Maximizing ROI: How to Share Your News Release on Facebook

By Jahana E. Martin, Newsroom Supervisor

Whew! The news release you’ve worked on for weeks just hit the wire. Job done, right? Well, not if you want to maximize the return on your investment (ROI). A recent study reveals that 46% of social network users share and discuss news on social platforms, with 64% of U.S. adults — 30% of the U.S. population — receiving their news via Facebook.

Facebook makes it easy to share news, but simply posting your release to Facebook versus having an actual strategy will mean the difference between reaching your intended audience and being Facebook roadkill.

So, what steps should you take to maximize your ROI?

Start crafting your post.
The first thing to do after distributing your press release through a newswire service and monitoring it online is to insert the URL to your release into a new Facebook post.

What will make your readers pause in their timeline to read your press release?
Simply put: your headline. Make it good.

After you insert the URL, your article will be visible in the post. Replace the URL with a headline that grabs readers’ attention and makes them want to share it. The Social Media Handbook for PR Professionals suggests a good length for a Facebook headline is 90 -120 characters because it is easier to share and can be rapidly scanned as an email subject line.

Here are some tips to tailor your headline for Facebook.

• Solve a problem.
  • “MEGA Shows How to Triumph in the Digital Revolution“
    “Tips to Triple Your Followers in 10 Days “
• Pose a question.
  • “What is responsive design and do you really need it?”
  • “Why Do Start Ups Fail?”
• Create a sense of urgency.
  • “10 Things you must do Today to Save your 401(k) “
  • “Before you go the ATM, Know This”
• If you’re in a pinch, and don’t have time to craft a new headline, just use your news release subhead.

Many times, the subhead is more specific and could be more useful for your social media audience.

• Headline: “It’s Time Again For Our Summer Loan Sale-a-Bration”
• Subhead: “Refinance your mortgage at an unbelievable 2.85%!”

Is your multimedia compelling for social media?
If you want to change the image that uploaded with the post, now is a good time to add the new image with the “Upload Image” function. Your picture, graphic or video should be engaging and relevant. Links with thumbnails and teasers receive 20% more clicks than links without. Which leads me to my next tip…

Be a Tease.
Your headline made an impression, but viewers must want to read your release, so give them a little teaser.

Here, under your new headline, add the most compelling data right up front to increase activity and shares. This allows you to tailor your content for your targeted Facebook audience and show why your press release is relevant to them.  The reader is now incentivized to click on the link back to the press release and also to share it with others.

Find your audience.
Your content is ready, now it is time to pinpoint your audience. For a fee, take advantage of Facebook’s “Boost Post” feature. First, you need to answer for yourself: Who is your ideal reader and what is your goal?

• Goal: Enhance your existing audience. Use the “People similar to people who like your page” boost.
• Goal: Find new supporters. Use the “People you choose through targeting” boost to select the location, age, gender and interests of your target audience.

You can use your Insights (explained below) to select the age, gender, location, relationship and educational status, language and interests of the user you want to reach.

Perfect timing.
This seems obvious: The perfect time to post on Facebook is when your audience is on Facebook. Paying attention to timing pays off. Posting on Facebook between 1 – 4 p.m. can result in the highest average click through rates. So, how do you find out when your audience is on Facebook?

Best times to post for your existing Fans
Once your page has accumulated 30 likes, you are able to use the “View Insights” tool located at the top of your Facebook page.  Click on the “Posts” tab, then the “When your Fans are Online” tab.  You can use this information to pinpoint the days and times your fans are online.

Best days to post in general – what the experts say
According to What are the Best Times to Post on Social Media:

Best day to post:

• 86% of Facebook posts are published Monday – Friday, with engagement peaking on Thursday and Friday;
• Engagement rates fall 3.5% below average for posts published Monday – Wednesday

Best time of day to post:

• In general, the optimal time to post is early afternoon in your target’s time zone.
• To get the most shares: 1 p.m.
• To get the most clicks: 3 p.m.

You don’t have to schedule your days and nights around Facebook. Simply schedule your posts at the optimal time for your target audience and watch the results.

Using Facebook to reach your target audience with relevant, shareable content at the right time is an easy, effective way to get more out of your press release.  A user that promotes your brand by sharing your post can spend 13% more than the average customer, and 84% of consumers trust earned media.

You can’t afford not to have a tactical approach when you share your news release on Facebook. So, what’s your strategy?

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Maximizing ROI: How to Share Your News Release on LinkedIn

By Jahana Martin, Newsroom Supervisor

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network, so chances are you already have a LinkedIn profile and use it to network with colleagues and prospective employers. You probably have read articles that your connections have shared or shared your own industry news.

