Mattias Mitz: The Art of Media Monitoring a Municipality
With Swedish Radio as the closest monitor, the spoken media plays a very important role in the story of Umeå municipality. Mattias Mitz talks about the work to highlight the national media interest in Umeå and how they handled the crisis around the Lucia concert that got a lot of media attention in December 2022.
"The advantage of gathering all the monitoring in one tool is that it provides an overall picture."
We meet Umeå's press communicator, Mattias Mitz, in the new pandemic tradition: over a video meeting. With 14 years of experience as a journalist under his belt, Mattias is now in his ninth year as a communicator. As press communicator for Umeå municipality, his job is not only to tell residents about the municipality's activities, but also to draw the rest of the country's attention to investment opportunities and available jobs. Internally, raising awareness and highlighting national media interest in Umeå is at least as important as external communication.
Mattias begins by talking about how northern Sweden has previously been more affected by media shadow than it is today. Since both Dagens Nyheter and Dagens Industri have established permanent editorial offices in the north, coverage of the municipality has also increased. Being highlighted in the national media is important for increasing investment and also migration to northern Sweden. It is a part of the country that has very strong growth and a great need for labor, but just like the rest of the Western world, there is also an aging population, something that Mattias does not think is unique to Umeå. According to him, an ageing population is something most municipalities need to deal with.
Media coverage - a prerequisite for new blood
For a growth municipality like Umeå, with a hot labor market, inward migration is crucial, which increases the need to be visible in national media. Therefore, an important part of Mattias' work is to awaken, retain and develop an interest in the region and the place. There is no doubt that the municipality is also a fantastic employer, the crux is rather that more people will understand that and actually move there.
Since 2020, All Ears has been the municipality's primary media monitoring service. Mattias tailors feeds for different parts of the municipality to be able to deliver content that managers and communicators out in the businesses are served every morning. The goal is to provide all businesses with an overview of what is being said and told about them in a smooth way and with a picture that is as close to reality as possible.
Social media as a measure of impact
Social media has also become increasingly important for understanding how well the municipality's message reaches out and is received. "We need tools to sharpen our communication," says Mattias, adding that a flat headline, for example, can risk a press release not being picked up and remaining unread. As a way of evaluating the impact of one's own communication in the media noise, social media monitoring is used as a kind of yardstick. "The advantage of gathering all the monitoring in one tool is that it provides an overall picture." says Mattias.
A tool for crisis and analysis: the Lucia crisis at Mariehems School
In December 2022, the municipality of Umeå experienced a brief but intense crisis when SVT reported on something as innocent as a Lucia concert at a primary school. For reasons of inclusion, they had chosen to focus on light and love instead of the usual Christian elements, which received a lot of attention in the national media. So much so that the school received threats, which in turn required police presence for security reasons.
Despite the uproar and the social media hype, Umeå Municipality managed to navigate its way through the situation. With the help of All Ears, media monitoring could be carried out to get an overall picture of the media flow, to prepare answers to incipient questions but also as a warning system. "Afterwards, it became a great tool to analyze and understand the causes of the drive and its scope, but also to evaluate our efforts in communication planning during the work." says Mattias.
A lifetime to keep track of
For Umeå municipality, All Ears is an important part of media coverage, not least of radio and podcasts, which used to be a dead angle, or at least a slightly trickier angle. Keeping track of what is said and reported on so many parts of a municipality is a full-time job. "Yes, but a municipality is almost everything - it's a whole life!" exclaims Mattias, listing everything from business issues to pre-schools.
In addition to business intelligence, Mattias uses All Ears as a proactive tool for detecting potential crises but also for the development of trend forecasts and sentiment analysis. The question of how much of the media spotlight Umeå municipality receives in relation to similar cities is also constantly relevant.
Before we disconnect, we note that the recurring scourge in the work around media coverage is how to ensure the most truthful image of the brand. How much information is enough? It may be a question we'll never know the answer to, but one thing's for sure: it's certainly easier to gather it with a business intelligence tool like All Ears.
