Shared News Has More Impact on The Reader

Research from CNN and Pownar identified several factors why people share news and what impact shared news has on the reader.

Familiar scenario: You get a link from a friend pointing to a news story. You check it out and if it’s worth it you share it as well. Stories shared by your friends are more likely to remain present in our memory. Now Pownar and CNN could scientifically prove, what we’ve know all along.

The global online survey with 2300 respondents showed some interesting facts. Especially for brand managers: “Through biometrics and eye-tracking techniques, POWNAR also aimed to measure emotional engagement associated with online news sharing. The results showed a “halo effect” of substantially higher engagement with “recommended” news content and embedded advertising, as opposed to “randomly” consumed content and advertising”.

Respondents who received news content from a friend or associate via social media, were 19% more likely to recommend the brand that advertised around that story to others and 27% more likely to favor that brand themselves. Brand knowledge was boosted by 50% in an aided recall test and brand image went up 32%.

The study also could identify the main reasons why people share a certain news story: “For narrative, 65% of shared content comprises ongoing stories, 19% comprises breaking news and 16% of content falls into the “quirky or funny” category”.

News is shared by 27% of the users, but this group accounts for 87% of all news stories. 43% of all news is shared by social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or MySpace. E-Mail still takes a large par of sharing with 30% and SMS takes up 15%.

Clearly this research implicates that brands are best exposed next to news stories which fascinate readers. But how will brands be able to identify these stories?