Its popularity is no surprise when 93% of business-to-business marketers have rated LinkedIn as the top business-to-business social media lead generation source. If you issue news releases, you should use LinkedIn to increase the visibility of your company’s news, increasing the opportunity for internal and external audiences to see and act upon it.

How to Publish News Releases on LinkedIn
The first thing to do is log in.  Then get the URL of the news you want to share, and an image you can use to catch the eye of LinkedIn users.

On your LinkedIn page, click “Share an update.”  Copy and paste the URL of your published press release into this box.  LinkedIn will automatically insert the news release headline in the Title field, the beginning of the release text in the Description field and to the left, the first picture associated with your news release.

You could push publish now, but to drive even higher interest in your news, try the following tips.

Instead of simply pasting the URL into the box, craft an introduction or teaser to your news release in this section. Use the title of your news release, or customize the title to be more relevant to this specific online community.

LinkedIn allows 600 characters, so try to incorporate a question or a call to action, and a relevant keyword or two. Some examples include:

• Why do #PR Pros use Business Wire? Watch and find out. (Business Wire)
• It’s CPI day! Use the Atlanta Fed’s myCPI tool to find out how you compare to the national average. (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta)
• Do you see a lot of recruiter traffic in your LinkedIn inbox? How do you manage your current employment during a LinkedIn job hunt? We’re asking these questions and more on Twitter! (The Coca-Cola Company)

To find relevant keywords that are meaningful to your connections, observe the news for the week, what’s trending, and hot topics on your company (and your competitor’s) blog and online newsroom.    Use the words and phrases your clients and prospects would use when describing your news to increase the impact and potential shares and inbound clicks from your LinkedIn update.

Next, if necessary, revise the description and photo that LinkedIn automatically pulled in from your article URL.

Description:  In this section, you want to revise the text that LinkedIn automatically pulled in to drive even more interest in your news. Some suggestions would be to craft a new lead in or to copy and paste the sentences from your news release that most succinctly tell your story. Be brief, as LinkedIn does limit the amount of text you can add in here.

Picture:  If there is a graphic more suitable for LinkedIn than what was distributed within your press release, you can swap out your multimedia asset by clicking the “x” next to the current graphic and uploading your new image. Your photo should be no larger than 100 MB and you can’t resize it.When to Post on LinkedIn
Because LinkedIn is mainly for professionals, most users post on weekdays during business hours. There are a variety of studies outlining what time is best for news sharing on LinkedIn.  The consensus is weekdays are best:

• Midweek posting is optimal from 5 – 6 p.m.

or

• The best times to post are Monday – Friday between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. – 6 p.m.

or

• The most clicks and shares occur on Tuesdays between 10 and 11 a.m.

If 19% of U.S. adults use LinkedIn, and consumers who refer friends spend more and refer business equal to 45% of the money they spent, then it makes sense to have those users sharing your news on LinkedIn.

Follow these small steps to see big impact in the reach and action of your news release within this business oriented news site. Try these steps with your next release and let us know how much more activity you receive!

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Maximizing ROI: How to Share Your News Release on Twitter

By Jahana E. Martin, Newsroom Supervisor, Atlanta

A survey recently found that nearly six of 10 Twitter users use the social networking site to keep up with breaking news. The use of Twitter as a news source increased from 55% to 67% for users under 36, and from 47% to 59% for users over 35.

Are you tweeting your press release? If not, you are missing a great opportunity to expand your reach and brand. After all, your Twitter followers are following you because they want to learn more about your business.  This is the perfect audience to activate by sharing your news.

If you are tweeting your press release, then consider the following questions: Are you tweeting at the right time? Are you including multimedia in your tweet to increase visibility and shares? How did you craft the Twitter version of your news release headline? Did you use hashtags? How many? How did you choose your hashtags? If you haven’t asked yourself these questions, then now is a good time to start working on your strategy to use Twitter to amplify your next press release.

Here are four ideas to get you started.

1. Your News Release Headline: Make it Twitter-Friendly

Your press release headline may be amazing for the newswire, but chances are you will need to make some modifications for it to rock on Twitter.

Write several tweets
Twitter is a real time, news distribution service. You will need to share your news many times to ensure broadest reach.  News releases and subsequent news coverage should be shared as many as 15 times or more to activate your entire audience.

Make your news release tweet interesting
This is a fantastic opportunity to speak directly to your company’s end user. Use your Twitter headline to highlight key points directly of interest to each of your various audiences.

Make it shareable.
Help your followers retweet easier and faster by leaving them enough space to promote your brand.

Twitter allows you 140 characters, but you want people to share your tweet. Consider crafting 96 character tweets to be able to include links (22 characters, regardless of length of link) and multimedia (also 22 characters)

Testing. Testing.
You have an idea about the length, but now what about choosing that headline? Sometimes it can take a little practice and you may have to do some testing.

