Great work, Rebecca. 
 
Anxious to hear the rest of your findings.  
 
PR firms should be judged on their ability to directly impact search engine rankings, inbound links, Website traffic, leads and sales, as well as generate media coverage. 
 
Hopefully HubSpot's research will be a bit of an awakening for the PR industry. 
 
Paul

Would love to attend, but my agency needs at least 48 hours lead time to set me up for webinars. Please give a little more notice for interesting programs.

Interesting results, indeed. But this is examining only the syndication effect relative to portal sites. You have not examined whether social media releases are more effective for/preferred by journalists and consumers/end customers. Seems rash to make the broad statement to never use social media releases.

Your headline is misleading. While SMRs may well be syndicated less, I'd like to know if, even with less syndication, they return more and better results, i.e. true effectiveness

With all due respect (and you know I love ya'll), there is nothing new here. Been saying this since last June. Your research is nice in backing me up, though, so thanks for that! :) 
 
http://is.gd/v1c

Good post. Most SMR proponents advocate their use in on-site newsrooms more than pushing them out over the wires, which is backed up by your findings. I think right now SMR options on the major wires are primarily a way for those services to build in additional costs. However I'd imagine the integration with news aggregation sites will improve eventually

I've been running into this issue a lot lately. It's refreshing to see someone take a research-based approach.  
 
The research presented in your webinar was great - some of the best I've seen around the pros and cons of social media releases versus traditional press releases.

I agree with Jesse Ciccone above. I checked with several journalists & they'll USE a social media release, but it annoys them to have to click thru to a site. But webinar was mostly about links from releases. 
 
but glad to see hard research, and refreshing to hear a piece that doesn't say fire your PR firm.

It's a bit ironic to hear people who work with the media (old and new) question whether a headline is representative of a story's full content. You clicked on the link and read the post because of a compelling headline that questioned your assumptions. It was not misleading but rather subjective...and apparently quite effective.  
 
Adam -- Yes, thank you. Paul -- amen. HubSpot -- good stuff.

Craig, I like to hold my "useful resources" to a little higher standard than general marketers. For me this is not a game of clicks and numbers, it is about providing value for my time. I love to be a fanboy of good things. And I don't promote places or posts where I found little value.If you think misleading headlines are ok if it gets the reader in, by all means, go with what you know.

In other news, TV shows don't often get played on the radio. 
 
Your metric is misleading. The assumption is that syndication = effectiveness is flawed. 
 
Traditional releases will always have their place. SMRs won't entirely replace them. But they have different purposes. 
 
I think that SMRs are aimed at non-traditional targets - trusted sources, etc. rather than "media." More for reaching potential customers directly rather than trying to influence press coverage. 
 
The other factor to consider: If you remove media, links, etc. from SMRs, what do you have? A traditional press release. But what services were you considering - the "bolt on" extras from traditional wire services, or something like PitchEngine, that is free or cheap?

Great post and great webinar! We were very happy to participate in your project and thank you for including us in the conversation. While we did find some minor problems with your comparisons (for example, every release we issue includes social media bookmarking, blogging and tweeting functionality. The pricing breakdown is slightly ambiguous as we have several different options and they are not apples to apples with the other offerings), overall we think the substance and direction were Hubspot-on (sorry, couldn't help myself). 
 
We would have to agree with Jesse Ciccone’s comment. The purpose of a Social Media News Release is to provide the target audience with everything they need, whether that be text, photos, video, the ability to share the document, blog about it, tweet about it, 'buy it now' etc. Your research completely backs up what we’ve been doing for some time – hosting an SMNR (or what we call a Multimedia News Release - MNR) in one place AND sending out a text version over the wire that links back to the MNR so that the Web sites that don't render the multimedia (or XHTML) can render the text version that links back to the MNR. This is the best way to add visibility, Google Juice and inbound links, not to mention provides ALL of your audiences with the information they need to act upon the content however they deem appropriate (build a story, buy a product, share with like-minded individuals via social media, etc.). PR Newswire's MNR platform provides the best of both sides of your research - traditional push distribution and all the latest viral social media elements - thus covering all your bases.  
 
Thanks for taking such an in depth look at our industry landscape. I look forward to participating in this and all future conversations ... 

Rebecca, thank you for your presentation today. In reviewing the slideshare, I remembered a question that had occurred to me during the presentation regarding logos. You said to include them, but I don't see any in your examples. Where does one put a logo in a press release?

Victor, trust me, I'm not measuring success based on a click. My background is marketing enterprise software for companies whose products typically cost 6 or 7 figures. PR and communications in this environment should influence sales cycles and generate demand (not in some overly simplistic lead gen way). Sales cycles are influenced by a host of opinions and personalities -- all of which must be factored into your communications strategy. I'm not trying to "convert" a buyer the first time they click through to my site. But I do care -- as do CMOs, CEOs and CFOs -- how I can connect the dots between communications efforts, successes and revenue. I care about metrics that illustrate influence.  
 
But you're also missing context (my bad, not yours) -- in my experience SRMs introduce little value over other forms of communication. That's an unpopular view in markets like Boston and Silicon Valley where blowhard tech agency execs push faux "innovation" for the sake of making names for themselves. So this is not strike one in my book.  
 
I agree that the syndication metric is hardly a measure of ultimate success. But I also believe that the agency world has become far too enamored with trendy, formulaic SMRs. Tech reporters, bloggers and potential buyers, by nature, do prefer to click through to a site, as well as other sources, to gather additional context -- shouldn't emails, blogs, tweets and RSS Feeds logically point such information on a company site and not the release on PRWeb or BusinessWire? If your SMR looks terrible online AND is not serving its original purposes, shouldn't you pause to consider a new approach?  
 
