I agree that the metaphor is carried too far. Creating a little mini trade show may be a cute idea but in practice it strikes me as similar to going to a model train exhibit and expect to catch a ride from New York City to Buffalo.

The infrastructure and design of these trade shows—sizes, formats, acceptable file types— limits the potential to deliver dynamic content on the web.

When weighing the potential of these online events the consideration should be what trade show goals can the web fulfill when compared with an actual trade show. Once this is established, create a more flexible vehicle that fully supports the delivery of this content.

Another observation is that current virtual trade show limitations tend to make the viewer experience generic, not unique to the exhibitor’s personality and brand. I think this contributes to the lack of emotional buy in from viewers and the potential to interact on a more meaningful basis.

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Cialis
There are some people who say that top branded drugs are way more effective than the generic ones. However, this does not hold much truth when it comes to the generic medicines which are sold here. An online pharmacy which offers generic medicines at affordable prices. If you have been diagnosed with a sickness and your medication requires you to spend a lot for your medicines, you don’t have to worry about this anymore. You can buy cialis and get a discount when you keep on buying the same drug. When you cannot tolerate the high price of branded medicines, your only option is an online pharmacy, since it is compassionate with your need for reasonably priced drugs.

If your medication calls for high-priced branded medicines, why not generic cialis? This is an alternative which is provided at your affordable online drug store. One of the advantages that you can get from this store is the fact that its medicines can be bought for very low prices. You can order generic drugs at the website. These medicines are formulated with ingredients which are equal to the ones which make up branded drugs. However, the prices of the two are entirely different. Even though the prices of generic drugs and branded drugs vary widely, the effects are still the same. This is due to the fact that the medicines which are sold at this online pharmacy have been approved by worldwide organizations. The effectiveness and the quality of the generic drugs are regarded as excellent. The legality of these drugs has been supported by international regulatory boards. Some of these authorities are South Africa MCC, USA FDA, and WHO.

When you buy cialis, the shipping service is offered for free. If you are residing within the European continent or at the other pole of the globe, the medicines that you have ordered will still be delivered to you. If you are a resident from the USA or from Europe, the duration of the shipping service can take fourteen days. One of the services that this online drug store provides its customers with is the chance to get a discount. Each time you order the same drug, you will be offered with a five-percent discount. Since the online pharmacy is compassionate with the plight of its sick patients, it does not charge you with hidden fees. Nor does it charge you when you consult with its physicians.

You can buy cialis when you are diagnosed with a sickness. Serious ailments such as cancer or manic depression can be treated with some of the medicines sold at this online pharmacy.

Author

Ambros Jacks: http://www.onlinepharmacy.vg/catalog/-c-32_469.html

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I searched Wordle’s site and didn’t discover their explanation of how the words are weighted.

So, I experimented and determined that word cloud word size is based solely on word frequency.

This could be incorrect, as I am just fishing around, but it seems like this is the case.

If you know better, do comment and let me know. Thanks!

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... and another cool thing about Utica:
Utica Music Fest
www.uticamusicfest.com

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Good article. Thanks for sharing it.

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Mike,
Your insight and comments are so valuable. Thanks for sharing.

I can say that, as a participant in Virtual PCB, we achieved all the benefits that Mike has mentioned.

Virtual trade shows are new and evolving. One thing is for sure – they will get tremendously more valuable as we all learn to make the most of them.

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Rick,

I can’t thank you enough for bringing virtual trade shows — and Virtual PCB in particular — to the attention of your readers.

What I would add to your blog post and the subsequent comments is that comparing a virtual trade show to a physical event is a mistake. They are not the same, and never will be. A virtual show is truly a new and better online marketing tool. It updates the tired, static web marketing, transforming it to true interactive, “talk with the customer” contact.

Further, as a marketer, consider what you get from advertising on web sites: A dubious list of “hits.” No demographic information. No ability to follow up.

What Virtual PCB offers — and no other show, “online” or otherwise (e.g., IPC) in our industry can say this — is complete and comprehensive demographics of everyone who steps in your booth, how long they stayed, what they looked at, and so on.

In addition to the best reporting tools around, many of the observations you made hold true: Virtual shows permits exhibitors to “show off” their products via live or video tutorials, with no drayage or travel costs.