Buffer outlines the A/B experiment where you write and tweet two different headlines at least one hour apart. Then you compare the data and responses and choose which headline performed best.

Optimize.
Some keywords garner more attention than others, and you should use popular keywords that are relevant to your news. If you want to do a bit of competitive analysis and Twitter research, check out what keywords your competitors or industry influencers are using by taking a peek at their Twitter feed. Is there a recurring keyword that you see appearing in retweets? Try it.

There are many resources available to help you find the most popular words to use in your Tweets and headlines. You can find extensive analytics to boost your SEO and a good place to start is Twitter.

 Call to action:  Just ask.
Assert yourself and ask for what you want. 

• ASK for a download. Promoted Tweets in timelines that explicitly ask people to
  download material accompanied by a link increase URL clicks by an average of 13
  percent.*
• ASK for a retweet. Promoted Tweets in timelines with an ask to retweet increased Retweets by an average of 311 percent.*
• ASK for a follow. Promoted Tweets in timelines that asked for a follow increased follows by an average of 258 percent.*
• ASK for a reply. Promoted Tweets in timelines that highlight an ask to reply increased replies by an average of 334 percent.*
  ^{*Tweet tips: Most effective calls to action on Twitter}

2. What time is good for you?
There are a myriad of studies analyzing the best times to post on social media. First, you must identify your demographic so you can choose the best time to reach it. You can be as broad or as specific as necessary. For example:

• Are you reaching businesses or consumers?
• What is the age of your audience?
• Are they parents? Are they teenagers?
• Where do they live – what time zone?
• Do they work a 9-5? Do they commute to work?
• What is their average income?

Neil Patel’s study distinguishes peak times between Business-to-Business (B2B) and
Business-to-Consumer (B2C):

• B2B: Weekdays provide 14% more engagement than weekends.
• B2C: Engagements and Click-through Rates (CTRs) are highest on weekends and Wednesdays.

In general, Patel says the best time of the day to tweet is 5 p.m. The peak times for CTRs are 12 p.m. and 6 p.m. SurePayroll  highlights the best, peak and worst times to tweet:

• Best times to tweet:   Mondays – Thursdays from 1-3 p.m.
• Peak times to tweet:   Mondays – Thursdays from 9 a.m – 3 p.m.
• Worst times to tweet: Every day after 8 p.m. and Fridays after 3 p.m.

Their advice? Schedule tweets for lunchtime when audiences have time to consume your news.

Considering these factors will help you choose the best time to reach your followers and potential followers.

3. Use Your [Multimedia] Assets
Multimedia in tweets have been shown to increase engagement rates by 3-4x over messages without multimedia. Include multimedia in every tweet to increase reach, actions and overall ROI.

To do this, after you compose your tweet, click Add Photo. Your thumbnail image or filename will appear as an attachment. This is a real chance to maximize on the opportunity to include an image because you can add up to four pictures.

To add video, follow the same steps and then select the 30-second clip you want to emphasize in your tweet.

Ideas for good Twitter images
Hootsuite gives great examples of Twitter images that get shared. Here is a short summary of their tips:

• Use text/graphic combination. Your words are limited in your Tweet, but you can include more text within your picture. You may gain an extra few seconds of additional engagement because readers may stop to actually read the text within your image.
• Use gifs. Although gifs will not play automatically on Twitter, people are still curious about the video, which earns you a few extra seconds from your audience.
• Use video. Twitter now allows you to upload videos with your Tweets. Select the 30 seconds you want to feature, and let the reader watch your news.
• Use images that work. Humorous memes, food and cute animals are popular. Twitter users love to share news that delights them. Surprise them by using humor to get your point across.
• Follow your followers. If there are images that your followers consistently share, you should get onboard. Post the types of images that your followers like to share.

Your best photos
Keep in mind Twitter’s photo specifications:

File size:  Photos can be up to 5MB; animated GIFs can be up to 3MB (Your file will be automatically scaled for display in your expanded Tweet and user gallery.)
File type:  GIFs, JPEGs and PNGs are accepted; BMPs and TIFFs are not.

Tip: To achieve even greater visibility, you can make your image tweetable. There is a good set of instructions here.

4. Hashtags: Do Your Research
Why should you add hashtags to your Tweets?

Think of a hashtag like a label or filter for your topic. The goal is for as many people as possible who are interested in that topic to see your tweet and hopefully share your news. Reporters frequently use hashtags to view the entire discussion on a particular topic, a great way to see what consumer sentiment is before crafting coverage pieces. To exponentially expand the reach of your communication, you should be using hashtags with almost every tweet.

