Research data from a few recent surveys about the media and journalists’ use of social media tools should be a loud call to action for PR professionals.
90% of UK journalists polled say they use social media in reporting news stories
Half of them feel that PR people are not keeping up – they say we’re not using the right digital PR resources and tools that make it easy for journalists to find and use their news content
88% want images with news releases
35% want video
Provide embed codes and single URLS for those assets so a journalist or blogger can easily and quickly use your material
Include links to relevant information – background data, analyst info, bios of those quoted etc.
Take a hard look at your online newsroom. Are you servicing the digital journalists?
The PwR survey polls 200 journalists from newspapers, magazines and the Internet each year.
The 2011 study key findings show that journalists are embracing the online world:
77% contribute content to a website or a blog in addition to their usual duties
87% prefer to receive press releases via email
91% want “easy access” via a link in the email to relevant background, bios and supporting information
87% want access to high res images
76% want verbiage they can cut and paste easily
79% are more likely to pick up a story with an image
For the first time journalists are asking for digital assets with embed codes:
44% want access to low res images
32% want embed codes so they can easily grab and reuse the images on websites or blogs
22% want an image player they can transfer to their site with a few clicks
The use of video is also gaining ground:
85% of online media sites are using video with their news stories
30% of journalists are now looking for web quality video
23% say that embed codes for easy transfer of your video to other sites and blogs are very important
Journalists are relying on the digital world for information:
96% start with a search
84% like electronic media kits emailed to them
87% use online newsrooms
85% tap social media (Facebook, Twitter)
82% read blogs
32% get information via RSS feeds
Re-examine your Media Relations Strategy:
There are 30% fewer journalists and the way they are expected to do their job is rapidly changing. If you want to get coverage for your news stories, you have to change too.
Create a rich news environment on your website where journalists can find all the data they need
Post your news in the social media release format. (It’s like an electronic media kit)
Add images and videos
Add slide decks and graphics with players that can easily be transferred to a website or blog
Provide embed codes for all visual material
Include bios and relevant background/supporting material
Add media contacts
Send an email to the journalist with links to this content
Make it possible to subscribe to your news in a feed or by email
Make it easy for any visitor to share the news content
When you give journalists the news in the format they prefer it pays dividends.
“We are delighted with the results of our move to a social media newsroom. We’ve gained media coverage that has not only transferred into positive exposure for our destination, but has helped increase visitation to our industry partners as well.” Casey Hough, Marketing and Media Manager VisitWinstonSalem.com
As broadband capacity increases so does the demand for visual material and video. And while funny videos of cats and babies might seem to be top of the list, the use of video content to cover news stories by online media websites has jumped by a third in the last year to 85 percent. They are increasing the use of in-house and externally developed video content to support their online reporting – source: 2011 Web Influencers Survey (www.dssimon.com)
“It appears that almost all forms of media have transformed themselves into online television networks,” said Douglas Simon, president and CEO of D S Simon.
This trend looks set to continue since web media companies say they plan to increase their use of video footage: Nearly four-fifths of respondents indicated they would use more or much more video in 2011 than they did in 2010.
Other key findings of this survey:
Nearly half (47 percent) of media websites now offer a mix of advertorial, product placement and paid content: The survey found that in addition to paid advertising, media site-owners are looking toward brand integration opportunities to raise additional revenues. Magazine sites were most aggressive in this area (68 percent), followed by radio (50 percent), web producers (47 percent), newspapers (45 percent), bloggers (40 percent) and TV (31 percent).
Earned media on a website generates more value than just the initial placement: Video content placed by companies and public relations agencies on a website has an increasing chance of being syndicated to other websites. The likelihood of content being shared last year was 43 percent; in 2010; 41 percent of responds indicated they were likely to share video content; and in 2009, just 35 percent indicated they were likely to do so. Newspapers, at 63 percent, were the most likely media website to share content with other sites.
“Searching online for news changed the news industry in the last decade. Sharing the news will be what influences it most in this decade.“ Pew Research
Forrester Research reports that video increases a web page’s likelihood for a front-page Google search result by 96 percent
ComScore found that product videos increase the likelihood of purchase by 64 percent
Internet Retailer discovered that videos increase time spent on a website by an average of 9 percent.
PR Takeaway:
Make all your news releases social media releases – add online video to all your news content. Remember those video news releases we used to make? Sharpen up those skills and learn how to translate it to the online digital world. Offer complete, short, interesting videos and B-roll with each news release.
Media sites prefer completed videos to other video content:
Fully produced videos (57 percent)
B-roll footage (49 percent)
Sound bites last (47 percent
TV sites almost universally prefer b-roll footage (98 percent) but newspapers much preferred completed videos (71 percent).
Upgrade your online newsroom to a social media newsroom with a video gallery that has offers reporters and bloggers the embed code for your video assets. That way they can easily republish your content.
As broadband capacity increases so does the demand for visual material and video. And while funny videos of cats and babies might seem to be top of the list, the use of video content to cover news stories by online media websites has jumped by a third in the last year to 85 percent. They are increasing the use of in-house and externally developed video content to support their online reporting – source: 2011 Web Influencers Survey (