As far as headlines, we'll just have to agree to disagree. I hate spin and loathe marketing lies. IMHO, this headline was simply a compelling hook.  
 

And phone calls even work better (particularly if you know the journalist). Also, can we please avoid the term "press" release. It's media or news release. Press releases are for the Press.

I found this webinar interesting and informative (n00b) ... it would be great to see the research into quality vs quantity (not all eyes are equal?)

Actually, your results don't surprise me at all. This is exactly what I'd have expected based on what you set out to measure. 
 
You're counting instances of syndication -- when a release is "published in-full with links by another website" -- but I'm pretty sure the creators of these social media releases would tell you that this format is in no way intended for syndication. 
 
In fact, it's the exact opposite: Traditional releases are about pushing content. Syndication. These things we call social media releases are sources from which content can be easily pulled. Not syndication. 
 
Both serve a purpose. But as was wittily said above, "In other news, TV shows don't often get played on the radio."

Thanks for this, you might be interested to know that I followed a Twitter link to read your blog. At first, reading the headline, I thought you were wrong, but the detail tells the story. Good points and I totally agree, social media form part of the PR strategy but should never be used exclusively.

Thanks for your webinar yesterday - interesting stuff... A QUESTION regarding how you define a SMNR. For example, using Marketwire, we use Anchor Text and SEO optimization in the "traditional" release, but they also have a Social Media 2.0 release format which also includes multimedia etc. Is it correct to assume that this second version (which has a different distribution circuit) is the one getting less syndication (press release pick ups)?

Your lack of true understanding of what a <Social Media Release is and how it is "distributed" is a disservice to your study and readers.  
 
1. Your headline is extremely misleading - we have thousands of social media releases that receive WAY more views than traditional - isn't that visibility? 
 
2. SMRs are not designed to be distributed on a wire service. Our most successful SMRs (more than 10,000 views) were never shared via a traditional wire service. Users shared their SMRs via the social web, as that's kind of the point. 
 
3. Your study makes no mention of the social web, where SMRs are made viral. Do you exclusively find interesting content on search engines? Neither do I, nor do the majority of bloggers and journalists.  
 
4. You say you should never rely on an SMR solely. Can you elaborate? Fact is, a press release is dead and gone once you send it out. No conversation happens on that release and it doesn't evolve as a living SMR does. It was designed 200-years ago for easy typesetting purposes. Retro fitting old tech with SEO does not help your cause. The PR distribution process is going the way of news distribution. People don't rely on one source (like search engines) to discover content anymore. Are you saying that if news articles had better keyword optimization that the industry would still be thriving? If the newspapers were more SEO savvy they'd still be the vehicle for news delivery? 
 
5. As I said before your research was done, I am happy to walk you through what I believe to be an authentic Social Media Release and the process of how it is shared and made viral organically. Seems like you've missed a great deal of the power of PR and the social web in your search for link building and site traffic. 
 
Jason Kintzler, 
Founder of PitchEngine 
@pitchengine

Maria:  
 
In the experiment: I defined a SMNR as a release with multimedia, anchor text, news bullets, sharing options, etc. The traditional release (in this case) didn't use anchor text. -- Obviously, you could.  
 
Long story short, yes. The Social Media 2.0 release got less syndication.  
 
I think it's better to use that type of release format when you have a super interesting story, and you're not looking for link building. Then, it can be helpful.

Jason: 
 
Good points. We've chatted before. I'm a fan of what you've been contributing to the industry. 
 
However, I'd like to know what your free service offers (for social media releases, not press rooms) that makes it different than the a blog article's capabilities. Both can host photos, multimedia, tagging, commenting, social media sharing, RSS etc. 
 
Especially without any syndication component (that fee-charging services have), I'm not sure of the differences.  

Rebecca:  
 
Maybe it's best to let pages of user testimonials explain: http://twitter.com/pitchengine/favorites 
 
And show you the brands that understand the difference: http://blog.pitchengine.com/?page_id=146

@Sonya - Depending on what wire service you use, many of them allow you to upload a logo as part of it. If you are posting on your company website or blog, then I think the logo in the template is fine.

I recently wrote a blog post on this and tweeted about it as well in response to your study. A few things - I think it varies with every company. However, one thing to keep in mind is whatever format you are using to communicate, make sure it's compelling news. Today, companies are using news releases not only to reach the media/analysts communities but also the buyer personas to drive lead gen. To that end, there is a lot you can do to make it compelling, newsworthy, and resource friendly (meaning, including key links and embedding multi-media within the release to make it one stop shop for the audience). PR professionals have to think outside of their world to integrate their efforts and communication tools to reach across a broader audience and help drive the company's bottom line and one effective tool is the news release. We take a hybrid approach to using both forms of communication but we maintain a consistent structure to make it reader friendly and Web friendly. But one thing is always front and center - content. Another thing is, if you have whitepapers, videos, podcasts, etc., you can now maximize this communication tool to highlight these within the release. PRWeb allows you to embed videos to the SMNR and this has helped us significantly to drive traffic to our YouTube channel as well as our blog, website and whitepapers. Take advantage of these tools but evolve the structure to reach a wider audience while maintaining a strong focus on producing great content. You can read more at http://cindykimblog.wordpress.com. You can also follow me (for anyone who's interested) http://twitter.com/cindykimpr.

Rebecca - I noticed in the last two columns entitled "Online Services" and "Free" the opposite holds true. SMNRs are more widely syndicated than traditional releases. What are these online services vs. Service 1, 2, and 3 from the first three columns? Do online services include services such as PRWeb which specialize in SMNRs?

Peter: 
 
The services we looked at were PRNewswire, Marketwire, Businesswire, PRWeb, Pitch Engine and PR.org.