Ever heard of media analysis? It’s the process of critically examining large amounts of data generated by various media channels and identifying patterns within that data. It is based on information gathered in the media landscape, which consists of print, broadcast, online as well as social media platforms.

Media analysis company Focal Points looks at past media coverage of certain issues, businesses or individuals to assess how the issue or organisation has been portrayed. The aim is to gain insights into business performance, consumers, competitors and market sectors.

Typically, there are two types of media analysis:
  • Quantitative analysis is based on statistics and gives you valuable insights into your media messages as well as your competitors.
  • Qualitative analysis draws on narratives and gives you in-depth insights into the way your brand is perceived in the media.
So, you’ve got questions and media analysis has answers. It’s the right choice for you if you’re asking:

1. How do I measure my communications output?

As digital and social media continues to develop, being able to prove your performance is becoming more and more important. 

So, how does media analysis solve this problem? Well, one of the key roles of media analysis is to evaluate the effectiveness of your media relations strategies. In particular, media analysis gives you key insights into your PR output, enabling you to see whether your strategies are working or not.

Media analysis is especially useful as it can inform new and improved communications blueprints.

2. How do I target the right media?

Wondering if you sent your brand’s content out to the right media? Well, you should be. Sending your content to the wrong media leads to your email ending up in the trash folder immediately. Know more about the demographics of the media audience receiving your content can help you focus your strategies.

Media analysis can offer you key statistics about which journalists, publications and media houses are giving you lengthy or favourable coverage. You can also maximise your media exposure by engaging with selected journalists and media sources.

By knowing who is creating content about your brand, you can develop strategic relationships and convert unfavourable mentions into favourable ones.

You can also use media analysis to identify trends, topics and movements in the media — and then use that knowledge to guide your content creation. Creating content that is trendy and relevant is a sure-fire way to get your content published.

3. How do I know what people think about my brand?

Knowing how your brand is portrayed in the media is vital for gauging the effectiveness of your brand messaging. And since the media not only reflects public opinion but also influences it, knowing how the media portray issues relating to your brand is imperative for understanding and shaping the public perception of your brand.

With the information provided by various media analysis solutions, you can predict the likely effects of media content in the public. This, in turn, can help you to develop strategies to maximise your positive coverage and minimise your negative coverage.

Media analysis can also help you manage your brand image. You can stay up to date with reputation insights by identifying favourable or unfavourable messages that are gaining media traction, or by tracking reputation drivers and influences.

This can help you to optimise your communications strategies, whether by fine-tuning or overhauling them in response to an ever-changing world.

4. What are my competitors up to, and how well are they doing it?

Focal Points offers competitor analysis and brand benchmarking, which allows you to keep track of what your biggest rivals are up to — and how you fair in comparison.

Good media analysis can give you a competitive advantage. With the ability to identify your competitors’ activities, messaging and positioning on key issues, you can receive an excellent overview of their communications strategies and the public perception of their brand.

Additionally, receiving regular media analysis reports can help you easily make comparisons with previous periods and allows you to effectively comment on matters. 

Media analysis is also non-intrusive. Analysis is done anonymously, without the involvement of competitors, customers or media sources. This means that the data is not prone to contamination by ‘response generation’, which is often seen in polls and surveys, where audiences respond in ways that they think researchers want them to.

Effective media is highly beneficial to companies and other organisations. It can offer you strategic insights into your media coverage, as well as your competitors. It can also evaluate the effectiveness of your media relations and assess how effective your key messaging is. 

There are a wide variety of benefits to media analysis; on top of giving you valuable insights, media analysis can save you time, money and effort.

For more information, visit www.focalpoints.co.za. You can also follow Focal Points on Twitter or on LinkedIn.