The Value of Tradeshows

I noticed a recent spat of posts about tradeshows. Some discuss the value of participating in the show while others discuss the “emergence” of virtual tradeshows. At one point in my career, I had focused on conferences and speaking engagements – originally with Niehaus Ryan Wong’s Speakers Bureau and eventually starting the Conference Strategies for Blanc & Otus. 

From a PR perspective, I view conferences as an opportunity to establish thought leadership and to increase a company’s awareness. However, it’s also important to understand how this fits within the marketing mix for organizations. Attending a show is not a small endeavor for a company. It’s costly, requires staff and must provide concrete results in the form of sales gold – the almighty sales lead. These folks have done a great job as discussing the value of tradeshows:

1. cadence blog – The Emergence of Virtual Tradeshows
2. Sales Lead Insights – Better Ways to Qualify Leads at a Trade Show
3. B2B Lead Blog – Virtual Trade Shows – Are they the Better Alternative?
4. B2B Lead Blog – Trade Shows – Branding or Demand Gen or Waste of Time and Money? Marketing WTF?
5. The Lonely Marketer – Are Trade Shows a Waste of Time and Resources?
6. Marketing Pilgrim – Trade Shows Go Virtual 

Disclosure – my company has developed online conferences and events and provide live and on-demand streaming webcasts into virtual tradeshows for organizations.  

PRMeetsMarketing Weekly Articles: February 28, 2008

Here is this week’s summary of articles. You can click on the Weekly Articles tag for previous issues or subscribe to the Weekly Articles Feed.

Building Relationships – Valerie Valeria Maltoni of Conversation Agent discusses how revealing yourself is a key part of building relationships. As part of this post, Valerie provides her 4 good and bad things to do when pitching her.

Reinventing Journalism – Though written last week, I found Scott Karp’s post on Feb. 20th about reinventing journalism interesting. If more publications move to including links from other sources, how does this impact PR? And from a press room perspective, what is the value of creating a useful resource that also links to “competitive” coverage?

One Chair Creates Conversation -The Lonely Marketer had an interesting post about how a person created internal conversation at her company. All you need is two chairs, a sign and a person willing to listen. IMO, the last part is sometimes the most difficult thing to find.

The Emperor Has No Clothes – I frankly couldn’t improve on the title of this post by Michelle Golden of Golden Practices. In this post, Michelle discussed how her brutal honesty in reviewing CPA websites has won her fans. This wasn’t done with “marketing” in mind, but rather to share her expertise and provide counsel. This positions her as a thought leader and expert. And isn’t that what PR and marketing is all about?

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Verifying MyBlogLog Verification

Apologies for this interruption. Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification.

Start-Up PR – Four Tips for Getting Media Coverage

When you’re a start-up, PR can be a difference for the company. The challenge is how to get targeted, quality media coverage on a limited budget and competing objectives. One of my favorite sayings lately is “by hook or crook.” What I mean is what can I do in the short-term to satisfy immediate results while keeping the eye on long-term value.

Here are some ways that start-ups can get some quick and dirty media coverage:

1) Editorial Calendars: Magazines will publish an editorial calendar to highlight areas of coverage for the coming weeks or months. Though the purpose is to garner advertising dollars, this will give you an opportunity to determine if there are appropriate stories. Contact the editorial assistant to determine process for contacting reporters and if the story has been assigned. 2) Executive Profiles: Consider pitching profiles of your CEO or founder to local newspapers, business journals or bloggers who focus on entrepreneurship. This provides a good opportunity to highlight your thought leadership within in your industry as well as vision for the company.

3) New Hire Placements: Local newspapers and journals include information about new executives at local companies. Each publication will have different criteria for submitting this information and may take several weeks for it to appear. I recommend submitting a photo as this will likely will get published with the brief.

4) Hold a Crazy Stunt: There is a balance between a stunt for marketing purposes and one that ties back into your overall objectives. I recently read about this stunt in the local newspaper. Briefly, this company was giving out tomatoes with money on it. Why? The name of the company is CashTomato.com. Frankly, I think this was poorly thought out and didn’t help promote the company’s end product… video-sharing site… yeah. Though it garnered coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle, I don’t know what else it accomplished. Dead pool anyone? =)

What are you PR tips for start-ups?

