PRWeb, the online news distribution service (http://www.prweb.com/) of Vocus (NASDAQ: VOCS) today announced the results of a non-scientific survey. Out of the 1,817 respondents, 94 percent see value in including video with news releases but only 12 percent have ever included video in news releases they’ve distributed.
“The disparity between those who see value in online video and those who take advantage of online video leads us to question why,” said Jiyan Wei, director of product management for PRWeb. “We think the answer centers on the idea that developing video can be challenging and PR professionals hesitate to publish video that may not be of professional quality.”
However evidence is emerging to the contrary – that user generated video content is often well-received because the audiences tend to see it as authentic and genuine. Moreover, market research suggests that bundling video with a news release increases the odds that the audience will act on that information. In addition, there are substantial Search Engine Optimization (SEO) benefits to including video with news releases because it provides additional content that search engines will index.
“Pictures are worth 1,000 words, but video is worth a million,” said Amy Mauzy, public relations manager for Malibu Boats (http://www.malibuboats.com/). Mauzy has successfully used video (http://www.prweb.com/pr/customer-examples/malibuboats.html) alongside news releases to promote new products for her company and has obtained media coverage, sales leads and observed spikes in Web site traffic by as much as 30 percent.
Tips for making the most of video in news releases include:
• Keep videos short, no longer than three minutes
• Ensure the audio is clear to retain viewers
• User generated content is viewed as genuine and has viral marketing appeal
• Videos with customer-generated testimonials or “how-to” advice tend to work best
• Be sure to share video with partners and employees, not just customers or prospects in order to facilitate excitement for your news announcement
“The usage of online video is at an all time high,” said Mark Robertson, founder and publisher, of the Video Marketing Resource, ReelSEO.com (http://www.reelseo.com/). “Online video has garnered the largest audience ever recorded with 158 million Internet users in the U.S. alone. For example, in July 2009, more than 21.4 billion videos were viewed online.”
The survey was conducted in September 2009 in conjunction with a PRWeb Webinar titled, “How to Use Video and Multimedia to Optimize your Online News Releases (http://www.prweb.com/pr/press-release-tip/video-optimized-releases.html).” Amy Mauzy and Mark Robertson were both guest speakers on the Webinar and shared ways to leverage video and multimedia to optimize news release for search engines in order to drive Web site traffic.
A recorded version of this Webinar is available at no cost online. In addition, common questions and answers that attendees posed to the presenters on this Webinar, but were not answered due to time constraints, can be found on PRWeb’s Website by clicking here (http://www.prweb.com/pr/press-release-tip/video-optimized-releases.html).
