Tech PR Gems - The Topaz Partners Blog

Topaz Partners Client’s Social Media Strategy Featured in PRWeek

Tim Allik — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:29:46 +0000

Black Duck Software conducts social media-focused brand awareness effort

Frank Washkuch
June 29, 2009
PRWeek

WALTHAM, MA - Black Duck Software, maker of management solutions for open source software, is conducting a brand awareness effort to increase its visibility within the tech sector and its reputation as a thought leader.

Black Duck is focusing the effort on reaching business leaders on social media, blog, and trade press outreach, said Peter Vescuso, EVP of marketing and business development at Black Duck. The initiative is also promoting the company as a technology thought leader, he said.

“More and more, we are using Twitter and reaching out and leveraging the blogosphere, and that’s a critical part of the whole outreach program,” he said. “It’s all b-to-b, and technically, our customers are very savvy. And what we’re finding is that we’re shifting our emphasis to be almost all online, and we’ve been getting better results in terms of awareness and lead generation.”

The company is aided by AOR Topaz Partners, which it hired earlier this year.

The initiative features various Web components, including podcasts, social media press releases, industry blog outreach, and public-facing efforts on Facebook and Twitter, said Ann Dalrymple, senior counsel at Topaz. She explained that the brand wants to maintain its awareness levels in the mergers-and-acquisitions industry and in the legal press while gaining in various technology trade areas.

Read the complete PRNews article here.

Technorati Tags: Black Duck Software, PRWeek, Social Media

The Rockstars of Social CRM

Katelyn D'Eramo — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:40:16 +0000

Rockstars of Social CRM

On Wednesday night, I attended “The Rockstars of Social CRM” at the Renaissance Waterfront Hotel in Boston. The event hosted by Chris Brogan and Radian6 had great attendence and an engaging panel of:

Chris Brogan, President, New Marketing Labs and author of ChrisBrogan.com
Marcel Lebrun, CEO, Radian6
Frank Eliason, Director of Digital Care, Comcast
Paul Greenberg, Author of CRM at the Speed of Light, President of The 56 Group, LLC
Brent Leary, Co-author of Barack 2.0 and Co-founder of CRM Essentials
Michael Thomas, National President, CRM Association

The panel discussed how social media is changing CRM. Some important take aways from the event and panel discussion are:

Engage your audience — know your target audience, let them express themselves
Our job is to figure out how to turn customers into advocates and part of that is the company listening to the customers
Another way to benefit from social media and social CRM is that the customers start helping each other out. It will saves the company money (from @bostonmarketer)
There were some illuminating examples provided by @comcastcares about how Comcast has used Twitter to save money in their rapid response to problems (i.e. Penguins game that wasn’t being broadcast because of a lighting strike.

Overall, this was a terrific event and my first “social media” event. It was a good chance to meet those who you usually read/tweet with. I saw @justinlevy @DougH @vanhoosear @Bobbiec and the host @chrisbrogan. The best advice came from @comcastcares who told me to “be yourself… that’s all I ever did.”

I also was very impressed with Radian6 ’s technology. They had a very good setup and were able to display their product and features for all to see.

This event left a positive impression with me and I look forward to attending more events such as and learning more.

Technorati Tags: Boston, CRM, Events, Social Media, Twitter

A Reason for Optimism in Tech — Part 2

Tony Sapienza — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:13:47 +0000

I squeezed in two events last night — Scott Kirsner’s “What’s New in Tech” panel and the Mass Tech Leadership Council’s event around the announcement of the first group of finalists for the council’s annual Technology Leadership Awards. You’d think that will all the troubles we’re facing — in tech and in business in general — it would be a somber evening. Just the opposite. After a lively networking hour with a bunch of entrepreneurs, VCs, students and media, Scott opened the panel with a question — who’s pessimistic about the prospects for tech in our region — not a single hand was raised. Check out Scott’s site for more on what these experts see ahead for the tech space. The MassTLC event was even more uplifting, with an overflow crowd of tech companies and tech industry followers (including a number of Topaz folks)gathering for an event that’s part of the council’s celebration of leadership and excellence in business and technology here in Massachusetts. The group of nominated companies was diverse and interesting, the dialogue was positive and the overall mood was uplifting. There’ll be more opportunities to participate in the Council’s award program, including a follow-on to last night’s event on July 16. If you’re looking to feel better about the state of the technology industry, think about attending.

A Reason for Optimism in Tech - Part 1

Tony Sapienza — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:51:00 +0000

I had a busy afternoon/evening yesterday with a string of meetings and events, but when I got home at 9pm last night I wasn’t dragging — rather, I was charged up. There’s a lot to be worried about these days with all we hear about the impact of our economic troubles, but based on what I saw/heard yesterday, there’s a clearly a reason for optimism. A few of us had a meeting with Mass High Tech editor Doug Banks to learn more about the changes there. Despite the pressures felt by all media these days, MHT has more than survived — they’ve progressed. Sure they’ve needed to scale back and adapt to marketplace realities, but at the same time they’ve built a growing online community, embraced social media channels and continue to produce unique and interesting stories about our tech community — and Doug and his team are open to new ideas on how to better serve this community. There was a time years ago when we expected MHT to fold at any minute — others like them have disappeared (to my knowledge they’re the only regional tech publication of its kind), but from what we’re seeing MHT is here to stay. If you haven’t taken a close look at what they’re doing lately, you should.

