Top-Line Findings

TEKGROUP International and Western Kentucky University’s School of Journalism & Broadcasting

2010 Social Media News Survey

Final results of a social media news survey conducted by TEKGROUP International and Associate Professor Ken Payne of Western Kentucky University seem to underscore the importance of the online newsroom to corporate communicators and amplify the need for a comprehensive social media news strategy when targeting or influencing key constituents in the social media space. The survey - which specifically measured acceptance, use, and attitudes of social media tools to follow, share, and post news and information – garnered 545 responses from April 15 – May 30, 2010. The study is especially intriguing in its sampling methodology as social media tools were used exclusively to solicit survey participation.

Top-Line Findings

As reported in other social media surveys, respondents indicated they are using social media tools habitually with almost 90% saying they use Twitter, Facebook, and blogs on a daily basis to follow/monitor news and information. Slightly less said they use the tools to share/recommend daily news and information (70%), with fewer still writing/posting news and information using social media tools (60%).

The majority of the survey sample indicated they have been using social

media tools for more than 5 years (27.8%) with more than 50% indicating upwards of 3 years of social media tool experience. Roughly 69% say they make use of social media tools between 1 and 4 hours per day, slightly more from home (88%) than from work (68%).

A telling indicator for the corporate world, nearly 75% of the survey sample

reported sometimes (31%), very often (27.5%), or all the time (15.5%) use of the venerable corporate website when engaged in following, sharing, or posting news and information. Responses for use of press releases for the same tasks were nearly identical with fewer than 10% of the respondents saying they never reference press releases when following, sharing, or posting news and information.

Also on the corporate plate, almost 75% of survey respondents indicated

they frequently (32%) or sometimes (42%) visit a corporate web site after learning of a news story through social media channels with roughly half of all respondents saying they sometimes (32%) or frequently (18%) use social media tools to fact-check corporate websites and press releases.

For those actively participating in social media newsgathering and

distribution, it seems social media is viewed about the same (41%) as traditional news sources for reliability and accuracy with only 10% of respondents labeling social media as much less reliable or accurate.

However, when it comes to timeliness there is no contest with almost 73% of respondents indicating that news gathered via social media sources is much more (42%) or slightly more (31%) timely than traditional news sources.

How important have social media tools become for the news and information

industry? Survey respondents see this as a no-brainer with more than 90% indicating high importance for following/monitoring news, 94% for sharing/recommending news, and 89% for posting/writing news and information.

The most popular social media tools for tracking news and information seem

to be Twitter (60%), followed closely by Facebook (53%), with respondents indicating they use these tools all the time. Surprisingly, blogs (24%) and sharing sites such as Flickr and YouTube (18%) are not used regularly for social news tasks.

Even in social media circles, search remains king with nearly 50% of

respondents indicating they start their news following/monitoring process on a search engine (Google, Yahoo Search, Bing). However, slightly more than 21% indicate they are starting their news gathering process by directly accessing a social media site such as Twitter or Facebook. Roughly the same number say they are starting on traditional news web sites such as NYT.com, CNN.com, or BBCClick.com.

Twitter (45.55) and Facebook (44.1%) emerged as methods-of-choice for

spreading or distributing breaking news after initial awareness with word-of-mouth (45.2) ending up a close second to a timely Tweet. This finding provides communicators’ strong support for using social media to increase the reach of awareness campaigns.

Social Media Habits Survey respondents were asked to quantify their social media use habits and, not surprisingly given the survey sample, this group is connected in big numbers. The majority of the survey sample indicated they have been using social media tools for more than 5 years (27.8%) with more than 50% indicating upwards of 3 years of social media tool experience. Roughly 69% say they make use of social media tools between 1 and 4 hours per day, slightly more from home (88%) than from work (68%). While support for social media favorites such as Facebook and Twitter were strong – 78% of respondents indicating 50+ Facebook friends and 67% of respondents indicating 50+ Twitter feeds followed – the relative weakness of MySpace, YouTube, and blogs as a news and information tool in general may be cause for concern among strategic communicators. Nearly 78% of survey respondents say they

literally have nothing to do with MySpace, with the majority of respondents indicating they follow (50%) or post to (55%) between only 1 and 10 blogs. Support for YouTube as a news and information tool of choice trends surprising low as well with this group with almost half the respondents saying they have never posted a video to the service, 85% indicating less than 10 posts.

Social Media News Interest When we asked respondents what their interests were in their use of blogs, there was a wide array of responses. Local/National/International news interests made up nearly 50% of the total interest with Sports and Entertainment news combining for almost 30% of the total interest. Also of particular note are the nearly 20% of respondents that do not use blogs to follow, share or post news.

