Simply put, media monitoring is the act of tracking topics across print, online, and broadcast media output.

In Public Relations (PR) and Communications it is important to measure the success of your campaigns, deal with a crisis quickly, and listen out for negative publicity. All of this can be achieved by effective media monitoring.

Brands are getting on board with media monitoring to an extent of purchasing tools and hiring media monitoring firms to observe issues that directly concern them.

Here are 11 reasons why you need to consider investing in media monitoring:

1. Get information in real-time

In this digital era, you can’t afford to wait for long to get information. There are media monitoring tools that offer real-time alerts. A case in point is Google Alerts. These allow you to be at the front of your competetion and get the information you need for in-moment marketing opportunities or to manage a crisis before it even starts.

2. Save time through automation

This is especially important when you’re heavy laden with work as a PR or communication professional. By using online tools like Socialbakers, Keyhole, Brand24 and Sprout Social among others, you’re able to get your social media analytics in no time, saving you from lengthy manual processes.

3. Get actionable and measurable insights

You not only want to monitor the media coverage you are receiving, you should also be looking for insights into the coverage. Insight is crucial as it provides an opportunity to improve your PR and prove value in a measurable way for reports. Different social media platforms provide insights that enable a user to know how well they’re fairing in the social race – Twitter Analytics, Facebook Insights, and YouTube Analytics are the most common.

Media monitoring tools now provide graphs that clearly visualize insights data over a specific time period, sentiment analysis of individual metrics or general coverage, and maps displaying the geographical origins of coverage.

Having a media monitoring tool that provides data insights will save time and unnecessary data entry.

4. Cross-platform monitoring

To fully understand the impact of your public communications efforts, it’s important to not only keep an eye on the daily headlines but also be able to monitor as many different sources of media as possible, across media platforms including social media, blogs, online news, and broadcast.

When looking for a media monitoring tool, you need to find a tool that can monitor various media platforms. This can also go a long way in showing you what platforms appeal to your target audiences the most. If there are specific publications you need to monitor that aren’t available, you can often request for sources to be added. But if this is not possible, then you can look elsewhere for a tool that fits your requirements.

5. Brand reputation

A brand’s reputation – how the particular brand is viewed and perceived by its publics, is its most vital resource and good media monitoring helps protect it.

Media monitoring enables you to stay on top of threats to your brand’s reputation. It can help you to develop your reputation further by keeping you on top of what’s being said about your brand and who’s saying it.

Data and sentiment insights into the media coverage you are receiving will also provide a simple overview of how your brand is perceived.

6. Monitor your competitors

Competitors just like brand reputation need to be monitored. Effective media monitoring can help you track your competitor’s publicity efforts like press releases, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) product launches, promotions, corporate events, and media coverage. This will enable you to you to make more informed decisions as to how and where you compete.

7. Manage crises effectively

It takes years to build a good reputation for a brand, but it only takes moments to destroy it. So, it is imperative to react quickly and be proactive in your recovery when faced with a crisis.

Real-time media monitoring allows you to keep ahead of the press and manage PR without any abrupt surprises. As such, you might be able to avert a looming crisis or come up with the perfect response to get out of it safe and sound.

8. Measure the effectiveness of public campaigns

Media monitoring can enable you monitor your campaign and provide measurable data to prove value. This will facilitate a greater understanding of the positive impact and success of campaigns.

9. Track success and sentiment

This directly points to campaigns and organizational activities. Companies for instance hire media monitoring agencies to track the success of their adverts.

It is vital to have access to, or receive, up-to-the-minute information if you are tracking success. Real-time alerts are a fantastic resource to give you moment by moment feedback on your efforts.

Timely knowledge facilitates a continuous learning process, enabling you to develop and optimize your PR and communications output.

10. Find new business opportunities

Media monitoring is an invaluable tool if you are scoping out new business opportunities. Tracking other industries will allow you to spot a gap in the market and be aware of potential competitors.

11. Understand and utilize trends

By being able to follow trends in the media in real-time you can better inform your campaigns, content, and social media.

Social media monitoring can help you understand what really engages your customers, informing you in how to up your click-through rate (CTR) on your social pages. Keeping an eye on viral trends will also facilitate smart in-moment marketing opportunities and quick responses to what’s happening in the world around you.

The post Eleven Reasons Why You Should Invest In Media Monitoring first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.

As a Communications Officer plying in the same trade, I gathered a few tools and expertise I use to analyze different social media platforms and hashtags for  clients and I’m hoping to learn as many more from professionals out there as well as researching for more tools online.

