Does your organization have access to data that could be used for better PR results?

Whenever our clients can mine their data and come up with newsworthy statistics or trends, we are often able to hit a grand slam for them on the PR front.

To get you in the right frame of mind to answer that question, here are a few examples of data-driven PR that have been in the news in the past few days.

• One in five U.S. adults takes medication for a mental disorder (The Los Angeles Times). “Medications to treat mental health disorders is soaring among US adults, according to data released Wednesday by Medco Health Solutions, a pharmacy benefit manager. Twenty percent of all adults said they took at least one medication to treat a mental disorder.”

• More job seekers now employing social networks (San Antonio Express). “Social networking is playing an increasing role in helping people find jobs, with a projected 22 million Americans finding work in the past year through their Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter contacts, according to survey released Wednesday … by Jobvite Inc., a Burlingame social recruiting software maker.”

• Windows Phone, Kindle Fire make big gains among mobile app developers (ZDNet). “A new survey of mobile app developers shows that Apple and Android are still at the top of the pack when it comes to plans for future apps. But Microsoft has vaulted ahead of BlackBerry to take the third position among phone platforms, and Amazon has a hit on its hands with the Kindle Fire … according to a new survey from Appcelerator/IDC.”

• Online video viewers watching longer on tablets (CNET). “Tablet users averaged 30 percent more viewing time per session compared with desktops, according to data released this week by Ooyala, a provider of video services to major brands. Tablet users also tended to be more engaged, finishing videos at nearly …”

The basic concept is to identify any data, surveys, estimates, research or analysis that you either have on hand or could create that would be interesting, meaningful, and useful to journalists.

It doesn’t even have to be your data. You can number-crunch public-domain government data to come up with newsworthy data-driven insights if you like.

You can even use data from other companies that aligns well with your promotional goals. In this case, you won’t be cited as the data source, but you will be mentioned in the story, assuming that your role in the story supports the journalist’s objectives.

Data-driven journalism is part art, part science. The science is the number crunching. The art is getting a placement that mentions your data and advances your organization’s promotional goals.

In other words, simply getting your name and your data mentioned in a story is akin to getting a single in baseball.

Getting a full-blown story where your data is featured and you are mentioned in multiple contexts that help your organization achieve its most strategic goals? In the world of data-driven PR and data-driven journalism, that’s a grand slam.

Ken Gaebler is the founder and chairman of Walker Sands, a full-service marketing and PR firm. A version of this story appeared on the Walker Sands blog.