What’s New in Tech

Tony Sapienza — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:17:38 +0000

I’m heading over to the “What’s New in Tech” event tonight, and I’m looking forward to what the group they’ve assembled sees as the growth opportunities in the tech space. I’m seeing a pretty broad spectrum of growth opportunities — from open source software development to automotive technology, from mobile communications to social media technologies. And I see tech PR as a growth area as well — not because of the growing technology segments, but also because of the adoption of social media by the PR community. We’ve been pushing the idea of social media for several years, and for awhile it was slow to take hold. That’s not the case today — social media is woven into the fabric of everything we do for our clients. For this reason, public relations is one answer to the question, “what’s new in tech.”

MassTLC unConference Reaches Across Our Diverse Tech Community

Tony Sapienza — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:41:48 +0000

A few days ago, I blogged about my expectations for the Mass Tech Leadership Council’s unConference, and today — as I reflect back on Friday’s event — I have to say it exceeded those expectations. For me, the unConference reflected the unqiue personality of our region’s tech community — the sessions generated a dialogue that reached across a diversity of tech topics (from open source to mobile marketing), experience (from established tech veterans to early-stage entrepreneurs), and business disciplines (from engineers to marketing, sales, finance and legal professionals). As a PR person, I found the discussion on how social media is being used to generate leads for tech companies particularly interesting (think self-publishing, repurposing content and maintaining a multi-faceted communications effort). You can get more insights on Council president Tom Hopcroft’s blog I, for one, am looking forward to the council’s third unConference, scheduled for this fall.

Coordinating Global PR Activities

Paul Hughes — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:42:52 +0000

In today’s market place, seldom do you find a company that is solely focusing on one region. Rather, most companies are working in multiple regions, releasing into multiple regions on a routine basis. That makes global coordination a key element to consider when launching information through multiple media sources.

Here are some tips to avoid this:

1. Designate a lead agency. Make that lead agency the coordinating entity for not only the distribution of information, but the coordinating agency for reporting as well.

2. Ensure that the lead agency has the experience to handle multiple agencies and coordinate these activities.

3. Establish a specific date/time for distribution of information.

4. Consider time zones, holidays, day of the week, etc. when selecting the day and time for distribution – it can make a big difference.

5. Hold routine global coordination calls. Email is great, but talking makes it all work.

With a little planning and coordination, you can effectively control the timing and global message for your company.

Technorati Tags: Coordination, Global PR, Planning, PR, public relations

MassTLC unConference Spotlights Our Region’s Spirit of Innovation

Tony Sapienza — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:32:26 +0000

In his column in yesterday’s Globe, Scott Kirsner declared June Innovation Month in New England — and I for one am on board with this. I’ve always believed innovation was an important quality of our region — consider our academic community, our historic role in the industrial revolution, and more recently the important part our region played in launching today’s technology industry. And there’s still a lot of innovating in the tech space going on today. As Scott points out, there’s a gathering later this week that will spotlight this — the Mass Tech Leadership Council’s unConference on “The Future of Software and the Internet”. The Council held it’s first unConfernce last fall and it was very well-received. I expect this Friday’s event will prove to be yet another reflection of the spirit of innovation that helps define this region.

Where Are All the Jet Cars? A Funny Video about ‘The Future’

Tim Allik — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:30:45 +0000

When I was a kid in the late ’70s, I couldn’t wait until after the Year 2000. I thought for sure that we’d have jet packs and a three-day work week by now. History, shistory. I wanted to tear down all the old stodgy buildings and build brand-new, space age ones, all connected by levitating ramps that would allow us to saunter around in our aluminiumized body suits while eating lunches consisting of tasty and convenient food pills.

It was fun to be over-the-top optimistic about the future. Alas, things didn’t quite turn out how I’d hoped. Many buildings remain old and continue to crumble. Cars don’t float, but they still rust. And come to think of it, the “food pill” idea was never a really good one to begin with.

But maybe that’s why I find this video parody of “The Astounding World of the Future” so side-splittingly funny. I justify sharing it on the blog because it pertains to a concept that is commonly referred to as spin. The announcer is so earnest and optimistic, but the video tells a slightly, ah, different story.

Technorati Tags: Future, Predictions

Computerworld: Hiring Today Demands Employee Referrals & Social Networking

Tim Allik — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:13:53 +0000

An article in Computerworld today by Patrick Thibodeau highlights an interesting paradox about hiring during the current recession.

Despite the nine percent national unemployment rate, things are a bit brighter here in Massachusetts, and some technology firms (including Waltham-based Black Duck Software, a manager of open source for large-scale enterprises — and a Topaz Partners client) are also growing and even hiring. Black Duck boasts over 600 customers in more than 20 countries, including Intel, Motorola, Samsung, Siemens, SAP and Wachovia. Black Duck currently has five openings.

The Computerworld article points out that due the the current economic climate, companies that are now hiring are so deluged with resumes that the hiring process is actually becoming more challenging for them, not less.

Tammi Pirri, vice president for human resources at Black Duck, says the company is relying more than ever on networking when it comes to identifying candidates who are the best fit for the company.

She says that this includes word-of-mouth and employee referrals, but also outreach using social networks including LinkedIn and Facebook.

Based on Black Duck’s desire to parse out great new talent from a torrent of resumes, the company actually increased the employee referral bonus recently. Talk about a countertrend!

You can read the complete Computerworld article here.

Technorati Tags: Black Duck Software, Computerworld, Employment, Hiring, IT