Many companies are starting to understand the value in measuring the success of their public relations (PR) tactics and marketing campaigns against those of their competitors. Understanding the conversations other businesses are engaging in and the topics they frequently discuss is essential for effectively promoting their own brands.
At DPR Group, we create earned media reports to ensure our clients’ messaging is relevant and timely. An earned media report is an effective way to track media placements, topics of interest within the industry, and company share of voice compared to competitors.
Earned media tracking and competitor analyses can be produced and analyzed using software platforms known as Partner Relationship Management (PRM) software. The three most common PRMs used by PR agencies in the United States are Cision, Muck Rack, and Meltwater. DPR has used all of these platforms extensively, and we understand the relative strengths of each platform.
The benefits of offering earned media reporting to clients are apparent, but getting started can be challenging. Let’s delve into some questions that may arise when looking into creating earned media reports.
What Is Earned Media?
Before initiating an earned media report, it’s important to understand what earned media is. Simply put, earned media refers to the publicity a company or brand gains through efforts other than paid advertising. This means any media coverage that has been published, excluding press releases that have been sent out using paid wire services.
Earned media comes from trusted, external sources and is extremely valuable to companies looking to enhance credibility, engagement, and audience reach. Examples of published earned media include:
- Feature articles about the company that are written by an editor at a given publication
- Mentions of the company in an article that is entirely about said company
- Bylined articles written by company executives, establishing themselves as industry thought leaders
- Press Releases pertaining to new hires, new products, or partnerships
- Case Studies highlighting advantageous relationships with their partners
- Social media engagement including shares, likes, comments or reposts
- Product reviews that are unpaid by bloggers, analysts or influencers
Challenges in Crafting an Effective Earned Media Report
Now that we’ve defined earned media, it’s important to address the technical challenges that come with creating a report.
Creating an Effective Boolean Search
When utilizing a PR database, knowing how to sift through articles to find earned media can be challenging. For example, when an organization has a name that is generic or used in common language, searching its name will produce irrelevant results. Including modifiers in the boolean search of the database will weed those out.
Additionally, ensuring that wire service press release pickups are not included is essential. Adding modifiers at the end of the boolean search to exclude well known wire services helps to eliminate those non-earned media. Through Meltwater, DPR has custom made filter sets that eliminate common wire services, removing the need to do so by hand.
Lastly, adding a modifier with the names of company Subject Matter Experts (SME) will ensure that all bylined articles are found. Searching for articles with the name of the company “or” the name of the SME ensures that no earned media are left out.
Here is an example of boolean search that DPR Group staff has used to find earned media for a competitor:
(“Company” or “SME name” or “SME name”) AND (“supply chain” or “warehouse management” or sustainability or inventory or “retail planning” or optimize* or “grocer*” or “merchand*” or “operations planning” or retail*) NOT “telephoto” NOT “lens”
Crafting a Report with Valuable Information
After sifting through and compiling all the earned media, creating a report that is easy to read, impactful, and relevant can sometimes be tricky. Some metrics are especially beneficial.
Clients often want to see quarterly reports in order to track goals and benchmarks. When creating a report annually or quarterly, adding a monthly metric makes digesting the data easier. Having a monthly statistic makes a quarterly or annual report more intuitive, yielding more specific goals for the future.
Additionally, highlighting which publications or editors are picking up content the most is beneficial. This metric allows for the seasonality of content to be analyzed, making targeted content writing more efficient. Applying this metric to earned media of competitors also allows for an analysis of popular content that other industry leaders are talking about.
Share of voice is another useful metric that an earned media report can yield. The share of voice can be calculated in two ways: raw number of earned media a company achieves and the total Unique Monthly Visitors (UMV) each piece of media reaches. A company could have the highest number of raw earned media, but those placements could be in publications with low viewership—meaning the company would not have a great industry share of voice based on UMV. Looking at both of these measures side by side ensures that high quality placements are being achieved.
The Benefits of Providing Earned Media Reports to Clients
DPR Group conducts earned media reports for clients quarterly and annually, which encourages periodic conversations with clients about goals. We come up with strategies based on the results of these reports, guiding our PR efforts to increase industry share of voice for our clients.
Offering earned media reporting to clients allows for more strategic goal setting, and therefore, greater public relations outcomes. Taking the time to analyze earned media coverage ensures that clients and account managers are on the same page about PR results and goals for the future.