When survey respondents were asked their interests in using Twitter the results showed a variety of popular interests including Local/National/International news totaling nearly 60% of the total interest. Sports and Entertainment interest was a combined 19%. One noticeable comparison to people’s use of blogs vs. Twitter for news can be seen in the difference between blogs (17%) and Twitter (10%) of people that do not use these for following or sharing breaking news.

When asked about interests in using Facebook to follow, share or post news, respondents totaled just more than 50% for Local/National/International news. Sports and Entertainment interests garnered 33% of respondents interests with 20% saying they do not use Facebook to follow, share or post news.

Social Media Attitudes Quite possibly the most telling finding to emerge from the survey was the measure of respondent’s attitudes toward the reliability, accuracy, and timeliness of news and information gathered through social media sources as opposed to traditional sources. Predictably, timeliness of social media tools was a distinct advantage, according to our social media mavens, with 72% indicating that news gathered through social media channels was either slightly (30.5%) or much more (42.1%) timely than traditional news outlets. Not so predictable was respondent’s attitudes toward accuracy and reliability of news gathered using social media tools. More than 40% rate news gathered via social media sources as roughly the same as traditional sources in terms of reliability and accuracy. In fact, less than 10% rate the same variables as much less reliable or accurate, with a greater number saying social media new is slightly more reliable (13%) and accurate (12%). Finally, the importance of social media as a news gathering and distribution platform is not lost on our respondents with more than 90% attributing a somewhat high, or high level of importance to social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs for following, sharing, and posting news and information.

Use of Social Media Tools As mentioned in an earlier section, our survey sample was keen on using social media tools as a newsgathering and distribution method. This became even more evident when we asked our respondents to quantify their use of social media tools for these specific tasks during the past 6 months. Trending with earlier findings, almost 90% of our respondents indicated they use social media tools for follow or monitor news and information on a daily basis; around 70% indicate they use social media tools to share or recommend news on a daily basis; and about 60% say they use social media tools to write or post news and information on a daily basis. What was not anticipated was the widespread use of these tools for following a breaking news story with almost 70% citing the use of social media tools for this purpose. Equally interesting was the use of social media tools for fact-checking information with nearly half of our respondents indicating social media tool use for this task. Perhaps of greatest importance to corporate communicators was the high degree of reliance among this group on corporate web sites and press releases for monitoring, sharing, and posting news and information. Nearly 75% of the survey sample reported sometimes (31%), very often (27.5%), or all the time (15.5%) use of the venerable corporate website when engaged in these tasks. Responses for use of press releases for the same tasks were nearly identical. Moreover, nearly 75% of survey respondents indicate they sometimes or frequently visit a corporate web site after learning of a news story through social media channels. Nearly half of survey respondents indicate they begin their search for news and information on a search engine such as Google – no surprise there. It seems, however, that social media tools (22.2%) edge out tradition news sites (21.8%) as the second most popular starting place for newsgathering activities. Finally, Twitter seems to be the weapon of choice for survey respondents with 60% indicating all-the-time use of the Internet upstart for news and information related tasks. Facebook was a close second at roughly 55% all-the-time use. Supporting previous finding, blogs (24%) and YouTube (17%) were used sparingly by this sample group for news related activities.

Information Sources Survey respondents were asked to indicate their sources of news and information while following, sharing, and posting. Not surprisingly, CNN.com, NYT.com, ESPN.com and the BBC were the traditional sources most cited by the social media sample. What might surprise some observers is the reliance amongst survey respondents on social media sources for the tasks in question. More than 8 in 10 cite the use Twitter and/or Facebook as a source of news and information when following, sharing or posting – roughly twice that of NYT.com. In fact, it appears among avid social media users Wikipedia is used more often than CNN.com as a source to follow, share, and post news and information.

Event Recall/Distribution This survey sought to identify the channels of communication most relevant for frequent users of social media tools. To that end, respondents were asked to identify the source of initial awareness to several national and international news stories of the past year. Further, respondents were asked to identify their method of distribution of the same news and information. Haitian Earthquake This question challenged respondents to identify their source of awareness of a breaking international news item – the massive earthquake in Haiti. Here, results

were striking with Twitter (25.5%) and television (30.7%) running neck-and-neck for the lead – an amazing race given Twitter’s rather shallow market penetration in relation to television. Fold in Facebook and blogs and it’s a tie. Lending support to earlier findings, Twitter (45.55) and Facebook (44.1%) remain a strong method-of-choice for spreading breaking news after initial awareness with word-of-mouth (45.2) ending up a close second to a feisty Tweet. This finding provides communicators’ strong support for using social media to increase the reach of awareness campaigns.

