5 MEDIA MONITORING STRATEGIES FOR INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS

AND THE healthcare industry

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Regardless of size, businesses need to implement external communications

strategies to acquire customers and build their brand. This can be done through

marketing, public relations and communications, or advertising using a variety

of channels like traditional, digital and social media. But it’s equally important to consider the role that internal communications strategies can play.

A good internal communications program

is more than just sending group emails

when something new happens within the

company. According to Melcrum, a leading

internal communications training firm

based in the US, “Internal Communication...

is at its most basic, facilitating strategic

connections and conversations within

your organization.”

Internal communication is about ensuring

everyone is engaged, on the same page

and working cohesively to accomplish

an overarching company goal. It’s about

being successful.

And rest easy—you don’t need to hire a team that specializes in internal communications

to create an effective, cohesive strategy.

You just need the right tool.

5 MEDIA MONITORING IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES

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MEDIA MONITORING AND ANALYSIS FOR INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS

Many external communicators use media monitoring and analysis for a number of reasons, including but not limited to the management of journalist and influencer relationships, or issues, crisis, and brand reputation tracking.

But did you know that it can also be used for strengthening internal communications efforts?

Media monitoring and analysis can help your business build a powerful foundation by engaging and empowering your most valuable asset: your coworkers or employees.

Media intelligence research can be as basic as using a search engine’s news filter, or a free service like Google Alerts, or as sophisticated as having a company do your monitoring and briefings for you.

Regardless of which route your business takes, media monitoring and analysis can:

Increase employee/coworker engagement with company projects and each other;

Create a unified brand voice and a culture of open communication;

Empower employees/coworkers with the knowledge they need to succeed;

Increase productivity through involvement and transparency; and

Empower employees to become brand advocates by providing them with shareable news, content and intel.

By keeping everyone informed you’re solving common internal communications pain points like waiting for information to trickle down the corporate pipeline, inefficient communications between staff members, and communication barriers.

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MONITOR YOUR COMPANY

THE SCENARIO:

You work in the healthcare industry developing tools to help surgeons minimize scarring and general

tissue damage during surgery. Your organization has recently created a new product, one that will change

the way thoracic surgeons perform their jobs. No other organization has come close to innovating

something similar.

Every individual in your organization has contributed

to the development of this product: your research and

development team, communications team, management

team, and client services team. But how do you show

them the value of all their contributions? How do you

keep them excited about the project and motivated to

continue innovating?

THE SOLUTION:

By monitoring traditional, digital and social media for mentions

of your company or product, you can gather intel to show your business just how impactful everyone’s

contributions have been in making your new product or service a success, or building the brand within

your industry.

The intel gathered in these articles can also help guide new research and development efforts, demonstrate

ROI for communications professionals, and give other coworkers and employees the insight to know how the

product, service or brand is perceived. It may also motivate coworkers and employees to openly communicate

about positive and negative issues surrounding the product or service, and allow for interdepartmental

collaboration on current and/or future projects.

5 MEDIA MONITORING IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES

PRO TIP: Open lines of communications within your organization and grow your corporate culture by identifying your company’s successes and failures through media research, and discussing them with all members of your team.

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KEEP AN EYE ON THE COMPETITION

THE SCENARIO:

You work for a pharmaceutical company that focuses on developing serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors

(SNRIs) commonly used to treat mood disorders such as depression, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder.

Your organization has recently released a new product that has been statistically proven to decrease negative

side effects typically associated with SNRIs.

But your competitor has also released a product that

markets itself similarly, and has statistical data comparable

to your product’s. To healthcare providers, your products

seem nearly identical. How can your organization get

the competitive edge? How can you gather compelling

insights about your competitor’s products when it’s so

similar to your own? How can this intel affect internal

communications?

THE SOLUTION:By implementing media monitoring and analysis strategies for internal communications, your team can have a

better understanding of how media outlets and your key publics differentiate your product from your competitors’.

By communicating these findings internally, your team can break down communications barriers between

departments and collaborate with external communications teams to effectively differentiate your product.

This strategy should involve everyone within your organization, allowing your business to develop a corporate

culture of transparency and open channels of communication.

5 MEDIA MONITORING IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES

PRO TIP: The key to differentiating similar products is how they are positioned. Use intel collected from media outlets and public conversation to give your team the ammunition it needs work collaboratively and shape new market placement strategies—it takes cohesiveness between internal and external communications departments to effectively position or reposition a product or service.

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KEEP AHEAD OF NEWS IN YOUR INDUSTRY

THE SCENARIO:

You’re a startup in the biotechnology industry. You and your partners have an idea for a product that could create

a completely new peanut—one that would reduce the allergen protein in the nut that causes severe anaphylaxis

for those with peanut allergies. You have an idea of what research has been done in this area from peer-reviewed

journals and using online resources such as Google Scholar and researchgate.net, but you’re wondering how the

general public has been, if at all, receptive to the idea.

