Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
Pitching to journalists through social media may be over-rated, according to one recent survey.
A survey of over 200 journalists by PWR New Media found that journalists overwhelmingly prefer to receive news releases via email: 91% of respondents said email is their preferred distribution method. Less than 1% said they prefer to receive releases through social media. Their preference for email is partly because they face increased demands and less staff support. Many journalists are now responsible for creating online content. Journalists are increasingly responsible for contributing images, graphics and videos. Emailed releases make it easier for them to find, grab and reuse the content they need.
“Savvy communications teams are crafting and sharing visually engaging, transferable content with the media,” stated Dr. Malayna Evans, vice president of marketing and business development for PWR New Media, in a press release. Releases with quality visual content that tells a compelling brand story get more traction, especially when PR pros enable the media to easily grab and reuse the content.
What’s Most Important to Reporters
The top five assets journalists rated as the most important were: relevant backgrounders, bios and supporting info (cited by 82% of respondents), high-resolution downloadable images (78%), verbiage that can be cut and pasted from a release (59%), low-resolutions images (46%), and relevant infographics (45%).
“Links to downloadable photos are very useful,” said one journalist. “You can’t always reach a company’s communications staff as quickly as needed. Having high-res photography immediately available greatly increases a company’s chance of being featured, as we often need content at odd hours.” In fact, 74% of journalists stated that they were more likely to cover a news release if it included easy access to hi-res photos.
“But don’t go blasting irrelevant news to thousands of journalists. Target your list as carefully as you craft your story ideas,” Evans advised.
The survey revealed that journalists really do want to hear from communications teams. Asked if they want to hear from PR professionals, even those they don’t know, 84% of journalists said yes.
Social Networks Have Their Uses
While email is their preferred communication method, social media can be an effective and efficient way for PR professionals to stay in touch with journalists. Although most journalists do not want to receive news releases via social, many visit social sites for story ideas. They cited Facebook (79%), Twitter (63%) and LinkedIn (53%). In addition, journalists are researching and crafting stories on smartphones (35%) and tablets (18%) as well as lap/desktop computers (99%).
Other Surveys Concur
This most recent report confirms previous surveys and anecdotal reports that reporters prefer to receive pitches and news releases through email. Social media is too public a forum. They don’t want competitors or the public to know what stories they’re considering or preparing. In addition, the platforms don’t allow enough space to fully explain story ideas.
A Business Wire survey last year found that most journalists prefer to receive press releases via email alerts (66.5%) with a link to the full press release. Only 3.7% prefer to be contacted through social media, while text messages and telephone calls (total 2.8%) are the least favored contact methods.
The survey of almost 400 journalists found that many (36%) would be more likely to use a news release if it included multimedia elements, such as photos, logos, audio and video files.
In addition, most media respondents (84.7%) use commercial newswire services to find and augment their news coverage, and 53.5% refer to newswires daily or several times a day.
Bottom Line: Despite their widespread use of social media, journalists prefer to receive news releases via email, surveys show. In addition, they are more likely to read and publish releases with videos or other multi-media content.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks