4 Tips for Accurate Media Measurement

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Universal Information Services uses our blog as a mouthpiece to amplify and illuminate issues related to measuring the impact of public relations and media exposure. Often covered in our writings are topics that show how the fundamentals of business and PR communication intersect with behavioral outcomes on a desired audience. Media monitoring has evolved well past the function of simply tracking results and now must interpret the effectiveness and impact those results have. We hope you find engaging content and ideas within the Universal Amplifier.

By admin | January 23rd, 2013

Whether you’re analyzing your earned media internally or you have hired a measurement service to do it, getting your ducks in a row for accurate analysis can be a daunting task. The media analysis department at Universal Information Services has put together a few tips that will help you when it comes to analysis:

1. Get Organized: Staying organized is important in all aspects of business, but when it comes to data, staying organized will give you more accurate and reliable results. Organization also comes in handy when presenting your results. Being consistent with your data by using the same format in a spreadsheet is crucial: Fewer errors on your spreadsheet will minimize analyst mistakes and will lead to more meaningful results.

2. Consolidate your tracking and analysis: Between setting up your own Google Alerts or having a company monitor your results, there are a lot of options out there to track your media footprint. If you’re using multiple services there can be miscommunication, or even misinformation, which increases the probability of mistakes. When it comes down to analyzing all of your media placements, it will save you time, frustration and money to eliminate the middle man and get your monitoring and analysis done in one place. A true methodology and access to all media for tracking and analyzing your news is a must. Professional services with a history in measurement have both.

3. Plan Ahead: It can be hard to plan ahead when you have a busy schedule but in the long run it will save you time. Accurate measurement needs to be done in a timely manner. Webpages often expire after a certain length of time and that makes your media placement difficult to analyze. If you know you have an event coming up or you’re putting out a press release, try to set up some media monitoring before the big push.

4. Know what insight you hope to gain through media measurement: Like all PR efforts, your goals should dictate your actions. By speaking with a professional media measurement firm before you begin the analysis, your expectations have a much greater possibility of being met.

We hope these guidelines make your media analysis less of a headache and help you maximize the ROI when it comes to earned media through public relations. Please leave your comment if you have additional tips to add to our list.