The corporate communications role has changed dramatically over the past few years. Communications is now a data-driven profession, with media and social intelligence acting as the keel guiding the wider enterprise on key activities such as brand perception, crisis communication and risk management. Professionals have shown a willingness to adapt to this new world, yet many have entered with trepidation due to their lack of expertise in the emerging field of data science. At the Zignal Summit, industry experts will discuss how media and social intelligence supports their roles at leading enterprise brands to improve the performance of their departments and support the C-Suite. In this post, we will highlight some of the key topics that will be covered at the Zignal Summit on May 18th.

Centralizing Media and Social Intelligence data

In the past, enterprises leveraged disparate tools, data sets and processes for social media listening and media monitoring. Today, the sheer volume of information generated around a brand requires centralization and greater coordination across cross-functional teams. By establishing one source of truth for media and social intelligence, companies will report accurate and actionable metrics across the enterprise and C-Suite — while ensuring faster response times and data-driven decisions.

Using Data Science to deliver analysis and recommendations to the broader enterprise

The billions of media and social data points around a brand are priceless to the wider enterprise. There are hundreds of needles within the proverbial haystack that can benefit marketing, investor relations, legal development, government and public affairs, corporate security, strategy and the C-Suite in their day to day roles. This dataset is far more impactful than the reporting of old (think of the proverbial thud factor). The massive amounts of media and social intelligence data contains actionable insights that can provide key metrics for tracking business goals and guide strategy across the enterprise. The C-Suite has taken notice of how important this information is, with many executive boards now requesting daily updates from their communications teams on the health of their brand.

How Media Intelligence can prevent or calibrate a crisis response plan

Media and social intelligence can act as a powerful crisis deterrent by constantly tracking key metrics, issues, critics and other risk factors. These indicators will also illuminate the underlying issues driving negative sentiment, as well as the context surrounding the problem. When the inevitable crisis occurs, teams race against the clock to align and determine the best course of action. Leveraging data-driven insights from media intelligence and a single source of truth, cross-functional teams will quickly align around a coordinated plan, while providing accurate updates to the C-suite.

Leveraging data to find key influencers around your brand

Brand and caused-based influencers wield enormous clout across social media by virtue of their large following, content and domain expertise. Specifically, influencers can instigate a crisis, promote a brand, affect key legislation or impact the outcome of an M&A transaction. Across the many social media conversations, identifying the right influencers becomes a challenging task. Leveraging media and social intelligence, communications, public affairs and digital marketing teams can quickly identify the most influential individuals, experts and advocates.

Fighting the new threat of “Fake News”

Fake news has become a common fixture across the media landscape and stopping it seems like an impossible proposition. While the majority of fake news stories are contained within certain pockets of society, any one of these stories has the potential to reach – and be believed – in an instant, thanks to social media. Enterprises and politicians need to be aware of any story concerning their brand or political agendas. Just one of these fake stories has the power to slash billions from a company’s valuation or derail a piece of legislation. Media intelligence can monitor how these stories spread and show who is driving the conversation, making it easy to see when a story is about to break out of a bubble and go viral. By knowing what stories are out there and which fake news stories warrant a reaction, teams can work to counter the effects of slander and ensure no lasting damage to their brand ever matriculates.

The elevated role of corporate communications across the enterprise and C-Suite requires new data-driven skill sets. If you want to learn how leading brands leverage media and social intelligence to drive business results, you won’t want to miss the Zignal Summit. During this one-day conference, learn, collaborate and network with your industry peers. , Request your invitation today for the Zignal Summit – From Chaos to Control:  Make Media Intelligence Central to your Business.