â–¶ Online Advocates: A Burson-Marsteller study tracking social media use by political advocacy groups found that nearly all (97%) are using at least one social media platform to communicate with stakeholders. The study tracked the digital presence of 34 U.S. groups such as the AARP, the Human Rights Campaign and National Taxpayers Union on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. (Of these groups, only one had no social media presence on any of these platforms.) Findings include:
• The majority (61% of groups on Twitter and 56% of groups on Facebook) use social media to encourage direct outreach to Congress and other politicians.
• On average, political advocacy groups had 4,880 Twitter followers, 32,588 Facebook fans and 777 YouTube subscribers.
• Most advocacy groups prioritize follower engagement. They follow an average of 2,261 accounts, and 73% mentioned or retweeted other users to engage or acknowledge them.
• Only about 1 out of 5 advocacy groups (21% on Twitter and 19% on Facebook) use social media to ask for fundraising support.
• Online video also proved an important outreach tool . Thirty-two groups had YouTube channels, and these groups have uploaded 3,432 videos total. The average number of videos per YouTube channel was 107.
Source: Burson-Marsteller
â–¶ Customer First: Oriella PR Network’s Digital Journalism Study found that despite greater demands on journalists’ time (46% of journalists polled say they are expected to produce more content than before, with 30% working longer hours), many (40%) are positive about the impacts of digital and social media on their reporting. Signs of growing digital media presence include:
• Fewer than 15% of journalists surveyed said their pubs support no social or digital media at all; 47% say their publications have journalist-authored blogs and 40% say their publications use Twitter.
• Twenty-two percent say their publication is researching or has launched smartphone apps in order to deliver paid-content to mobile users and 16% are researching paid-content for iPads and e-readers. PRN
Source: Oriella PR Network