These days, every enterprise is awash in data — and the corporate communications team is not immune from this challenge. Across the media spectrum of social media and blog posts, online news mentions and Tweets, corporate communications teams are overwhelmed with data associated with their brand mentions. As a result, these teams are struggling to separate the signal from the noise. Over the past few years, sales, HR and finance departments have consolidated their data and systems through centralized CRM, HR, marketing automation recruiting and finance platforms. The time has now come for corporate communications to do the same.

Communications departments have been slow to adopt this trend. Many teams still use disparate tools for standalone tasks, leading to data and workflow fragmentation. With the Chief Communications Officer (CCO) now elevated to the C-suite, communications departments must modernize quickly. Since digital and traditional media now generate over 4 million data points per minute, companies must centralize their media intelligence data to establish one source of truth, streamline reporting, extract valuable marketing information and support the broader enterprise.

One Source of the Truth

Different tools can offer conflicting answers to the same question. Each tool within a communications department will collect slightly different data that gets transferred from department to department, producing different results depending on the source provided. These silos obscure any insights that could be used and renders the information useless for strategic planning. Fragmentation is also costly when scaled as often duplicate records are stored in parallel. A centralized system eliminates all these problems by minimizing redundancy and maximizing data integrity. Communications teams can use a centralized media intelligence platform as the single source of truth when for anything from crisis management prep to strategic planning. It also creates a uniform front when sharing data across departments.

Streamlined Reporting

In the days of departments using multiple tools, reporting was a tedious task. It could take hours or even days to compile different data sources into one report. With CCO’s often now reporting directly to the CEO requiring marketplace guidance, reports must be ready in an instant; CEO’s can’t wait hours for the comms department to build a report from a variety of tools. A centralized media intelligence platform streamlines the entire process. All data is stored in the same place so CCO’s can have reports ready at a moments notice, or even have them automated. It also resolves the problem of some tools using the same data, which can cause repetition to arise. In an age where any budget requires proof of ROI, a centralized platform dramatically improves the accuracy of data.

Valuable Marketing Information

Hidden amongst all the noise created by collecting massive amounts of data are insights that can help increase a company’s bottom line. However, data needs to be looked at as a whole to extract these nuggets, something that is impossible to do when data is segmented in silos. In a communications department, social media data, PR clippings and digital mentions are all collected in different silos. Combining this information provides a full view of earned media, allowing for a more holistic approach to monitoring the health of a brand. It also expands the potential for what the comms department can do. In an age where comms professionals are being asked to do more, a centralized platform provides teams with a bevy of data to use in their expanded roles.

Support the Broader Enterprise

A centralized location for all media data is not only beneficial for communications departments, it can be a boon for the entire enterprise. Currently, marketing departments don’t have insight into how well campaigns perform in the earned media space and investor relations have no way of monitoring key issues that can affect the valuation of a brand. Communications teams can own insights like these and report back to other departments within the organization. No one else within the enterprise has the ability to uncover insights like these, so CCO’s can leverage this data to reaffirm their position in the C-suite.

If you would like to learn more about how a centralized approach to media intelligence can transform your communications department, download our whitepaper “Establishing a “Mission Control” Mindset for Media Intelligence”