The results of CNN’s inaugural global research study into the power of news and recommendation (POWNAR) have recently been released - this was a global online survey with 2300 respondents conducted internationally between June and August this year.

Through biometrics and eye-tracking techniques, POWNAR wanted measure emotional engagement associated with online news sharing.

In summary the research found that:

- people 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 favour that brand themselves (one where a major European tourism board reported notably stronger campaign cut-through with aided ad re-call up 50% and brand favourability up 32% after advertising around news that was shared in social media)

- video pre-roll advertising had overall a superior branding effect when appearing around news content shared in social media, in comparison to display banner advertising.
 
What makes news “shareable”?

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 recommendation is driven by content that is visually spectacular, stories about science and technology, human interest stories and money-related stories. The majority of stories being shared carry an underlying message of the “sharer” imparting knowledge.

Who is doing the sharing?

- 27% of all sharers (defined as those sharing 6+ news stories per week) account for 87% of all news stories shared

- The average global user shares 13 stories per week and receives 26 stories through shared social media links or emails.

Which platforms dominate? 

- 43% of news sharing comes from social media networks and tools e.g. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace

- followed by email (30%), SMS (15%) and IM (12%).

I share news stories with my online networks - do you?