This is the final post in our series on how professional communicators can benefit from online media monitoring and sentiment analysis. Don’t miss our posts on public relations and investor relations.

Analyst or Industry Relations teams are responsible for keeping their industry analysts up to date on their company’s strategy, products and services. The objective is to persuade analysts to review your company in the best positive light to end users of your product in their high-level industry research reports. Thus, for AR folk, it is important they keep tabs on which analysts are covering their industry – to ensure that they are focusing their relationship building efforts on the right people!

Online and social media monitoring, together with sentiment analysis, can help AR professionals by giving them the tools to a) identify which market research reports and research analysts are covering their space, and b) which of the above reflect positive and negative sentiment about their company and its competitors.

By having media monitoring searches for key phrases, research firm names, job titles and authors (analyst names), Analyst Relations pros can monitor and influence analyst coverage.

I use MediaVantage to monitor analyst research trends within the industries of relevance to us: media intelligence, public relations management, customer intelligence software By regularly reviewing the content that my saved keyword searches bring in, I’m able to keep up to date with the latest research reports my key analysts are publishing and the sentiment of the coverage the companies included in these reports are receiving.

All of this intelligence helps guide the Product Development roadmap, and further solidifies the foundation of our relationship with our analyst friends. As an analyst relations professional how do you use sentiment analysis to be more effective in your role? Please comment!

The potential effect a crisis can have on your stock price

This is our second post on how professional communicators can benefit from sentiment analysis. Last week we looked at public relations and today we’ll dig in to IR.

A key challenge for investor relations teams is gaining insight into the sentiment of the investment community. Fortunately with social media and social networks, understanding how your investors and potential investors are feeling on any given day is now possible.

Consider this. You’re in IR and looking to release your quarterly earnings statement. Prior to online monitoring and analysis tools, you would be more or less putting your release on the wire with a less than comprehensive understanding of what frame of mind your audience was in, let alone how your message will be received. Scary thought when your bottom line is showing.

Online media monitoring gives IR professionals the ability to explore and develop a greater understanding of the general attitudes of their investors, gaining insight into the tone of online and social media coverage.

Using an aggregator with automated sentiment analysis like MediaVantage, IR teams can track financial blogs, investor forums, websites and their investor community on Twitter, giving the department the advantage of identifying (and riding) the sentiment of investors. Automated platforms can significantly assist in filtering out the noise via tonality filters (among others) that investor relations pros can leverage directly on their media coverage dashboard.

Financial blogs, and investor bloggers are often the source of lengthy candid reviews, possibly more representative of the general market as they are often written by active investors. Investor relations practitioners can use this information to get a better handle on the sentiment or attitudes of investors and influencers within the stock trade industry.

As an investor relations professional, how do you use sentiment analysis to be more effective in your role? Please comment!

Next week I’ll look at how Analyst Relations can benefit from sentiment analysis.

In my post last week I talked about sentiment analysis and introduced the technology powering our automated text analytics engine, Lexalytics.  We made loads of people happy with our news and I had a great question posed to me about the value that I saw specifically for the communications functions – beyond the typical PR that we so often discuss.

Over the next three weeks I’ll share how Public Relations, Investor Relations and Analyst Relations professionals can benefit from both passive listening and active engagement using social media monitoring and sentiment analysis. First up, PR pros.

Public Relations and Corporate Communications

Crafting and delivering a targeted message, and having that message accurately received by the target audience are the objectives of the communications game. PR pros can use sentiment analysis to gauge the attitudes and predisposition of their audience prior to conducting their outreach, letting them adjust their message accordingly to ensure maximum effectiveness and hopefully, positive pick-up.

Monitoring keywords relevant to their brand or industry, allows PR pros to identify who the most influential and valuable thought leaders are. Go deeper by monitoring topics of interest, the volume generated and their sentiment.

In my role as Director of Marketing for MediaVantage, I am interested in listening and engaging with influential bloggers on topics like “reputation management”, “PR technology” and “social media monitoring.” Having set-up these monitoring keywords in MediaVantage, I go in on a daily basis and review the content that has been returned, filtering first by tonality (to get quick insight on the very negative and very positive coverage).  When I start to see specific sources (i.e. a blogger or PR thought leader’s name) occurring more regularly in my search results, I’ll create an entirely new search term, dedicated specifically to that source and keywords of interest.

