Online Survey -- Most PR Pros Use Their Web Sites for Their Own PR, But only Half Seek Media Inquiries

Results of online survey of public relations professionals to determine if, and how, they use their organizational web sites for their own PR.

For Immediate Release

Contact: William Dupuy (dupuy@lefile.com

May 1, 2001 -- A majority of public relations practitioners responding to an online survey conducted by LeFile.com found their organizational web sites an "excellent" to "fair" resource for communicating their own PR efforts to target audiences. The survey was conducted by LeFile ( http://lefile.com ), an online journal reporting on corporate web site usability, between April 9 and April 13, 2001.

More than half of the respondents said they "always" use the organizational web site for public relations, while one quarter said it was "sometimes" their practice. Just 3% said they "never" use their own web sites for their own PR.

However, participants were nearly equally divided on the "yes-no" question, "Do you seek media inquiries through your web site?"

Titles of people taking part ranged from "president" or "pr counselor" to "director/manager" or some other department-head position (55%).

Respondents were from private companies (45%), not-for-profits (38%), government agencies (7%) and public companies (1%). The invitation was posted just one time on a "listserv" run by the Public Relations Society of America. The survey was conducted on another URL for a period of five days. Most of the responses came within two days of the survey's launch.

"Though the number of responses numbered 29, they came from an umprompted, niche target audience of people who happened to be reading their email sent through a noncommercial, online web channel used solely by PR professionals," said William Dupuy, LeFile's editor. "We found both the number and the high-level titles of the majority of respondents meaningful, given the survey's narrow publicity and time frame."

In a question allowing only one answer, participants said they used their web sites for posting one of the following: "fact sheets/backgrounders" (21%), "press releases" (17%), or "press kits" (10%). The number selecting the "all of those materials" response as their only choice was 48%.

As for measuring the value of the site to their PR efforts, 58% said it was either "excellent" or "fair," while 17% said their web sites were "poor" PR vehicles. Twenty-one percent said they had "not measured" its value.

Conclusions drawn from survey

"At LeFile, we are enthusiastic proponents of adding value to the organizational web site by posting all information released to the public in any way," Dupuy said. "The survey shows that nearly half of the professionals in the survey posted as much PR material as possible on the organization's sites and that "most" found their sites a good PR vehicle.

"The fact that nearly half did not "seek media inquiries" through their sites indicates one of two possiblities: one could be a lack of organizational ability to receive and respond to e-mail requests; another could be a decision not to invite one audience (media) when the site did not enable other audiences (for example, customers) to contact the organization electronically," he concluded.

(Methodology -- Notice of the survey was posted one time, on April 9, 2001, on the listserv run by the Public Relations Society of America. In the notice was a URL independent of either the listserv or the sponsor's web domain. No other contact was made through the listserv during the period of the survey. The survey was not referenced on LeFile's web site (http://lefile.com). A notice that the survey was closed was posted on the survey site after business hours on April 13.)

LeFile.com comments on "best practices" of the corporate web site for chief executive officers, public relations and markeitng directors, and investor relations and legal officers.

More information and full survey results are available at:
http://lefile.com/articles/speciall-report/april01-prsurvey.htm