By Chris Lee

According to survey findings unveiled in September, social media is viewed as an “important tool” by the majority (74 per cent) of UK journalists. But journalists’ enthusiasm for social channels for story research is tempered somewhat by their belief that the PR industry does not fully understand how to engage with them over social media.

The survey, conducted by PR workflow software provider Cision and the University of Sunderland, found that UK journalists value social media more as a research tool than their counterparts in France and Germany. Yet, despite the UK media’s reliance on tools such as Twitter, Wikipedia and LinkedIn to source stories and fact check, journalists’ interaction with PR professionals is still mostly conducted via phone and email. In fact, the survey found that a third (32 per cent) believed that UK PR professionals did not understand how to use social media to interact with the press, while 25 per cent said they did.

Get savvy

Four out of five (81 per cent) of journalists access blogs as part of their story research, the survey found, and with 40 per cent of UK journalists also sourcing stories via Twitter, PRs who are not yet “social media-savvy” must get up to speed quickly, according to Cision Europe’s CEO, Peter Granat.

“Our study of some of the UK’s most experienced journalists demonstrates a glaring gap between the way the press uses social media to generate stories and the more traditional methods which some in the PR industry still prefer,” Granat said. “Many PRs are using social media to great effect - for example, following and responding swiftly to journalists’ requests on Twitter - and are giving themselves a significant competitive edge as a result. What’s clear from Cision’s survey is that the rest of the industry needs to catch up to build better relations between PR professionals and journalists – and fast!”

Social media “not a silver bullet”

While journalists are divided over whether PR professionals are adept at communicating with journalists over social media platforms, for Andrew Lim, editor of mobile phone reviews website Recombu.com, journalists will only get a limited amount of information on social networks alone.

“Social media is as useful as you make it. At times it's been incredibly useful for researching and sharing articles but we don't rely on it. It's not a silver bullet,” Lim told NMK. “If you want to get the most out of social networks then you need to be focussed and you need to be pro-active. You can't just tweet a question and expect a good answer, you need to find out who is relevant to the project you're working on and get in contact with them.”

Freelance journalist Adrian Bridgwater, agrees.

"Social media took a little while to get used to, but once I understood the concept of how it could promote, interconnect and draw in very focused interest towards the jobs I was working on - then I was sold,” he said. “It's a great way of building connections that can provide really solid use in terms of journalistic content. There's probably some sort of respect or kudos factor involved as well, although that is not part of my reason for engaging in Twitter, Facebook and, if you must, LinkedIn. But social media is not email, so if you expect and really need an answer to your query, pitch or suggestion then don't use it - that's what email is for."

Lessons for PR professionals

So where does this leave the PR profession? Do those PR officers that interact with journalists via social media really enjoy a significant advantage over those that do not? That depends on how they use social channels, argues Stephen Waddington, managing director of London-based tech PR firm Speed Communications.

“For someone starting out in their PR career building a network of media contacts used to require lots of lunches and drinks after work. Face-to-face meetings still have an important role to play but now journalists are sharing their personal and professional interests every day online via Twitter,” he said. “Subscribing to the Twitter feeds of journalists and publications is a very easy way of gaining valuable insight into individual motivations. Engaging in conversation is then a short step away, but be social, be transparent and don’t abuse these relationships on Twitter as you’ll be named and shamed, or worst, you’ll be ignored. The block button is only ever a mouse click away.”