This helps me expand my media ‘watch’ list to ensure that I only focus on furthering relationships with media outlets/thought leaders with interest, authority and clout in my space. Doing this also helps me identify which of the online thought leaders generate more negative articles than positive – for it’s those journalists to which I need to devote special attention.

PR and communications professionals can also use automated sentiment analysis to identify which of their company’s employees and products are the most influential and valuable in terms of media coverage volume and sentiment. With this information strategic decisions can be made about which product to promote, key messages, internal resources and thought leadership opportunities.

Finally, sentiment analysis can also help public relations practitioners track the impact of a specific campaign or promotion by comparing coverage sentiment – before and after the event.

As a public relations professional, how do you use sentiment analysis to be more effective in your role? Please comment! Next week I’ll look at the benefits of Sentiment Analysis for Investor Relations professionals. Stay tuned.

Understanding the general public feeling towards your brand was once as simple as reading a few media clips. Social media and a 24-hour online news cycle now means your brand could be mentioned 10,000 times or more, overnight – making it near impossible to gain insight into the tone of coverage. Enter automated sentiment analysis.

Sentiment Analysis 101

Automated sentiment analysis, also known as tonality scoring, is the process of automatic extraction of the sentiment, or tone, from a series of documents using Natural Language Processing (NLP). In layman’s terms: visualize a thumbs-up for a “you’re awesome” mention, and a thumbs down for an “uh-oh” mention. NLP also gives an aggregate view for a topic as a whole.

Automated tonality scoring is a highlight of MediaVantage’s latest product release. Powered by Lexalytics, a leader in the sentiment analysis space, our clients will now benefit from high-level analysis and trend information, leading to more effective communications strategies, product launches, brand recognition, customer sentiment, etc. Automated tonality scoring is to PR pro’s as Google Adwords is to marketers. It’s quick, reliable and a bucket-load easier than having to do it manually.

If you really want to know how it works, read Sentiment Extraction: Measuring the Emotional Tone of Content from the team at Lexalytics. They clearly know what they’re talking about it. If you have any questions or feedback regarding MediaVantage’s new automated tonality scoring feature, let us know.

Wikipedia has raised $1.4 million from individual users since launching its annual fundraising campaign Nov. 11. The “encyclopedia written by the people” is well on its way to reaching its $7 million goal by 1) creating a popular product, 2) leveraging its relationships with users, and 3) using the Wikipedia brand to signify a cause more important than an online encyclopedia – an online community that supports open access to global information.

With this campaign in mind, let’s review the five best ways to use social media for end-of- year cause-related marketing efforts, fundraising campaigns and general “good works” with some of the best uses of social media for good deeds we’ve seen in 2009:

1. Partner with a charity that represents your company AND your online audience.

The chosen charity’s mission must fall in line with the goals of the company without appearing inauthentic. Ask company employees which charity to support – it’s crowd-sourcing at the most basic level, and it’s asking the first line of company advocates to have an impact on the future of the company and on their own communities – share their story online, ideally in their voice. Hyundai, for example, adopted a cause that was already being championed by branches of the automaker’s own company.

2. Listen first, but don’t be too afraid to ask for help online.

The first commandment of social media has always been to listen before jumping into the conversation. That being said, there is more leeway to ask for fans to join you for a charitable project.  It’s still considered rude to spam followers, but there is a bit more flexibility when advocating for a cause. Ask for RTs on Twitter, message fans on Facebook and send emails to thought leaders. This is an opportunity to use practices that might otherwise be a little too forward for everyday use.

3. Leverage relationships with like-minded organizations

It is possible for the holiday season to bring multiple companies closer together in the spirit of charity as a lead-sharing opportunity. Reach out to the charitable organization’s existing partners. After the campaign is over, you will have proven your value to these online communities and be in a better position to continue the online conversation.

4. Remember you’re managing PR for two (or more!) organizations

When a company partners with a nonprofit or publicizes their charitable giving, be sure to vet the organization to ensure that your values are aligned. There are numerous sites that help PR pro’s find out more about charities. Charity Navigator and GuideStar are two great ones. You can also use the Chronicles of Philanthropy publication and online resources.