Facebook Insights.

This may seem obvious but some social media managers aren’t aware that Facebook gives key insights to the performance of the Page on different algorithms. It has a breakdown of performance of post reach comment types,demographics of audience and a host of other elements a communications professional would need to measure the overall performance of the account.

Image displaying where to find Facebook Page Insights

Twitter Account Analytics

Twitter Analytics are a good source of measure of performance and reach of a twitter account. It provides for a month’s engagement and this can be used in making work reports and also for analysis of the follower count. It doesn’t require any upgrade plan as it comes a s a feature on every twitter account. I recommend it for social media managers to use.

Template of Twitter Analytics Page

Instagram Account Analytics

Instagram is  mainly image and video based social media platform that has become popular worldwide and hence a key marketing platform for all major brands. Measuring it’s performance gives you insight on how other brands are making it work and the type of images you can use to boost your follower count.  Union Metrics will provide you with hashtag campaign reporting, suitable posting type, engaging content and a lot more metrics to your brand’s better performance.  It has a Upgrade feature that allows you pay up for added metrics but even the Free version would give you good insight.

SnapShot of Instagram Analytics Report

Hashtag Tracking & Performance

A Hashtag is a word used to categorize content and track topics on social media. i.e #UgandaTourism They are essential in curating information for users who maybe interested in that particular topic. Hashtags are now popularly used on mostly all social networks and brands would also love to know how engaging the hashtags they create are performing. It’s important to note that Hashtags help reveal different users who maybe interested in the content you offer hence targeting them more whenever you post. KeyHole and Socialert are  two tools that give good isight on hashtag performance and analytics. In addition, they give major Influencers on the hashtag to help you know the users engaging the most on that particular hashtag. Both tools have a payment plan though give analytics with a trial version so it’s up to you to see what suit’s you best.

Sample Keyhole Report

Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a very important tool that enables you plan and publish content across all networks. It also has a seamless feature that allows you monitor hashtags and keywords and track your social media performance.  It provides Data PDF reports and the element of integrating a team with which you can work with to accomplish various tasks. With it’s i depth graphs and charts, and features, it’s one of those tools you need bookmarked to help you manage your social pages.

Sample Sprout Social report

Quintly

Quintly is another powerful tool that helps you to optimize your social media performance and measure social media analytics. It has distinguished features to integrate different social accounts on the Dashboard to allow you measure their performance. It also has an element of measuring how your brand compares to your competitors. I recommend it  for anyone out there.

Sample Quintly Analytics

YouTube Analytics

It’s no secret that You Tube is the Number 1 video hosting, searching and streaming site in the world. Brands have embraced this platform and are keen to know their You Tube Pages are performing. You Tube has an Analytics section which gives you insight into watch time, viewers, demographics and a host more.

Youtube Analytics Page

The post Tools for analyzing social media trends, accounts & Hashtag performance first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.

Directed by Indian film maker Mira Nair  and produced by American based Walt Disney Pictures, this epitome of African art features Kenya’s affluent actress and hollywood star Lupita Nyong’o, known for her central character in the famous 12 Years As A Slave.

The movie also stars David Oyelowo an accomplished British actor known for his role in ‘The Rise Of the Planet of The Apes‘.

Shot in Katwe, one of Kampala’s popular slums, the motion picture production highlights  struggles of growing up in the densely populated and space-less urban units of Africa and deeply illustrates the challenges of urbanization currently facing Africa’s emerging economies.

A scene in the movie of Phiona Muteesi playing chess

Queen of Katwe is set for release on 23rd September 2016 and has already sent anxious fans into a frenzy as they can’t wait to view this much anticipated picture.

Actress Lupita Nyong’o couldn’t hide her excitement. Lupita took to her official twitter account to build anxiety among her fans igniting anticipation and expectation.

The new @QueenOfKatwe trailer gives me chills!! A thrill that the movie is finally real! 9.23.16 @DisneyStudioshttps://t.co/trCPunBsTp

— Lupita Nyong’o (@Lupita_Nyongo) May 10, 2016

The movie spells hope and perseverance for children growing up in slum areas and offers hope for those that have given up on life to never give up on their dreams.

It also brings into focus the area of Katwe where scenes were shot helps propel the area on a world scale and is good for publicity and tourism on a large spectrum.

