Multimedia content drives better press release results

A recent update to our web analytics program enables us to compare the copious data which details the activity press releases generate on PR Newswire.com.  We eagerly looked deeper into the  data, which revealed something we had suspected but can now confirm:  press releases that include multimedia elements generate more views.  In addition, the data offers insight into how people consume information online, and underscores the preference for multimedia content.

So why do multimedia releases get more results?    Our data reveals several reasons.

• Multimedia content is more broadly distributed – because each element of a multimedia release is distributed separately, and can attract its own audience – in social networks, and on search engines.  Videos, for example, are distributed to more than 70 video-specific portals.    The effect of distribution is illustrated clearly in the stark contrast between traffic sources for text press releases versus traffic sources for multimedia content. Search engines are the primary drivers of traffic to text (“non-MNR”) press releases.  However, “other web sites” are the primary drivers of traffic to multimedia content.
• Multimedia news releases content is shared much more enthusiastically on social networks.    This number is driven somewhat by the fact that multimedia press releases generally include a variety of “sharable” elements – photos, video, slides, etc. – in addition to text.  The wide distribution of these elements as described previously also plays a part in driving sharing. Nonetheless, the differences in the degree to which multimedia releases are shared more frequently than plain text is striking: across the one-month sample of content on PR Newswire.com, multimedia releases were shared 3.53 times more often than text releases.
• Text releases were shared, on average, .99 times per hour per release
• MNRs were shared, on average, 3.5 times per hour

(Note: Sharing data derived from ShareIt and Crowdfactory data from PR Newswire.com.  It is important to note that at the moment we are not capturing social sharing that occurs when a visitor copies a URL and shares it manually within these numbers.)

• Multimedia content also has a longer “shelf-life,” holding the audiences’ interest for more than twice as long as text press releases.  On average, text press releases generate visibility for 9.4 days.  Multimedia press releases, on the other hand, generate visibility an average of 20 days. The higher degree of sharing also contributes to extending the message life.

Our “Visual PR” series of blog posts offers ideas and tips for incorporating visuals into your public relations messages.  Learn how to create video, utilize photo, create infographics and more by reading the Visual PR series of posts.

Ragan.com: Multimedia news releases grab 77 percent more views, report says

Learn more about visual PR, and using multimedia to differentiate, illustrate and enliven your messages.

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.