At Sweeney we don’t agree that any media coverage is good media coverage. Landing coverage in The New York Times or on the Today Show isn’t always the best course of action for every client.
We focus on securing good quality coverage for our clients that is targeting the correct audience and helping the client achieve documented goals. It’s all about getting the right story with the right media at the right time.
There are multiple ways to measure “quality” media coverage. For example, there are some pseudo-scientific techniques that actually look at the positive words versus negative words in an article.
And there are some practical observations like “who actually reads this publication?”. Our approach is to focus on three key areas: reputation of the media outlet; audience reach; quality of the story. In addition, there are a number of other aspects you can evaluate based on your goals.
1. Quality/reputation of media outlet: Is this a legitimate and respected trade or business media outlet or some rag or online aggregator of stories?
2. Quality of readership/viewership: Are you reaching your target audience through this coverage? What percentage of the target audience are we reaching… rifle versus scatter shot?
3. Quality of story: Is this a well-written news or feature story? Does it include insights from a company expert/executive? Does it include images and charts? Does the story position the organization as being special/unique in any particular and desired way?
4. Other measurables:
• Did the story include a link or multiple links to your website?
• How many readers actually clicked on that link?
• Was the story exclusively about you or part of a round-up?
• If a round-up, who was positioned as our competitors (is it a good positioning)?
• Did the story run in print and online?
• How many times did they mention our corporate and product brand names?
So the next time you are planning to implement publicity and media relations or land some ink, consider the quality of coverage and what you can be doing to enhance the coverage to more directly impact your brand.