03/25/14

Preparing for your Product Launch: Choosing a Communications Mix

By Andrés Uribe, Expedition PR

As our 2^nd ebook, Preparing for your Product Launch is nearing the end of production, we thought we’d give you another sneak peek at what’s in store for you. Chapter 4 will cover how to choose your communications mix. Here is a quick preview:

Once you’ve chosen a target audience picking your communication channels becomes easy; simply make sure your product’s name is in places where your target audience will see it. Well at least that’s the simplified version. With so many choices, anywhere from social media to sandwich boards, it can become difficult to identify where your customers hang out.

Here are a few steps to help you identify which channels will give you the best chance of being noticed by the people most likely to purchase your product.

1. Consider ALL channels available to you. Surely going into this you will have some idea of what platforms to conduct marketing campaigns on in order to hit your target audience. Well this is the part of the process where you forget those preconceived notions of what your communications mix will look like and take a moment to consider all of your options. There are literally thousands of channels to communicate your message across. A great way to start the process of finding the right channels is by finding a list of marketing channels, like this one, and going one by one and highlighting the ones that might work for your product. Continue reading →

03/14/14

Preparing For Your Product Launch: Knowing When You’re Ready

By Andrés Uribe, Expedition PR

Before you launch your product there are two important questions you have to ask yourself: 1) If everyone I’m alerting about my product’s launch decided to check out what I have to offer, am I prepared to offer them all a great customer experience? 2) If they all told three of their friends who ended up also checking out my product in the near future, will I be able to provide these new customers with the same great customer experience?

Harrison Interactive Customer Experience Impact Report Customer experience and scalability are the two essential factors to knowing you’re ready to launch your product. According to the 2013 Harris Interactive Customer Experience Report, 86% of consumers report to having quit doing business with a company due to a single negative customer experience. If you answered no to either of the previous two questions, then you are not ready to launch. If you answered ‘I think so’ or ‘maybe’ to either or both of these questions, don’t worry, there is a solution for you too. Continue reading →

03/11/14

Highlights from SXSWi 2014

By Andrés Uribe, Expedition PR

SXSWi 2014 was amazing, or so I’ve been told. Although I did not actually get to attend this year’s festival, yet again, I was able to stay digitally up to date on event happenings from the comfort of my office. Wrapping up today, March 11^th, this year featured some great new startups, exceptional speakers, and a couple of big name no-shows! Here’s a quick rundown of what you might have missed:

The No-Shows – After having made huge splashes at SXSW in 2009 and 2011, Foursquare and GroupMe, respectively, elected not to host any events this year. While GroupMe left it vague and simply said that they have ‘other things going on,’ Foursquare opted out of attending due to current product development initiatives that were taking priority. Interesting enough though, the lack of attendance by these two previous SXSWi stars seems to work as a PR move of its own, generating coverage of their no-show from AdWeek and Billboard, amongst others, and conveying the message to users that they are working on updates, so look out! Continue reading →

02/28/14

GSMA Mobile World Congress 2014 Highlights

By Andrés Uribe, Expedition PR

Over the past four days business leaders and enthusiasts of the mobile technology industry flooded the city of Barcelona, Spain, as they played a part in shaping the future of mobile. Once a year since 2006 Groupe Spéciale Mobile Association (GSMA) hosts the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (before Barcelona the event was hosted in Cannes). This year’s event attracted 70,000 visitors and played host to product launches and some truly memorable keynote speakers. With overarching themes of security, connectivity, cheaper hardware and water-resistant devices, here are a few highlights from the show: Continue reading →

02/21/14

Changing the World One App at a Time: Apps for Social Good

By Andrés Uribe, Expedition PR

We are all familiar with brands that have used apps to help promote and support their various products. Heineken, Domino’s Pizza, Zippo Lighter, and Toys “R” Us are just a few examples of brands that are active in releasing mobile apps that complement their offerings. Well this marketing strategy isn’t limited to for profit companies. Charities are making a splash in the mobile marketing scene in a big way with apps that encourage you to do good and assist you in making a positive impact on the world. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Charity Miles. This one is for those of you who like to walk or bike for exercise. Once you sign up for Charity Miles, choose a cause to support and start exercising. Charity Miles’ sponsors have pledged to donate $0.25 for every mile you run and $0.10 for every mile you bike, as monitored by the app through your smartphone’s GPS.

