By Kim Tillinghast, Account Director, AustinA few weeks ago, I attended the annual Society of American Travel Writers convention in Germany, representing our client and convention sponsor Texas Tourism (http://www.traveltex.com/). It was an invaluable opportunity to promote Texas’ diverse sights, sounds, tastes and experiences to a captive audience, and for me, it offered face time with many writers with whom I’ve exchanged countless e-mails over the years, as well as PR representatives from convention and visitors bureaus and airlines. We spent five days exploring Dresden and Leipzig, in the southeastern state of Saxony, with a combination of tours – quarters, castles and zoos, oh my! – professional development sessions, round-table discussions and media appointments.
The variety of professional development sessions included a panel focusing on destination press trips. Tips included requesting a list of recent press trips taken from each journalist; being mindful of photographer needs, including adequate time to shoot and best available daylight (30 minutes pre-sunrise to 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 30 minutes post-sunset); and most importantly, checking participant blogs/social media channels throughout the trip.
A round-table discussion with other PR firms yielded insight about shared challenges and solutions. A discussion of social media strategy and measurement led to an interesting debate about whether Facebook or LinkedIn is the more appropriate medium to build media relationships, and where the line between personal and professional communication is (perhaps strategically) blurred.
Our keynote speaker, John Chow (http://www.johnchow.com/), lent insight about professional blogging and his road to success. He identified the important distinction between bloggers and Internet marketers, and the fact that the low barrier of entry (e.g., free sites such as Blogspot) can cause bloggers to not treat their work as a business. The key to success lies in a strong business model that focuses on monetization of traffic as a goal, versus simply gaining traffic. According to Chow, those who blog consistently, surround themselves with success, actively pursue their brand and – most importantly – enjoy the journey, are far more likely to find success.
The entire experience was a vibrant meeting of the minds. It reminded me how much I enjoy the relationship-building side of public relations, and what valuable conversations and ideas can spawn from a change of scenery and a room full of creative brains. I plan to keep that same inspiration with me back in “reality”, knowing that whether I’m brainstorming in the picturesque German landscape or downtown Austin, amazing ideas and partnerships can bloom and take life.
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