CHICAGO, IL, January 20, 2010 – A national survey conducted by Cision and Don Bates of The George Washington University’s Master’s Degree Program in Strategic Public Relations found that an overwhelming majority of reporters and editors now depend on social media sources when researching their stories. Among the journalists surveyed, 89% said they turn to blogs for story research, 65% to social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and 52% to microblogging services such as Twitter. The survey also found that 61% use Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia.
While the results demonstrate the fast growth of social media as a well-used source of information for mainstream journalists, the survey also made it clear that reporters and editors are acutely aware of the need to verify information they get from social media. Eighty-four percent said social media sources were “slightly less” or “much less” reliable than traditional media, with 49% saying social media suffers from “lack of fact checking, verification and reporting standards.”
Are your social media profiles up to date?
This is great news. The more I get my book title “I Read It On A Church Sign” the better chance I have of getting a reporter to notice it.
Jeffery W. Dukes
I Read It On A Church Sign can be found at amazon.com
The wealth of news on the media is almost unlimited.
I'm not sure I agree that it's all “news” but any viewing of a 24 hours news channel will quickly show you that they are dying for fresh content.
If you are a recognized expert online, show up when you promise, and have a personality, they will love you
Jeffery
If you are using comment and social media as free ads, you may pick up a sale every once in a while, but you'll get the reputation almost as bad as a spammer.
You're missing 95% of the value is you miss engaging in the discussion. For instance, you could have told us that you are writing posts about issues that reporters are looking for, that you will be contacting local media and sharing that on your blog.
Best of all, you could reach out to other authors and bloggers and really help them. The more you are seen as a helpful person, the more attractive you'll be to the media, reader, book buyers and the world