This information can highly impact the future of your company’s project.

THE SOLUTION:By monitoring traditional, digital and social media, your

team can stay ahead of other technologies in your industry

and understand trends and public opinion that could

potentially affect your upcoming projects.

This information will allow you and your partners to

establish a plan of action, and communicate with your

other employees about your project’s position in the

marketplace. It will also help your business keep ahead

of other organizations in your industry because your

employees will have a better understanding of what goal

they’re collaborating towards.

5 MEDIA MONITORING IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES

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PRO TIP: Having an understanding of the general public’s sentiment towards a project can allow your business to effectively delegate resources and allow your team to work cohesively towards building impactful products or services.

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EMPOWER POSITIVE INTERNAL CHANGE

THE SCENARIO:

You’re a medical office manager for a large, local healthcare clinic. Recently, you’ve noticed that three other

clinics have stopped taking new patients due to capacity and infrastructure-related issues, two clinics have

been amalgamated as an extension of the local hospital, and one clinic has permanently closed due to recent

changes in federal healthcare policies.

Due to the quickly changing medical landscape in your area, you want to know how these changes will impact

your current patients and employees, and what internal changes you may need to make to keep operations

running smoothly.

THE SOLUTION:By implementing a media monitoring and analysis program, you and your team can understand what’s

happening in your industry—as it happens—and how significant it is to your clinic, along with how it will impact

your patients, employees and general operations. Knowing that two other clinics have stopped registering

new patients, and that one clinic has completely ceased operations, is crucial to your bottom line: if your clinic

has room for new patients it’s an opportunity to develop business, but it could also increase wait times and

physician availability for current patients.

This information can be distributed in the form of an executive-ready briefing to all clinic employees, with

additional analysis to dictate why the news featured in the brief is important for the clinic. It can also let staff

know about possible upcoming changes in policies, procedures and patient intake. By keeping staff informed,

all changes can be discussed openly and slowly integrated to increase productivity and employee engagement

with new policies.

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5 MEDIA MONITORING IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES

PRO TIP: Analyzing local and national media can offer your business a lot of business intelligence. Keep a finger on the pulse of what’s going on in your industry, understand how it can impact your business, and openly discuss findings with all members of your organization.

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ESTABLISH AUTHORITY

THE SCENARIO:

You work in the communications department of a local hospital. The hospital’s facilities span six different build-

ings, which has encouraged your department to implement a more varied communications strategy including

integrating social media accounts for the various departments. Not only are patients and others in the medical

community intrigued by the content being posted to the account, but it has also turned out to be a great way

for departments to communicate about policies and procedures internally.

With so much social media activity, you’ve found it difficult to track all conversations and demonstrate

internally the value of using social media over more traditional communications methods. How do you convince

the C-Suite it’s worth investing in additional resources to run these accounts? How do you take the knowledge

you’ve gathered through those conversations and internally communicate them in a clear, concise way?

THE SOLUTION:Media monitoring and analysis can monitor all conversations from each department’s social media accounts.

This can quickly identify patients’ positive and negative experiences through their social interactions, allowing

you and your team to more easily communicate possible solutions to these issues through traditional internal

communications methods.

By having your entire staff understand what patients are saying about the brand, they can work together to

create new policies and procedures to enhance the patient experience at your hospital. You can also work with

the various departments in charge of social accounts to create a unified brand voice—one that establishes

social media as a voice of authority for both internal and external communications. By having media monitoring

and analysis data to back this communications strategy, you and your team can increase the resources

allocated to social media by presenting to the C-Suite with actionable data.

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5 MEDIA MONITORING IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES

PRO TIP: Offer your employees more than one channel to communicate internally. If the information being shared isn’t private or confidential, consider using social media for general communications—it’s trackable, measurable and you can leverage it for external outreach, patient relations and communications efforts, as well. By having all members of your organization on social media, you’re also promoting transparency within your business.

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OTHER USE CASES FOR MEDIA MONITORING AND ANALYSIS IN INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:

Staying ahead of external crises by identifying potential risks and quickly communicating them internally;

Understanding your brand’s reputation and working with your team to create a unified brand voice

for external communications channels such as social media;

Identifying issues that may impact your industry, and quickly working towards implementing

internal policies;

Understanding the pain points of employees hired by similar companies and improving workplace

conditions and communications.

MediaMiser’s media monitoring and analysis experts can work with you to develop the program needed to be effective with

your internal communications.

5 MEDIA MONITORING IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES