Canadian press and influencers tell us how they like to work.

Every year, BICOM conducts a survey amongst Canadian journalists, bloggers, and influencers to keep up to date on their evolving needs. The results help inform communication strategies across our portfolio of clients and enhances our ability to deliver results. In the graph below, you will find a selection of the results from our last survey, which was completed by 163 respondants in English Canada last year.

In total, the agency asked 20 questions about how they prefer to communicate with PR professionals, the kind of events that they enjoy, and best practices with regards to gifting and paid content.

For editorial content, a strong PR firm must always be considerate of journalists’ needs. Press releases and prompt e-mail communication remain the most efficient way to get the message across. Moreover, easy access to independent experts is more beneficial than interviews with brand ambassadors or spokespeople. In effect, experts provide journalists with more relevant information to build credible stories. When it comes to events, most prefer informal evening events in the middle of the week as they are less disruptive to one’s schedule. Finally, contrary to what one might believe, it is an accepted practice to accept gifts or attend a press trip.

BICOM also took the opportunity to ask the question on everyone’s mind: how much should one pay for sponsored posts? Paid partnerships are now the norm in the industry. Despite new regulations with regards to the disclosure of sponsored posts, there still exists huge disparities between how much creators charge for content. For instance, one social media post can range from $50 to over $1000, depending on the influencer. Of course, the size of their audience (number of followers) plays a key role in determining pricing, but other factors include: the platform where the content is published, the amount of work that goes into creating the content – videos take more time to produce than a tweet – and whether or not the client has asked for brand exclusivity.

In essence, a good PR firm will build meaningful and longlasting relationships with the media to ensure that they are always getting the most for the clients. At the very least, that’s what we strive to do at BICOM.