Lanham, MD (PRWEB) October 7, 2009 -- PRWeb, the online news distribution service 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 online news release distribution service of Vocus.
"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. Mauzy has successfully used video 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. "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." 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.
About PRWeb
PRWeb is recognized as a leading online news and press release distribution service worldwide. Since 1997, PRWeb has been changing the way businesses, marketing departments and public relations firms think about press releases. PRWeb was the first company to develop a distribution strategy around direct-to-consumer communication and to build and offer a search engine optimized platform for press release distribution. PRWeb is an online news distribution service of Vocus, Inc., a leading provider of on-demand public relations management software. For more information, go to www.prweb.com.
About Vocus
Vocus, Inc. (NASDAQ: VOCS) is a leading provider of on-demand software for public relations management. Our web-based software suite helps organizations of all sizes to fundamentally change the way they communicate with both the media and the public, optimizing their public relations and increasing their ability to measure its impact. Our on-demand software addresses the critical functions of public relations including media relations, news distribution and news monitoring. We deliver our solutions over the Internet using a secure, scalable application and system architecture, which allows our customers to eliminate expensive up-front hardware and software costs and to quickly deploy and adopt our on-demand software. Vocus is used more than 3,700 organizations worldwide and is available in seven languages. Vocus is based in Lanham, MD with offices in North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit www.vocus.com or call (800) 345-5572.
This release contains "forward-looking" statements that are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These are statements that are predictive in nature, that depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, or that include words such as "may," "will," "expects," "projects," "anticipates," "estimates," "believes," "intends," "plans," "should," "seeks," and similar expressions. This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to, among other things, Vocus' expectations and assumptions concerning future financial performance. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual future results to differ materially from those projected or contemplated in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements may be significantly impacted by certain risks and uncertainties described in Vocus' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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