Donna's Promo Talk

Live from Chicago, PMA's Annual Marketing Law Conference

All 510 of us registered attendees of PMA's 2009 Promotion Marketing Law Conference experienced a very, very full day today at the Fairmont Hotel which is host to this year's event. This year's theme is "staying connected @ the speed of change" which is so appropriate being that some polices that we reviewed today were just announced yesterday and others are so new that they're not even officially in effect yet. Plus there's a number of other legal decisions still to be announced before the close of 2009.

The morning was kicked started by Linda Goldstein, Sweepstakes Diva herself, in which she reviewed many rules and regulations and made it fun and engaging with a theme she called the PMA Risk Assessor App. I could spend quite a bit of time reviewing what she said, but I just can't write that fast, so I'm going to wait till I get a copy of her presentation and review it at a later time.

In Chicago covering PMA's Annual Marketing Law Conference

Well I arrived in Chicago earlier tonight and am currently writing this post from the Fairmont Hotel where I'll be attending PMA's Annual Marketing Law Conference for the next two days. I was lucky enough to arrive earlier than expected by flying stand-by on a USAir flight out of Charlotte to Chicago. I was in the very last aisle in the back of the plane, but made friends with the flight attendant who got me some free snacks from first class since I bought a beer. Can you believe they charge $7.00 for a Bud Lite? Anyhow, I wrote this post earlier today before I started my travels since today was my guest blogger day at the Lip-Sticking Blog. So here it is is.

Social Sweeps Promotion: RAMA & Friends Holiday Mixer Sweepstakes

I first used the term Social Sweeps in early 2008 when I wrote a post on this blog which was about interactive promotions combined with social media. Today I define Social Sweeps as any interactive promotion, such as a sweepstakes, contests, giveaways, or coupons that integrate with at least one social media platform to help create awareness and buzz.

I spoke about Social SweepsTM, interactive promotions that help to generate buzz, at the ROC Linked Live event this past week where I lead some roundtable conversations. Today I launched a Social Sweeps interactive promotion by utilizing a special promotions builder application developed by Wildfire Interactive, a company that I’ve partnered with.

The RAMA & Friends Holiday Mixer Sweepstakes is giving away 4 tickets for one lucky winner and 3 of their friends to attend their Holiday Party on Dec. 3rd at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY. People can enter the sweepstakes on Facebook by visiting the RAMA (Rochester Chapter of the American Marketing Association) fan page: www.facebook.com/RAMA.Rochester.AMA. They will fill out the online entry form and if they’re not already a fan of RAMA the tool will invite them to become one. Once completed, they will then be prompted to invite 3 of their friends to also enter the sweepstakes. Those that are successful at recruiting three of their friends to enter will be eligible for the drawing.

The sweepstakes kicked off on October 30 and ends on November 20, 2009. RAMA will announce the winner on or about November 23.

This marketing initiative was developed as a way to ultimately increase RAMA’s membership. One of the objectives this year of the organization is to walk the talk and expand the use of social media to communicate events as well as all the membership benefits.

RAMA started a Facebook page last year and started out with 265 fans. Now not all of these “fans” are RAMA members since anyone can become a fan of a Facebook page. However by just becoming a fan the assumption is that they have an interest in RAMA. The goal now is to identify these fans, as well as continue to add new fans, so that they can be placed in the proper bucket of the database as either a member or a prospective member and then provide each with more relevant information. This should be a win-win for all.

Movie characters, "Sexy" themes most popular 2009 Halloween costumes & Hershey's Trick-or-Treat.com is a hit

It's been a busy week so far and it's already Wednesday, which means it was my day to guest blog day over at The Lip-sticking Blog. Yesterday I was busy preparing for the round table discussions that I had to lead at the ROC Linked LIve event which I wrote about in my last post here. Anyhow, here's today's Lip-sticking post:

Halloween is quickly approaching which happens to fall on a Saturday this year, so there definitely will be an increase in trick-or-treaters and in parties. So if you haven't gotten your costume, or your kid's costume yet, there's still time. According to shopping search engine, SortPrice.com, here are the most popular kid and adult costumes this year:

Most Popular 2009 Kids Halloween Costumes

• Transformers' Bumblebee
• Batman
• Buzz Lightyear
• Cinderella
• Harry Potter
• Hannah Montana
• Traditional Princess
• Bakugan
• Dora the Explorer
• Sponge Bob SquarePants

Most Popular 2009 Adult Halloween Costumes

• Vampire
• Sexy Nurse
• Michael Jackson
• Star Wars
• Sexy Santa

So with kids it's the movie and TV characters that dominate the top spots again as usual. For adults I guess there's not much of a surprise there either with sexy costumes being what most women seem to gravitate to. I thought maybe Sexy Santa was a costume for men to wear, but instead the link to photos of the costumes proved me wrong.