One equipment company told me they were stuck with a $25,000 tab to move a single machine from the loading dock to their booth. To charge those prices is just greed, pure and simple, and in any case not sustainable. As I’m sure you noted at Apex and SEMICon West this year, exhibitors just aren’t bringing machines to shows like they used to.

Attendees like them, too. While your post mentions the rather lukewarm sentiment from one attendee, nearly 92% of the 1,600 attendees to our first Virtual PCB said they would attend again. Then there’s the reach. In our case, 48% of attendees came from outside the US. That would be unheard of at a physical event.

A booth at our show starts at $5000; that’s priced about the same as a three-month Web marketing campaign. That cost-effectiveness, plus the overwhelming data you receive, makes the shows like Virtual PCB one of the best marketing investments around.

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Words can seem analagous but carry big differences in readers’ minds. On “annuity” vs. “revenue stream,” the two words are certainly not analagous. An annuity is an asset that pays a constant amount each year to the holder until the annuity (or the holder)expires.

Revenue streams are revenues generated from sales. They are not guaranteed, and must be actively pursued and grown.

Mr. Riley’s usage of annuity implies, to me, that lead-free solder is a gift for companies like Indium, A small differentiation, but as writers we know that words carry implied as well as actual meanings.

Personally, I’m not a big fan of how RoHS turned the industry upside down due to a political rather than scientific decision-making process. That said, I think solder makers would rather have grown their tin-lead revenue stream rather than being forced down the lead-free solder path. But now that they are on that path, can we really get angry that they make money doing it? They were making money before lead-free, and I’m sure they will continue to be profitable in the brave new world of RoHS legislation. What’s more, should solderless assembly become a reality, I’d bet that solder makers will adapt to that reality as well.

Let’s stop blaming people for turning legislation beyond their control into revenue streams they can control…

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Rick – You’ve taken an industry into social media where few would have ventured. You are totally awesome and amazing!

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I agree with you, Jack. It really does take the office visit, the face-to-face, and the hands-on to make people comfortable with important purchases and relationships. And a website or phone call can’t create the “bumping into old colleagues” that we tend to value so much. Trade shows seem almost irreplaceable.

The “almost” can be done with online videos, webinars, chats, PDFs, static web pages, and virtual trade shows (a combination of the above).

While trade shows are almost irreplaceable, there are ways to reduce the costs of gaining info and familiarity.

Perhaps trade shows will transform into hyper-effective high-intensity events (where all the small stuff has been dealt with online, previously). We’ll see.

Thanks, Jack!

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Rick – Thanks for addressing one of the new media issues that face suppliers and consumers in today’s manufacturing world.

Virtual trade shows certainly have their place in the overall marketing mix. Yet it takes a real trade show to give visitors a chance to touch and feel the ‘big iron’ of process machines.

One possible solution to the problem may be alternating between virtual and face-to-face trade shows on a two year cycle.

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WELL in advance: Indium’s great team is really good at this. We all did our homework before the event. 2. Set goals: I had several written goals, all of which were achieved. Some were personal, like seeing some unique and exciting musical acts while in town. 3. Meet with industry movers & shakers: Wow, did I ever meet with some pretty hard-driving people from this industry. It was actually difficult to manage the agenda and to stay sharp all week. 4. Hold critical media meetings: Again, the Indium team helped me set up a string of meetings with industry media experts. Three meetings really got me thinking – with one of them igniting a (hopefully) great advertising idea. 5. Plan to do something you’ve never done before: We successfully staged our very first “MEET THE BLOGGERS” event. It went really well. I am already scheming as to how to do it at our next event. 6. Walk all over San Francisco: As usual, I came home with tired feet and legs – perfect! As a reward, I discovered the best street music I have ever seen/heard, presented a musical invention to another (favorite) street musician, and hoofed it to the coolest Flamenco performance I have ever experienced. 7. Have dinner at Il Fornaio: Didn’t happen. When I arrived in town I discovered that a new movie (MONGOL, the story of Genghis Khan) was playing. I dropped Il Fornaio and caught the film. I am enthralled with this great piece of history and am so happy I made the switcheroo. After 2 hours and 20 minutes, I was surprised to learn that this film is part of a planned trilogy!!! Can’t wait for the next part. 8. Mel’s Diner for A Chocolate Shake: Mel’s – yes. Shake – no. I enjoyed a juicy burger but drank water instead. 9. Visit someplace special: I dropped into Pena Pachamama (Powell Street). On top of the unique Bolivian food, I was treated to some very cool Croatian folk music where I experienced the Cuban Tre (Tres Cubanos), a very unusual stringed instrument that falls somewhere in between a guitar and a mandolin. What a great discovery (for me)! Then … there was the Flamenco singer, dancers, guitar player. Incredible! Check them out on Thursday nights – you won’t be disappointed. 10. Travel safely: Totally safe and successful. I was in a line of over 90 planes waiting for only one runway in Chicago – delayed but safe.]]>

A huge THANKS to everyone who participated in MEET THE BLOGGERS at Semicon West. We had a great time and learned a lot.

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Rick, what part of business basics do you not understand? Please choose from the list:

1. Consumables suppliers will have a continuing income stream from lead-free solder, as contrasted, for example, to equipment suppliers who made one-time replacement or upgrade sales.

Since SAC sales presumably have increased at your company over the last few years, you have the data. Why don’t you disprove me by showing the data you have to us?

2. An annuity is a continuing stream of money. Calling a revenue stream an annuity is a reasonable analogy.

3. Preach lead-free benefits? You gave us a good example in converting poor wetting, generally considered a disadvantage, to an advantage.

4. Minimizing lead-free hazards? The EPA report established that SAC has more lifetime environmental and health hazards than SnPb eutectic.

As I recall, one solder spokesman literally minimized the hazard by responding with an analysis that showed the negative environmental contribution of lead-free solder is a very small fraction of total pollution. So what?

General:

As a professional writer, I don’t mind fact-based criticism. I do mind critical distortions and factual mis-statements, e.g. I never claimed that the solder industry was responsible for the passage of RoHS nor do I suspect that. Guilty conscience?

Your comments on costs and complexities address profits, not revenue. I did not say that solder suppliers are the major profiteers, since I don’t see their P&L by product line.

I didn’t even say they are the major beneficiaries; perhaps the silver suppliers woud be candidates, but I don’t have that data.

Of course, you have P & L data by line; why don’t you show us data instead of self-pitying smoke?

regards—george

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@Gail:
I don’t consider it good journalism to make unsubstantiated guesses in the public forum.

I would still like to see the source(s) of data and information that enabled the columnist to state:

“But these one-shot beneficiaries (of the $38 Billion blunder) are paupers compared to those who now have a lead-free annuity in an on-going stream of increased revenue. Perhaps this explains how materials suppliers, such as solder manufacturers, continue to preach lead-free benefits and minimize the faults, including the increased environmental hazards, of lead-free solders.”

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Hej, Rick, that’s funny. I love it. The ad from Microsoft is also great.

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Rick,

In writing the Riley Report for our AP Semi-monthly electronic newsletter, George Riley’s column provides exactly what readers expect from a column: facts plus some comment on them or opinion. His column “The $38 Billion Blunder” fit that format with step-by-step reporting on the survey that TFI conducted on the cost to the electronics industry to date from lead-free compliance. It ended with his comments on who profited from the RoHS response. And, in journalism, everyone is allowed an opinion, and columnists are expected to have an opinion. The Riley Report is a column, not an essay.

When there are discontinuities in our industry — or significant changes in materials and/or manufacturing processes — the retraining, research and development, and of course the materials themselves create new competitive differentiation. Those who can deliver the required unique features more quickly benefit. Without a doubt, the response to fine pitch required fine solder paste. Similarly, the response to RoHS created many new alloy opportunities. A company that is skilled in responding quickly with what consumers want probably will achieve a competitive differentiation and increased revenue. Wouldn’t you agree? Certainly, many of the new materials (silver and others) are more costly and those costs must be covered by the user. No doubt, even soldering equipment manufacturers who could respond to the need for specialized heat control, solder pots, and information on how to deal with lead-free soldering sold more equipment of a specialized nature.

George also said, “even the trade press who saw a lead-free spike in advertising revenue.” Lead-free initiatives did bring more articles and advertising to most trade journals. Getting the news out has to be covered as well.

