How journos use Twitter
By Sumir Singh

If you want to bring your startup in India to the attention of the Tech and VC community in USA and Europe, hiring a PR firm is only one way. Oriella PR Network has released its research showing that a large percentage of journalists now use digital and social media, such as blogs, Facebook and Twitter, to source and verify the stories they develop.

The study polled 478 journalists from 15 countries, including the majority of Europe; Brazil; and the US. Nearly half of respondents (47 percent) said they used Twitter to source new story angles. Over a third said they used Facebook (35 percent). Blogs were also highlighted as a key element of this process with 30 percent saying they used blogs they were familiar with, while 42 percent also drew from blogs they had not visited before. However, the study also validated the continued importance of the PR representative with nearly two thirds (62 percent) saying this is where they source stories whilst 59 percent cited corporate spokespeople as sources.

When it comes to validating stories already in progress, a third of those polled said they used Twitter; a quarter used Facebook; and a quarter used blogs. Brands and agencies still remain the dominant first port-of-call for this process though with 61 percent using PR agencies for verification and 57 percent turning to corporate spokespeople.