Staying On Top of Trends: Why Communicators Need to Incorporate Media Monitoring Into Their Storytelling Strategy

HONG KONG, June 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- In the ever-changing cloud of digital chatter, monitoring has becoming a significant tool for communicators to analyze the massive pools of data and distil them into a chart of valuable insights. Recognizing the pressing need of using media monitoring tools, PR Newswire held a Media Coffee event on May 19 in Hong Kong with the theme "Best Practices for Effective Storytelling through Media Monitoring".

The event gathered close to 70 marketing and communications professionals to join the keynote presentations by Yumiko Ono, Asia Digital Editor at The Wall Street Journal, Adam Majeed, Asia Editor at IFLR 1000, and Jing Li, Business Development and Strategic Cooperation Director, China Media Monitoring Services at PR Newswire. The archived video of the event is now available upon registration.

 
Close to 70 communications professionals joined PR Newswire's Hong Kong Media Coffee on May 19

Digital Storytelling at The Wall Street Journal

"In the digital era, it's not a one-way conversation anymore," said Yumiko Ono in her presentation. Ono gave an overview on what digital storytelling is like at The Wall Street Journal and shared tips on how public relations and communications professionals can help journalists tell better stories. Some of Ono's key highlights include:

• Using "Singapore's 'Smart Nation'" and "Two Sides of the Philippines" as examples, Ono talked about how The Wall Street Journal used different multimedia elements to provide an immersive story experience for readers.
• The visual presentation of the story is important, especially when it is about a new product launch, as the company is the main source for journalists to get that information. A text-only story may lower the chance of sharing and miss out on the opportunity to get media coverage.
• Gone are the days when journalists only have one deadline per day. It is important for public relations professionals to respond to the media quickly and provide them access to relevant information or key company executives for interviews.

Digital Globalization: How to Thrive in a New Operating Environment

Besides storytelling, listening to the voice of audiences is another crucial element of audience engagement. As Adam Majeed said in his presentation, "Storytelling may evoke emotions and help build success, but media monitoring is crucial to sustaining that success." Here are some of the key highlights from his presentation:  

• Globalization has entered a new phase on a digital plane marked by data flows.
• Using BuzzFeed as an example, its initial success is from recognizing that great content is not about the content itself, but the emotion it can evoke from the massive audience. Majeed pointed out that BuzzFeed was able to sustain its success through tracking and monitoring content across different platforms.
• Media monitoring requires commitment and can be essential to maintaining brand success. Majeed also talked about several benefits that media monitoring brings: speed, customization, the ability to alleviate customers' concerns in real time, and the advantage to adapt content to the latest trends, etc.

Storytelling and Media Monitoring Need to Go Hand in Hand

In the opening of Jing Li's presentation, he said today's public relations practitioners and communicators are facing several major challenges -- from monitoring brand reputation online and negative mentions to finding rich content and tracking their communications efforts. According to Li, media monitoring is a vital tool for communications professionals to stay abreast of what is happening around their brands and their industries. Here are some of Li's key highlights: 

• With the explosion of digital platforms and growing media fragmentation, Li highlighted the importance of identifying these segmented groups of audiences and choosing the best medium to reach out to them.
• Media monitoring tools help communicators identify public interest and define industry trends, as well as gather all the public opinions on the subject matter so they can strategically angle their content to feed their audiences' appetite.
• Public mentions can be the frosting on the cake for companies or the dagger that kills their reputation. Companies need to take advantage by proactively listening and respond accordingly in real time based on the types of sentiment, so they can protect their brands from negative word-of-mouth.

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About PR Newswire's Media Coffee

The goal of Media Coffee is to enable communications professionals to hear from leading media organizations on how their respective companies work, providing insight into their specialist areas, giving advice on achieving coverage and informing them on effective targeting of journalists within their sector and how to build a mutually beneficial relationship.

About PR Newswire  

PR Newswire (www.prnasia.com) is the premier global provider of news release distribution and multimedia platforms that enable marketers, corporate communicators, public relations practitioners and investor relations professionals to leverage content to engage with all their key audiences. Having pioneered the commercial news distribution industry in 1954, PR Newswire today provides end-to-end solutions to produce, distribute, target and measure text and multimedia content across traditional, digital, mobile and social channels. Combining the world's largest multi-channel content distribution and optimization network with comprehensive workflow tools and platforms, PR Newswire enables the world's enterprises to tell their stories to the world.

For further information, please contact:

PR Newswire's Asia Marketing Team
+852 2572 8228
asia.marketing@prnasia.com

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