See online: 7 reasons to use multimedia when communicating, by Susan Young, CEO,
Get in Front Communications, Inc.
2014 promises to be the year of visuals.
PR Newswire and PR News recently conducted a survey of how companies are using—or not using—multimedia in press releases and other communication.
Their research finds:
- 56 percent of PR and marketing executives rarely or sometimes include multimedia in press releases
- 9 percent of respondents always feature multimedia elements and rich media in their press releases
- 75 percent of those surveyed plan to increase visual storytelling in 2014
According to Optimind Technology, list posts (like this one) get 200 percent more links than typical posts. But list posts with images get a whopping 333 percent more links than normal posts. And Optimind’s study finds that list posts with videos and images receive 567 percent more links than typical posts.
I discussed these findings during a webinar with Michael Pranikoff, Global Director, Emerging Media at PR Newswire and Matthew Schwartz, Group Editor at PR News.
Here are seven takeaways from our conversation:
Matthew: There’s a big appetite out there to include visual elements and rich media in press releases and other communication channels. The survey offers encouragement but there’s still that chasm between the desire among PR and marketing executives to use visuals and the challenges of budgets and resources. It’s really finding the link between what visual storytelling can do to enhance your communication and public relations while making the case to the C-suite for increasing budgets for these kinds of channels.
Michael: PR Newswire has looked at 60,000 pieces of content that’s been syndicated over the past couple of years. You get almost 10 times the amount of views when using multimedia than just doing a plain text news release.
Matthew: You would think right now that the static press release would be antiquated in that you have an oncoming generation of decision makers who have been conditioned to the visual and multimedia elements in a release, in a piece of text, in a brochure, or in an annual report. For those companies who continue to distribute plain text and vanilla press releases, I don’t know how much those companies are on the right side of history.
Susan: Our minds think in pictures, not words. That’s why this is so important. Communicators must convey our messages through a blend of pictures and words, not one or the other.
Michael: Layering video in any kind of media leads to an emotional resonance and component that people are looking for in brands…audiences are craving this and gravitating to visual.
Matthew: PR people should start thinking about their own behavior as it relates to video…They go through their workday and they tend to click on a video that caught their attention. It’s not unlike your customers and prospects. They are doing the same things. It’s really changing a behavior.
Susan: Business communicators must understand how their clients and prospects are consuming information. It’s not about how you want to deliver the content. It’s about how the audience wants to receive it and engage with it.
Matthew also notes that a B2B product or service that may seem bland or dry on paper can come to life with visual elements.
The three of us agreed there are many opportunities to repurpose content that contains visuals.