We’ve just posted two new case studies outlining how we’ve applied social media marketing strategies to help Epson and MSI Computer increase social network visibility, expand brand awareness and improve SEO.  You can check them out here:

Epson Social Media Marketing Case Study

MSI Computer Social Media Marketing Case Study

Enjoy!

George

It was in response to a business owner who asked if cutting her marketing/PR budget was a good or bad strategy to cope with shrinking budget resources. This question is undoubtedly on the minds of many professionals and business owners in these difficult economic times. And, many have already made the tough choice to reduce marketing and communications budgets, along with a number of other business expenses.

Ms. Edmunds took a pragmatic and logical approach in her response, cautioning the reader not to make a hasty, ill-informed decision she might later regret.  Her argument boiled down to the following:

“If reducing your budget is necessary for the life of your business, that’s understandable. However, you must continue to be as visible to the public as possible…public relations, marketing and advertising are the things that keep you and your business in the public view.”

Certainly, in some cases, cutting marketing dollars is unavoidable. However, an efficient, cost-effective ongoing communications program designed to maintain company brand visibility among customers, influencers and the media can go a long way to optimizing an organization’s position for continued growth once the economic climate improves.

In other words, be careful not to cut off your nose to spite your face.

If you’re a marketing/PR professional or executive at a tech or consumer organization, I strongly encourage you to read the column.

And, be sure to let us know what you think.

Geo2

As the world’s largest semiconductor foundry, TSMC has the proven ability to rapidly alter to the economics of any market it enters.  In a fairly short time span, TSMC manufacturing prowess could dramatically increase solar cell and LED manufacturing volume.  The result would be an order of magnitude increase in the supply, and sharp decrease in price, of both.

If this happens, it could easily have the same kind of effect that Intel had on the PC market with its X86 architecture, or that Apple had on the digital music business with the iPod.  It’s a game-changer.

If TSMC moves ahead, the potential benefits to energy consumers – individuals, businesses and government – and, of course, the environment are enormous.  The impressive reduction in carbon emissions forecast by Cooler Planet if just 5 percent of households went solar could be a gross underestimate if the price of solar panels dropped precipitously.  LED’s potential of slashing industrial, residential and public lighting energy requirements – as well as significantly reducing the energy required to run air conditioners to cool all those lights – could be realized as well.

For existing producers of solar panels and LED lighting, TSMC’s possible move should have their marketing and PR teams burning the midnight oil (fossil fuel pun, sorry).  Some of their top priorities might include:

1. Researching how leading fabless semiconductor companies build and maintain market value
2. Developing communications programs today to ensure brand value in tomorrow’s market
3. Understanding how customer requirements and motivation are impacted by price

Being prepared for foreseeable contingencies in business is always smart.  In the case of the still embryonic green tech community, I believe it’s essential.  As far as this situation goes, my guess is that TSMC won’t keep us hanging for too long.

Bob Walt

It’s at times like these that I believe it’s more important than ever to go back to basics – all the way back to that initial spark that first ignited your business. And for most consumer and enterprise tech companies that spark resulted in your first “Wow!” – a first impression that made someone say these guys “get it,” they’re “really creative,” or “now that’s something I really want to buy.”

Wow! can emanate from cool products, from whiz-bang new technologies, from innovative solutions, from impressive people, and from creative communications campaigns. Wow! can come from big, creative ideas – a squadron of media-packed helicopters flying over a major trade show in Las Vegas; a dry-witted comedian on the Today show delivering a client’s messages using humor to drive home a point; or a series of blogger-driven contests that generates droves of positive posts about a new consumer device.  (All did in fact work for Walt & Company’s tech PR and consumer clients.)

Understandably, budgets for lavish PR campaigns, celebrity spokespeople, and big cash prizes are pretty hard to come by. Yet, that doesn’t mean that generating Wow! is off the table. It just means you may need to be more creative in your approach. With that in mind, for the past couple of months we’ve incorporated the following questions into every creative brainstorming session we hold:

1. Does this product/service increase productivity?
2. Does this product/service save energy?
3. Is this product/service more enjoyable to use than competitive products?
4. What’s the coolest feature/benefit of this product or service?
5. How is this product/service making the world better?

More often than not, the result has been an idea to look at a product or market opportunity differently, as in Wow!, I never thought of it like that. And, those ideas have lead to some communications strategies and tactics that are beginning to show meaningful results.

I’d be interested in your feedback. Also, let me know if you have any questions you think should be added to this list.

Bob Walt

In addition to issuing a press release and social media release on PitchEngine, Epson also created a variety of product images, as well as a short, compelling video so that users could see the product in action. We posted the video on YouTube, Flickr and a number of other video sharing sites, so that blogs and and social media sites could easily re-purpose the content.

With today’s news and content regularly being issued online, including multimedia as part of the PR strategy is increasingly important — and valuable.

Thus far, the response has been great.

Check it out!