Discontinuities, such as significant changes in design, manufacturing, research, or process information, create opportunities and competitive advantages for those able to supply the requested material, equipment, or information. Of course, those who supply what the markets seek are those that profit. This just seems to follow the course of capitalism.

If George Riley’s column made you angry enough to defend your company’s position, then he is doing his job. If you defended your response to making a profit by a quick or exacting response to an industry discontinuity, then you are doing your job. If you are both expressing points of view that the reader or user should think about and write about (especially in trade journals and blogs) then the press is doing its job. Good journalism is fact and interpretation or opinion. My job is to present it evenly.

Gail Flower

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Full Disclosure:
Paige Marketing Communications Group, Inc. is Indium Corporation’s ad agency and media relations partner (and much more).

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Not only were you right in responding to the article, you were fulfilling the marcom professional’s responsibility as an issues manager. Part of our job is to scan for, anticipate and take appropriate action on issues likely to affect our organization/industry, especially if we see gaps in information or assertions that are made without the substantiation of evidence or hard data.
Nancy Pattarini, President
Paige Marketing Communications Group, Inc.

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@Michael:
Thank you for your interest, comments, and insight.

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As partners of TFI on the survey project for the Consumer Electronics Association, please let me clarify some things. Mr. Riley says, regarding the $38B, “much of it fills the coffers of those who profited from the political decision to “solve” a non-problem by discarding a proven technology for an untried one”. This is false (though I wish it were true). The data clearly shows (though I am not sure that bit of it was part of the public report) that little actually went to “consultants, trainers, and instant experts of all stripes”, thus the “cottage industry” that is environmental consulting on RoHS remains a relatively exclusive club.

Further, much of this “$38B” is simply accounting – internal pre-existing human resources account for much of the cost. Effectively people added responsibilities and some were indeed hired. In fact, I credit RoHS (Both you, Rick, and Riley have got to stop calling it “lead-free compliance”! That is so misguided and minimizing of what this really is it’s shocking to see it still referred to that way; this is about FAR MORE than solder – yes solder was and remains a big issue but it’s not the only issue; the rest of the industry finally, in 2005 or so, started calling it RoHS so get with it! ;o} ) with breathing life back in to the function known as “Component Engineering” at OEMs…it had nearly died before RoHS.

And so where the real tangible cost was occurred in incremental hiring (which was not as high as one might expect) and equipment. The tangible cost of the intangibles is delayed new product introduction.

I disagree with Riley that solder manufacturers are the primary beneficiary. The fact is that one revenue stream is simply replaced with another – and as you point out it’s bifurcated from a single product – 63/37 SnPb – to a seemingly unending array of different solder amalgamations, few of which are adequately characterized and none of which are as well-understood as SnPb.

Bottom line: you were right to respond as you did; in fact, I am surprised its taken so long for the industry punditry to take note of this survey and start interpreting and drawing conclusions from it. There are plenty of interesting and even important ones to dig out of it, folks!

Michael Kirschner
President
Design Chain Associates, LLC

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@O.Laney:
Thank you very much. I am quite particular about spelling (and grammar and punctuation ) and appreciate your keen eye. [Dan Santow rocks: http://wordwise.typepad.com/]

I simply blew it (and have corrected it – see above).

Thanks for your interest and comment.

Signed,
A red-faced Rick Short

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SnAgCu is NEW??? Some historical trivia is in order here. Tin-Silver-Copper, mixed in slightly different proportions than modern Lead-Free Solders, was ALL THE RAGE from the time of the American Civil War thru WWI. You may have heard your grandparents back in the 1960’s mention their heirloom “Pewter” tableware… That’s right… Pewter servingware for fine dining tables was the latest thing in fine, elegant dinnerware. And tables from the USA across Europe & Russia were laden with this miraculous & elegant new metal… which we now use as a Lead-Free solder and think we’re so ingenious & inventive…

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Rick:
One thing you did not do right in “The $38 Billion Blunder: A Rebuttle” is spell ‘rebuttal’ correctly.

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George, I edited my original post to reflect this.

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Mac: Thank you! I’ve edited the original posting to include the link here. Thanks for sticking with me – your help is greatly appreciated.

