'Net Features : pr newswire

Turn Your CMS Into a Newsroom

Michael Garrity — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 21:15:00 GMT

A new partnership between news distribution service PR Newswire and Web content management solutions provider Ektron has lightened the load for many Web publishers. The pairing will integrate PR Newswire's press release publishing and social media monitoring into Ektron's current platform to create "a more seamless news distribution experience."

Simplifying Content Distribution
PR Newswire Sync is an add-on module included in Ektron's content management system (CMS). Those working in communications and using the Ektron solution will be able to publish their press releases simultaneously on both PR Newswire and their Ektron-powered websites, a change that will help to diminish, if not totally eliminate, manual errors while also making work easier for those in charge of managing content on a corporate website.

PR Newswire Sync works by constantly monitoring an organization's PR Newswire account. This continual surveillance means that whenever a news release is published through PR Newswire, Sync will automatically take the content feed and publish that content on the publisher's site, with all links and formatting intact. It will even go as far as URL-aliasing the release's title, adding keyword metadata for search engine optimization and including a summarized version of the release to the organization's home page. In effect, it does three different jobs for a company's online content manager all at once.

Keeping an Eye on the Social Web
In addition to Sync, the company is also releasing the PR Newswire Listening Dashboard, its social media monitoring counterpart. This add-on allows users to monitor the conversations about their brand or company on multiple online and social channels by studying keywords and search strings. This allows Ektron's users to "better determine campaign success and adjust communications strategies based on the findings from the PR Newswire Listening Dashboard."

These modules can be attached to any website powered by Ektron. For more information about PR Newswire Sync and Listening Dashboard, click here.

Multimedia Press Releases Get 77-percent More Views

Linc Wonham — Mon, 02 May 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Distributing press releases through services such as PR Newswire has for years been a highly effective marketing strategy for businesses on the Web. New data from PR Newswire, however, indicates a significant development regarding the effectiveness of today’s releases.

A recent update to the company’s Web analytics program enabled it to compare the copious data that details the activity press releases generate on PR Newswire.com. A closer inspection of the data confirmed that press releases with multimedia elements generate up to 77 percent more views than text-only releases.

PR Newswire’s research reveals that marketers can increase the number of views by 14 percent simply by adding a photo, and that including a video will raise that number to 20 percent. The percentage more than doubles to 48 percent more views with both a photo and a video, and adding additional elements such as audio or PowerPoint to photos, video and text will result in 77 percent more views than a text-only release.

The study determined that the increase in views is due to the fact that multimedia news releases (MNR) are more broadly distributed than text (non-MNR) press releases. Each element of a multimedia release is distributed separately and can attract its own audience on social networks and 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 press releases while other web sites are the primary drivers of traffic for multimedia content.

Multimedia news content is shared much more enthusiastically on social networks. The number is driven somewhat by the fact that multimedia press releases generally include a variety of sharable elements such as photos, video and slides in addition to text. The wide distribution of these elements as described previously also plays a part in driving the sharing process.

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 while MNRs were shared, on average, 3.5 times per hour.

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 while multimedia press releases generate visibility an average of 20 days. The higher degree of sharing also contributes to extending the message life.

PR Newswire Launches New Facebook Tools

Linc Wonham — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 08:07:00 GMT

Multimedia marketing communications service PR Newswire has introduced some new social engagement tools that enable the simple integration of custom Facebook pages for businesses on the Web.

The new features are designed to enhance the Facebook presence of Web businesses and marketers by engaging with their existing fan base and capturing new fans through the social media channels from which they most frequently seek information.

“The level of engagement that can be cultivated through social media channels is undeniable and organizations today must consider their Facebook presence a significant part of their PR or marketing campaign,” says Ken Dowell, executive vice president of Audience Development for PR Newswire. “As part of our continued effort to provide our customers with effective audience engagement solutions, these new tools will help them leverage dynamic, interactive content to drive demand, awareness and opportunity.”

By designing custom tabs to highlight specific campaigns and products, Web marketers can share targeted, fan-only multimedia content and conduct special promotions and interactive polling to create a more in-depth and influential brand experience for their audience in one convenient dashboard.

Additional features include automatic posting of news releases, Twitter feeds and other multimedia assets to provide fresh data without any effort, as well as the ability for organizations to easily monitor and measure conversation and feedback on their Facebook pages.

PR Newswire will service the initial set-up and integration of the Facebook pages and provides the tools for maintaining and updating content without requiring the support of IT.

Media Coverage From Newswires

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:24:00 GMT

What's the best newswire service for generated media coverage? According to market research firm Diagnostics Plus in an independent study of commercial newswires, press releases distributed by PR Newswire get used by media more often than copy from competing services and generate more clips when they are picked up.

Press releases transmitted by PR Newswire were used 55% of the time, versus Marketwire's 43% pickup rate, Business Wire's rate of 38% and a rate of 37% by PrimeNewswire, according to the study. Of those releases attracting attention by the media, the volume of coverage was highest with PR Newswire, followed by Business Wire, PrimeNewswire and Marketwire. PR Newswire has nearly twice the pick up frequency as PrimeNewswire and more than twice that of Marketwire.