Social media news releases generate more ink & pixels than traditional releases

According to new research out from Realwire social media news releases result in 20% more coverage than traditional releases.

The analysis looked at 997 of the releases that RealWire distributed between 1 December 2008 and 31 May 2009. Of these, 71 releases were Social Media News Releases and the coverage results were then evaluated. RealWire found that SMNRs garnered twice as much editorial coverage and four times as much blog coverage as traditional releases.

“The most likely reason is that the additional investment needed to produce a SMNR means that clients are more likely to use them for their most interesting stories,” said RealWire’s chief executive, Adam Parker. “It is this investment in quality that then pays dividends with the features of the SMNR allowing the user to enhance that storytelling and so produce the improved results. It’s about less stories, more creatively told, to the right people.”

BusinessWire’s Chen Lee Tsui agreed: “Content is king. Our mantra for press releases is ‘Good content, well written, appropriately distributed’. The movie business began with silent movies, which became ‘talkies’, and later, ‘color motion pictures’.  Today we call them movies.  So it is with press releases.  They’ll continue to evolve and, in the end, they’re all press releases.”

One of the most frequently cited benefits of the social media release is that, with more online pick up, evaluation is easier. “We know exactly which site embedded the video code and how many times the video has been watched,” said Samantha Proctor of PR Newswire.

The full results of RealWire’s survey can be read here.