| Reason | Graduated 1980 and before | Graduated 1981-95 | Graduated 1996-2005 | Graduated 2006-15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| To promote content that I or my publication has produced | 34.0% | 51.9% | 55.7% | 63.1% |
| To stay connected and network with people in my subject area | 40.6% | 60.3% | 62.9% | 62.6% |
| To keep an eye on the competition | 23.5% | 40.3% | 45.6% | 49.5% |
| To discover new sources | 25.0% | 33.3% | 35.1% | 42.6% |
| To raise awareness of a brand I’m working on | 23.0% | 39.6% | 39.9% | 38.8% |
| To ask questions as part of my reporting | 10.9% | 15.9% | 17.3% | 22.8% |
| As part of sales promotions I’m working on | 11.8% | 18.4% | 16.1% | 14.5% |
| To discover and recruit for employees, community contributors | 9.7% | 16.9% | 18.5% | 15.3% |
| To interact with students as an educator | 8.4% | 11.1% | 10.5% | 8.1% |
| I don’t use social media in my job | 28.0% | 15.8% | 15.9% | 13.6% |
JOURNO44: How people use social media, by graduation date
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About the Author: Jeff Sonderman
Jeff Sonderman is the former deputy executive director of the American Press Institute.
Before joining the American Press Institute in 2013, he was the digital media fellow of The Poynter Institute. His earlier journalism background includes digital news — helping to launch TBD.com, a local digital news startup in Washington, D.C. — and various roles in newspapers, as an award-winning reporter, online editor and metro editor of The Times-Tribune in Scranton, Pa. He was the architect and developer of API's Metrics for News analytics software that reinvents how publishers use data to inform content strategy. He also edited API's Need to Know newsletter, and designed API's Strategy Studies research format for in-depth strategic guidance. And he consulted with publishers on a range of issues related to content strategy, organizational transformation, audience development, newsroom structure and workflows and product management. He graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism.
