There’s no denying that we live in a data-driven world. The question for companies is nowadays not whether to provide a wide range of information, but rather how to integrate it into their tools from the get-go. That being the case, a media monitoring API just might be the answer.
? Read Media Monitoring: The Ultimate Guide
Providing relevant data from virtually every online source, it’s a great way to kickstart your business or give your existing tools and services a media intelligence boost. In this article, we’ll explore the topic of media monitoring APIs and establish how you can benefit from one. Let’s start!
What is an API in general?
As defined by Wikipedia, an application programming interface (API) is a computing interface that defines interactions between multiple software intermediaries. The term is most commonly used to describe a particular kind of web interface.
In general, an API governs how one application talks to another. This communication is carried out in the form of calls or requests and responses.
The user will make a request to access and manipulate data stored by the API provider. In response, a webserver will obtain the requested data from the API provider. Then, it will return it to the user in a raw format, usually a JSON or XML document.
APIs also have defined protocols, with the most popular ones being:
- Representational State Transfer (REST),
- Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP),
- JavaScript/XML-RPC.
At its simplest form, it acts as a door or window into a software application, allowing other programs to interact with it without the need for the original developer to share its entire code.
The most often use cases are thus data retrieval and data enrichment, especially when it comes to data about the influence, impressions, reach, engagement, and sentiment.
As a result, specific data can be used more quickly and efficiently for various applications. In that sense, media monitoring APIs are essential for their ability to gather ample amounts of media intelligence and hence empower various data systems.
Media monitoring API explained
Crawling and tracking millions of online sources in order to find relevant real-time information is at the core of media monitoring tools. Likewise, it’s the essence of media monitoring APIs.
Be it websites, social media, forums, blogs, or even comments, no mention of a brand, product, hashtag, or topic will go unnoticed. This allows for effective online reputation management, lead generation, crisis prevention, and gaining target audience, industry, and competitor intelligence.
As for the media monitoring API, it builds on the general benefits of media monitoring by enabling even more specific and targeted data collection and analysis.
What information can be obtained via media monitoring API?
A very important aspect of media monitoring is data analytics. Other than tracking down relevant mentions, a media monitoring API provides access to an abundance of information collected alongside every mention.
Specifically, every mention contains data about:
- The source
- Username
- Location/language
- Time and date of posting
- The sentiment (the dotted line on the left)
- Reach, interactions, engagement, and influence data.
Once mentions of interest are identified, the tool usually displays them in a single feed. The feed has various sorting and filtering options to ensure the most relevant results.
All of this data is parallelly transformed into easily comprehensible charts and dashboards available for further analysis.
The Reports section includes the likes of full sentiment analysis, dedicated influencer dashboard, and competitive analysis for benchmarking, to name a few.
The charts are sorted into three predefined dashboards that suit most needs and goals. You can also create fully customized charts and dashboards according to your requirements.
All of the aforementioned information, as well as sorting, filtering, and exporting options are available through a media monitoring API. For that reason, using one is a great choice for any business looking to:
- Search, listen, and analyze
- Build or strengthen your own (media monitoring) tool with API
- Add more data to your reports
- Receive live monitoring data in real-time
- Upgrade your business intelligence tool with more public data
Now, let’s see if any of these use cases, or better yet benefits are applicable to your own business.
The benefits
#1 Search, listen and analyze
Social listening is the quintessential way to rapidly gain information about consumers’ changing preferences, habits, and expectations. Online conversation monitoring provides an insight into consumers’ perceptions and level of interest for a certain product, service, or topic.
Based on those insights, companies of all sizes and industries can identify potential growth opportunities and then react accordingly. The results of social listening analysis translate into actionable steps for a more proactive approach, greater social media engagement, and improved customer satisfaction.
#2 Build or strengthen your own (media monitoring) tool with API
Building your own software solution from scratch takes a significant amount of time, money, and effort. For that reason, considering a media monitoring API to upgrade or power your own tool is a great way to gain that much-needed boost and become competitive straight away.
Say you have an AI solution designed to recognize fake news. For that scenario, you would need large amounts of real-world data. Rather than building your own crawlers, a better choice would be to turn to media monitoring tools that scrape the Internet for relevant content.
#3 Add more (relevant) data to your reports
If you provide reporting for clients or it’s a part of your internal communications, you could also incorporate (social) media monitoring and analytics into your reporting tools.
Sometimes you might not want to receive raw volume data but rather look into the specifics. The great thing is, you can easily do deep sorting and filtering of the data that’s the most important with a media monitoring API.
Keeping track of your social media engagement, sentiment, and top-performing channels might be extremely helpful. The addition of visually stunning and user-friendly charts can enrich your reporting and take it to the next level with ample consumer behavior insights.
#4 Receive live monitoring data in real-time
Seeing live media monitoring data can be a great addition to any website or tool. You might want to integrate it as an ongoing real-time news feed for a topic you cover. If your website focuses on marketing, for example, you could add such a feature to track the latest industry news and trends.
#5 Upgrade your business intelligence tool with more public data
A media monitoring API will identify public data you can then use to upgrade your business intelligence tool. These tools also help prepare data for analysis so that you can create reports, dashboards, and data visualizations.
Typically used for more straightforward querying and reporting of business data, business intelligence tools can combine a broad set of data analysis applications, including media intelligence.
For example, you could integrate your brand mentions as a key part of customer reviews, testimonials, or any product pages on your website. This kind of social proof has a significant impact since it is comprised of raw, unfiltered user feedback.
Or, you might enrich software solutions made for tracking stock markets or detecting fake news, for instance, with trends and patterns in public opinion and consumer conversations. Thus, you’d get a wholesome and real-time overview of all the aspects that might affect your area of work.
The opportunity to provide relevant contextual information is probably the most important aspect of media monitoring data as it truly empowers informed decision-making processes.
Determ’s media monitoring API solution
If you’re thinking about a media monitoring API, you might want to check out our very own solution. It boasts:
- 100+ million online sources
- Coverage in all languages
- Boolean operators
- Leads and influencers identification
- In-depth analytics
All the data available in your account, such as mentions and reports, are also available for receiving using API. Do note that due to the Terms of service of certain social media networks, the extent of available social media data can vary.
As for the general rate limits, up to 10 API requests can be done per second, or 100 requests per 60 seconds. You can access the API if you have an Enterprise plan or higher. As with all paid plans, it includes an unlimited number of keywords, users, and data reports.
To get all the documentation and instructions, all you need to do is sign up and get in touch with your dedicated Account Manager who will help you with the process of implementing the API.
All in all, a media monitoring API is the one to rule them all
An API will take your media monitoring experience to the next level by providing full control over how, when, and where you acquire and use media intelligence.
Whether you’re after raw volumes of data or specific mentions and analytics, you can easily refine the results and integrate them into your website, reports, or any tools of your choice.
Given all the benefits and opportunities that come with a media monitoring API, it’s hard not to see the unmatched value such integration could provide. Interested in giving it a go?
