‘Media monitoring’ is the science of tracking mentions in the media or social media of particular topics or keywords. It is the process of listening to who is saying what in the news. Not only does it give an insight into published news stories on the chosen topic, it also provides other useful data which we will look into below.
Media monitoring matters to diagnostics companies in the time of COVID-19 because it is the only topic that anyone is talking about. Diagnostics companies are directly part of these conversations. Keeping an eye on ‘who is saying what’ about your company or product is essential for reactive media activities if necessary.
We are running a weekly analysis throughout the crisis. We are also keen to hear if there are any other keywords you would like us to monitor.
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Let’s look at how media monitoring works using keywords and topics relevant to the current coronavirus pandemic.
We used our media monitoring software, Meltwater, to analyse the recent news articles published online or printed which mention ‘coronavirus’ / ‘COVID-19’ with additional keywords that could be of interest to diagnostics companies. These include ‘RNA’, ‘PCR’, ‘diagnostics’, ‘swab’ and ‘genomics’.
The graph below shows the media exposure these combinations of keywords. Media exposure represents the number of news stories published with a specific keyword over time.
The keyword combination ‘coronavirus’ + ‘swab’ was present in a substantial number of news articles over the past seven days. Not surprising, given that we just ordered an additional 90,000 test kits keep up with the ever-increasing demand for testing. The media exposure for this keyword combination peaked on 18th March 2020. On that day, news outlets published stories about COVID-19 testing, the AFL player who was tested, ordering new testing kits.
Another measure we use is the share of voice. It shows which topics have the biggest share of mentions in the ‘media pie’. Unsurprisingly, ‘coronavirus’ + ’swab’ was the most successful keyword combination, but interestingly, the keyword ‘diagnostics’ was doing pretty well.
This is a good time for diagnostics companies to share their stories because there is more journalist interest in this industry. Right now, we need news stories that will reassure Australians that IVD companies are doing everything they can.
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