Issue monitoring

What is issue monitoring?

Monitoring issues sounds simple, but is an intensive and continuous activity. The antenna must be constantly on. After all, information can come from all angles and media and is often not limited to regular Dutch sources. Think of social and political developments at home and abroad, interest groups that are taking action, action groups and grassroots organizations that are becoming active, competitors that innovate or journalists who want to expose an abuse. The flow of new media makes it increasingly difficult for organizations to be and stay well informed. People are drowning in the news and yet it is not certain that they know everything. It is therefore very important for every organization to have a good one issue monitoring to set up. This gives you insight into what is said by whom, when and where about a specific issue, both externally and internally. Issue monitoring is also the starting point and basis of the analysis; an absolute prerequisite for issue thinking.

How do you monitor for issues?

The problem with most monitoring instruments is that they do not increase the overview of the daily mass of information. To properly monitor issues, searches must be well formulated and yield information arranged per issue. The quality of the searches determines what you ultimately see. A meticulous job, since keywords often provide a lot of redundant information.

What sources do you use for monitoring?

Both external and internal sources. Organizations sometimes overlook internal sources, according to research by Danish business expert Carsten Lund Pedersen. They focus too much on external sources and do not realize enough that they have a lot of knowledge in-house because employees have contact with people outside the organization. Carsten Lund Pedersen shows in his research that the 'collective wisdom' of one's own employees has enormous added value for strategic issue management. It is our own employees, often at the bottom of the organization, who hear a lot of relevant information because they have direct customer contact. The information received via customer service, the intranet or account conversations must therefore be tapped as a relevant source for issue monitoring. Managers 'deprive them- selves of information that could enrich their analysis and reduce the risk of ivory tower decision making' by overlooking their own employees. According to Pedersen, employees are often the first to detect the early signals of a newly emerging issue. They intuitively sense that a topic can become major, because their daily work results in a certain organizational sensitivity that can link internal and external developments. This allows them to make a realistic risk assessment that is guaranteed to be ivory tower-free.

How do you know which issues to monitor?

The first step is to estimate the impact of the issue. Only when it is clear what the information can mean for an organization can the organization respond and develop a strategy. We call issuing interpretation the definition and assessment of the impact that developments (can) have on the organization. How do you interpret reporting? By assessing whether the news development, new trend or political decision will affect the business operations or reputation of your organization. Observe the packaging information on the food. Anyone who monitored the 'healthy diet' issue years ago will undoubtedly have come across the announcement of new European legislation, which obliges producers to include information about the amount of salt, sugar, fat and other fattening agents on the label. It is essential for marketers, policy officers and communications staff at a supermarket to see these types of developments at an early stage, so that they can investigate what this change means for their business operations and marketing. For most regular issues, it is sufficient to monitor at fixed times and for fixed keywords. This is different with wicked issues. This requires broader and continuous monitoring, because the boundaries within which to search for these issues are difficult to indicate and the environment surrounding the issue can change quickly. Changes in one issue can have unexpected consequences for other issues.

Political monitoring

Glossary