Virtual Conference – Digital Marketing World – MarketingProfs

Today I had a luxury of attending most of a virtual conference first time. MarketingProfs’   Virtual Conference – Digital Marketing World.  Last year I would log in for a few minutes, or just review something in recording… “walk” through an empty lounge… or download a white paper or two from an unattended booth… (the booth’s owner follow up would still find me…)

Virtual conference is more useful and engaging while it is live. Particularly interesting:

• Communicating with the other attendees before the conference, while everybody is trying to find their local or specialty counterparts.
• Twitter name exchange… interesting – people are eager to post their twitter name everywhere (it is not as guarded as an e-mail address)… but I think I gained a follower too
• Ability to follow not only chats on the conference web site, but also reviews of the conference on Twitter.  Though sometimes overwhelming… it is quite exciting to see in real time what points of the presentation the rest of the audience found important…  And not as rude as during the live event.
• Ability to see opinions of the attendees of the parallel track about the presentation that I missed…  Based on these comments, I quickly made the decision if I needed to review the recording
• Oh!  I just realized!  I forgot my briefcase at the conference… Oops… I will need to go back and pick it up…  it is not too far – just a couple of clicks

I think we, the attendees, were quite confused about some of the virtual trade show rules, that one entrepreneurial and helpful marketer quickly posted “user advice” for a virtual trade show attendees on her blog – thank you!!  Of course, I retwitted it during the event :-)

Virtual conferences are just starting to become a part of the business environment… and I see a few advantages and a couple of changes that will probably come in the future…

Advantages:

• Everybody has a profile and no company would need to manually “enter” business cards left in the booth into the database.  Marketer’s dreams come true!
• The “evaluations” of the conference sessions are not necessary – if may be impolite to leave the auditorium during a live presentation of a disappointing speaker, but clicking “lounge” button after a few boring minutes of online presentation is quite OK
• All the materials are in the “briefcase,” that can be picked up any time… or forgotten at the event…

Future changes:

• I think virtual conferences are at the period of the development where web sites were about 10 years ago (I still remember infamous “guest books” :-)  ). At that period of time, true potential of interactive marketing was not discovered yet, and the sites resembled print brochures. But in a few years everything changed. Something similar will probably happen with virtual convergences. Right now too much effort (graphics, space, etc.) is expanded to “recreate” the atmosphere of the real live conference. It might be necessary for the “transition” period, but the use of the space will change. Soon.
  • The picture of the realistically looking booth with a city background would probably morph into the company’s logo, pictures of the company’s representatives, and… useful facts and materials for the “booth’s visitor.”  The intricate booth design (thought quite interesting for the first time) does not contribute to the satisfaction of the need of the conference attendee – it is not necessary.
  • Lounge will probably “learn” to devote more space to the images of currently talking people… Maybe – just maybe – Twitter-type threads?  Maybe some “official” method of finding attendees from the same locations or marketing verticals? Thread categories? At the current virtual conference, generic images of the lounge dominated the prime real estate, and the people (who I came to meet :-)  ) were hidden on the bottom.  Ha!  The arrangement worked quite effectively anyway – seeing images of others I hurried up to place my picture into my profile :-)  
  • Would it be interesting to see fellow attendees during the sessions?  Bottom of the screen would be quite nice…  Maybe…  it depends on privacy and other goals, but we will see…  Virtual conferences are here to stay, and it is absolutely wonderful!
• I believe the categories of the virtual conferences will also change soon to a user-centric navigation…  It won’t be “auditorium, show floor, lounge” but something closer to “presentations, vendors (or prizes? :-)  ), networking.” Right now they reflect the “building,” but they will soon reflect “the benefit” that this type of building used to provide for the conference attendee. 

Great event!  Yes, I had to “bring my own snack” but it was a wonderful opportunity to expand my knowledge in the field of interactive marketing that I love and connect with other enthusiasts.  All from my own home computer…. Free. Thank you, MarketingProfs,  and, just like everybody else who filled out the survey, I was happy to propose the new tagline for your organization :-)

BtoB Magazine – September 10, 2007

The most interesting section of the magazine was 10 Great Web Sites.  Yes, they are great.  Yes, they are useful.  Yes, they are b-to-b. 

