Companies use media monitoring and information services extensively in Finland. At the moment, the services are mostly used to monitor competitors in the media, but in future, monitoring the social media will become more important for companies. This was the result of a telephone survey that charted companies' awareness of media monitoring and information services.According to the survey made in Finland, as many as 67% of companies regularly use competitor monitoring services; 56% of companies monitor their own media publicity, and 52% monitor news from their own business area. A total of 32% of companies purchase customer monitoring services regularly.According to the survey, media monitoring and information services have mostly strengthened the companies' own business, but also the companies' competitive position, for example, as well as the companies' targets in strategy and communication. When purchasing information services and media monitoring services, the most important issues companies considered were whether the service was easy to use and the clarity of the information. The next most important issues were the comprehensiveness of the services, whether the services can be tailored to the company's own requirements, as well as how well known the service provider is and its good reputation.Among the respondents, clearly the best-known company providing information and media monitoring services was Esmerk that was familiar to 75% of the respondents. The next best known companies were Meltwater News (36%) and Cision (36%).In future, monitoring the social media and a particular business sector, as well as monitoring the company's own media publicity will become increasingly important for companies. To a great extent, companies' service purchases will remain unchanged, but purchases will increase particularly in the case of social media monitoring (by 10%) and in competitor monitoring (by 10%).The survey was carried out by Innolink Research for Esmerk Finland. Over 200 people responsible for companies' purchases participated in the survey in Finland in February 2010 over the telephone.Additional information from:Esmerk FinlandIlkka RäsänenManaging DirectorTel. +358 9 122 4300ilkka.rasanen@sanoma.fiEsmerk provides its clients with targeted, concise, and comprehensive information and media monitoring services. Esmerk has seven offices worldwide, with 200 employees monitoring media from 130 countries. Esmerk is part of Sanoma News, a division of the Sanoma Group. Additional information from www.esmerk.com.