Make sure you put the “charity first” and drive traffic to both the corporate sponsor’s site and the “funding” or action page of your partner’s Web site.

5. Twitter is your friend

The “tweetup” is an ideal strategy to raise money using social media – gathering social media specialists in a single room to network and raise awareness of a charity or community-giving event. Learn more about how Miriam’s Kitchen raised money with a great Tweet-up in Washington, D.C., recently with our friend Geoff Livingston of Tanaka PR, who blogs for Buzz Bin, heading the fundraiser.

Straight from the floor at the 2009 PRSA International Conference, we interviewed Brian Solis, Principal of FutureWorks, and co-author of the recently published “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations“. P.S. It’s available for download here.

In these quick 2 minute videos, hear Brian’s perspective on social media as the new channel of influence, and the leadership role PR should be assuming within the organization as social media gains momentum for brands.

Today dna13 is excited to be broadcasting live from the 2009 PRSA International Conference, bringing you interviews with industry experts, and a live PRSA session: “Building a Case for Public Relations”.

Tweet your feedback about the broadcast to @dna13, using the hashtag #PRSA09, and you will be entered in a contest to win a free dna13 subscription.

Agenda (all times in EST):

• 12:30 p.m. - Deirdre Breakenridge, PR 2.0 expert and author
• 12:40 p.m. – Katie Paine, social media measurement expert
• 12:45 p.m. – Kami Watson Huyse, virtual PR pro
• 1:15 p.m. – PRSA Session “Building a Case for Public Relations” 
• 2:30 p.m. – Eric Schwartzman, senior PR and communications professional
• 3:00 p.m. – Shonali Burke, social media and measurement consultant
• 3:10 p.m. – Michael McDougall, VP, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, Bausch & Lomb

STAY TUNED!!!

Live broadcast direct from the 2009 PRSA International Conference tradeshow floor and session to begin soon!

12:30 p.m. EST, 11:30 a.m. CST, 9:30 a.m. PST.

See here for details on the interview schedule.In the meantime, help us get the word out! Tweet THIS!

Not able to attend the 2009 PRSA International Conference?

Come back here to the dna13 blog on Monday, November 9 between 12:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. EST and join us for 3 hours of live interviews and PR professional development sessions, straight from the PRSA conference floor.

Highlights include:

• 12:30 p.m. EST – Deirdre Breakenridge, PR 2.0 expert and author
• 12:45 p.m. EST – Kami Watson Huyse, virtual PR Pro
• 1:15 p.m. EST – “Building a Case for Public Relations“, PRSA session with MaryLee Sachs, Hill & Knowlton, David Rockland, Ketchum and Mark Dvorak, GolinHarris
• 3:00 p.m. EST – Shonali Burke, social media and measurement consultant

Tweet your feedback to @dna13 with the hashtag #PRSA09 throughout the broadcast, and you will be entered to win a free dna13 media monitoring subscription.

  Click here to add the event to your calendar.

TIP:  Strength is not always in numbers

“For a long time, most public relations organizations lived by circulation numbers. When a story appeared in the New York Times, we could assure our clients that they reached a million-plus captive viewers. While that is certainly true, there can be as much value in telling your story to the right group of people. Active groups exist across all social networking platforms. These people are often engaged and ready to act. There can be as much value in 600 people commenting, conversing, engaging and mobilizing around a story on a site like witness.org as there can be in an A16 story in The New York Times.”

Michael P. Falco, Digital Initiatives Strategist, Pro-Media Communications

It’s clear that the public relations industry is changing – as newspapers and magazines shrink, public relations practitioners are reaching out to bloggers, Tweeters, podcasters, and publishing their own content.  How should those of us in the PR industry evolve with the times in a deliberate, strategic way?

We posed this question to David Meerman Scott, Jason Falls, and CC Chapman at the Inbound Marketing Summit in Boston. Take a look below for their tips on how to stay innovative within a changing industry, pitch bloggers, and start an open dialogue with customers and thought leaders.

Are there any tips you want to add?  Leave them in the comments section below.

If you’re attending PRSA’s annual conference in San Diego, drop us a line or reach out to us on Twitter. We’ll be videotaping more thought leaders from the conference floor and would be eager to include your response in our next video blog.