What is interesting, and obvious, is the desire to make the site suitable for the user and, at the same time, don’t forget about the business goal of the site.  These sites were changed after researching the target audience, building personas, studying focus group results, and analyzing traffic patterns on the site.  This approach takes time to develop, but it gives results. 

The recommendation is clear “Don’t use Flash or video unless it serves a specific purpose.”  How true… How true…

My favorites:
www.deloitte.com/
“We’ve organized the site based on the business issues that people are worried about or experiencing.”

www.Staples.com
… extensive usability studies and creation of seven different personas…

www.national.com
National Semicondusctor performs extensive focus group research, as well as ranking and blind studies, at least once a year, and uses that information to develop site tools.

BtoB Magazine – August 13, 2007

Very insightful information!

Stark contrast in use of new media between b-to-b, b-to-c companies (page 1).  B-to-b marketers paying more attention to the new media than I honestly thought… Curious – marketers still use the e-mail for demand generation… though I read many opinions that it is more of a retention, lead nurturing, and up-sell channel…  B-to-c marketers are happier with social networks than b-to-b marketers (understandable).  Measuring of the new media effectiveness for b-to-b – downloads of white papers  :-)

Weight of the words (page 16).  Even if any of us could find an ocean of information about SEO and SEM in our own heads, there is always something to gain from a new article.  Some of useful suggestions:

• placing branded words into their own buckets (they convert better)
• creating classification of keywords that that mirrors buying cycle
• and the most straightforward that is so difficult to implement – clearly defining goals for each step of the buying cycle. 

The magazine has descriptions of several wonderful integrated (presumably) campaigns.  Great case studies for ideas to take to the office on Monday

Other interesting tidbits:

• USA Today is read by executive decision makers and expanding into web site and a glossy magazine
• WSJ is planning to bring its content to elevator walls and lobbies of office buildings
• Association for Downloadable Media was formed
• among several very enticing books recommended in the magazine, the one that I would hope to read (before retirement) The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly
• Domain extension .ex (extension for Spain) is used by US companies for their Spanish-language web site versions

BtoB Magazine – July 16, 2007

This issue of BtoB Magazine was very insightful!  Now the magazine moved to #1 on my reading list, but I am still complaining about the format – it falls too easily from the night stand…

The magazine is almost completely devoted to the on-line aspects of b-to-b marketing with a few articles with other marketing topics. 

Marketers discover analytics’ power (page 1).  According to the article, web analytics is finally moving beyond just providing basic reporting.  (I sincerely hope it is true ).  Analytics allows to evaluate effectiveness of campaigns in real time and adjust different marketing channels to align with the company’s business goals.  Right corporate culture is important, however… 

Web 2.0 (page 1).  So many new Web 2.0 tools come into our lives (and jobs)!  The recommendation is to start trying and adjust to the results immediately, so we can learn quickly. The most vital thought: before playing with the tools, we need to determine what do we want to do – what our business objectives are.  From my experience is very obvious, but very difficult to convey and achieve.  Definitely, check out this article.

Culture clash in the blogosphere(page 10).  Dell is a ubiquitous name at any conference as an example of social media blunders and recoveries.  Here is another one!  A very silly beginning (trying to squash a blog post), and a very gracious end (its own blog post with apologies).  I am starting to admire the company…

Software provider uses blog, e-newsletter to cross-promote (page 18).  Another example of an externally hosted blog helping organic ranking and increasing e-mail subscription.  Great as usually!

A note about benefits of video cases studies…  correcting “black hole” e-mail lists (a situation when e-mails of the company are blocked because the company’s e-mail server is listed in “black lists”)…  oh, so many interesting articles!

However I disagree that iPhone’s popularity is based on Apple’s legendary brand; Forbs published a research that the features of the device are particularly attractive.  Apple had its flops. 

Great magazine!  The best way to subscribe is through TradePub.  I love TradePub too