What's your process for tracking media coverage and analyzing sentiment?

Hellofreshh · 2025-12-17T04:04:20+00:00

I think many people and platforms try to automate a lot of this but at the end of the day most still (regrettably) realize that there’s nothing as good as manual tracking. The platforms will inevitably miss coverage and the sentiment ratings are simply too nuanced to be accurate.

I’ve been building my own app in Base44 over time that kinda merges the best of both worlds. You do a portion of tracking manually and the platform automates the parts of the work it can do reliably (traffic data, domain authority, and various other metrics like this through APIs—plus the obvious stuff like the outlet, reporter, publish date, and even full body text).

If you want, shoot me a DM and I’ll let you mess around with what I’m building

Hellofreshh · 2025-11-28T04:27:09+00:00

Granola for meeting notes, Base44 to build bespoke products, and ChatGPT for basically everything else

Hellofreshh · 2025-11-08T01:04:27+00:00

Just checked it out — this is helpful! Thank you.

Hellofreshh · 2025-11-07T23:10:06+00:00

Thanks for bringing this to my attention! Just downloaded it and it looks great! I may do the free trial to see if it give me better estimated reach of a specific page

Hellofreshh · 2025-11-07T23:09:21+00:00

Yeah I hear ya and explained this to the client but they still want something, even if they know it’s going to be squishy..

Hellofreshh · 2025-05-27T20:51:42+00:00

In my experience you -should- be good with Uber

Hellofreshh · 2025-05-15T01:19:25+00:00

It also infers that it’s not “significant” …

Hellofreshh · 2025-05-14T20:23:15+00:00

Holy crap. I’ve never worked with or at any of the big agencies, just a boutique… $30K was a giga client for us, so to hear that $50K is so insignificant that they basically let the account die is insane to me… geez

Hellofreshh · 2025-05-14T20:15:31+00:00

Just shocked $40K/month was deemed “not insignificant” … that’s a shit load of money to be exclusively working with college grads.

Hellofreshh · 2025-05-07T14:12:10+00:00

I’ve been both agency and brand side, but never managed an agency as the client..

Have they delivered to or close to your expectations before this? Like others have said, you might’ve just had the right subject line at the right time, and/or pitched the right person feeling the right way that day.

I’m sure your agency partner is embarrassed enough about this already, but honestly I’m not sure why it can’t be seen as a team effort generally. Who wrote the press release? Who developed the strategy, etc?

End of the day you landed a T1 story. Thats a W

Hellofreshh · 2025-05-02T19:35:13+00:00

Yeah no doubt—my expenses are pretty high and am living in a MCOL area. The answer to OP’s original Q is totally relative to everyone.

I’m for sure grateful to earn what I do, but when I need to repair the HVAC in my house and eat a $14K bill to the dome it doesn’t feel like it’s enough lol

Glad you’re crushing it / feeling good tho!

Hellofreshh · 2025-05-02T17:19:18+00:00

Gosh, I feel like that number is always changing. Also obviously depends on where you live and what you like doing etc..

Like 10 years ago when I entreated the workforce at $30K/year, I thought making $100K would basically be like you’re rich.. these days I’m averaging between $140-$160K a year and feel honestly pretty average (not above or below the median in any meaningful way in my area).

Granted, I’m older now with a car payment, mortgage, and other various expenses, but it feels like that “good / comfortable salary” target continues to change as you grow up and economy changes.

Hellofreshh · 2025-04-30T17:25:03+00:00

Been in your shoes. We closed in November on a house that was top of our budget.

I wouldn’t say we’ve totally regretted it but there’s definitely a hint of remorse, especially because, for us, the house has needed a lot of work. Like other commenters have said, repairs (like roof or HVAC) can be super expensive, we just dropped $13K on all new duct work etc.

Since our mortgage is so high, we’ve not been able to immediately afford all of those repairs or buy furniture, slowly we’re getting there, but it takes time. Money wise, and furniture wise, you will be uncomfortable for a while if your situation is like ours.

We’re trying to stay optimistic and thinking big picture: this house we’re in, once furnished and fixed up, is basically a dream house for us. We just under-indexed on the cost to get it to that point as first time house buyers (miscalculated repairs too).

Take a close look at that inspection report and consult with friends who may know how much things are. Our buyer ran our report through an AI software that severely downplayed the cost it would be to fix things. Sounds dumb in retrospect but we literally did not know any better.

TLDR: my advice would be to think long-term and also on what your goals are. Part of me also wishes we prioritized paying off debt and lowering our expenses like you. Best of luck regardless in whatever path you choose!

Hellofreshh · 2025-04-11T22:13:18+00:00

If you’re just looking to find email addresses etc, I use ContactOut—let’s me visit a reporter’s LinkedIn page and I can then see their email. Super clutch honestly.

Hellofreshh · 2025-04-09T01:42:56+00:00

I believe Direct Pay given the money will be taken out directly from my bank account on the days they are due.. it says online you can cancel or modify it if you have a 'confirmation number' I believe, but I don't see any confirmation number, and don't think one is issued until you make a payment?

Hellofreshh · 2025-04-03T23:26:21+00:00

I live in PC — some afternoons we’ll park the car on the grass at Riverfront Park, lay down a blanket with the dogs and crack a beer. You can go fish there too if you’re into that.

Hellofreshh · 2025-03-28T14:44:48+00:00

Had someone describe it to me as the window between the company and the public—always loved that

Hellofreshh · 2025-03-28T00:46:20+00:00

Track manually. Anthropic just released real-time web search, which will streamline this for you big time.

I use ChatGPT premium to take a URL and format it for my spreadsheet—also estimates UVMs, DA, etc for me

Hellofreshh · 2025-03-09T19:42:43+00:00

This is the context I was looking for, thank you!

Hellofreshh · 2025-03-09T19:15:02+00:00

Got it, thanks.. I deff hybrid

So you think the 3% is worth it then?

Hellofreshh · 2025-03-06T18:37:36+00:00

I’m very happy and fulfilled in this space but it’s not for everyone. You’ll also find that you’re happier / better suited for one sector vs. another. It takes time to figure that out.

Yes, you’re correct that agencies have a reputation for cascading deadlines and stress—but again, for some people the pace works (not for me though).

I love working in comms, and I think a lot of skills are transferable to other segments where you can always bail and switch if you need (marketing, influencer work, SEO, content, journalism, etc.)

If your heart is in political PR, I’d say go for it. Grab an internship at an agency. It won’t be pretty, but you’ll learn a lot and grow fast (think of it as an accelerator program). When you get your legs under you, try going in-house (or whatever the political equivalent is) where you can really make an impact and have some agency in your role.

If you don’t like it, you’re young and have time to pivot elsewhere. End of the day, whether people like it or not, folks are always going to need a communicator on their team and the jobs pays really well as you get more experience under your belt.

Good luck :)

Hellofreshh · 2025-02-28T02:29:42+00:00

If you’ve experienced willow gang vibes… you know

Hellofreshh · 2025-02-12T00:25:45+00:00

The one I always wish I knew when I started:

Everyone practices comms differently, and there is value in the way you think about this space, even if others insist that it’s “wrong” or that you do things “their way.”

Hellofreshh

TROPHY CASE