Do You Monitor or Measure Your Media Coverage?
When it comes to media measurement, many companies these days confuse the simple process of media monitoring with the goal-oriented and methodical process of media measurement.
As a standalone tool, media monitoring provides little value if utilized as the only “measurement technique.” Media measurement supported by media monitoring, on the other hand, helps you monitor, benchmark, and analyze your company’s media coverage to ensure that it is fair and accurate, occurs on a regular basis, and is in line with your overall communications strategy. To be able to derive that from your monitored media, it is important to ensure that your measurement roadmap is a) aligned with your business objectives, b) has broad communications goals, c) supported by specific objectives that are realistic and achievable, and occur during a specific timeframe.
Defining your communications goals and objectives is a time- and effort-consuming endeavor, and should take into consideration your overall strategy, your audience, and your desired outcome. At the end of the day, however, it is the specifics of your effort that allow you to see whether or not you have accomplished what you set out to accomplish. If, after completing the full cycle, you realize that your program did not reach those objectives, then you should revisit your goals and objectives and identify the areas that need improvement. Your evaluation effort should be an ongoing and continuous study of your communications programs, and not just a retroactive narrative of your past coverage. The important thing to keep in mind is that your measurement program is not set in stone, but rather, is a living and breathing document that changes as your needs change, and requires a long-term commitment and investment in order to ultimately change perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors.
Lusine Kodagolian is a Media Consultant at Dow Jones
The Conversational Corporation 
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