1. Visit other blogs in your field and voice your opinion. According to SocialMouths, it provides feedback to the blogger, it gives visibility to your own blog and — most importantly — it creates a conversation. After all, dialogue is better than monologue!

While this may seem like a time consuming task, the creation of content, as well as the dialogue, will speak for itself.

2. PR-Squared pointed to a method called POST that Forrester uses, which is an acronym for people, objectives, strategies and tactics. After knowing your audience (which is the number one lesson they teach you in college), you start to understand which topics cause a stir, and then you begin to engage people in those very topics you know will get a response. Because you’ve engaged in conversation with them before, then you know you have a group of peers in dialogue about your field left and right, all through blogging.

Not so coincidentally, forming relationships yields the same results.

I think it’s also necessary to note that these conversations should stay within your field. Even if you’re talking to competitors, you’re still relaying important information that you’re knowledgeable about.

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Alyssa Milano called it early in the day, while Mad TV gets the crystal ball award for coming up with the concept of iPad as a high-tech feminine hygiene product way back in 2007:

I think the name is OK and that people will likely become tired of the joke – if they ever laughed in the first place. If the iPad rocks as most Apple products seem to do these days, it’s not likely to matter much anyway.

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Technorati Tags: Apple, Branding, humor, iPad, launches

Not only is this an ideal venue for exhibitors to learn the latest information in the power electronics business, it is also a great opportunity for companies to leverage their tradeshow investment by building a package of communications activities to support being at the show.

Some ideas to leverage your investment at APEC 2010:

- Use your company blog to highlight your tradeshow message. This can help drive traffic to your booth, and the web.

- Leverage other social media channels, like Twitter or your company Facebook page, to expand your reach.

- Have your agency or internal PR team arrange editorial and analyst meetings at the show. This expands your reach after the show, extending the benefits from your investment.

- If budget permits, consider taking advantage of show offered sponsorships, especially pre-show mailings to bring people into the booth.

With only a few months left before the show, now is the time to take the steps to leverage your investment and maximize your ROI from APEC 2010.

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Technorati Tags: Communications, Events, Marketing, PR, Tech

Story arcs allow us to manage the ebb and flow of news by creating events or episodes – trends and predictions viewpoints, data analyses, podcasts and more – that take a few big issues or message points and build smaller, component stories that evolve and draw the sustained interest of multiple audiences. This approach creates an opportunity for industry participants to enter into a dialogue with your company’s thought leaders.

Development of story arcs also supports the repurposing and evolution of content assets across multiple channels. Among the approaches we use:

How do you develop stories that hold readers’ interest and provide seed ideas for media?

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Technorati Tags: Client Service, Marketing, podcast, Social Media, Topaz Partners

Here are some tips to avoid this:

1. Designate a lead agency. Make that lead agency the coordinating entity for not only the distribution of information, but the coordinating agency for reporting as well.

2. Ensure that the lead agency has the experience to handle multiple agencies and coordinate these activities.

3. Establish a specific date/time for distribution of information.

4. Consider time zones, holidays, day of the week, etc. when selecting the day and time for distribution – it can make a big difference.

5. Hold routine global coordination calls. Email is great, but talking makes it all work.

With a little planning and coordination, you can effectively control the timing and global message for your company.

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Technorati Tags: Coordination, Global PR, Planning, PR, public relations

When it comes to marketing and branding, the conventional wisdom is that the “elevator pitch” is a must-have. It’s practically unquestioned that you should be able to boil down what your company does in 30 seconds, the length of an average elevator ride.

Marketing consultant Steven Melanson says the elevator pitch is seriously misguided. Steven says that 30 seconds is in fact too long and overlooks perhaps the key objective of any successful branding effort: differentiating you from your competition.

Steven is President of Melanson Consulting, which according to his website is a “verbal branding development and instruction company.” He’s also the author of Jaw Branding™, a book and audio CD “that describes the verbal gap in the branding services marketplace, Jaw Branding™ philosophies for verbal interactions, the relationship to memory and psychology, its superiority to traditional sales or communications approaches for revenue generation, and the implications of verbal branding for organizational culture.”

Steven joined Topazers Glen Zimmerman, Anne Dalrymple and Wendie Larkin for a special episode of PRobecast, which you can listen to here:

You can subscribe to PRobecast via Podcast Ready —

or iTunes.

Or simply use the RSS link here:

You can send your feedback to probecast@topazpartners.com. You can also call your feedback into 781-404-2409. Or leave a comment on our blog!

PRobecast’s opening music is “Junk In A” by Pat Zelenka, available on the Podsafe Music Network. Our closing music was composed by Rob Capra.