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Rick, the first thing I suggest is that you delete your false and inflammatory statement above that solder manufacturers are saying and doing anything to perpetuate the switch to lead-free solders.

I said they “...continue to preach lead-free benefits and minimize the faults…”

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Try this:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/e/d/8/ed8291de-c5ec-4fa1-ab6a-a7e4aba043b6/Elevator.wmv

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Thanks, Mac!
But I don’t see “see commercials” on that page.
Are you on the page as being from United States?

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Found the video at (of all places)http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/designedforbig/ under “see commercials” , it’s the elevator. I was trying to find out the actress’ name :)

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Rick – Your are the best in making Indium where it is today.

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Thanks Rick & Marcom team for the “BIG” &

excellent accept for Indium’s Global Trade

Shows. I strongly believe we had created a

“BIG Wave” in this Solder industries at

present and I am sure, our competitors

have even felt a BIGGER impact. Good Job!

Oh….Yes!

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This is something very difficult to pull off. How do you make a white paper “come alive?” I think you need to have a good presenter. Or you need an interesting narrator pulling together the most important paper parts…

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Rick,

This is sooo important. A company can spend buckets of money bringing customers to the table (or Web site) then lose them by not responding quickly and professionally.

Perhaps customer service should answer to the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) instead of the Chief Operations Officer.

Sadly, customer service and support usually answers to operations and is consider a cost of doing business rather than investment in building the company’s brand and establishing sales-winning relationships.

Regards,
Mac McIntosh

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BigDog could be your SHOWCART sherpa! Picture 4 ShowCarts mounted on BigDog to follow you around APEX!!!

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Rick,

E-mail working?

Chris

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... and another cool thing about the Utica, NY area:

“The Mohawk Valley will host three college lacrosse tournaments and another key NCAA Division I matchup this weekend.”
http://www.uticaod.net/blogs/sports/cmuder/2008/05/mohawk-valley-becomes-lacrosse-capital.html

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There aren’t many people who’ve taken the time to define a video strategy. I think more companies will follow suit here.

One thing: the photos! Does McDonalds give away the ingredients to the Special Sauce? :-)

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Finally read this—I’m still digging out from the first two weeks of the month! Great summary of how “easy” all this is. The fact that such a difficult and highly coordinated project came off so well demands strong leadership, too. The end result is only as good as the passionate champion driving the project…

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Roland:
Great points – especially about writing for your audience’s preferences (“all engineers speak English).

We at Indium strongly agree. See these:
BLOG: http://www.indium.com/anny/
WEBSITE: http://www.indium.net.cn
CONFERENCES: http://www.nepconchina.com/NepconSouthChina2007/eng/ConferenceProgram.htm
PRINT INTERVIEWS: http://www.indium.com/anny/entry.php?id=1046
VIDEO INTERVIEWS: http://www.indium.com/anny/entry.php?id=1005
VIDEO ADS: http://www.indium.com/videos/ads

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Rick,

I have to agree with you about writing for the web. I am a numbers guy… and the web brings me statistical marketing information like never before. There is no other form of advertising that comes even close to providing detailed insights about your customers and potential leads. (Location, time spent on specific locations of site, terms they used to find our site, etc…)

As I mentioned at APEX this year, I’m thankful to meet someone in the industry who realizes times are changing, now! Your posts points out that people want answers now, so very true… The web is at our fingertips and answers are just seconds away, especially when after you have become a ‘professional searcher’ and learn how to wade through the non-sense in the search results (tip: try quotes around your search terms to get only the pages that contain all those terms).

One other thing I’d like to throw out there in this short post (I’ll be back again another day) is that when writing for the web…. Be sure to write for your target audience(s), especially if you are a worldwide company and write for the web. Write for your target audiences’ web preferences! For instance, don’t think, “All engineers speak english”. Even if this was so, wouldn’t you want to make those engineers as comfortable as possible while reading your technical data or sales materials? Certainly starting out by showing the information to someone in their 2nd or 3rd or 4th language is not a good start to making the user ‘comfortable’ and the experience easy… Different cultures act & react different ways to colors, meanings of words, etc…

Last, while writing for the web, be sure to incorporate basic marketing tactics… For instance, in the USA we read left to right so the eyeballs end up on the right side of the page – therefore this becomes a most valuable spot on a page to attract users’ attention.

