Business journalists and social media

Up to one in seven of all published business stories originate via social media, according to a study released Monday by Brunswick Research.

Around 90 percent said they had taken information from a social media site. Some 66 percent said that information found on social media had led to a published story.

Brunswick Group recently conducted a global survey of business journalists and their use of social media. In
the survey, we interviewed more than 1,000 business journalists from print and broadcast media in 35 countries and asked them how they used social media platforms.

The findings show that social media is increasingly the most influential source of information for stories published by business journalists, whether it is the initial seed of an idea for a story or a main tool in gathering information.

When asked which sites provide the most valuable information, Twitter was rated highest, followed by blogs. However, no single blog received more than a handful of mentions — and those name checked more than once were often blogs run by established media such as the Financial Times and The WSJ, or online financial news services such as SeekingAlpha.

Facebook and LinkedIn were just behind in third and fourth place, respectively, though Facebook is now actively encouraging journalists to make use of its platform as an information tool.

Read the study here.