Journalists embrace Social Media and So can You

The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) just published their Key Finding from the 2009 Middleberg/SNCR Survey of Media in the Wired World.  The study involved 341 journalists from around the world with more than half from the United States.  Here are the findings I found most notable:

• 70 percent of journalists use social networking sites, up 28% from the previous year
• 2/3 of journalists use blogs
• 48 percent use online video

Clearly, professional journalists are embracing new media, social media, and new communications tools at an increasing rate.  The reports indicates journalists aren’t just using these tools to disseminate news, but to

“…find story ideas and sources, monitor sentiments and discussions, research individuals and organizations, keep up on issues and topics of interest and participate in conversations.”

I’ve mentioned in the past that you can use social media tools to:

• Listen
• Share
• Discuss
• Drive Action

While traditional journalists aren’t always interested in “Driving Action,” they always keep an ear to the ground to know what is going on.  They have always had to “listen” to get the scoop.  Now journalists are embracing social media as a new way to “listen” to what is going on in the world.  They can monitor social media for trends, and use keyword searches to research and monitor specific people, organizations, and topics. They can also use social media to discuss a topic and use the “wisdom of the crowd” to guide the research.  Finally, journalists are increasingly sharing their content through new communications tools.

Action Step:  Use the tools the pros are using.  Do a Twitter Search on your name, right now.  Let me know what you learn.