|
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