This document provides 15 tricks for using the Vocus media monitoring and analytics tool more effectively. It describes features like searching for uncategorized results, excluding certain terms or sources from searches, filtering search results, tagging multiple results at once, customizing the homepage dashboard, and prioritizing news stories by word count and mentions. Users are encouraged to fully utilize the advanced search and analytics capabilities of Vocus to refine results and gather important insights about media coverage and conversations.

1. little book of
BIG Ideas
15 Vocus tricks that you NEED to know
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2. tons of BIG Ideas this way!
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4. -EMPTY-
what’s the BIG Idea?
Here’s a quick way to get everything tagged and categorized.
Just type -EMPTY- into a news, media contact or media outlet search – and
you’ll get everything that has yet to be categorized in your results. And
don’t underestimate the importance of categorization – it helps you find
everything you’re looking for faster and brings you more accurate analytics.
steps:
search field -EMPTY-
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5. <>
what’s the BIG Idea?
Use these arrows the next time you search – it means “not
equal to.” So if you’re interested in seeing every mention except for
those on Twitter, just type <>Twitter – it’s that quick and it’s that easy.
steps:
search field <>
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6. show all search options
what’s the BIG Idea?
There are literally tons of ways to refine your search behind this
little box. So check it, and make searching for contacts, outlets and
news a whole lot quicker and simpler.
steps:
media contacts/media outlets/news advanced search show all search options
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7. is social media: yes
what’s the BIG Idea?
Journalists and bloggers don’t just write stories and blog posts
anymore – they tweet and Facebook, too. In fact – most stories are
broken on social outlets and some stories are never even printed.
With this feature, you can find journalists on social networks and see
what they’re saying.
steps:
media contacts advanced search show all search options
news origin is social media → “yes”
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8. Type: =Twitter
Add New News Type
Name
Twitter
Video/Photo - Other
what’s the BIG Idea?
Think your presence on Twitter is strong? You can find out with this
feature and see every tweet or retweet that you’re looking for, in
minutes. Quick tip: this doesn’t end with Twitter. You can see how
strong you are on Facebook, WordPress, YouTube and more.
steps:
news advanced search type “twitter”
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9. Filter
what’s the BIG Idea?
This feature is awesome – if your first search nets thousands of
various mentions and coverage, you can narrow it down.
Refine your search by date, outlet, type, origin or company.
steps:
news news results page filter
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10. share button
what’s the BIG Idea?
This is Vocus’ latest feature – you can “share” information on Twitter
and Facebook from anywhere in the Vocus system. You can add as
many Facebook and Twitter accounts as you want – and can engage
quickly and directly with consumers and prospects, share content or
post a mention without having to open a different window.
steps:
any page share button
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11. any of these unwanted words/phrases: NOT
Example: iTunes
what’s the BIG Idea?
When searching, there are some things that you just know you don’t
need to see. For example, if Warren Buffet wanted to see his company’s
(Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.) mentions, he’d be wise to include NOT “Anne
Hathaway” in his search. This can really make your search results a lot
easier to manage.
steps:
admin media monitoring searches add
“your search term” “NOT” field
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12. any of these subjects:
Subject
Alumni & Formerly Employed
Language:
Birth & Obituary Announcements
Country: Crime
what’s the BIG Idea?
Broad searches are going to bring broad results – here’s a way to
drill down on what you’re really looking for. With this feature, you
can exclude some of the subjects (i.e. - crime, obituary, financial,
government) that you know you won’t be looking for.
steps:
admin media monitoring searches add
“your search term” “subjects” field
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13. - word clouds
what’s the BIG Idea?
With word clouds, you can see what phrases, terms or words are
coming up the most in your online chatter. You’ll see how people are
talking about your company – which can help you craft your message
and speak the same language as your audience.
steps:
analytics homePage designer (same folder icon shown on page #13)
add panel news word cloud
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14. News Projects Newsroom Analytics
New News | Refresh Results | Reports | Save | Tools
Batch Block Outlets
Batch Change
Change Results Columns
what’s the BIG Idea?
Say you conduct a search for a media contact and your results come
back with 1,000 different contacts – you want to put a tag or category
on 300 of them. It would be painful to go through one-by-one – but
with this feature, you don’t have to. You can take action in batches. You
can change a group of search results at once – and put all of the contacts
you want in the right category, subject or type.
steps:
news/media contacts “your search term”
select or de-select whichever results you want tools batch change
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15. Rating:
Ad Value: Rating
NEG
Viewed By:
NEU
List: POS
what’s the BIG Idea?
Say you want to see your positive – and only your positive – coverage.
Or negative or neutral coverage, for that matter. You can refine
your search to pinpoint the journalists or outlets that are giving you the
most love – and would be likely candidates to give you love again.
Quick tip: if you read a mention that we label as positive, but you think
is negative, you can change it. Just go to the batch change page.
steps:
news advanced search “rating”
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16. customized homepage
what’s the BIG Idea?
You can set up your Vocus dashboard just the way you want it. You can
move and re-size panels – and can add charts, search options and
lists, too. This will get you through the system faster – because you’ll
know exactly where everything is. Quick tip: when you’re finished, don’t
forget to hit save.
steps:
home tab folder icon
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17. Origin: Social Media
[All]
News
Blogs
Social Media
what’s the BIG Idea?
You can see your coverage, mentions and sentiment on social media,
blogs and traditional media – side-by-side. It’s a great way to compare
what’s being said in each forum – or to simply see how you’re doing in a
particular forum.
steps:
analytics top right drop-down menu change options “origin”
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18. Enable Automatic Typing: Yes No
what’s the BIG Idea?
This is all about prioritization and categorization. You set the criteria
here for feature’s and briefs here – as you can define how many mentions
per X amount of words as a feature story or brief. This way, your search
results are catered to you. And you’ll know when a feature story about
you is actually, well, a feature story.
steps:
admin support files news types automatic news typing “yes”
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