There are plenty of tools you can use to research, analyze and manage hashtags, but the easiest way to see what’s popular is free! Start with Twitter and look at “Trends” and “Moments.”  Those topics are insanely popular at the moment, so if you see something that is relevant to your news, use the hashtag to expand your reach.

If trending hashtags are not relevant, is your news about a particular theme? If so, add them in to allow reporters and interested parties to not only see your news, but understand the larger impact and context.

Are you:

• Presenting at a tradeshow or conference? They probably have their own hashtag, find it and add it to your news to ensure broadest reach. #CES2016 #BWCHAT #MWC16
• Targeting holiday consumers? Try #BacktoSchool #Halloween #TrickorTreat #Thanksgiving2015
• Discussing current events? #Benghazi #ACA #GOPdebate

Congratulations!
By following the above steps, you are increasing the visibility and impact of your news release. You are now armed with tools to increase your ROI by posting your news release on Twitter.   Do you have any tips for increased engagement on Twitter? Share them in the comments below, we would love to hear them!

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How Snapchat is Disrupting the News Industry

By Natasha Artavia, Business Wire

While you may have disregarded Snapchat as a serious contender for news distribution in the ever growing social media sphere, you may want to reconsider.

Launched in 2011, Snapchat is a messaging app that allows users to communicate with annotated images and video clips that disappear once viewed. It is the perfect representation of the future of news sharing as it merges text with images, a process that taps into innate human learning ability thus allowing users to instantly understand what the reader is trying to portray.

According to Snapchat’s own internal data, 4 billion (and counting) videos are viewed on the mobile app each day. Think about that for a moment. 4 billion videos are uploaded and shared and viewed on a daily basis between Snapchat’s users. Now, while most of those videos are user generated content, consider the impact this platform has on the news sharing and consumption.

News is travelling at a breakneck speed and becoming more and more socialized now that mobile devices are established threads in our social DNA. How prevalent are smartphones? According to a recent study conducted by the Pew Research Center, approximately 64 percent of American adults and 85 percent of young adults own smartphones.

When you factor in app downloads and user engagement on smart phones and other devices, Snapchat’s disruption of the news industry shouldn’t come as a surprise. Media firms are always striving to increase their audience range and Snapchat provides them access to a huge, demanding audience in the 18-34 year old range.

This is where Snapchat’s Discover comes in to play. To date, 15 media outlets (including Mashable, CNN, ESPN and National Geographic, to name a few) have joined in on this new way of distributing news. Easily accessible, Snapchat users tap on the icon of the media outlet they are interested in and view short bursts of breaking news in the form of videos, photographs, interviews, etc. These Snaps present a condensed, media rich platform to share today’s latest breaking news, highlights from the last Sunday’s football game, to clips on how to bake the perfect pizza.

While the Discover channel partners are limited in number, they provide Snapchat’s 100 million daily users with fresh content that they can consume and share. And where Discover allows companies like IGN to craft these catchy, modern news reels, others are creating and using their Snapchat accounts to engage with their audiences and consumers directly.

For marketing purposes, this intimacy between company and consumer can be extremely beneficial. Through exclusive visual content, consumers have the opportunity to see behind-the-scenes of the companies and brands they follow and are loyal to. From the debut of the latest products to mini-interview clips, this social channel is providing business with a new way to approach their brand and gain loyal consumers.

Snapchat’s visual interface is in many ways the future of global news.  It allows organizations to reach wider audiences including international audiences without the need for translations, as it presents the news in a visuals first format.

Brands using Snapchat to reach audiences must be prepared for their news to disappear as well as to be snapped and shared again.  Of course, this means this type of transparency needs to be handled with extreme care. Even though Snapchat boasts brevity and the 24-hour expiration date of each Snap, users are able to save content via screen captures and through the app itself.

While Snapchat continues to grow, and the demand for more user-friendly news content increases, it will be interesting to see the new ways in which more traditional news outlets create, package and disseminate to the public.

Interested in learning more about the future of visual news?  Download our free guide:  Let’s Get Visual to learn the science behind visual news as well as the steps you need to take to create it yourself.

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[Case Study] Word of Mouth in the Social Media Age: EDEKA

Seval Dogan, Marketing Specialist, Business Wire

From word of mouth to electronic word of mouth
Traditionally, word of mouth (henceforth, WOM) was primarily based on face-to-face, interpersonal interaction between a receiver and a communicator.

According to the Cambridge dictionary, WOM is the process of telling people about a particular product or service, usually because it is good and you want to encourage them to try it. This makes WOM one of the most credible and effective forms of advertising, simply because every time a person recommends to his/her peers, friends or colleagues a product or service, he/she puts his/her own credibility and reputation at stake.

Positive WOM, therefore, is one of the most important influences on organizational performance as every happy customer can be turned into one of the most committed brand fans. When activated properly, positive WOM can have a substantial impact on a company’s fortune by generating more brand awareness and by helping to successfully grow the customer database.

