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Survey Results: Media Relations in Practice

February 26, 2008


Exclusive for Friends of PR News -- Get a $50 Barnes & Noble Gift Card, FREE! Here's how: just take a quick demo of Vocus' public relations software, which offers PR professionals all the tools they need to manage their media relations. Details here: http://www.vocus.com/prnewssurveyoffer/index.asp

Survey Results: Media Relations in Practice

PR News conducted a survey of PR professionals the week of May 14, 2007 gauging their media relations practices, from measurement to outsider partners they use. We received 713 responses. Look for an article on this topic in an upcoming issue of PR News.

1. How does your organization measure the success of its PR efforts?
  Response
We internally track and quantify our public relations 433 60.8%
We use outside services to track and quantify our PR 118 16.6%
We don’t measure our PR 84 11.8%
Other: 77 10.8%
(responses include Internal Tracking; Both Internal & External; By Memberships; Not Sure)    

 

2.  Please rank the following activities in terms of them being critical to your success as a PR professional. (Rank in order of importance, “very important;” “somewhat important”; or “not important at all”. )
 
 
a. Reaching the right journalist
Response
very important
644
89.1%
somewhat important
74
10.2%
not important at all
5
0.7%
     
b. Tracking news about my organization    
very important
543
75.1%
somewhat important
170
23.5%
not important at all
10
1.4%
     
c. Tracking competitor news    
somewhat important
407
56.3%
very important
198
27.4%
not important at all
115
15.9%
No Response
3
0.4%
     
d. Measuring and analyzing my PR initiatives    
very important
454
62.8%
somewhat important
255
35.3%
not important at all
13
1.8%
No Response
1
0.1%
     
e. Tracking conversations with the media    
very important
358
49.5%
somewhat important
323
44.7%
not important at all
41
5.7%
No Response
1
0.1%
     
f. Producing clip books and reports    
somewhat important
375
51.9%
very important
267
36.9%
not important at all
81
11.2%

 

3.  What tools, if any, do you use to track and manage your media relations? (check all that apply)
 
Response
Excel and/or Outlook
498
34.3%
Web-based Media Directory
414
28.5%
Media Directory (Phone book style)
257
17.7%
Rolodex
210
14.5%
Manage media contact relationships? What’s that?
73
5.0%


4.  Which of the following trends are having / will have an impact on the way your organization conducts Public Relations? (check all that apply)
 
Response
Emergence of blogs and other social media
492
22.9%
Increasing importance of public relations in the overall marketing mix
491
22.8%
Impact of the internet on the news cycle
437
20.3%
Blurring lines between PR and marketing (e.g. search engine optimized press releases)
414
19.3%
Increased pressure from management to measure impact of public relations
316
14.7%

 

5. What tools, if any, do you use to manage news coverage? (check all that apply)
  Response
Google and/or Yahoo
562
32.1%
Outsourced clipping service (please list)
327
18.7%
Web-based news monitoring service (please list)
304
17.4%
Scissors and the local paper
300
17.1%
* Suppliers being used (below includes only those that received at least 5 responses)
 
Vocus
18
 
Cision
16
 
BurrellesLuce
44
 
Factiva
22
 
Bacon's
14
 
Lexis Nexis
18
 
VMS
6
 
In House
14
 

 

6. How often do you track news coverage on your company?
 
Response
Daily
397
54.9%
Hourly/real-time
129
17.8%
Weekly
108
14.9%
Monthly
46
6.4%
Never
20
2.8%
Quarterly
15
2.1%
No Response
7
1.0%
Annual Report
1
0.1%

 

7.  How often do you track news coverage on your competitors?
 
Response
Daily
225
31.1%
Hourly/real-time
160
22.1%
Weekly
126
17.4%
Monthly
106
14.7%
Never
47
6.5%
Quarterly
40
5.5%
No Response
11
1.5%
Annual Report
8
1.1%

 

8. Do you use an external PR agency or consultant?
 
Response
No
481
66.5%
Yes, one
136
18.8%
Yes, more than one
91
12.6%
No Response
15
2.1%

 

9. If you answered yes to #8, how well do you coordinate activities and measure results between your agency and internal resources?
 
Response
No Response
477
66.0%
OK
130
18.0%
Very well
93
12.9%
Poorly
23
3.2%

10. With new technology being applied to the PR industry, which of the following PR vendors are you aware of? (check all that apply)

* BurrellesLuce was inadvertently left off the survey. PR News apologizes for the oversight.

 

11. Of the companies listed above, which companies do you currently use to assist with PR initiatives? (please list)

a. More than 100 responses:

  • PR Newswire
  • Business Wire

b. Between 50 and 100 responses:

  • Vocus
  • Factiva
  • Cision

c. Between 25 and 50 responses:

  • BurrellesLuce
  • VMS
  • Marketwire
  • Magenta (now Melwater)
  • PR Web
  • Lexis Nexis
  • Cymfony

 

 

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