LinkedIn Live event expecting over 200 networkers to "Pay-it-Forward" & support local charity

Here in Rochester we're getting ready for our first LinkedIn LIVE Event that’s part of a new ROC LinkedAlot group that's been developed on the social networking site LinkedIn. It's taking place this Tuesday, Oct. 27 and updates from EOD Friday had it close to a sell-out with over 200 people from the greater Rochester area attending.

Well here's a little background on ROC LinkedAlot -- This is a Rochester-based group of online networked professionals that started out online interacting in a LinkedIn™ Group on the social networking site with plans to meet offline at six events a year. As with most networking events people usually show up to meet new people and reconnect with people they already know. However this group utilizes the “pay-it-forward” method in which they invest time in sharing connections and making introductions online prior to each event. Then between events the group can stay connected online and continue discussions, share news and job openings.

Boxers for Breast Cancer Promotion Supports the Cause

It's been a long day and I almost forgot to add my Lip-sticking blog post that I wrote earlier today here as well. It's not a post about any cutting-edge interactive promotion or example of a great social media use, but it's original and I have a personal interest in promoting unique "pink promotions. So here it is:

As the month of October is starting to wind down we've all probably seen our share of "Pink Promotions" with October being known as Breast Cancer Awareness month. Back towards the beginning of September I wrote this post about the cause in which I highlighted a great online promotion -- a t-shirt design contest developed by Hanes, the apparel sponsor of Passionately Pink for the Cure which benefits Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Inspiring Success: Intro to Social Media Marketing from Women TIES event

Yesterday, October 15, I attended the Women's TIES Retreat held at the Welch Allyn Lodge in Skaneateles Fall, NY. Women TIES stands for Together Inspiring Entrepreneurial Success and this was the organization’s first annual event themed Inspiring Success.

My good friend and social media partner, Yvonne DiVita, is a member of TIES and was a speaker at the event. She invited me as her guest, so we got up early and made the trip eastbound on the NYS Thruway and then headed south into the village of Skaneateles to arrive at an 8 a.m. registration and breakfast. Yvonne’s topic was Building a Social Media Marketing Strategy which she co-presented with Trisha Torrey, also a TIES member, who is based in Syracuse and writes a Patient Empowerment blog for About.com.

Since there were many women in the audience that have not had much exposure to social media yet Yvonne and Trisha covered the basics. Yvonne started out by saying that social media is “always about the PEOPLE, not the technology”, so not to get hung up by the tools. Social media is important today because it is the most effective form of word of mouth marketing which just happens to be online.

They went through a quick overview of the social media tools including the top social networks, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace, as well as Twitter and YouTube. They spoke about how to effectively work these into an overall marketing strategy. As with any marketing plan you first need to set your goals. Do you want to increase your brand awareness, build relationships with existing customers, gain new customers, drive traffic to your website, and/or promote new products and services? All this can be done as well as gaining insights and feedback from customers and competitors.

Social media marketing is being promoted as one of the most cost effective tactics in a marketing plan. However, it does take time. The advice was given to the women there to perhaps start to shift some their time and budget from advertising, networking or cold calling to social media initiatives.

There were many questions at the end of the presentation and one woman actually shared a great success story with us. As the owner of a couple of Subway restaurants in the greater Syracuse area, she and her daughter started a Subway Facebook page which now has over 1.2 million fans! Can you believe that? The official Subway Facebook page has just over 300,000. So they are meeting soon with the national Subway marketing team to share with them how they accomplished this. I just became a fan myself and reviewed their page. I can see that they’ve been successful by clearly understanding their audience and posting fun, engaging content, and doing it often.

So remember, social media is all about the people. I met many great women at this event that I now hope to stay connected with through social media. Thanks Yvonne for inviting me and to all the women who worked hard to put on a wonderful, memorable event.

eBay announces winners to their Sellers Challenge business plan contest

Today I wrote a post about another really great B2B user-generated content promotional marketing contest over at the Lip-sticking blog. Yvonne DiVita, the Lip-sticking blog founder and fearless leader, has written about eBay before on the blog, so their PR agency, Edelman Digital, sent Yvonne info on eBay's most recent promotional campaign. Since I'm the promotional blogger, Yvonne passed it on to me to write. Here's the post:

Here's a contest that eBay sponsored earlier this year that is another great example of an interactive promotional marketing campaign targeted to small businesses. The eBay Sellers Challenge was designed to spark the entrepreneurial spirit among eBay sellers. eBay registered members were invited to participate in the contest for a chance to win $25,000 to be used to help bring their business plans to life along with free marketing advice and support from the eBay.