However, in today’s digitized world, companies face a new significant challenge. There is a real impact of speed and connectivity on word-of-mouth discussions. Today’s web-based consumer platforms have shaped a new way of sharing personal opinions: the electronic word of mouth (eWOM). Social media revolutionized not only the way individuals interact on a daily basis, but also the way companies create and grow brand awareness and loyalty via WOM. Social networks are a central place for dialogue and exchange, replacing traditional face-to-face discussions. As a result, opinions travel much faster than before, and the public image of a company has become more fragile and sensitive than ever before.

One way of generating positive eWOM is through viral marketing. The remainder of this article deals with a success story of a viral marketing campaign produced for EDEKA, one of the largest supermarket chains in Germany, by the German advertising agency Jung von Matt. While there are several key important elements to the EDEKA case (most of which are discussed below), one of the strongest elements however is that social media has been strategically used to stimulate positive eWOM.

How EDEKA leveraged eWOM for Success:  The Case of EDEKA: ‘Supergeil’ and ‘Kassensymphonie’
Founded in 1898, EDEKA is one of the largest and most recognizable food retailers in Germany. Aimed at expanding its audience to reach younger buyers by changing the corporate image from a conservative retailer to a more modern one, EDEKA joined forces with Hamburg-based advertising agency Jung von Matt. In 2014 they set up a campaign which deviated greatly from the conventional advertising and marketing standards followed by most German retailers. EDEKA and Jung von Matt produced two successful YouTube-based campaigns  that became worldwide hits, receiving national and international media coverage. EDEKA gained more than 2,000 new YouTube subscribers, over 4,500 additional Facebook Fans, more than 1,700 Twitter mentions and increased engagement on their social media channels (source: Fanpage Karma). The success of their brand campaign even secured the supermarket company its own reality-cooking show (‘Das Erfolgsrezept’) from RTL, a leading national TV channel.

The first spot, labeled with the rather obscene word ‘Supergeil’ (meaning ‘super cool’), launched in 2014 and reached over 14 million YouTube views within a short period of time.

Did it work?
The EDEKA campaigns relied on visually rich content and unique storytelling elements to recreate and reposition their brand to appeal to younger demographics. They cleverly turned products and services into relatable stories, and the entertaining nature of the videos engaged users both on an emotional and intellectual level.

Generating Positive eWOM: Key Success factors
Broadly speaking, it is difficult to predict what content will trigger positive eWOM and if it will go viral on social media. Nevertheless, there are certain elements that increase the probability. As Jennifer Aaker, Professor of Marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business, noted, people remember information when it is weaved into narratives “up to 22 times more than facts alone.”

As the Internet is becoming increasingly image rich, content that includes visuals attract more attention than content without. Videos are especially on the rise as they are highly engaging and allow a multi-sensory experience. Movement, facial expressions and human voices are more believable, more authentic. These factors help to quickly establish a connection to the viewer and generate more awareness.

Word of mouth is one of the most important factors in a modern communication program. Click here to share this information on Twitter:  http://ctt.ec/7JaHV

Think Globally and Act Locally with Business Wire’s New Multilingual Twitter Feeds

By Serena Ehrlich, Director of Social + Evolving Media

Business Wire today increased the visibility of its global news content with the launch of 19 new language-based Twitter feeds. This initiative is a continuation of Business Wire’s thinking globally, acting locally efforts aimed at ensuring our client’s news reaches local audiences around the world.

Business Wire’s new language-based Twitter feeds will enhance its already strong social media presence, bringing its Twitter news feed presence to a total of 84 accounts.  The new Twitter handles feature tweets based on news releases distributed in the following languages: Chinese (CN), Chinese (HK), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish.

Business Wire’s new language specific feeds can be found at the following URLs:

• Chinese-CN:  https://twitter.com/bwChineseCN
• Chinese-HK:  https://twitter.com/bwchinesehk
• Czech:  https://twitter.com/bw_czech
• Danish:  https://twitter.com/bw_danish
• Dutch:  https://twitter.com/bw_dutch
• Estonian:  https://twitter.com/BwEstonian
• Finnish:  https://twitter.com/bw_finnish
• French:  https://twitter.com/BW_French
• German:  https://twitter.com/BWGerman
• Hungarian:  https://twitter.com/BwHungarian
• Italian:  https://twitter.com/Bw_Italian
• Japanese:  https://twitter.com/bw_japanese
• Latvian:  https://twitter.com/BwLatvian
• Lithuanian:  https://twitter.com/bw_lithuanian
• Norwegian:  https://twitter.com/BWNorwegian
• Polish:  https://twitter.com/bw_polish
• Portuguese:  https://twitter.com/bw_portuguese
• Spanish:  https://twitter.com/BW_Espanol
• Swedish:  https://twitter.com/bw_swedish

Have questions about our new multilingual Twitter feeds, or want to learn more about Business Wire?  Let us know.