Write for the web, but ensure you capture as many leads for your sales team as possible!

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A perfect example of selling the brand with offbeat humor. TJ Maxx, which is not really an A-List brand, grabs memory share with at least three great smile moments in 30 seconds.

Not only do I now know what TJ Maxx does (who knew you could dress yourself there—I thought they were a linens place for women shoppers), but I would probably stop in just because they made me laugh.

Steve Gold

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Re #6: I agree. I have suffered countless times whan a neighbor at a trade show blasted music or never-ending drivel on their PA system.

In our case, we use a carefully-modulated system only for the press conference. Additionally, we stage Marcom staff at the peripheries to assure that we are not obnoxious.

We do this because the media has a habit of hanging out at the fringe. Eventually a few start chatting amongst themselves and we lose the crowd (I know, we should be more interesting!!!). I think the chatting is induced by the inability to hear, and the PA system actually helps the press.

For the 10-15 minutes of our conference this style seems to accomplish our goal.

Re #7: Traditional “press kits” tend to be chock full of stuff. Our goal is to deliver ONE concise message. So, our “press kit” is the one-page document that we distribute at the conference. It is concise and to the point.

Mike, your seasoned and insightful background make your comments especially meaningful. Thank you!

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Item 1: This should be a given; not a unique approach.

4. Providing that the show management goes that far. Some shows do not care; SPIE is typical. Schedule it when you want; as a result, there are often conflicting press conferences. You also have to make sure that you do not schedule it when there is, for example, a free forum about a subject that might attract editorial personnel. I have seen this happen many times, and show management does not advise, you have to keep up on these things yourself and cross-reference.

6. PA systems in booths are uttely obnoxious to others. Bring the press in around the presenter in an intimate gathering; prior to the press conference make him/her practice projecting their voice a bit; it takes work because conversational speech is insufficient.

7. What – no mention of press kits??? I would HOPE that you provide these – complete with scratch n’ sniff tacky flux cards.

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First of all I d’like to say. This blogs have lots of imfomation and thay all imfomation is very important for me.

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Rick,

Thank you for taking the time to comment on my blog. I agree that the brand is made up by the collective consumer perception.

One of the other points I was trying to make is that companies exert more control over the brand perception than they are given credit for. Unfortunately they frequently forget that a good portion of that perception gets created post-sale – and with only 12.5% of CMO’s being responsible for activities related to customer service, it’s not hard to see why that happens.

Francois

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Like you, I’ve been building e-mails in this fashion for a number of years. It’s a great way of ensuring that critical messages are delivered without grammatical or spelling errors.

I use a variation of Dan’s reverse e-mail technique at times, writing the subject line before the actual content. But I hold on entering the recipients until I’m certain the message is crafted and proofed.

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Rick — Excellent tip! I’m going to use it.

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Rick as always made great contributions to this meeting…

Further explorations of the always elusive ROI equation will also be explered by this group. Which R? Which I? for Whom? When? Over which time horizon?

Working together we may shed some intersting new light in this space —thanks for sharing insights with us.

Ralph

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I was fortunate enough to see him speak twice – and to be seated next to him at one lunch.

Mr. Kotler is a great combination of experienced, intelligent, curious, gracious, and fun.

I’d love to be able to chat with him for an hour.

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Its really gr8 to meet Kotler- The father of marketing in person.

I came across his profile and achievements at

http://www.indium.com/rickshort/entry.php?id=359

But found his pic at ur blog.

N u got clicked with him in person.

Musb be really a memorable moment of ur life.

Chill!!!

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WOW! They really did find a frozen mammoth baby in the ice! =0

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Thanks for this piece Rick – loved that article and am passing it on to some of the blog challenged.

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Excellent video!

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I think Corbis is right on with his observations: getting a readers attention means having compelling imagery to grab him—especially when the editorial is strong and in some ways you’re competing with that.

Here’s a perfect example of how an image grabs you, causes you to click, and ends up surprising you: http://www.vimeo.com/614784.

