The Importance of Media Monitoring and Evaluation in Nigeria

For an industry where a major measurement indicator is media coverage, there’s a lot to cover. There are 47 newspapers in Nigeria (Population 173.6M), 50 online newspapers and 83 million internet users… and that’s just the media (prints/online).

When you include broadcast (television and radio) – most of which are broadcasting 24 hours daily, it’s no wonder that organisations that have a presence in the media find it impossible to keep track of it all.

Why Should You Monitor?

• It is important to listen to the conversations people are having about you and your brand.
• Through these conversations, companies can identify issues, serve customers, handle crises, keep tabs on the competition, and more.
• Listening to people’s conversation gives you actionable business intelligence and marketing insights.
• This information also give you an insight to see who is defending your brand and who is attacking your brand.
• It is also a smart way to eavesdrop to what people are saying about your competition.
• Companies can respond in a timely fashion when a reaction is needed (Online).
• Monitoring gives you competitive intelligence.
• Consumer sentiments are known.

What Should You Monitor?

• Company name.
• Taglines/trademarks.
• Product name(s).
• Key executive names.
• Competition and name of their executives.

What happens when you don’t listen!

• Lack of competitive intelligence.
• Lack of customer sentiments.
• Lack of marketing insights.
• Brand experience: how customers describe their experience with your brand – was it good or bad?
• Inability to know who is talking about your brand, how they got to know about your brand.
• Brand association: what do customers associate your brand with, is it a premium brand or a mass brand?

In conclusion, Public Relations firms can’t afford not to properly track and monitor what people are saying about their clients in real-time because refusal to do so will negatively affect the general image of the brand/organisation.

Mediacraft Associates Ltd subscribes to five (5) online media monitoring services based in the USA and South Africa for near real-time online media tracking and monitoring. We track and evaluate what the media is saying about our clients, their industry, their competitors, and their stakeholders. All measurements and evaluations are based on the AMEC* Standard, in accordance with the Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles    http://amecorg.com/2012/06/barcelona-declaration-of-measurementprinciples/#4

Oyedeji Akindele is at the forefront of Online Media Research, Monitoring & Evaluation at Mediacraft Associates Limited. A whiz at converting data to actionable intelligence, he spends his free time getting involved in philanthropic projects