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The Reality of Virtual Reality? It’s Getting Real

By Matt Allinson – Media Relations Manager, International Markets

Before a session on using immersive 3D devices for experiential storytelling began at the International Symposium On Online Journalism (ISOJ) in Austin a few weeks ago, symposium organizer Rosental Alves proclaimed that this would be the session most remembered in ten years. After the session ended, I was pretty certain his prediction will be right.

Virtual reality (VR), long promised but never totally delivered, seems to be on the cusp of completely taking over our lives. Want to look around a home before you rent/buy without ever setting foot in it? Go ahead:

Want to stand next to Paul McCartney’s piano during a concert and look upon him or out at the crowd? There’s an app for that. Want to walk around the edge of the Space Needle without making your stomach jump through your throat? You will be able to do that soon as well.

The session on virtual reality featured a panel of three academic/industry professionals and was moderated by Robert Hernadez (aka @webjournalist), a “hackademic” at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Hernandez explained that the main reason the VR adoption rate is at an all time high is because the technology to use it is finally widely available. “There are more mobile devices in the world than toothbrushes,” Hernandez quipped.  Because VR technology can now be used via tablets and phones, and because of Oculus Rift’s meteoric rise, the audience is finally ready, he said. And it seems the journalist community is also ready.

In April, The New York Times Magazine commissioned an artist to create a 150-foot-tall black and white image of a 20-year-old Azerbaijani immigrant onto the sidewalk in front of Manhattan’s Flatiron Building and filmed the enterprise for a VR experience called “Walking New York.”

Walking New York

The Des Moines Register recently created a virtual experience that allowed viewers to explore a sixth-generation Iowa farm in the midst of substantial change. And Nonny de la Peña, a fellow at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and the founder of the VR company Emblematic Group (and a speaker at the ISOJ session), shared some immersive journalism projects she has been working on including “Project Syria” and “One Dark Night.” The former puts the viewer in the Aleppo district of Syria where they bear witness to a rocket strike and the aftermath. The latter puts the viewer on the scene of the killing of Trayvon Martin. Both are VR-powered reenactments designed to give the audience a sense of actually “being there” and allowing them to experience the moments that alter lives and make headlines.

While the journalism industry continues to experiment with and embrace VR technology, it’s safe to say the video game and real estate industries are already deeply in love with it. It’s also safe to say that many other industries will be following suit in the not-too-distant future. The possibilities for the PR and advertising industries seem limitless. VR technology is probably a natural fit for the tourism industry. And what if you were able to virtually wander around an old antique store in the middle of nowhere and find that unique and perfect gift? Retailers of all shapes and sizes should be looking closely at what is on the horizon.

Whatever the future holds, now is the time for leaders of companies and industry to begin considering the possibilities. The opportunity to innovate has never been better … and that’s the simple reality.

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Is Social Media Dying in Germany?

By Seval Dogan (Marketing Specialist – D/A/CH Region) and Kai Prager (Senior Media Relations Specialist – Europe)

There are more and more discussions occurring in Germany that social media is losing its popularity. A recent article published by emarketer even argues that Facebook is dying.

This claim was based on a survey conducted by Faktenkontor, which found that the percentage of social media users visiting sites like Twitter, Xing, Facebook and so on had dropped over the past year. The survey was widely distributed in the German and European markets and cited heavily by online media, including sites like t3n.de and onlinemarketing.de. The assertion eventually triggered a viral-like reaction on the internet with thousands of social media shares. It seems the article convinced plenty of users, confirming what some already suspected, that the future of social media and Facebook was gloomy.

It is our impression, however, that this is just a symptom of social media entering a new phase in its development, and certainly not one of a slow death. On the contrary, it seems that social media in Germany is expanding and becoming more diverse and dispersed. Users tend to subscribe to other social media sites as they gain popularity, dividing their time on various networks. Among those are Pinterest and Instagram that are increasingly gaining more users. Visual communication is rising as people are inclined to share pictures on the go. We continue to see new user behaviors emerge as people try out ‘fresh’ approaches to social media.