The really cool thing here—and a trend you’ll want to follow—is how the video ad “takes over” the header ad. What looked like a text complement to the video ad actually becomes part of it. This is something we’ll see more of in 2008, as advertisers start embracing more of a television mindset and programmers tap into ways to deliver video that aren’t just 30 second TV ads in a viewer.

Not sure if our B-to-B world will catch up as quickly, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see sites that are serious about video trying to implement something like this….

Steve Gold

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Very dark. Scary. Cool.

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Hi Rick,

Excellent insight from the author. Corbis is big time into images so the viewpoint is understandable.

Video is on the move and you folks have been out front blazing a path. In addition to the excellent videos you’ve put together how about including voice audio?

The style of video you’ve put together is still a bit beyond the scope of many smaller businesses. You can see something I’ve been working on that integrates still/video images with audio spoken by an animated character. These are relatively easy to put together and we plan to create one for every key product on the CircuitMedic website. Take a look on the CircuitMedic home page to see the concept in action. http://www.circuitmedic.com

Jeff Ferry
Publisher
Circuitnet

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Rick,

Perhaps one of the key factors with blogging (and why it will become a critical commercial tool for people like you and me) is the word you used – “conversing”.

Conversation, interaction, comments like this – from customers, stakeholders, colleagues and the like. It’s the potential for interactivity which intrigues me.

I wonder how that will fly in industries which hold their commercial cards tightly to their chests?

Peter

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Wow! I like it.
I rank the “OBSESSED-Christmas” as No.1.

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After several requests last month, I brought my kids’ Wii system into work one quiet Friday – but prior to that I needed to generate 12 Wii-Miis for each player… That took longer than disconnecting, packaging, then re-connecting the system – talk about guaranteed hours of fun!

As for b2b; The art dept here was considering adding versions of our wii-miis in depicting ourselves on our website… Not sure of legal consequences however. We thought it would really grab people’s attention as well as communicate that ‘wii’ are people who enjoy having fun too.

You can go to this web site to practice refining your Wii Mii even futher:

http://www.miieditor.com/

It also allows you to save it as a jpg or png file, for whatever use you may have!

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You are so right.
Thank you for commenting.

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Rick,

I agree totally with this article. It is all about the video and social media. We are on the cusp of this and its only going to take off. As the college and high school students advance out into the work place, where do you think they are going to get thier information. From a place that they are familiar with, they will go looking for social networking sites and videos that cover the topics that they are in need of. It is what is familiar to them and they are truly the one’s that have a handle on this form of marketing.

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Hi Rick,
I am very impressed with you Blog but particularly this article on Word of Mouth Marketing. I have been involved in that for the last 6 years and it certainly works extremely well … if done ethically and properly.
Well done mate!
Gordon

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You just might find your 3D fun over at There.com. Here’s a link to a NYTimes article from earlier this month that covers Coca Cola’s entry into a 3D world of fun and games.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/07/business/media/07adco.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

The article points out that there is a much bigger 3D world of fun where Adidas and Dell hang out — second Life:

http://SecondLife.com

You can find demos of both:

There.com
http://www.there.com/there_movies/aralsdayout_wmv.html

and SecondLife.com
http://secondlife.com/showcase/sub_page.php?blog_category=4

Rick, if you’re going to set up a 3-D Indium world I’m available for casting! ;)

By the way Rick, how much is a min-lot charge for some virtual .5“x.5“x.003” 80/20 Au/Sn preforms? :)

Best regards,

Leo Garvey
LFG Micro
Representing Indium Semiconductor Assembly products in NY/NJ/Eastern PA

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Rick – you continue to wow me with your innovating use of social media in B2B marketing.

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Ahead of the curve, as usual, Rick!

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Wow! I like this, so obsessed! Yes, the #1 Que came to my mind was the same as above! She did well. Congrats to all!

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Steve & Rahman: thanks for the suggestions.

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Hi,

Congratulations…Try to get more awards in future.
http://www.esource-malaysia.com
http://www.esourcemy.com

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For me, it was easier to turn off Adsense and pour that extra budget into Adwords.

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Rick — Thanks for the shout out, glad you like the video.

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I like the blog. Can I buy an ad on this site?

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Great Exhibit!

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I generally agree and just approach it from the flip side. My philosophy is that success in selling