2. UNICEF Tap Project. The UNICEF Tap Project challenges you to go without using your phone for as long as you can, in exchange for providing children with drinking water. The program is aimed at driving awareness to this global problem by having you give something up that’s a big part of your daily life, your smartphone. Due to the success of this program, UNICEF recently changed the challenge from 1 min=1 day worth of water to 10 min=1 day’s water needs. Continue reading →

01/27/14

APP HIGHLIGHT: Make History Today with New Action Sports Social Commerce Network ‘XS’

By Andrés Uribe, Expedition PR

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In the first installment of our monthly app highlight, I’d like to present you with newly launched action sports social commerce app XS. Having just launched January 21, 2014, XS is currently in an invite only beta mode. Below is the email I received when they launched, along with an invite code good for 5 additional invites…use it while you still can! (and yes, secret is out, my first name is actually Fredric..Fredric Andrés Uribe):

“Hey Fredric,

Hope you had a great holiday season! I’m very excited to announce that as of today, XS is officially launching its beta program. Wahoo!!

Here’s what to do: Continue reading →

11/15/13

PR Counsel On Demand

By Katja Schroeder, Expedition PR

Companies have different communications needs. They depend on the industry, market position, business stage and resources.

Communications professionals dedicate endless hours to developing the perfect PR strategy and program, based on their company’s specific situation. Outside help – through agencies – is available. We certainly always love to help.

Through speaking with a number of startups in the past months, we realized that companies, small and large, sometimes need communications counsel on an ad hoc basis.

So, what if you could have instant access to brainstorm ideas, get advice on specific communications challenges, or feedback on a social media marketing strategy?

That’s possible now. Continue reading →

11/12/13

Fluent in Facebook, Basic Knowledge in Twitter: Student Entrepreneurs Diving Into Social Media Marketing

By Katja Schroeder, Expedition PR

According to the Kaufman Foundation, about 85% of all new jobs in the nation stem from entrepreneurial ventures. Companies like Google, Facebook, Reddit and FedEx proved that companies can successfully be started during college. Founding a company does not require a stint in the corporate world. It can happen any time when you have the right idea. And, large corporations are also now looking for employees with an entrepreneurial spirit, to drive creativity and promote a “can-do” attitude. But an idea is not enough. Entrepreneurs, especially student entrepreneurs, need help with financing, operations, HR, and marketing.

Committed to assisting Brooklyn’s and New York City’s entrepreneurs, St. Francis College launched the SFC Center for Entrepreneurship. The center is providing classes, tools and academic research to support budding and existing entrepreneurs in the city. The first cohort of 18 students started this semester to learn the fundamentals of creating and running a business.

I met the inaugural class of the Entrepreneurship Center last week to give a talk on how startups can use social media marketing.

At the beginning of each class, I typically survey what types of social media channels the students are familiar with. Millennials are the Facebook generation. 99%-100% of the students in my class are on Facebook to connect with their friends and family. They get their news on Facebook and YouTube, as opposed to newspapers. About 30-50% use Twitter and Instagram. Less than 5% are familiar with Pinterest and location-based applications like Foursquare. Even less students, about 1-2 in each class, use LinkedIn. No big bloggers or Yelpers, so far.

While budding student entrepreneurs have a great opportunity to apply their experience with using social media for their personal life to marketing their business, they asked the same question as any other entrepreneurs: How do I best use social media to engage with my customers? And, how do I start developing a good social media strategy?

Continue reading →

The Rise of Video for Collaboration in the Social Enterprise