Torchia Communications 
by Pénélope Carreau & Alexia Hacikyan
While “Enhanced Scanning” is as commonly used at our agency as the words “news release,” it is usually unfamiliar to our clients. Enhanced Scanning, or ES+, is a service we offer clients that combines brand and topic monitoring, social listening, intelligence reporting, content marketing, and stakeholder communications.
ES+ helps clients stay on top of relevant conversations, news articles, and social media posts. Doing so allows us to take advantage of the numerous opportunities that can come from these. It provides tangible value from the age-old, perennial PR service we all know as monitoring – a topic many of our clients complained about. To elevate the typical monitoring service, our team monitors subjects and brand mentions. We scan for public conversations related to our clients’ topics of expertise and seek to extract from each relevant “find” (or public discussion) the fruits that have value to our clients. We share the results with our clients in what we’ve termed “intel emails.” Through these ES+ efforts, we’ve earned opportunities that have, on the one hand, completely “wowed” the client and, on the other hand, reassured them that the PR function we’re nurturing with them is and will remain best in class.
For one client, we uncovered a top-trending article from a prominent national newspaper journalist with a weekly column of over 650,000 views. After a quick interjection note (“Fruit #2”), we engaged in a story the journalist wrote. Over the last two years, we have built a strong, mutually beneficial relationship with this columnist, resulting in over 55 product giveaways, increasing our client’s visibility in new regions and among new audiences. The bonus – we generate over two million impressions yearly from this meaningful relationship initiated through our ES+ service.
For another client, an interjection note (sent to a researcher from an Ivy League university) resulted, some six months later, in being featured in that expert’s next column – syndicated in dailies across the continent.
The power of ES+ goes well beyond surgical interjections. Each of the four other fruits provides a distinct value of its own. Content for Social (Fruit #5), for example, ensures that an over-dependence on client-centric content does not plague our client’s social media platforms. Client-centric content is great to have – but it should not be the totality of one’s content. After all, followers of your brand or company have come to expect a certain measure of content around the interests they share with you –from a lifestyle, cultural, or product category perspective. In other words, they value seeing that your brand or company shares interests with them that go beyond the mercantile realities of your commercial transaction or relationship. In effect, this is what you could call ‘curated content’ or thought leadership content.
Excellence in organizational communications or Public Relations can be simple enough. There’s a time-tested science to our work. Seeking fruits from efforts such as Enhanced Scanning is one way to ensure you remain satisfied with your PR investments.
Sign up for ES+ today and take advantage of its opportunities or fruits.
