Data Deep Dive: Does traditional media use social media for story ideas?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I get a lot of my ideas for blog posts from research and companies don’t pay enough attention to the data before they launch campaigns. So Data Deep Dive was born…a weekly look inside the numbers as a communicator tries to make sense of the math.

Today’s Data (from Cision)

It probably won’t surprise any of you to read that traditional media reporters use social media to prompt story ideas and find sources. But what may surprise you is just how often the media looks to social channels when coming up with the next big story to tell.

One of my favorite pieces of research — I quote it all the time — is a Cision study from late 2009 that investigated the attitudes of journalists toward using social media for researching and reporting. The survey found the following:

• 89 percent  use blogs
• 65 percent use social networking sites like Facebook
• 52 percent use microblogging sites like Twitter

Why is this top of mind?

Too many companies put traditional media and social media in different buckets. When they consider the value of social, they don’t think about the fact that it could create content and opportunities to pitch traditional sources. And when they think about landing traditional placements, they think about the ones that come from a traditional pitch, not an employee’s tweet or blog post. But most of all, it’s just another example of why communicators need to look at all online channels as one ecosystem instead of in individual silos — because that’s how customers, and reporters, see them.

What other numbers should we consider?

• 56 percent — The amount of journalists in the study who said social media was important or somewhat important for reporting and producing the stories they write.
• Reporters use blogs (64 percent), social networks (60 percent) and Twitter (57 percent) to promote the stories and content they write.
• 2009 — When the study was conducted. It’s approaching two years later and I would expect that all of these numbers have gone up — trending the same way general social media adoption has trended — even if just by a little.

Key takeaways

• Traditional media uses social media. They use it for ideas, sourcing, story promotion and in their every day lives. So these two forms of media go together and one can beget the other.
• The work you or your clients do in the online space or via social media can lead to traditional media coverage. And to be honest, it’s not just what you do in social media. There are reporters covering brand and tech trends all over the place. So anything you do to engage with customers can become a traditional media story.
• Companies HAVE to train their employees on social media use. Today’s stories don’t always come from the PR department. All it takes is one tweet or blog post to provide a reporter with his or her next story idea. That said, if employees are trained on how to use social, this could be turned into something positive for the brand. Remember all the positive media coverage Best Buy got for its Twelpforce, for example, a program that empowered its employees to help customers resolve issues via Twitter.
• Stop looking at different types of media and channels in silos. Your customers don’t. And the media itself is breaking down those silo doors. When you think of one channel, think of how it can/may impact all of your brand’s other channels. Think  holistic. Think integrated. Silos are for farms, not corporate America.

Questions

• Do you have a good story of how social media efforts led to traditional media coverage?
• Anyone staying in contact with traditional media reporters by using social media?
• What other stats are important here? What did I miss?

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