1. Know and understand what you are looking for
2. Depending on your budget, try different media monitoring tools
3. Customise your Google alerts
4. Archive and organise press clippings digitally
5. Watch out for and map long-term trends
6. Connect with journalists
7. Make media monitoring useful for your team
You should clarify and narrow down what you are looking to monitor. If you work on advocacy, knowing who’s the winner of RuPaul Drag Race may not be relevant to carry on your daily tasks
Customise your Google alerts for a free and easy monitoring tool, or if you have budget, invest in a more extensive media monitoring service
Create a system for archiving your media clippings, so that you can access how stories evolve
Use media monitoring to build good relationships with journalists so that they will listen to you when you reach out
Good media monitoring helps your entire team. You will have the stories they need at your fingertips