BusinessWire has added some much needed new features to its NewsTrak Access reporting dashboard, which provides users with data on press release pickup and distribution. The new features include:

Search Terms: The report has added search terms used to find the press release. This information can be incorporated into future news releases to improve search optimization.

Referral Links: Identifies web pages from which users clicked through to releases on the Business Wire site from other sites.

Link Report: This provides the number of clicks occurring on links in the news release text.

Social Media: If someone viewing the press release submits it to a social media site such as FaceBook or MySpace, NewsTrak Access will include these details.

With BusinessWire and most of the other major wire services, they make it easy to "export" these reports via email to your account teams and clients. It's definitely a feature all PR pros should be taking advantage of. At a few hundred dollars a pop, the more you can do to track and optimize your releases, the better.