Braodgate Mainland, in its fifth annual digital trends survey of media and financial services, assesses the present-day social and digital media landscape from the point of view of both the in-house communication officers working in the financial service sector of the UK and the financial journalists. This survey was conducted in the form of an online questionnaire for both types of professionals. On the whole, 105 journalists and 51 professionals from the in-house communication offices responded to this survey.
According to the survey, journalists as well as in-house communication officers working in the financial service sector, approach social media in a totally different manner. While the in-house PRs access social media casually, during the lunch time or evenings, 41 % of journalists remain online all day long with the hope of getting a news tip or any other update.
About 62 % financial journalists believe that having more number of hits online is the best way of measuring the success of their articles, jumping up from a somewhat low 42 % mark of previous year. Of all, only 29 % of respondents considered the print media as an accolade for success, which has come down remarkably from the 35 % mark in 2012. For the 41 % financial journalists, having the article tweeted and socially shared was more important.
Some other Trends Revealed from the Survey included the following:
• Twice of as many financial journalists, as in 2012, now make use of social platforms like LinkedIn or Twitter to source their stories.
• More than three-fourth of financial journalists now rely on PR and related commentary even more for being the first one to have access to the news.
• More than a quarter of media personnel are increasingly focusing on similar media pundits for their published work, and about 29 % feel the opportunities are limited for checking the factual accuracy of these stories.
• 87 % of financial journalists love to be contacted by emails, which makes it 10 times more popular as compared to telephone, a communication tool that is used by only 8 % of the respondents.
• Twitter experienced a bit of slag with a drop from 57 % in 2012 to 45 % this year, in terms of being the favourite social media platform for sourcing news.
• More than double the number (22 %) of financial PRs said they outsource their social media monitoring process to other agencies.
• More than 38 % of the senior financial service decision makers do not rely on social media platforms. This, along with restrictions imposed in the name of compliance (40 %) and complete barring of social media usage at work (22 %), limits the use of social media at many financial companies.
There is no exaggeration to the fact that social media has opened new doors and broadened the scope of communication between the media and companies. However, the ways in which PRs and journalists approach the digital platform are completely different. Though the media has managed to catch up this productive channel, old compliance-bound constraints, time pressure and corporate finance priorities still prevents social media from getting as much attention as deserved.
From the Broadgate Mainland’ 2013 Digital Trends Survey.
About the Author:
Perl Watson is a prolific writer who compiles relevant facts and analyzes current state of affairs pertaining to varied domains, such as employment, education, finance and social media.
