Whether you call it a Media Brief, a Keyword Brief, a Brief Compile or something else, they can be a pain to create and update. However, investing time in creating and reviewing your Media Brief will pay serious dividends in ensuring the quality and accuracy of your content every day.
Research from previous coverage:
If you’re building your Media Brief from scratch and are feeling overwhelmed or unsure about what to include, start by reviewing your most recent coverage. Read through your organisation or client’s most recent coverage to help identify patterns relating to:
- Key Spokespeople
- Key Brands/Company Names/Subsidiary Names
- Key locations/assets/places
Note these keywords down as you go, and you’ll be surprised at how quickly this helps to trigger your memory at additional keywords and topics that might be relevant to your day-to-day monitoring.
P.S.: Don’t forget about your competitors, their spokespeople and brands.
Don’t be afraid to purge:
If you’re reviewing an existing Media Brief, make sure to look for issues, spokespeople and brands that are no longer relevant. The most effective Media Briefs focus on current, relevant issues and spokespeople. Leaving old keywords in your Media Brief can create a snowball effect, gradually diluting the focus of your brief over time and diverting your focus from the current issues that matter.
Less is usually more:
The broader you make your Media Brief, the more likely you will clutter your Mention Streams with vaguely relevant content, and the more likely you will miss the most important, actionable and relevant coverage. Don’t forget that broader results might also adversely inflate your reporting and measurement.
Think like a journo:
Journalists don’t always reference the names of people and places in the way we expect them to, so make sure you list out any variations or misspellings that you’re aware of. For example, one news outlet might refer to “The Queen”, another “Her Royal Highness”, and others “Elizabeth Windsor”, so it’s important not just to include names, but also titles, nicknames, monikers and epithets. If a name is commonly misspelled, it’s also worth adding that in your brief so that we can capture misspelled names, brands or entities.
Context is everything!
The English language is full of Homonyms or “multiple-meaning words”. These are words that have the same spelling and usually sound alike but have different meanings.
For example, a keyword search for “Wallabies”, may return results for both the animal and the national Rugby team “The Wallabies”. For this reason, it’s good practice to add more context for keywords that are broad, or might have multiple meanings. For example:
- Bank, Banking, Banks when mentioned with payment systems, interest rates, Royal Commission
- Wallabies when mentioned with Rugby, super rugby, competition
You can also dramatically narrow down a search by adding extra parameters. For example:
- e.g. Bank, Banking, Banks within 50 words mortgage, home loan, student loan
- Big 4, Big Four in the first 50 words
- Interest rates when mentioned at least 3 times
Bonus tip: Don’t drown in sources you don’t need:
You should consider if you only need to see coverage from a particular Media Type. For example, if you only need to monitor Print coverage for a specific topic, make a note of this. We will refine your brief so that you only need to access this Media Type. Unlike other providers, Streem will automatically include all Media Types in your Mention Streams – you don’t have to break these out into separate categories such as Broadcast, Internet and Print.
Best practice:
- Review your brief every 6 months
- Flag and report missing or inaccurate coverage with your Account Manager in a timely manner. The sooner we update your Media Brief, the less irrelevant content you’ll see.
Want to learn more?
If you want to find out more about Keywords, boolean and Media Briefs. Check out our resources here:
Download Sample Media Brief Template
If you’d like some extra guidance, you can download a sample Media Brief template to work from. View and Download it here.