Every day I come across an interesting study and I want to dive into it to learn more about the research findings and then write a blog post with the key takeaways and my views. Unfortunately, I do need to sleep too. Indeed, from a professional's perspective it's hard to keep up with the tons of valuable research studies and analyses that are being released all the time. Information overload is our reality...

This is why when I saw the following infographic from the Institute for Public Relations I thought "Wow, this is spot on!" The infographic summarises the latest key issues and trends from the industry's top social media studies – one infographic, many studies.

This is something I would've found very useful when I was doing my research for my dissertation.

I would've had an overview of the top social media for PR studies in one place as a great reference for me to dig deeper in each study if I wanted to. Just knowing that those studies existed would've saved me a lot of time trying various keywords on Google search and bouncing from website to website for days to find the relevant and trustworthy sources.

I'm really loving this compilation idea and hope it becomes a regular content item. I might even consider creating my own infographic based on the same principle. Stay tuned! :)

Here are some of the findings:

• Three in four companies have a dedicated social media team.
• Two in five social media users have purchased an item online or in-store after sharing or favouring it on Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest.
• One in four journalists prefer to be contacted through social media by PR pros.
• Fifty-six percent of executives say digital engagement with customers is at least a top 10 company priority.

(Click on the infographic for a larger view)

Infographic and image by the Institute for Public Relations

Want to know more about social media’s impact on PR?

Get the book here. The research was published as a book called “Social Media and the Rebirth of PR”. Read it now!