7 ways to become a more effective media analyst
Some personalities are ready-made for this vocation, but you can cultivate traits and habits to help you distill data and bring them to life through storytelling. Here’s what you should know.
Some might call us “stalkers,” because we continually and willfully follow things, but I prefer “media analyst.”
Unlike stalkers, the only thing we harass is bad media analysis and measurement—which raises the question: “What makes a good media analyst?”
To borrow a concept from motivational guru Stephen Covey, I believe it’s down to seven habits. These seven habits of the highly effective media analyst will help you succeed:
1. Start with the right personality type.
Anyone can be a media analyst, but my experience suggests certain personality profiles lend themselves to our work. (We put the “anal” into the word “analyst.”)
Using the Myers-Briggs personality profiles, for example, people defined as “Defenders” are characterized by having excellent analytic and judgment skills. “Consuls” are social animals who get on with other people.
These types match the profiles of my media analysis colleagues. A quick-fire evaluation of your team’s personality profiles might back up my theory that it takes a certain type of person to make a great media analyst.
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