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Technorati Tags: Branding, Marketing, Melanson+Consulting, PRobecast, Steven+Melanson, Topaz+Partners

Saw this recent Small Business Computing article by Lauren Simonds – Intuit Pinches Payroll Pricing and Helps Retailers Cash In – that demonstrates Intuit’s strength as a company and the forward looking strategy of the company’s business development and marketing teams. For new customers, they’ve slashed prices for their online payroll service from $29.95 a month to $9.95 a month.

If you’re already dominating the market, what better time than a recession to help your existing customers and attract new ones with an unbeatable offer?

Please comment/share if you learn of other bold promotions like this at a time when most companies are hunkering down for the recovery that could be a long way off. These are valuable case studies that go against the grain and can be helpful to companies currently putting together their 2009 business development, marketing and PR plans.

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Technorati Tags: Intuit, recession, small business, Small Business Computing.com

Apple ads have long been using “I’m a PC” to compare Microsoft products to Apple. Microsoft’s new ad uses an engineer who states “Hello, I’m a PC and I’ve been made into a stereotype.” This counterattack ad is not only thing Microsoft is doing in this new campaign. Celebrities such as Jerry Seinfeld, Microsoft’s own Bill Gates, Eva Longoria, Deepak Chopra and Pharrell Williams are all making cameos.

These cameos are creating buzz for the new campaign. Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates “teasers” commercials have been creating discussions since the airing in early September. Sarah Wurrey discusses the Mac vs. PC ad war on Media Bullseye at the beginning of the week, asking what Jerry and Bill’s ads actually mean.

Jerry’s exit announced today was captured on various tech media, entertainment pubs and mainstream outlets. For an exit off a commercial gig, Seinfeld receive a lot of press.

The campaign for Microsoft is going far beyond advertisements. Will this hurt or help Microsoft in the end? Is the 300 million dollar campaign going to change the image of “I’m a PC” and Microsoft as a whole? What’s Apple’s next step?

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Technorati Tags: Ads, Advertising, Advertisments, Apple, Bill Gates, Brand Image, Buzz, Microsoft, New York Times

The presentation was very informative and he has an extensive knowledge of linking SEO to press releases. I was astounded to learn that in July 2008 there were over 1.5 billion search queries for news and media related results in Google. This got me thinking about how we can optimize visibility for our releases here at Topaz. Of course, Derek seemed to read my mind as he went on to address this issue. What I found really interesting was that it is not the quantity of keywords, but the quality. It’s better to have a few keywords that are extremely relevant than to have many keywords that don’t target your audience as well. It is also really important to have links in your press release. Derek explained that links help search engines understand what a site is about and why it is or isn’t important. Make sure your links are from a trusted source since this is an important part of the evaluation process for visibility on search engines.

There were many other tips that would simply take too long to write out, but I thought I would share that little bit of my informative morning. To end, let me say that simply putting your release out doesn’t guarantee coverage, you must outreach and communicate your message in order for people to take an interest in it. In fact, I’m about to go do so now!

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Technorati Tags: Client Service, Google, press release, Search engine optimization, SEO, Topaz

Today is an exciting day for one of our clients, Prospero Technologies. The provider of social networking technology and services announced today it has been acquired by Mzinga, another locally-based company in the industry.

What is particularly exciting for us is that this is a great chance for us, along with people from the new combined Mzinga, to exercise our social media muscles.

Aside from our pitching blogs and podcasts in the space (in addition to “traditional” media of course), blog posts from both Mzinga and Prospero have put individual blog posts (here, here and here) showing how– and more importantly, why– some of the key executives and team members are excited about this news.

Further, we are taking the conversation to Twitter today (Monday, March 3), first by linking to announcements and blog posts (including this one), and then by sparking discussions about social media and online communities in a way that engages and serves the community; just as Mzinga and Prospero have been doing on their own platforms. I had a great time getting limited word out privately on Friday, which even included talking to a few marketing folks in Second Life (ok, now I’m letting my social media freak flag fly).

On Twitter, please see the pages of:

http://twitter.com/astrout
http://twitter.com/jstorerj
http://twitter.com/crbrowning
http://twitter.com/hjstrout

Also, I will be monitoring and joining in this conversation throughout the day, and then summarizing what transpires (http://twitter.com/dough), as will my colleague Sandy Kalik (http://twitter.com/skalik).

Our industry colleagues at Perkett PR are in on it as well.

Please join us!

As PR practitioners with a strong social media background, we at Topaz look forward to opportunities like these and relish diving into them.

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