Are MPPS Actually Reading this Stuff?
Generating earned media (that is publicity or media exposure gained from methods other than paid advertising) is a best practice in the world of advocacy because it’s a low-cost way of putting your content or message in front of decision makers.
But for all the resources, expensive consultants and time organizations put into generating earned media, do we know for sure if Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs) are actually reading this stuff? And do we know what media outlets MPPs are reading the most?
Real North Strategies wanted to find out, so we dove into some social media data to measure what media outlets MPPs (or their staff) are engaging with the most online.
Our Method – Twitter Retweets & Media Outlets
To find out what media outlets MPPs are engaging with, we reviewed over 20,000 tweets and nearly 2,000 engagements from 121 Ontario MPP Twitter accounts for the period September 1st to December 31st, 2022.* Specifically, our team counted every time an MPP retweeted or shared a digital news media story.
Retweets are a great metric because they display a deliberate action on the part of the MPP or their staff on a piece of content. That action (the retweet) is perhaps strongest indication we have that the MPP or their staff have read the media article.
Here are the top 5 findings from the data…
Riding Media Matters Most
Looking at the full data set, we found that media outlets located in an MPP’s riding were retweeted and shared the most – 19.5% of media story retweets were from outlets located in an MPP’s riding. Riding media was followed by the Toronto Star at 18.5% and regional media at 10.1%. This trend was particularly prominent among PC MPPs where 1 in 4 retweeted stories were from outlets located in the MPPs riding.
*3 MPPs do not have Twitter accounts
The Toronto Star
The Toronto Star was the most engaged with individual media outlet by MPP Twitter accounts. This trend was most prominent among Liberal (small sample size!) and NDP MPPs who have a larger City of Toronto riding footprint & less riding specific media outlets. Toronto Star stories represented 22.6% of all NDP media outlet retweets & 25.2% of Liberal retweets.
Cabinet = Regional
Cabinet Ministers engaged most with “Regional Media” outlets. I defined this group as non-Queen’s Park Press Gallery or non-riding media. Most of these stories came from outlets like the Ottawa Citizen, CTV News Regional, Hamilton Spectator etc. Roughly 1 in 4 of all media stories retweeted by Ontario Cabinet Ministers came from a regional media outlet.
Why? Cabinet ministers tend to monitor more regional media for coverage of announcements and issues outside of Queen’s Park impacting their portfolio.
No Major Differences Across Millennials, Gen X or Boomers
The findings were mostly consistent across the three dominant MPP age groups at Queen’s Park with one notable exception. Boomer aged MPPs tended to engage more with conservative leaning outlets (i.e. National Post & Toronto Sun) and international media (i.e. CNN, BBC & Fox News).
One interesting fact, we found that Gen X is the largest age group at Queen’s Park with 43+ MPPs who were born between 1965-1980. There are 23+ millennial and 26+ boomer aged MPPs.*
Press Gallery is King
While riding and regional media were engaged heavily by MPPs, when taken together, media stories produced by the Queen’s Park Media Gallery were retweeted 7 out 10 times. That speaks to the importance of the gallery in the coverage of Queen’s Park and why it should be a central part of your earned media strategy across all campaigns and issues.
Final Takeaways
This analysis has just scratched the surface for ways publicly accessible data like Twitter engagements can be used to fine tune your advocacy or media relations strategies.
Our foundational advice to associations or organizations looking to use earned media as part of their advocacy work is to build a plan using data and accessible information about your target audience.
In a future post, we’ll talk about “stakeholder mapping” best practices, some interesting data about the Ontario consultant lobbying industry and how, at Real North Strategies, we build media profiles of key decision makers to help our clients craft effective earned media strategies. Until next time, thanks for reading!
