What social media networks are PRs on?

Photo Credit: photo by Richard Goodwin

Social media has become an essential part of the PR’s daily toolkit with more than 60% of UK PR professionals using social networks for work for more than one hour a day, according to Cision UK’s first-ever Social PR Study 2015, published last month.

The Study, which tracks and analyses social media usage and patterns among PRs in the UK, found that while promoting and publishing content were the two most popular reasons for social media use among PRs, tasks such as community engagement, media monitoring, measurement and online reputation management are increasingly becoming an integral part of the work PRs do. The growing responsibility and expanding role of PR in the digital age has therefore pushed professionals to rely on a variety of social media tools for the variety of PR functions now demanded of them.

Despite Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn being the most popular networks, the respondents of the Study listed more than 50 different social tools they use on a regular basis. These tools include YouTube, Google+, Instagram, and other less-likely suspects such as Topsy, Banjo, Tango and Vimeo, Scoop.it, Ping.it etc. (See table below)

PRs are also getting smart about their social media use which is no longer about simply pushing out content  across all and every platform, but understanding individual networks and tailoring the approach accordingly. The study shows that while Twitter and Facebook are favoured by PRs for promoting content, Twitter in particular is identified as the preferred tool across all key PR activities. Twitter is also the channel most likely to be used for pitching a story although this only represents about a quarter of respondents, suggesting that overall social media is not used for pitching.

This is what our study found – it will be interesting to hear what PRs themselves have to say about social media usage. Are you in agreement with our findings? Are there any other tools you are using for PR? Tell us!

Download the Social PR Study now!