In a galaxy (not that) far, far away, PR activity has been abuzz
It’s been another month of PR may-hem at the IBA office and an a-may-zing month of event activity – not every day as a writer at IBA that you get a chance at two puns in one sentence!
Event season is in full swing with pre and post event follow-ups, another huge primary research project fuels the content pipeline, and a new social media universe is discovered in the Fediverse. As we find out about it in our brand new ‘IBA Talking Propeller Heads’.
Another a-may-zing month of event activity
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, events are one of the most powerful forces in the PR arsenal. The role of any PR professional in the run up to a major industry event is to create noise about client attendance and their key messages. we’ve had a couple of events to cut our event-teeth on this month. Our aerospace & defense client is attending one of Cananda’s biggest defense and security shows, so in the lead up to the event we have been creating the ‘buzz’. Brand association is a perfect tool to create noise about your client’s attendance and we have been doing just that on their social media by using some of their big-name technology partners to promote attendance. The result – some really nice media interviews!
Sometimes the noise creates itself. Often event organizers send out pre-event write ups for their attendees about businesses that will be hosting speaking sessions or presenting at the event to create their own noise. What does this mean for our clients I hear you ask? Organic placements! And our business management software client has reaped the rewards gaining 13 placements from featuring in the pre-event write up, where top trade publications have been talking about two of their SMEs speaking sessions.
Events are a great way for PR pros to create long-lasting journalist relationships way after the show is over. Done well, it can lead to clients becoming their go-to source for information. Witness what happened for our enterprise software client who a year on for their event last year has become the go-to source for information for a top Manufacturing publication. This month saw them secure an organic feature placement, all about their AI offerings – a tech area they are aiming to become industry experts in!
Keeping the content lifecycle engine fueled with international research
Industry-led primary research is key to keeping the content lifecycle spinning and can be used to support and shape corporate messaging. Research projects may get labeled as last ditch attempts to grab headlines by companies and journalists, but when executed well this is not always the case.
The team at IBA has donned their research cloaks during May for a massive international primary research task for our automotive client. This involved finding the top tech trends in automotive service provisions across North America and Europe.
It can be time consuming, but primary research is the perfect fuel for thought leadership articles, blogs, interview opportunities, and can help identify new themes for your client to ‘own’. One thing to remember is that no research is bad research, even if you miss the spaceship once, have no feat as the news cycle will come back around to be a hot topic again!
Social Media enters an open-source universe
Our social media team at IBA is always hot on the heels of the latest social media trend, update, or change. Recently the team has noticed many changes across the social media landscape, with Elon Musk messing around with subscriptions and analytic tools on X/Twitter and there’s also been an emergence of a new open-source kid on the social media block – and we now know all about it!
May saw us launch our brand new IBA Talking Propeller Heads (it’s not one to miss) a webcast series dedicated to discussing the latest movements and changes effecting the B2B world. Our first discussion came off the back of Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that Threads is joining the Fediverse I know what you’re thinking, “what’s that”? and we thought the same. So, there was only one man to call – inventor, innovator, and CTO, Mike Karliner.
With Open Source being his middle name, Mike was the perfect subject matter expect to talk to about this highly influential move, what it meant for the other social media big hitters, and could it open new doors for B2B marketing? Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for our next Talking Propeller Head webcast discussion!
May’s madness continues
There’s no time to sit back and watch the new Star Wars Series. The PR battle rages on with interviews in the pipeline, industry events coming up, content lifecycles to fulfil, and articles to be drafted. So without further ado, I better get back to work at my PR command station.
Sam Walker is PR Executive at IBA International.
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