Facebook
Not many people remember that in 2005 there was a German language network resembling Facebook called StudiVZ, founded by Essan Dahriani and Dennis Behmann inside a flat in Berlin. Up until 2009, there were up to 15 million German-speaking users on that platform, making it the leading social media site in Germany. But Facebook eventually conquered the German market. The advantage of Facebook over StudiVZ seemed obvious, as it enabled users to socialize internationally due to its multiple language features. Until recently, Facebook’s dominance on the German market remained almost unchallenged. This changedwhen other social media sites appeared and successfully managed to gain  footholds  in the market. An increasing number of sources now claim that user activity on Facebook has dropped, and as a result, less content is posted. This supports some people’s opinion that the site may be slowly dying. Contrary to this notion, Facebook is still the leading social media site in Germany, ranking number one with around 22 Million users and 635 Million visits last December. This number is not surprising. In a globalizing digital world, it is rather unlikely that people would go back to regional social media platforms. Even if user activity may have declined, Facebook should not be seen as an indicator of the attitude towards social media in general. Instead a new trend is becoming visible as users are dividing their time between different sites.

Twitter
There is a Russian joke that says:  “Twitter can’t be popular in Germany, because 140 characters are basically two words in German.”  There are certainly enough short words to compose tweets in German, but when you read that only 10% of Germans use Twitter, it makes you think there might be some truth to that joke. Personal usage is as low as 64%, according to recent studies. It appears at this point the social network is mainly used by journalists, communication specialists and others interested in sharing and discovering information, or looking for alternative news sources for a variety of issues and interests. Many German social media users often find Twitter  confusing, with all the little text snippets that seem somewhat disconnected. They, therefore, prefer networks that allow longer texts or focus more on visuals. As many people always carry a mobile device that can take pictures, the power of the image is on the rise and leads to a growing popularity of networks that put visuals in the foreground.

Instagram
Like nearly everywhere else in the world, the number of users of the small photo-sharing app is constantly growing in Germany as well. Some recent stats claim that Instagram has more users now than Twitter. For many, the pictures shared on Instagram are more accessible than textual based networks, because you can easily snap a photo with your smartphone and upload it to the platform, and one photo is not tied to another as noted above with tweets.

Google+
Some assume that less activity on a social media site does lead to its collapse. Google+ is a good example that this is not necessarily the case. The number of users has grown but not the time spent on the platform (out of 15 million users, around 3.1 million were active on Google+ in2014). With more than 40 million visits in December 2014, Google+ remains one of the most visited social media sites after Facebook.  A growing number of companies integrate Google+ into their social media marketing plan, and it seems to be an ongoing trend in Germany. The German car manufacturer BMW, for instance, currently has more than 2.5 million followers on its international profile page and over 120,000 followers on its German profile. For German companies that want to position themselves internationally, Google+ can be a beneficial tool. Considering that Google+ is an integral part of Google itself, users can improve their search rankings  and overall visibility on Google through regularly updated content on Google+.

Pinterest
Similar to Instagram, Pinterest is  avirtual pin board that puts the image in the foreground. Unlike Instagram, which focuses on user-generated content, most Pinterest users pin pictures they find on the net, which Pinterest links back to the original source, making it a key driver of inbound traffic for media outlets and company websites alike. The usage in Germany has almost doubled in the last year. In contrast to most other networks, Pinterest users don’t really follow other users, but their pin boards, which new users sometimes find hard to understand. This allows the user to follow items and themes of interest to them, not just branded content which may include elements not relevant to the pin user.

Xing/LinkedIn
Xing – the German equivalent of LinkedIn – is the leading platform for business professionals here in Germany. Xing continues to be more popular in Germany than its principal competitor LinkedIn. According to the network’s Q3 2014 report, there are currently around eight million German-speaking users, and the number seems to be growing.  In comparison, based on a recent observation by the FAZ, LinkedIn has significantly fewer users but is growing more quickly than Xing in the German-speaking region.  These two are the most popular business-focused social media networks, and whilst the battle is ongoing between them, more and more businesses feel the need to sign up for one or the other. Businesses that want to build their brand reputation, stay competitive and operate in the international market create profiles on both Xing and LinkedIn.

So, is social media in Germany dying?  Absolutely not. Many social networks like Odnoklassniki and VKontakte, Instagram, Pinterest or LinkedIn are continuing to expand and increase user growth within this key market. It is true that some of the big international networks are seeing fewer logins and less  activity but alternatives continue to attract more and more Germans (as recent statistics show) to join in. Social media has not peaked in Germany, but there might be a shift to new or alternative networks. It is not a dying species, but one that is growing ever more diverse.

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Google to Reintegrate Tweets Directly from Twitter in Search Results

By Serena Ehrlich, Director, Social + Evolving Media, Business Wire

Last night, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced that it will be reintegrating Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) data into user search results starting in the first half of 2015 in exchange for an unspecified amount of data-licensing revenue.

This partnership will have multiple benefits for Google, Twitter, search users and corporate marketers.

Google
In the past, Google search spiders crawled Twitter’s website, as well as Yahoo! and Bing, to bring tweets into search results, resulting in delays and missed content. This partnership will provide Google direct access to Twitter’s firehose of tweets shared by its 284 million users, therefore allowing Google to provide faster, better search results for users looking for this data.