No Weekly Articles This Week: February 22, 2008

Sorry everyone. Work’s been a bit busy this week and I haven’t had time to put this week’s Weekly Articles together.  With that said, this past week provided closure to an account I mentioned here previously - Blu-ray.  Here are some articles for your reading pleasure:

Sony’s Blu-ray wins HD DVD battler – UK Guardian

Blu-ray Wins Battle in the High-Def War – US News & Report

Blu-Ray wins, who cares? – Silicon Valley Watcher

Blu-Ray wins, HD DVD loses, Probably – CNet Blogs

You can click on the Weekly Articles tag for previous issues or subscribe to the Weekly Articles Feed.  

AdAge Power 150 (or 500): How long will it last?

Wow – I was checking my dashboard stats when I noticed that a couple of folks came to my blog via the AdAge Power 150 – or in this case top 500. AdAge Power 150 (technically 500) looks at various factors for compiling this list such as subjective points, rankings by Google PageRanks and Technorati, and in bound links. 

This raises an interesting question about how these lists are compiled. Over the past few weeks, I’ve benefitted from the frequent posts about the upcoming Blogger Social. Why? Because most are also include a list of attendees, which has increased my in bound links and in turn my appearance on this list. 

These lists are useful to filter out the number of blogs being created every day. I’m not the only one who looks to these lists to find blogs from a PR and marketing perspective. At some point I wonder – which list do I want to follow?

Other lists to check out:

Viral Garden’s Top 25 Marketing Blogs

Brendan Cooper’s PR Friendly Index

w Magical List (list of female bloggers)

So I’ll enjoy it while it lasts! =) 

PRMeetsMarketing Weekly Articles: February 15, 2008

This past week has seen some interesting conversations about press releases/newswires, how to conduct social media campaigns and the relationship with customers. Enjoy this last issue before the President’s Weekend Holiday.  You can click on the Weekly Articles tag for previous issues or subscribe to the Weekly Articles Feed.  

The Power of News Wires – Read/WriteWeb has an interesting post about how BusinessWire’s influence and ability to be a top Techmeme source. If newswires are able to gain this much influence for a press release, does this mean PR folks will be “lazier” in getting placements for press releases?  

When a Release is Not a Release – B.L. Ochman highlights her experience with PR Web’s decision not to post a release because it didn’t satisfy their standard of a press release. The release was a funny announcement for procrastinators on Valentine’s Day. The tone was perfect for this type of announcement, yet PR Web insisted that B.L. make some changes. Frankly, who’s to decide what is and isn’t a release. I could understand profanity but because it wasn’t written in the third person? Puh-lease! 

Blogs are the Music to My Ears – Mack Collier writes about how blogs have contributed more to music sales than MySpace. Need I say more?

Valentine’s Day Special: It’s About the Relationship -Toby Bloomberg of Diva Marketing Blog put together a special post for Valentine’s Day. She lists 62 responses to how to create great business relationships.  Tons of great tips from all walks of life and industries. I like #4, #7, #12, #27, #34 (this one is tough for me.. ask my husband =), #62. My tip? Be humble and admit that you don’t know everything. 

Successful Customer Case Studies - Jeremiah Owyang is on a roll. He’s providing great insight as an analyst that should help every PR person out there. This week’s nugget of wisdom, creating successful customer case studies.  

SMRs in the Real World – Brian Solis posts an email from Steve Kayser who has outlined his experience using SMRs in the real world. Very informative regarding what to be aware of as one proceeds down this avenue. 

Social Campaigning… Not! – Paul Dunay of Buzz Marketing for Technology highlights a good point about Social Media. Social media can’t be considered a campaign as a campaign eventually ends. It require diligent work and commitment. Only then can you see reap the rewards of entering the social media world. 

Measurement Makes Your Executives Care – Dave Fleet reminds us that measurement is key for executive support and understanding. Like Social Media, it can’t be an one-time project. It has to be monitored constantly. I previously wrote about the PR measurements I track. It’s quick, easy and can be maintained weekly. Leave a comment if you’re interested in learning more.  

Six Deadly Sins of Social Media