What are Key Messages in Instant Insights?
Key Messages display the distribution of specific terms within your coverage across your Instant Insights Dashboards.
Adding Key Messages to your dashboards ensures your team stays aligned on strategic priorities and can measure the impact of your communications effectively.
Why Use Key Messages?
Key Messages help you measure the effectiveness of your organisation’s strategic messaging by showing how often specific terms appear in your media coverage. This feature enables you to:
Track message penetration: Identify which topics dominate your coverage.
Spot trends and gaps: Detect emerging themes or areas needing reinforcement.
Drive data-based decisions: Share actionable insights with stakeholders to refine campaigns.
Visualising Key Messages in your Instant Insights Dashboard provides a clear, real-time view of message consistency and impact.
What Are Key Messages in Instant Insights?
Key Messages display the distribution of specific terms within your coverage across your Instant Insights Dashboards.
Navigating the Key Messages Widget
Access Instant Insights via the Insights option from the left-hand sidebar.
Create a New Dashboard or Open an Existing Dashboard via the sidebar.
Add your Key Messages Widget for your selected Mention Stream by adding a new chart.
Click on Add Key Messages. We can add our Key Messages by adding keywords or Boolean Query.
In this example, we're using a Mention Stream for British Airways and have used the names of their leadership team to track which ones have been mentioned the most.
Examples of how you could use Key Messages:
Track spokespeople mentions
Example: Add names like “Jane Smith” or “CEO John Doe” to see how often your executives appear in coverage.Monitor competitor messaging
Example: Include competitor brand names such as “BrandX” or campaign slogans like “BrandX Sustainability Initiative” to compare share of voice.Measure campaign impact
Example: Use product names like “CisionOne Analytics Suite” or hashtags such as #CisionSummit2025 to gauge visibility.Identify industry trends
Example: Add sector-specific keywords like “AI in PR” or “media monitoring tools” to spot emerging topics relevant to your organisation.
How to Define Key Messages
Use Key Message terms that are relevant and prominent for your organisation.
Define up to 24 Key Messages through Keywords and/or Boolean Queries for one Mention Stream at a time.
Follow the same Boolean Syntax used in CisionOne Monitoring if using the Boolean Query option.
While Boolean can be powerful for refining results, many customers use simple keyword searches for quick, relevant insights.
Helpful resources