In addition, as many news outlets report, this partnership could also eliminate the competition growing between Google and Twitter to see which company is used the most for real-time search.

Search Users
For search users, this change should provide faster, more in-depth access to Tweets utilizing their search phrases.

Twitter
For Twitter, this increases the visibility and traffic to individual tweets, benefitting the platform as it looks towards increasing tweet reach outside Twitter.com and ad monetization.

Twitter Users
While perhaps meant as tongue in cheek, Mashable smartly notes this new Google/Twitter integration could increase the length of time a tweet is visible in search, a benefit and a negative to “trigger-happy” users.

Marketers
Unfortunately, while this agreement provides, faster, direct access to tweets, we have yet to see how Google will weigh and integrate tweets into its search results.  Will they be shown as individual results or combined as is the format now with news articles?  Or will they stand alone, filling search screens with individual messages.  Will weight of the search depend on verified badges or will each tweet have the same amount of “Google Juice?”

We are so excited to see these types of content partnerships take place. Business Wire has been providing access to our clients’ news releases across Google and Twitter for many years now and we look forward to seeing how this new partnership will amplify your content.

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[RECAP] LeWeb 2014: Silicon Valley in Paris

By Simona Colletta, Media Relations Specialist – Paris

Launched in 2004 to deepen the connection between big companies, startups, visionaries, and leaders in technology, LeWeb is Europe’s greatest internet conference and, in just ten years, has become a must-attend event worldwide. Business Wire was proud to be the official news distributor of LeWeb 2014 which had 3500 visitors, 300 journalists and 70 bloggers all from 80 different countries attend this year’s conference.

The conference is seen as a passport for corporate success. Every year LeWeb organizes a startup competition, with winners of the past editions having earned between 500.000 and 1 million euros during the year following the event.  This year there was something new about the startup competition: a pre-competition was organized in four European cities (Paris, Barcelona, Berlin and Stockholm) with the winner in each city chosen to participate in the Paris final competition. This year’s winner was Jukedeck, which automatically creates cheap, free-access, unlimited music. Its CEO Ed Rex astonished the audience by rapping his pitch in front of the judging panel.

An apple a day… does it keep the e-doctor away?

This edition of LeWeb was dedicated to the theme of Digital Health. Fred Wilson, a famous American investor (Twitter, Soundcloud, Foursquare, etc.), predicted that in 2015, successful and innovating companies will appear in the health sector. The potential impact of digital help could revolutionize the industry for medical staff and patients alike; therefore investments in this sector keep growing exponentially. As LeWeb conference called it – Digital Health would be “the reinvention of Healthcare.”

Doctor Daniel Kraft, a Harvard-trained physician-scientist, inventor, entrepreneur and innovator (with over 20 years of experience in clinical practice, biomedical research and healthcare innovation), delivered one of the most significant speeches of this year’s conference.  Doctor Kraft gave an interesting perspective of tomorrow’s patient, who he says will be equipped with sensors in order to follow and measure his/her health day by day. He said, “With connected health, you will become your own health’s boss”.  Kraft believes the individual will be more responsible and autonomous, and he/she will share information with his/her doctor, just as he/she now shares pictures or music on social networks. Business actors such as Apple, outside of this sector until now, will start to conquer the territory with, for example, the Healthkit, now available on iPhones.

Nicolas Huchet and BionicoHand

While there were many attention-grabbing speeches and products and projects, one stood out in particular. Bionicohand is a French project that aims to make accessible “the construction of a prosthetic upper limb at a low cost, due to standardized parts and open sources, easy to repair and therefore accessible to people with limited financial resources. This project wants to open new opportunities for emerging countries that do not have access to such equipment.”

Bionico’s CEO, Nicolas Huchet, presented the project. Nicolas’s arm was amputated when he was 18 and he was equipped with a myoelectric prosthesis, which allowed him to open and close a pincer. This was a good first step toward autonomy, but today there are many high-tech solutions that allow for the opportunity to better simulate human hands in motion. The problem is that high-tech prostheses can cost up to €65.000 and they are not covered by French social security. So Nicolas decided to build his own prosthesis using 3D printing technology (with the help of a local Fablab). That is how Bionicohand was born in 2013. Its mission is to give the same opportunity to others, who can download the plans for free.

Stay connected

LeWeb is a great occasion for co-working and networking. It gives companies the opportunity to be known in this “cruel” technology world and, at the same time, gives the private individual the opportunity to learn about technology and tech trends, even if they are a new to the techspace.

With all of this amazing information being shared at LeWeb, Isn’t it a good reason for visiting Paris next winter?

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