Timing for PMA's Annual Promotion Marketing Law Conference couldn't be better

The PMA's annual Promotion Marketing Law Conference is now almost three weeks away and is filling up fast! "Staying Connected @ The Speed of Change is taking place November 5-6 at the Fairmont Hotel back in Chicago again. I missed it last year, but that's not going to happen this year. The PMA, Association for Integrated Marketing has again invited me back as a guest blogger, or member of the press as it is also referred to. I thought I'd better disclose that right up front. I just made my hotel and plane reservations, so I'm Chicago bound.

The timing could not be more perfect for this conference this year because of all the headlines the FTC has recently been making regarding the new impending social media endorsement guidelines which focus on bloggers. This 81-page document is way to long and detailed for most of us to wade through, so to get a front row seat at the FTC keynote session and hear it from the horse's mouth so to speak will be priceless. David Vladeck, the FTC Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, will hopefully guide us through this. It was also just announced today that Rosemary Harold, Legal Advisor to FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell will join Bob Corn-Revere, a former in house attorney for and expert on the FCC who will also address the audience.

While the FTC will be a major focus of the conference, there are many other very important sessions that will address topics such as the latest on Social Media, Instant Promotions, Mobile Marketing, Targeted Advertising, Green Marketing, Branded Entertainment/Sports, Renegotiation Contracts, Sweepstakes, Contests, Incentive Marketing and lots more.

Overall there will be 100 speakers and 40 plus main sessions that include professionals from major brands such as AT&T, Coca-Cola, Comcast, Facebook, Google, GE, General Mills, Hanes, McDonald's, Microsoft, P&G, Tommy Hilfiger, T-Mobile, VISA and more. Plus of course one of the main reasons we attend these types of conferences in person...invaluable networking opportunities.

Ed Kabak, Chief legal Officer of the PMA says “All marketing and promotion lawyers should be sure to attend to find out how dramatic changes in the legal and business environment affecting our industry are likely to affect their business and clients.”

The PMA Law Conference traditionally draws over 500 marketing and law professionals. CLE credits are offered and a highly valuable conference binder of more than 800 pages is given to all the attendees as well as an updated Law and Forms Guide. You can view the full agenda here and there is still time to register online, although the discounted hotel rates are gone.

If you're going to be at the conference please look for me and say hello. This will be my first PMA law conference that I will be tweeting from. So follow me and look for the hashtag #PMALaw. You can also follow PMA on Twitter and also check out their Centers of Excellence blog.

Thanks again to the PMA for having me back as their guest.

Peter Shankman: "social media today is a wonderful catch phrase"

Yesterday I attended a sold-out luncheon hosted by our local chapter of the PRSA here in Rochester that was held at the RIT Inn and Conference Center. We all had the privilege to hear social media evangelist, Peter Shankman, give the keynote address, “It’s not Web 2.0. It’s not Web 3.0. It’s simply life”, at the association’s regional conference.

I had never heard Peter speak before and I was highly engaged and entertained by his lively, hour-long discussion which lived up to the title. He didn’t use any slides or video. He didn’t even use the mike, which was horrible quality. Instead he just spoke to us as if we were all sitting around a table together.

Peter is the founder and CEO of The Geek Factory, Inc a boutique Marketing and PR Strategy firm located in New York City, with clients worldwide. He is perhaps best known for founding Help A Reporter Out, (HARO) which in under a year has become the de-facto standard for thousands of journalists looking for sources on deadline.

I could write an entire article that just includes the many great “one-liners” Peter shared with us. For example, he started off by telling us that social media is just a wonderful catch phrase and that he, along with Al Gore, invented it. However, instead I'm going to concentrate on the key points that I think he wanted us to walk away with…his 4 basic rules of common sense.

Transparency – Today we all need to be more open. In the long run it will save us. Teach your team and your clients that they can’t get away with it any longer.

Relevancy – Make it relevant to your audience. Ask them what information they want and how they want to receive it.

Brevity – Keep your messages short. The average person’s attention span is now 2.7 seconds. That’s about as long as it takes to read a text message or tweet. Back in the 80’s it was 3 minutes, the time it took to watch a music video! Learn how to write.

Networking – Make use of today’s social media tools and put yourself out there. Get on Facebook and connect with your network. Check to see who has a birthday today and send them a greeting. I took Peter's advice and sent two this morning and now will be meeting for coffee with one person I’ve been meaning to reconnect with.

Peter closed with telling us that social media is really all about having someone else do your PR for you, whether it’s good or bad. So if you want positive buzz, you need to gain your customers’ trust, focus on customer service and give off good karma. If you do these things it should pay you back.

Thanks Peter for simplifying it all for us and for visiting Rochester!