10 media monitoring definitions you need to know

13 Jul 2020

Industry Insights

Media monitoring is very tech-focused, which often makes it difficult for people to understand the terminology being used in relation to this solution. That’s why we’ve taken it upon ourselves to give you the most important definitions you need to know.

Understanding the words and phrases that surround media monitoring will allow you to really get to grips with the many benefits that this service has to offer.

With that said, media monitoring services such as Newsclip have a variety of solutions available, including ad tracking, keyword tracking as well as content analysis, to name a few. However, there’s no use utilising these services if you don’t know how they work or even what they mean.

With that said, here are 10 media monitoring definitions you should know about:

1. Ad monitoring

This is a service that allows marketers, brands and organisations to see where their adverts have been placed in the media. It also allows you to keep an eye on your competitors and where their ads are being shown, which gives you the insight you need to either re-strategise or find new opportunities.

For instance, if your competitor is not targeting a particular platform or audience (such as the audience of a particular magazine title), you can perhaps start advertising in that space.

2. Brand tracking

You might be thinking, “Brand tracking? But that’s the same as media monitoring, isn’t it?” Although the two terms are often used interchangeably, they don’t actually mean the same thing.

Brand tracking keeps track of all the media coverage and data retrieved for a particular brand, offering a holistic view of the coverage. This includes coverage on social media, traditional media as well as within your adverts.

Media monitoring forms a part of brand tracking; the difference being that it only tracks coverage found within the media.
Read more about the difference in our blog, The difference between brand tracking and media monitoring.

3. Clip count

This refers to the number of articles or posts that mention your brand (so one clip = 1 article). Years ago, people would manually cut out the articles that mentioned a client’s brand, recording the data of each brand.

However, thanks to the introduction of digital media monitoring, this has now become a whole lot easier. Clippings are now automatically detected with the power of smart technology powered by artificial intelligence (AI), which streamlines the process.

4. Keyword tracking

This is a service that allows brands to track specific keywords surrounding their business. It can be used by both social media and traditional media monitoring services to track hashtags as well SEO keywords.

Keyword tracking is split into four types:
  • Corporate keyword tracking allows you to monitor mentions of your company to determine how users perceive your brand.
  • Product keyword tracking helps you identify which products are getting the most traction in the media.
  • Branded event keyword tracking lets you keep an eye on conversations surrounding your events so that you can respond timeously.
  • Campaign keyword tracking allows you to track product launches so that you can adapt your strategies based on customer feedback.

5. Content analysis

This is the act of analysing content in terms of where it has been placed, what is being said about it and the time at which discussions about the content were held. Analysts frequently examine content in order to determine various patterns in audience behaviour and communication.

This helps brands to know why certain things were said about their content, when and where it was said and what the impact, as well as sentiment, was. This, in turn, helps marketers to revitalise their strategies.

6. Machine learning

This is a subset of AI and describes the process where machines are trained by humans to decipher patterns and algorithms contained within the data fed to the machines.

This technology is essentially self-learning, with no need to be programmed beyond its initial training and the data that it has been fed.

7. Media coverage

Media coverage refers to the places that your brand has been mentioned in the media. Essentially, it is the media that ‘covers’ or names your brand — whether it’s listed in traditional editorial coverage or in a digital publication.

In the world of monitoring and tracking, your brand’s media coverage is what is analysed in order to provide you with the information you need to manage your brand’s reputation, alter your communications or benchmark yourself against your competitors.

8. Social media monitoring

This service allows you to track conversations surrounding your brand, product or service on social media. Using the insights gained from this service, you can see who has said what about your brand, when it was said as well as on which platforms.

Armed with this information, your brand can better manage its reputation online. Additionally, you can also monitor your social media campaigns as well as specific hashtags, which will help you gain insights into your social media marketing strategy.

9. Natural Language Processing (NLP)

A subfield of machine learning, NLP technology processes, sorts and organises human-produced text into various subsets of word classes. It does this by looking at the components of language, such as syntax, sentence structure and grammar.

For example, the sentence “Brands use media monitoring” would be read by the machine as “[noun] [verb] [collective noun] [verb]”.

Once each of these words is selected and categorised, the technology is then able to identify a topic of discussion for these word classes.

10. Sentiment analysis

This technology is used to identify a person’s sentiment towards a particular topic online. Through the use of NLP and sentiment analysis, various texts are analysed in order to classify various words as positive, negative or neutral. This, in turn, reveals to brands how a particular customer is feeling in that selected text.

This is a great tool used to determine favourability, regarding whether a customer feels happy, unhappy or indifferent towards a brand’s product or service.
With our latest AI-powered technology and dedicated staff, we’re able to provide you with data that can help you with your crisis communication strategy. Keen to learn more? Here’s How to use Newsclip insight to your brand’s benefit in 2020.