Crisis Management Benefits of Monitoring and Measuring Negative News and Social Media Mentions

 

Like a child hiding a bad report card from a parent, PR pros may dread showing unfavorable media and social media coverage to their clients or corporate superiors.

But media coverage and social media mentions are not quite the same as a report card. Monitoring and analyzing unflattering media coverage and negative social media mentions provide several important advantages. Social media listening is especially valuable for identifying emerging crises, quelling developing crises, and finding the best crisis response strategies.

Caroline Roy, CEO of Mesure Média in Montreal and Quebec, cites five reasons for analyzing negative press:

Determine the level of negativity. An analysis can show that media coverage was not as negative as thought. An external, independent observer can help provide perspective and reassure management.

Value the impact. Media analysis can determine the negative impact in dollars. It’s important to use a method that is easy to understand for all types of organizations.

Grade PR. Media measurement can indicate how successful PR efforts were in countering negative coverage.

Distinguish different issues. A detailed analysis of the content of media coverage helps to distinguish the impact of different issues, which is essential for rehabilitating an organization’s battered reputation.

Follow up. Analyzing media coverage can show what issues to address after the crisis.

Roy offers an example of how media measurement can report positive and negative media coverage. Collège Brébeuf, a prestigious private school in Montreal, found itself in the media’s unfavorable spotlight when it fired a teacher last year after learning she had appeared nude in films 50 years earlier. Not surprisingly, media monitoring showed that its reputation suffered from the resulting media coverage.

The college issued a press release suggesting it would be open to the teacher’s return and its director was interviewed on radio. Media monitoring revealed a substantial positive brand impact for the school that partially repaired the damage.

Monitoring Both Social Media and the Media

PR must now monitor blogs and social media as well as more traditional media outlets. The most popular bloggers have website traffic, email subscriptions and social media followers that can rival those of traditional media websites. Sometimes mainstream media begins reporting an issue only after it was uncovered by bloggers or it went viral on Twitter or other social networks. Even if they don’t publish blogs, social media influencers can have huge numbers of followers that make them a force to be reckoned with.

Like news monitoring, social media monitoring and measurement provides PR valuable benefits.

Detection. A social media monitoring service can detect a potential crisis in the works before it becomes a full-blown problem by reporting spikes in activity that could signal a PR windfall … or an impending crisis.

Networks. Careful social media listening and analysis reveals which media channels are producing the most positive and negative mentions and which channels are seeing the most reach and engagement. That enables PR to determine which network needs the most attention and helps formulate more effective communications plans.

Locations. Finding which countries or regions are generating the most negative comments is particularly important for global brands. The knowledge can help save valuable time when devising a global PR strategy, especially if actions need to be coordinated with regional partners. Delivering localized social media monitoring results each day to country managers and their PR staff helps pinpoint local issues in specific geographic areas, enabling earlier and more locally honed responses.

Sentiment changes over time. By tracking how the numbers of negative, positive and neutral mentions are changing over time, PR can judge how their crisis response is working. Brands can also correlate sentiment changes with other business metrics to gauge their tactics.

Identify influencers. Besides reporting what influencers are saying about brands and grading the sentiment of their comments, social media listening can identify and rank influencers to help PR prioritize its responses.

Bottom Line: Although some PR pros may disdain negative media coverage and social media mentions, monitoring and measuring negative mentions is essential for constructing proper PR crisis prevention and management strategies.