Realizing the potentially substantial benefits of media monitoring, more law firms are monitoring online news and social media. Comprehensive media monitoring that identifies media mentions of their firms, attorneys, clients, specific court cases and new legislation and regulations can help law firms win court cases and grow their business.
The problem is that selecting a media monitoring service can be difficult. Many vendors on the market tout media monitoring services, but many are ill-suited for law firms. New start-ups continually emerge, companies go out of business, or revamp their services. Law firms can end up starting a search of a media monitoring vendor in less than a year if they don’t pick a vendor the right vendor.
First Understand Your Needs
Experts recommend that law firms first establish their requirements, objectives and budget before beginning a search. Then screen vendors to find if they can meet those needs.
Make sure that the service monitors the publications and media types you need or can readily add them to its list.
An integrated dashboard. The ideal solution presents data from all media, including print, online news, blogs and social media, in a single integrated dashboard for faster and easier analysis.
Customized solutions. The best vendors are willing to customize its standard package to your specific wants and needs. Many vendors cannot or will not. In addition, seek a service that can provide data for individual attorneys, not just groups.
Easy to use. The best media monitoring dashboards are intuitive. Lawyers are not programmers and don’t have the time to master the ins and outs of a complicated system.
Automated alerts. Seek a service that can send automated customized alerts. The best tools can send different email alerts to different partners and other key staff in the firm.
Archiving capabilities. Archiving capabilities store mentions in an online library where your law firm can easily access them in the future.
Clip accuracy. Many media monitoring vendors can report mentions of keywords. Only the best ones can filter out extraneous media mentions. The ability to employ negative keywords and other Boolean operators is essential for eliminating irrelevant results. If the monitoring service can’t filter out spam, porn, geographical references and other irrelevant mentions, then look elsewhere.
Measurement solutions. First-class vendors can measure media monitoring data for in-depth analysis. If you don’t expect to use measurement – and just want to see the media mentions – then seek a vendor that offers lower costs for just delivering and archiving you media clips without measurement.
Industry standards. Find vendors that have pledged their support to the public relations industry standards. The list is available on the Institute for Public Relations website.
Try the vendor before committing. A short free trial using your own keywords will reveal much more about their media coverage and accuracy than a canned online demo. If they don’t agree to a free trial, insist on a monthly contract. Experts recommend law firms avoid committing to a year-long contract.
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Bottom Line: Selecting a media monitoring solution can seem daunting for law firms due to the large number of media monitoring vendors available. This checklist can help law firms find the best solution for their needs. Law firms can quickly hone in on the best monitoring solutions if they know the qualities that separate the first-class vendors from mediocre contenders.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
