Although showing the boss press clips (preferably favorable ones) is an easy way to demonstrate PR's value, just 3% of PR execs forward them to senior management,
according to a recent survey sponsored by PR News and media-monitoring-services firm BurrellesLuce(Livingston, N.J.).
"No one else is going to toot my own horn but me. It's not to stroke my own ego, but to show [management] what we're doing." says Jennifer McConnell, PR coordinator for the
Connecticut Food Bank (New Haven), a nonprofit group that supports 500 community food-assistance programs in six (out of eight) counties in the state. McConnell shares all
of her clips with senior managers as well as with supporters, regardless of the tonality of coverage. PR pros "may not think that the clips are important, and managers may not
need to see every single clip in their inbox, but let them say that," she adds.
The survey -- "What Do You Do After The Clips Come In?" -- was conducted in July and garnered 300 responses among PR News subscribers. Sue Ross, VP of marketing at
BurrellesLuce, says she doubts just 3% of respondents forward clips to senior management because the survey was set up to allow for just one answer. "If they could choose
more than one response, that figure would be much higher," she says, pointing to the 51% of respondents who said clippings are "very important" to shaping future PR efforts and
the 43% of respondents who said they are "somewhat important."
Another intriguing aspect of the survey: 35% of respondents now get their clips delivered via e-mail, a percentage Ross expects to climb sharply in the next few months.
1. Do you outsource your media-monitoring efforts?
- Yes, to a media-monitoring/clipping-services firm: 43%
- Never: 31%
- Sometimes: 22%
- Yes, to a PR agency: 4%
If you answered "Never": Do you monitor your coverage in the media on a regular basis?
- Yes, we monitor designated publications internally: 68%
- Yes, via public search engines: 22%
- Yes, via a media-monitoring/clipping-services firm: 3%
- Yes, with our own proprietary software: 3%
- No: 4%
2. Please select the types of clippings you receive on a regular basis
- Newspaper: 78%
- Internet (Web sites): 10%
- Magazine: 7%
- E-newsletters: 4%
- Blogs: 1%
3. How are your clips delivered?
- U.S. Mail: 56%
- Directly to my e-mail: 35%
- To a Web portal that I access: 9%
4. How important is it to you to have electronic access to your clips?
- Very important: 52%
- Sometimes important: 36%
- Not important: 12%
5. Do you use a ranking system for your clippings?
- No: 43%
- What's a ranking system?: 24%
- Yes: 19%
- Sometimes: 14%
6. What do you FIRST do with the clippings once you receive them?
- I read all the clippings: 47%
- I read some of the clippings: 33%
- I create a clip book that I distribute to others within my organization: 10%
- I forward the clippings to someone else on my team: 7%
- I forward the clippings to senior management: 3%
7. Do you prepare your own analytical reports?
- Sometimes: 36%
- Always: 26%
- Never: 17%
- I'd like to, but I never have time: 21%
If you do prepare your own analytical reports, how many hours do you devote to this effort each month?
- 1-2: 46%
- 3-5: 37%
- 5 or more: 17%
8. How important are news clippings in shaping your future PR efforts?
- Very important: 51%
- Sometimes important: 43%
- Not important: 6%
9. How do you follow up on negative media coverage?
- I contact the reporter/s of that story immediately: 40%
- I follow up with that news source within the week: 20%
- I make sure our CEO does hear about it: 16%
- I ignore the media coverage, as long as it is accurate coverage: 16%
- I follow up with that news source within the month: 4%
- I pass it along to my PR firm: 4%
10. You've just received outstanding media coverage -- do you:
- Order reprints of the articles: 35%
- Contact the reporters to thank them: 22%
- Post some/all the articles or links on our intranet: 14%
- Other: (Sample): 14%
- Contact reporters and compliment them on their coverage; ask if I can be of assistance again
- Distribute coverage to executive staff and stakeholders
- E-mail the article to associates
- Inform our client and use for promoting our agency or for new-business meetings
- Include in the monthly internal PR newsletter
- Send copies to others who may not have seen, such as legislators
- Use in newsletter, proposals and presentation and future new biz pitches
- Post some/all the articles or links on our corporate Web site: 12%
- Issue a press release: 3%
Source: PR News/BurrellesLuce