For communications, public relations, and marketing professionals, media monitoring is critical to brand monitoring, marketing campaign results tracking, competitive research, reputation management, targeting new audiences or markets, and monitoring audience sentiment in the news media. Referred to as media monitoring, this process is becoming more critical in our digital world and can be done with a range of monitoring and database tools. These tools will help address the ever-looming ROI question from the C-Suite.  

Recommended Tools

There are many tools available, ranging from simple notifications with Google Alerts to advanced, multi-use platforms like Critical Mention, which provides actual broadcast clips for your review, and Muck Rack, which provides a high-powered database of media contacts and other resources. Many media monitoring tools, not to be confused with those that monitor social media content, provide analytical features and real-time mentions so you can be proactive and stay ahead of what’s happening or schedule daily/weekly reports. We’ve gathered a list of recommended tools ranging from low to high cost.

Google Alerts (free) allows you to create alerts for specific search terms. When the service identifies a new result matching your search term, you will receive an email notification. It will collect publicly available mentions, but won’t provide analytics or reports.

ANewsTip (free and paid plans to about $400 annually) is great for entrepreneurs on a budget. The media contact database enables you to send pitches to a cultivated list of media members as well as build and save media lists.

Cision® is a well-known software suite that offers multiple products to help communicators be more effective and connect with the right audiences. The company’s media monitoring products provide access to online, broadcast, print, and social mentions. In recent years, Cision has struggled with its media database, and users typically find that its contact database is not updated frequently. 

The platform can provide advanced distribution, tracking, and analyzing features to ensure you catch all mentions and deliver PR value to our clients. Cision’s pricing depends on the client’s needs and add-on features, but typically start about $3,000+ per year for media database access.

Meltwater is a PR and media monitoring and database tool that can connect and monitor media and social media. It allows managers to interact on social media, curate content, track competitors and emerging stories, access media contact information, and measure earned media results. It was one of the first to add podcast monitoring. Annual costs typically run $5,000-$10,000 depending on user needs.

Critical Mention is a media monitoring platform to help track media coverage of an organization. You can search TV, radio, online news, and social media to monitor mentions and trends. You can understand the media reach across news outlets by tracking and capturing what is said about clients/companies. Clips can be previewed and shared for reporting. 

The tool enables users to simply adjust search parameters based on alternative spelling that may have been used in live reads on air or even a radio newscast to quickly find clips that would have been missed in standard tracking. 

They also make it easy to exclude “false positives” in your reporting, for example, removing street names that contain the same word as your company name or a company with the same name in another country that is unrelated to your work. It gives you access beyond a paywall for search results, eliminating the need to subscribe to thousands of publications you may never read again. With a few clicks, clients can produce easy to analyze analytics reports. 

Subscriptions include 24/7 support and account management. This tool does not contain a media contact database. Pricing typically runs $4,000-$10,000 per year.

“We have clients featured in the news daily and find it’s especially helpful with broadcast media. Unfortunately, I can’t watch and listen to all the news stations and catch all the teasers and clips. With Critical Mention, I can do a search and bring up the clips, watch them, and forward them to our clients. This tool makes it easier to manage our earned media tracking and has a clean interface that’s easy to use. Honestly, not sure how we ever lived without it.” – Jennifer Foster, President, Catalyst Media Factory

Muck Rack is a complete tool for media outreach and monitoring that enables PR teams to find targeted journalists for their stories, send custom pitches, and quantify their results. It is popular with journalists to publicize their work and provide information about the stories they’re seeking, their interests, and how they prefer to be pitched. It places media research at a PR pro’s fingertips, including recent articles published by authors and provides social media handles and values for social performance. Plans are a sizable investment at about $10,000 per year, but we think you’ll find the results to be very robust.

TVEyes Media Monitoring is an option for pure-play broadcast monitoring and is more affordable for a practitioner since you can pay month-to-month. This tool could be the right solution for small businesses without a long-term commitment at about $500 per month.

Key Considerations

Following is a summary of key considerations to look for in media monitoring and database tools. 

Checklist:

  • What does the trial experience include and how long is the trial period? How will the vendor monitor it? 
  • What is the price point and is it worth it?
  • Is the tool’s interface intuitive?
  • Where does your agency database live?
  • Does it monitor podcasts?
  • Does it manage media lists?
  • Does it distribute press releases? (if you’re into that sort of thing)
  • Does it provide regular coverage alerts?
  • What is the extent of its monitoring capabilities? Broadcast TV? Broadcast Radio? Print (behind the paywall)? Social?
  • Does its reporting function meet your needs as well as clients’ goals?

In summary, there is a wealth of media monitoring and database tools available. It boils down to what your business objectives are and how much you are willing to invest, the scope of desired functionality, and the ease of use. 

If you have follow-up questions on media monitoring, contact us at info@womcomdetroit.org. We’re Detroit’s communications experts!

AWC Detroit members can read more about popular communications technology tools in an exclusive digital download by logging into our webinars page and selecting the July 2020 report.