.
The services that make up brand tracking are:
- media monitoring
- social media monitoring
- social listening
- advert monitoring, and
- media coverage reporting.
What are the biggest benefits of brand tracking?
Brand tracking gives you a holistic view of your brand and its reputation across various mediums. This insight allows you to report on the activities of your marketing and communication teams and keeps track of whether you are able to meet your targets. You can also easily compare media coverage, from free PR to ad spend.
It’s an effective way to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your overarching strategies. You can quickly see if your marketing and PR efforts have been successful and make adjustments to improve performance.
For instance, Newsclip’s online platform, Gate5, centralises all of your media coverage, from both traditional and social media. This makes it easy to pick up on PR issues quickly, shape your reputation and improve your communication efforts.
What should people look for in a good brand tracking service?
Some of the most important elements to look for are experience and whether the provider monitors all media channels, including print, broadcast, online and social media – with no third-party reliance.
Another thing to consider is the company’s reach because, although your brand might be South African, you may have been referenced internationally. If your brand tracking service provider doesn’t monitor global media, you might not know about that valuable coverage.
Finally, as the world becomes more and more data-driven, it’s important to pick a service provider that has an in-house development team, that can track massive amounts of data, and that is constantly developing to keep up with the pace at which content is created.