The Queen of Katwe is said by Vanity Fair to be one of the top 30 movies of 2016 and is surely set to be nominated for the 2017 Oscars. The cast of the movie is laid out as

• David Oyelowo as Norman Katende
• Lupita Nyong’o as harriet Mutesi
• Madina Nalwanga as Phiona Muteesi
• Ntare Mwine as Tendo
• Maurice Kirya
• Charity Rose Pimer
• Esther Tebandeke as Sarah Katende
• Taryn “Kay” Kyazze

The Official Trailer of The Queen Of Katwe

The post Queen of Katwe; The Biographic Film Production Giving Kampala ‘Slum life’ International Hype first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.

Kony’s video sales in USA and European countries show that the world this time is united towards eliminating the LRA insurgency in the Great Lakes Region.

Many people watching this film have given thanks to Invisible Children and American Documentary team.

However the LRA Video has got more criticism than praise on social networks like facebook, twitter and and youtube. Currently the LRA insurgency in Northern Uganda is no more and the people there are focused on Rehabilitation; Agriculture food security; modernizing Agriculture and answering Education challenges at all levels.

The post Sales of Kony’s video on increase in USA first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.

This morning Africa’s largest independent oil company, Tullow Oil plc (‘Tullow’), kicked off a new business initiative aimed at attracting and facilitating further investment in the continent.

Invest in Africa aims to encourage long-term investment across the continent to help build and develop local capacity, boost domestic job markets, develop skills and stimulate economic growth.

The programme’s call to action will be supported through a unique partnership with English Premier League football club, Sunderland AFC.

As the initial Founding Partner establishing Invest in Africa, Tullow plans to secure five further Founding Partners from the international businesses community focused on Africa. These Partners will help to evolve and shape the programme in years to come.

Speaking at the launch, Tullow Chief Executive Aidan Heavey said:
“Tullow is investing in Africa for the long term and we want more businesses to do the same. Africa has been good to us, and we have been successful, but we want that success to bring growth for local people and economies too. Africa’s a great place to invest and this partnership with Sunderland AFC will allow us to get the message to a global audience. There are some great opportunities out there and we want other companies who share our vision to join us.”

Niall Quinn, Director of International Development, Sunderland AFC said:
“We are genuinely excited about this ground-breaking opportunity to bring Sunderland into new territories and the global appeal of the Premier League is something that we can harness as a powerful tool for change through our innovative partnership with Invest in Africa.

“Africa’s passion for football is both heart-warming and inspirational and as a football club with community, people and international aspirations firmly at its core, there is a natural synergy between us and this wonderful continent. We look forward to growing and developing the partnership in the coming months.”

Ike Duker, Executive Chairman of Tullow Ghana Ltd added:
“While we are delighted to be at the forefront of this innovative and exciting new business programme, this is not just about Tullow. This is an initiative that can help to build stable, investment friendly environments to allow businesses to grow across Africa, create jobs and enable Africa’s people to share in the wealth and prosperity that come with it.”

Further details about the initiative including the additional partners which join the campaign will be announced at the end of the Premier League season.

View images from the event launch via the following links:
http://twitter.com/TullowOilplc/status/161835119676637185/photo/1
http://pic.twitter.com/lIehei3X
http://pic.twitter.com/2hutIb7k

FOR FURTHER MEDIA QUERIES:
WSM Communications
Grant Rowley
(+44 20 7 183 4610)
(+44 7872 460 254)
grant.rowley@wsmcommunications.com

WSM Communications
Ben Cummings
(+233 547 827 060)
(+971 555 689 169)
ben.cummings@wsmcommunications.com

The post Pioneering African business initiative launched by Tullow Oil first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.

Dr Emily Twinamasiko, NARO Director General, Dr Seyfu Ketema ASARECA Executive Director, and Tress Bucyanayandi, Uganda’s Agriculture Minister launch the ASARECA General Assembly

The Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) will be holding their first General Assembly in December, in Entebbe, Uganda.

The General Assembly that is attracting participants from the 10 ASERECA member countries begins on Wednesday December 14th and closes on Friday December 16th.

The GA was launched last week, together with the Ministry of Agriculture and NARO at the media center, under the theme, “Feeding our region in the 21st Century”..

ASARECA will be sharing the research breakthroughs in the agricultural research sector as witnessed in the region, which is the ten ASARECA member countries in Eastern and Central Africa.

This will include research on the banana diseases, cassava, maize, and other staple food crops, as well as new technologies that have been developed and tested in Uganda, and other countries to improve the agricultural output and sustainability of crops.

You can be part of the event by participating via facebook, myspace or twitter. The twitter hashtags are #ASERECA, #Africa Agriculture, #Agriculture Innovations.

The General meeting is being screened live at our online video channel http://www.livestream.com/weinformers

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