How business journos use the internet and social media

A whopping 98 per cent of business journalists use the internet to read news, according to a new U.S. study by Arketi, a PR and marketing firm based in Atlanta. Maybe that's no big surprise. What about this: nearly as many also use it search for story sources and ideas.

A whopping 98 per cent of business journalists use the internet to read news, according to a new U.S. study by Arketi, a PR and marketing firm based in Atlanta. Maybe that's no big surprise. What about this: nearly as many also use it search for story sources and ideas.

Of those surveyed — three-quarters of which had been journalists for more than 10 years — 91 per cent said they used the net to search for stories and sources. Nearly 70 per cent use it for social networking, and 66 per cent use it for twitter. Less popular are: exploring Wikis (33 per cent), watching YouTube (34 per cent) and social bookmarking, such as Digg (22 per cent).

The goal of the survey was to see how business-to-business journalists use and view technology. For instance, 82 per cent of journalists surveyed said companies without a website are less credible. More than 90 per cent also had a LinkedIn account.

Even so, when asked where they actually find the story scoop, 99 per cent pointed to industry sources. As for social media: 56 per cent get credible story ideas from blogs, 44 per cent from Twitter, and 30 per cent from networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

You can read the rest of the study's highlights here.