Stepping into a Reporter's Shoes: Top Ways that Journalists Use Social Media

NEW YORK, May 28, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- With social media becoming so prevalent and for journalists who can't be everywhere at all times, these platforms have become an invaluable tool for reporters and they continue to change the way that news is gathered and consumed. Journalists have adapted quickly to integrating these platforms into their day-to-day in order to retain their eminence as the go-to news source.

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In the latest PR Newswire Small Business PR Toolkit article, Amanda Eldridge, director of strategic channels at PR Newswire, provides a few key takeaways from her interviews with an array of journalists. Here's what she uncovered:

• Story creation: Of the journalists interviewed, all agreed that social media is a powerful tool to uncover potential leads. Comparable to press releases and corporate websites, reporters perceive social media to be a useful source of information. These platforms can serve as excellent filters for the mass of information circulating the web and can assist journalists in effectively reaching an audience they wouldn't have otherwise been able to target.
• Finding sources: It can be difficult to find the right sources for a particular story, and social media can help circumvent the information overload to connect journalists with new and unique sources.
• Self-promotion:  While businesses have integrated social media into their marketing strategies, reporters also understand the unprecedented influence that social media can have with fostering engagement with their readers and the impact on their own personal brand. Social media provides journalists a way to actively publicize their work that hasn't previously been seen.

For further discussion on how journalists are leveraging social media read the complete article here: http://bit.ly/1KzX6L9.

PR Newswire's Small Business PR Toolkit is a comprehensive resource that provides small businesses and entrepreneurs the tools to develop an affordable public relations and marketing plan that helps generate interest from potential customers, engage with key audiences and grow their businesses. The toolkit features relevant content such as informative white papers, interactive webinars and how-to articles and premium access to educational resources, as well as the opportunity to take advantage of special offers designed specifically for small businesses. To request information on how PR Newswire can help your small business, click here. You can receive updates on new Small Business PR Toolkit content by following @prnsmallbiz on Twitter.

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PR Newswire (www.prnewswire.com) is the premier global provider of multimedia platforms that enable marketers, corporate communicators, sustainability officers, public affairs and investor relations officers to leverage content to engage with all their key audiences. Having pioneered the commercial news distribution industry over 60 years ago, PR Newswire today provides end-to-end solutions to produce, optimize and target content -- from rich media to online video to multimedia -- and then distribute content and measure results across traditional, digital, mobile and social channels. Combining the world's largest multi-channel, multi-cultural content distribution and optimization network with comprehensive workflow tools and platforms, PR Newswire enables the world's enterprises to engage opportunity everywhere it exists. PR Newswire serves tens of thousands of clients from offices in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, and is a UBM plc company.

Contact:
Amanda Eldridge
Director, Strategic Channels
201-360-6906  
Amanda.eldridge@prnewswire.com