Small Business Information

Why Small and Medium-Sized Businesses Should


As the owner or an employee of a small-to medium-sized business, you might have never thought about media monitoring. Maybe you are not even sure what exactly is meant by this and have thus ignored it so far. But you should take some time to get acquainted with the concept of media monitoring. For companies of every size, it is a crucial tool for market success.

When you monitor the media, you basically look for all the information that is beeing published about your company in different media formats like newspapers and magazines. But what is the benefit you get from this search process? Do you only end up with a waggon load of data or can this scanning give your company the cutting edge?

The answer is yes, it can. It is not something only big firms with large public relation staffs do benefit from, but every organisation or company. It can accomplish a variety of tasks including

  • control how and how often your company is being portrayed in public

  • follow-up any PR-activities you might have launched

  • examine how your competitor's media-image looks like

  • discover new trends in your specific profession and

  • analyse market developments.
These aspects are relevant for companies of every size. Imagine you are a small company producing a certain product, for example computer hardware components. You think media monitoring does not apply to you because you produce your goods locally and do not compete with "global players" who spend millions on their media campaigns?

Well, in this case, size does not matter. It is still important how the people living in the community where you are located react to your business. It is still important that you are among the first who catches a new trend concerning your product range - or otherwise another small enterprise may come up with the innovation that you could also have produced. These are only two small examples that show why media monitoring is so important.

If you are opposed to media monitoring because your company only has a small budget for public relations, think twice. Especially if you only have a small amount of money at hand to promote your company, it is essential to follow up every PR activity to make sure that money is well-invested.

For media monitoring, a simple concept applies: only when you know what is going on you can react accordingly. So do not only go through your local or regional newspaper and expert publications, but broaden your horizons. Filter the internet for information about your trade and company. With the help of search engines, hundreds of websites, online-publications and databases can be sorted through. There are also professional monitors how can do this job for you. In any case, media monitoring is worth the effort - regardless of your company's size.

About The Author

Kathrin Koehler works as PR consultant for the company activemeta.net, specialised in media monitoring and - analysis services. For more information, go to www.activemeta.net or email to koehler@activemeta.net.


MORE RESOURCES:

UPDATE 1-HBOS to provide small business support package
Reuters - 1 hour ago
HBOS also said it would guarantee pricing on Bank of Scotland small business customer overdrafts for 12 months from the date of arrangement for new loans ...


PR Web (press release)

Intuit Aligns Organization to Strengthen Small Business Ecosystem
MarketWatch - 16 hours ago
today announced it has formalized the structure of its small business ecosystem by aligning three business units under one new division. ...
Special Delivery to bring $5000 to One Lucky December Baby MarketWatch
all 24 news articles


RE2, Inc. Named 2008 Army Small Business Innovation Research ...
MarketWatch - 13 hours ago
RE2 was selected based on the Company's Small Robot Toolkit (SRT) Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and innovation provided to the ...


Small Business Owners Shouldn't Fret Over Stocks
BusinessWeek - 13 hours ago
But for most of us small business owners, this loss doesn't matter as much as people may think. My company sells business software to small and midsize ...


What a Guest Worker Program Means to Your Job or Small Business
Associated Content, CO - 14 hours ago
By Sylvia Cochran, published Dec 02, 2008 The United States Chamber of Commerce gears up to lobby for a guest worker program that affects high tech sector ...


NASA Awards Contracts to 382 Small Business Research and ...
Trading Markets (press release), CA - 3 hours ago
The awards are part of NASA's Small Business Innovation Research Program, known as SBIR, and the Small Business Technology Transfer program, known as STTR, ...


Metro reports working with more small, minority businesses
Bizjournals.com, NC - 13 hours ago
Metro’s office of Minority and Small Business Assistance reports the number of approved small businesses registered to compete for city contracts has ...
Small businesses eligible for Metro contracts skyrockets Nashville City Paper
Eleven named to Ritter’s small biz panel Bizjournals.com
all 11 news articles


World Trade

Small Business Takes to Export
World Trade - 2 hours ago
And now is the moment for small business—the little guys who have typically shied away from export—to get into the action. Exporting is critical to EJ Ajax ...


Women of color emerge as new face of small business
Diverse, VA - 4 hours ago
Some colleges and universities work in collaboration with small business centers, Blockson says. “But most of these centers provide more general resources ...


TransWorld Benefits International Inc. Launches Innovative Small ...
MarketWatch - 21 hours ago
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Dec 02, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- TransWorld Benefits International Inc., (Pink Sheets:TBII) now doing business as 7G Companies, ...

Small-Business - Google News

home | site map
© 2006