Security Conferences in 2010 and Beyond: Why Education is Key

When I started at Merritt Group in August 2003, one of the biggest, “must attend” tradeshows for our security clients was CSI in D.C. In fact, this show was lumped in for a number of years with the other big ones we would recommend to our clients – RSA, Black Hat, Gartner’s IT Security Summit and InfoSec World. I specifically remember being at the Marriott Wardman Park for my first CSI that year and was so amazed to see a packed show floor with massive exhibitor booths. Not to mention, my client’s speaking event was standing room only and there was a really great press turnout. Needless to say, I was overwhelmed by it all as a young PR professional, and it has been interesting to watch the tradeshow scene change dramatically in recent years.

Read the rest of this entry...

PR Gets a Boost

Although I somewhat resent The Economist’s implication that the PR industry is benefitting from others’ pain in the story headline, “Other firms’ suffering has bolstered the public-relations business,” the article does point out some exciting and positive happenings in the PR industry during this down time. 

According to the article, spending on PR in the US was up nearly 4% in 2008 and 3% in 2009, while advertising decreased almost 3% and 8% over the same period.  Other PR services such as blogger outreach was up more than 10% this past year.  I was a little surprised by these numbers, but not totally.

Read the rest of this entry...

Content Curation as a PR service?

As we continue to seek opportunities for our clients in an evolving media and PR world, I want to bring up the topic of content curation and how we can help clients who publish their own content become good curators. Curation is an evolution of content aggregation. In short, it is about finding the nuggets of good and relevant content – whether video, blogs, articles, or short messages on Twitter – around a core topic and presenting that information through a single source whether that is a newsletter, RSS feed or micro-site. For a more detailed definition of content curation, please read this Business Insider piece.

Read the rest of this entry...

Supporting our Local Chapter of the American Red Cross

About six weeks ago, I attended my first Fire & Ice Ball, an annual gala of the American Red Cross of the National Capital Area. The evening celebrated the life-giving work of our regional Red Cross, which serves nearly a thousand families a year in the Washington DC metro area. Hundreds of people and dignitaries including military, community and organizational leaders from the Washington D.C. area, attended to say “thank you” to the men and women of our nation’s Armed Forces and their families.

When most people think of the Red Cross, they often think of all the good work this group does around the world. But people don’t see the “behind-the-scenes” charity happening in our very own backyard. Over the past several years our local chapter has been working with military families to help meet their needs during this time of war. The Fire & Ice Ball is a great event to raise funds to ensure the Red Cross can continue to support our military families and stay prepared in the event of a disaster in the DC area.

As many of you know, this past Monday marked the 68^th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor and this infamous day in American history reminded me that I never said “thank you” to the men and women of our nation’s Armed Forces and the American Red Cross. So, thank you!

Consumers Green-Light Branding on Social Networks but Does it Translate in the B2B Technology Space?

I recently read a Marketing Profs article about new study from Performics and ROI Research which indicates that social network users are overcoming their reluctance to companies promoting branding and marketing messages through social networking platforms. Consumers still expect organizations to speak to them differently through social networks.  A certain level of candidness is expected of brands that decide to engage social network users on their own turf. 

Read the rest of this entry...

PRNews NonProfit PR Awards

Merritt Group Wins Awards for Social Media Campaign and Pro-Bono Work

Who’s in Charge of Social Media?

Three best practices when engaging with independent bloggers

What newspaper publishers could learn from the music business