THREE TAKEAWAYS FROM CISION’S STATE OF THE MEDIA REPORT
Cision is a powerful tool for PR professionals, providing contact information for media around the world. As an influencer, the search engine and monitoring platform releases a State of the Media report each year to showcase trends and insights from journalists themselves. This year’s State of the Media survey collected more than 1,550 responses from journalists, editors, influencers and producers. Here are three key takeaways that PR professionals can apply to their media efforts.
1. TAILOR TO YOUR AUDIENCE AND THEIR PREFERENCES
Newsworthiness and relevance to a journalist’s audience are critical to gaining a journalist’s attention. More than half of respondents said displaying knowledge of past work, interests and beats is what drove an influencer or journalist to pursue a story. Nearly a quarter of influencers and journalists said that providing product, event or issue details caused them to pursue a story. Journalists also continue to prefer email as the primary means of contact, with more than 90 percent of respondents indicating it as the best way to directly pitch a story idea. Calling journalists via phone or pitching through social media ranks below three percent. Journalists and influencers particularly dislike being contacted via telephone.
2. USE THE RIGHT CHANNELS AND METHODS TO ENGAGE WITH YOUR AUDIENCE
Facebook’s channel value continues to dominate; nearly half of respondents chose Facebook as the most valuable channel for audience engagement. Twitter saw a significant decline among respondents, dropping 19 percent from 2016. While almost half of respondents say they do not use new video features of existing social platforms, Cision cited that it is still an untapped medium for media professionals. This could be a great opportunity for PR professionals to allow journalists to get their feet wet by providing video content that is easy to repost.
3. PRESS RELEASES ARE THE MOST VALUABLE RESOURCE TO JOURNALISTS FOR THE SECOND YEAR IN A ROW
Right behind press releases was expert interviews and images. Video rose one spot from fourth to third most valuable, while products to review dropped in importance. Among bloggers, however, products ranked as the second most valuable resource. Assistance in story writing ranked last across the board.
At Largemouth, we work with editors, producers, reporters, bloggers, influencers and more daily. Contact us today to get started on your earned media campaigns!
