360DigitalInfluence

Social media continues to evolve, shaping not just our thoughts on connectivity and information consumption online, but how it applies to our everyday lives.

This is not breaking news. Still, there are many people, brands and companies that are still dipping their toes in the social media pool, trying to gauge the value of social media platforms and leveraging these sites to connect with their key audiences. As a digital strategist with a traditional public relations background, I can see the value in both online and offline media, but note the increased convergence between the two mediums. Yet many companies still grapple with social media and are tasked with demonstrating “the value” more than ever. What if these same organizations knew that mainstream media reporters were conducting a good deal of their research on social media websites, such as blogs, Twitter or Wikipedia?

Last week, our team came across a recent study by George Washington University and Cision titled “2009 Social Media & Online Usage Study” on how mainstream media and web-based journalists use social media sites in their daily work. The subhead of the press release announcing the study states, “Poll Finds 89% Use Blogs, 65% Use Social Networking Sites, and 52% Use Microblogging Sites — but Reliability is a Major Concern,” which piqued our interest. As a result, my colleague Rachel Polish and I decided to conduct our own mini-study of both mainstream media and bloggers to see if our results corroborated with the Cision study. Additionally, we wanted to know if there were major differences in how mainstream media and bloggers leveraged social media tools.

Here are some of the questions we posed and responses we received from our friends in the media:

What social media tools are you using to publish, promote and distribute what you write?

From a high-circulation, mainstream magazine reporter:

• Blogs: Wish I had better connections here, would love to do better cross-syndication of information.
• Twitter: Lots of promotion throughout official channel, not very much through my personal one.
• LinkedIn: I’d very much like to increase my reach here. Seems like a nice way to be personal and professional.
• Facebook: Facebook is my private place. No public promotion here, save a “fan” group with like 20 people.
• Flickr: None.
• YouTube: We’re starting to post videos here, though unofficially.
• Review sites: None.
• Other: Email!

From Eliane Fiolet, Publisher and Editor of the blog Ubergizmo (www.ubergizmo.com):

We use LinkedIn, Facebook, Friendfeed, Twitter, and YouTube to re-publish the content (mostly article title + link to the blog post) that we post on Ubergizmo.com, sometimes Flickr, but not too much. Other blogs re-publish our content; some do a total copy/paste with a link to our original article, and some use the information and write their own post and link to our original article. When we have access to exclusive events, like the Apple press conference, we authorize other blogs who do not have this access to use our live blogging pictures (three or more updates per minute) in exchange for a mention and a link, and our logo is watermarked in the pictures.

How do you measure the impact and/or traction of your stories published on the Internet/Social Media sites?

From Brian Stelter, the New York Times (www.nytimes.com):

I sometimes notice when a story is retweeted especially often. I sometimes view the comments on articles, especially when I’m writing other stories about the subject.

From Cheri Loughlin, the blog, The Intoxicologist (www.intoxicologist.net):

I don’t worry so much whether an individual post or cocktail receives comments, or what reader views happen to be on any given day.  My focus revolves around what readers are interested in over the long haul.  I look for trends in what my readers search for in key words that brings them to specific articles.  Readers will also tell you what they want if you build respect and trust.  Rather than use The Intoxicologist Facebook fan page as a tool for just placing article links, I try to engage my readers in conversation for feedback so I can bring them more of what they want.  I also learn a great deal from my readers, which is a great experience for me.

From Jane Maynard, the blog, This Week for Dinner (www.thisweekfordinner.com):

I consider the number of website visitors, number of comments or views, number of Twitter followers, and number of inbound links, although I feel like traffic to my blog and number of comments are my most accurate gauge.

Which search engines/sites/sources do you use most when doing online research or distribute what you write?

From Robert Selna, Reporter, San Francisco Chronicle (www.sfgate.com):

I use Google in nearly every instance in which I need quick contact information for a company, non-profit group or government agency. I rely on Lexis-Nexis for harder to find contact information and for news stories related to the topics I’m covering.

With the changing media landscape, it is clear that both mainstream as well as web media are increasing leveraging social platforms to conduct research and locate sources for their stories. Additionally, it is evident that there is a growing value placed on engagement and what topics trend to have the most traction.

What social tools do you find you use the most to communicate your messages? How do you measure the impact of your work or posts on the social web? While it’s clear both public relations practitioners and the media are leveraging more social tools and platforms, there is still an evolution taking place in terms of how these tools are perceived and how trustworthy the content is. We’d be interested in learning what resources and tools are most effective for you.