Michael Jackson When asked to recall where they learned of a major breaking news story in the entertainment world, just as many respondents chose social media (33%) as television (32.7%) for initial awareness. This finding strengthens the notion of using social media tools for initial distribution of breaking corporate news and information. Predictably, word-of-mouth surfaced as the dominant method of distribution for news of Michael Jackson’s death as news mavens searched for answers to lingering questions surrounding his demise. However, as noted in other similar situations, Facebook and Twitter combine to outpace WOM for dominance in “spreadability.”

Super Bowl Respondents were asked to recall where they initially learned of national events, such as the winner of the 2010 Super Bowl. Television was the dominant player here with almost 7 in 10 saying they heard of the victory on the tube – not surprising given the nature of the event. However, what was interesting is that Facebook (4.4%) and Twitter (4.1%) accounted for roughly the same news market as newspapers (4.1%) in terms of initial awareness. As a follow-on question to initial news awareness, respondents were asked to identify the method or tool used to spread the information gathered about the 2010 Super Bowl winner. As anticipated, word-of-mouth (37.9%) remains a dominant player in this area – a detail not lost on savvy marketers. However, nearly the same amount identified Facebook (34%) and Twitter (28.9%) as a viable alternate to facilitate the spread of national news, beating out mobile device (19.1%) and E-mail (11.5%) by a wide margin.

Obama Election Television was the clear winner when identifying the source of arguably the biggest political news story of our lifetime – a surprising result given the Obama campaign’s online strategy. However, much like the Super Bowl, Obama’s acceptance speech in Chicago may have skewed respondent’s answer to this question. Word-of-mouth and social media continue to dominate in terms of spreading political news and information. But perhaps more interesting is the weakness of blogs as several researchers have reported blogs as the dominant platform for political news creation and distribution. It would seem blogs are truly on the wane

as a viable means of spreading awareness for an issue among regular social media users.

Demographics In congruence with several studies of social media acceptance and use, demographic data submitted by our sample population revealed a distinct bias toward youth, financial independence, and upward mobility.

Most of the survey respondents had substantial education and financial means with nearly 48% indicating they had achieved a 4-year college degree and roughly 34% indicating education at the master’s level.

Survey respondents reported levels of employments consistent with their

education with trained professional (23%), middle management (17%), and self-employed/partner (13%) garnering the most recognition.

Nearly 75% of the survey respondents were between the ages of 18-45 with

27% reporting income in excess of $100,00 per year.

Surprisingly, gender for the survey sample was split rather evenly between men (54%) and women (46%), suggesting social media acceptance and use among women could be significantly stronger than other similar technology acceptance and use surveys.

Nearly half (47%) of the survey respondents were married, 36% single, with

the rest somewhere in between.

Methodology This survey report was compiled from data collected from active social media users during the period April 15 – May 30, 2010. The online survey - which specifically measured acceptance, use, and attitudes of social media tools to follow, share, and post news and information – garnered 545 responses (completion rate of 77.5%). The sample methodology for this report is novel in that the researchers used social media tools (Twitter and Facebook) exclusively to solicit participation in the survey. Invitations to participate in the 2010 Social Media News Survey were randomly posted on the Facebook pages (Wall) of the Internet’s top 50 media sites (Alexa rankings). In addition, survey-specific Twitter accounts were generated and “followers” of the same 50 media outlets were solicited for participation in the survey. A more complete explanation of the survey methodology is planned for a separate report. About TEKGOURP International, Inc. – www.tekgroup.com TEKGROUP International, Inc. is an award-winning Internet software and services company that develops online newsrooms with social media integration, and e-business software solutions. TEKgroup clients include AAA, Accenture, Carlson Hotels Worldwide, CIGNA, Detroit Lions, Ford Motor Company, PRSA, Prudential Financial, Starbucks, VMS, and Walgreens. About Western Kentucky University’s School of Journalism & Broadcasting – www.wku.edu/journalism The School of Journalism & Broadcasting offers undergraduate majors in advertising, broadcasting, mass communication, photojournalism, news/editorial

print journalism and public relations. The school holds as its ultimate aim the encouragement of students to be active participants in today's society, and leaders within their chosen fields. Ken Payne is an associate professor within the public relations major and has research interests in the acceptance and use of emerging technologies within the public relations sector.