Recently RealWire, an online service that helps companies distribute press releases, released a study that found social media news releases obtained close to four times the coverage as traditional releases.

Social media news releases (SMNR) have elements such as embedded videos and links, items that are of particular interest to online journalists and bloggers. They are simple to distribute—email reporters or bloggers a link to the page or tweet the link.

RealWire analyzed more than 1,000 releases distributed between September 2010 and March 2011. Seventy-nine were SMNRs and 965 were traditional releases. Here’s a partial list of the findings:

Average editorial coverage/release – 11.4% (SMNR) 4.1% (Traditional)
Average blog coverage/release – 4.3% (SMNR) 0.9% (Traditional)
Total editorial/blog coverage combined/release – 15.7% (SMNR) 5.0% (Traditional)
Pick-up rate, minimum of 1 piece of editorial/
blog coverage – 97% (SMNR) 81% (Traditional)
Releases achieving 4 or more pieces of editorial/
blog coverage – 71% (SMNR) 37% (Traditional)

Releases focused upon broad topics that would be of interest to a wide audience—new products or services, for example—would be good fodder for a social media news release.

For more information on the study News Release Distribution — Social Media News Releases Achieve Three Times the Pickup.

If you are in healthcare, insurance, technology or other professional services industries and ready to see what a social media news release can do for you contact Scott Public Relations.

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