By Rebecca Canan

Nearly every day, I get to talk to members about CEC’s major research initiative for 2010, and over the course of the past couple months, this has summed up to A LOT of conversations!  I’m asking them about external stakeholder outreach…how the media landscape is changing…how this is tangibly affecting their teams.  Really rich and interesting conversations.  THEN, the conversation turns to media monitoring.  It goes something like this:

Rebecca: So, how do you monitor conversations about your company? How much do you spend?  How do you USE the information?

CEC Member: [Yawn.]  [Then rattles off responses like a robot.]

Now, I’ve got nothing against robots (er, total tangent and perhaps inappropriate, but I actually think robots are HILARIOUS).  That said, I sense that members waste a lot of money on robotic “going through the motions” in this area. To them, monitoring is simply a part of the Communications function.  A box to check off.  Something that has to get done and does not necessarily require much reflection.  It may be the obsessive analytic in me, but I think that (1) communicators typically lack a deliberate and integrated objective for monitoring and that (2) they don’t use the information spit out of their monitoring machines.  Alas!

From my own thinking on this topic + conversations with members, I’ve identified four principled purposes for a more rigorous approach to monitoring.  This is the part where I list them:

• Pre-empt reputation threats by scanning relevant clippings for early warning signs
• Identify opportunities by tracking trends, influencers, and the competition
• Inform issues management by identifying themes in the public dialogue and forecasting likely responses to company actions
• Assess the success of a campaign or initiative by monitoring visits to your website, conversations in social media, and/or pick-up by the press

Over my next few blog posts, I’ll be taking a closer look at these smart approaches to media monitoring.  In the meantime, please tell me: Are you getting your money’s worth out of media monitoring?  How do you USE your monitoring results?