While social media may have once been viewed by news media as another way to drive clicks to articles, Cision’s latest Global Social Journalism Study reveals that social media use by journalists goes far beyond publishing and promoting content.
In fact, more than 58 percent of the journalists surveyed rate social media as very important for interacting with their audience. And when you compare social media activities to previous years’ surveys, a much larger proportion are using social to listen — monitoring discussions about content and reading followers’ posts.
The study, which was conducted by Cision and Canterbury Christ Church University, tracks the ways social media affects journalists and media professionals across the United States, Canada, Finland, Germany, France, Sweden and the United Kingdom in both their work and their communication with PR professionals.
Most notably, the study has helped break down social media-using journalists into five types, determined by journalists’ views, attitudes and behavior toward social media, PR professionals and their own profession.
Are you targeting your outreach with these preferences in mind?
Keep reading to find out how these user types are key to building stronger media relationships and earning more coverage for your communications.
Architects
Architects are the trailblazers of the five groups, showing the greatest use of social media, and unsurprisingly, most of them (83 percent) work in online journalism. This is the only group that does not include journalists over the age of 65, with 58 percent aged 45 or younger.
They tend to have the most positive attitude towards social media and 83 percent believe they could not carry out their work without social media. However, traditional PR is still valuable with 63 percent say that PR sources and press releases improve the quality of their reporting.
Tip: To find Architect types, look for journalists who frequent social media throughout the day, engaging and responding to posts. These journalists may be the most receptive to your outreach on social media.
Promoters
This is the largest group, and as their name suggests, they are the most likely to say social media is important for publishing and promoting content (97 percent) as well as interacting with their audience, networking and monitoring.
This category is the one who views their relationship with PR professionals most positively. Look to social media interactions to build those relationships with 52 percent more likely to use social media to communicate with PR professionals than any other method of communication.
Tip: If you find a journalist whose primary use of social media is to promote their own content, grab their attention by helping to share their stories. Lending a helping hand to garner more reach and awareness is a great way to get on their radar.
Hunters
Hunters generally sit in the middle in terms of their social media use – not as active as Promoters and Architects but more than Skeptics and Observers.
73 percent spend two hours a day or less using social media for work. This group also skews older with 54 percent over the age of 45.
Tip: Chances are, when this group of journalists uses social media, they’re looking for something specific. Try looking at hashtags and accounts like #URGHARO or @Profnet to see when a journalist not typically on social is using a platform to find a source for their story, and if your brand might be a fit.
Observers
Observers tend to minimize their visible presence on social media. Their most frequent daily activities are reading posts of people they follow (43 percent) and reading online forums and discussion groups (36 percent). They hardly ever perform any activities on an hourly basis at all.
While other types (especially Architects) use social media to help them create content, observers are the least likely to say they regularly use user-generated content in their work (11 percent).
Tip: Use your social media sleuthing skills to find the other sites and platforms where these journalists interact online. Actively listen and monitor in those locations.
Skeptics
This group is composed of the least active social media users and, as their name suggests, tend to be the most skeptical about its benefits. Skeptics are the only group with no members who feel that social media has made them less reliant on PR professionals.
94 percent of this group use social media on a less than daily basis and half rate their social media competence as low or non-existent.
Tip: Instead of using social media to reach out to the skeptics, use it to gather pertinent information on them, before reaching out using their preferred method of contact.
When it comes time to develop your PR strategy, it’s essential to be able to identify which type of journalists you’re targeting.
Download Cision’s 2016 Global Social Journalism Study now for a closer look at each type’s main attributes, which channels they use, and how that usage has evolved over the years. With this knowledge in hand and the right media targeting tool, you can improve your pitch technique across all of your channels.
Author Amanda Hicken is a senior marketing manager at Cision, where she directs the demand generation content strategy for PR Newswire’s and Cision’s blogs. She believes the key to successful content is balancing creativity, analytics and commonsense. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow her on Twitter @ADHicken.
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