A third of journalists say PRs don’t get social media – why?

Do you interact with journalists via social media? I’ve just filed a story which should appear soon in New Media Knowledge which looks closely at a survey, conducted by PR workflow software provider Cision and the University of Sunderland, which found that the majority (74 per cent) UK journalists find social media as an “important tool” for research.

However, many members of the press questioned say that the PR industry by and large has yet to fully grasp how to interact with journalists on social platforms. A third (32 per cent) believed that UK PR professionals on the whole do not understand to interact with the press via social media, while 25 per cent believe they do. There appears to be disagreement over whether or not the PR industry is adept at communicating with journalists via social media channels, but regardless, when 81 per cent of journalists are accessing blogs as part of their story research and 40 per cent source stories via Twitter, it’s a trick that PROs simply cannot afford to miss.

Top tips

Here are a few top tips on interacting with journalists on social media:

* Follow relevant journalists on Twitter and set searches using Tweetdeck on subjects relevant to you or your clients, so you can see in real time what comment or feature opportunities arise

* Use Listorious to identify the key influencers to follow

* Blog well and often. Make sure your key influencers are aware of your blog so they can sign up to your feeds via RSS

*Once you’ve made contact with that journalist or blogger and they’ve responded, make sure you find them on LinkedIn and invite them to connect

My NMK article includes insight from journalists Andrew Lim and Adrian Bridgwater, and PR kahuna Stephen Waddington, so look out for that.

Other key findings:

• The vast majority (88 per cent) of UK journalists use social media more in 2010 as part of their work than they did three years ago
• The press release still has its uses, with a fifth (21 per cent) saying they use releases more now than three years ago, compared to 17.5 per cent who use releases less
• A fifth (20 per cent) of UK journalists access Twitter at least once a day as part of their story sourcing, although rarely to fact check
• 81 per cent of UK journalists access blogs as part of their story research, underlining the importance of blogs as a source for corporate comment
• 41 per cent of UK journalists do not receive “social media releases”
• Personal contacts are still important in PR-journalist relations, with half (50 per cent) of journalists talking to personal contacts daily

For more on the survey, view the executive summary here.

*disclaimer: the author works with Cision on generating PR materials

** original blog appeared on sister site RunMarketing.co.uk