Video and Social Networking

In February of 2009 Michelle Tennant Nicholson of Wasabi Publicity, Inc., sat down to speak with Rey Ybarra to discuss ways to integrate video into social networking sites.

Here’s the transcript:

Michelle Tennant: Hi and welcome to the Wasabi Club. Today is Wednesday, February 25, 2009. It’s 1 p.m. Eastern and you’re either listening to this live with us and participating or you’re listening to a recording of this and either way welcome.

I’m Michelle Tennant. Most people know me as the storyteller to the media and that’s where you can actually hear my thoughts of the day at my blog, Story Teller to the Media.com. I am the co-owner of Wasabi Publicity Incorporated as well as Blue Kangaroo, a technology company that specializes in online press kit technology and other media. You can actually read a little more about those two companies at publicityresults.com, as well as presskit247.com.

Today we have really a great guy. He’s been on the Wasabi Club before and he’s got some new green media to talk about today in an upcoming expo, but let me first talk a little bit about who Rey is.

Pretty much if you want to know anything about video integration into media services, Rey’s your guy. That’s basically the short of who he is. I’ve got Rey on the phone right now. Rey, do you want to talk a little bit about your expertise so people can get related to you?

Rey Ybarra: Absolutely Michelle, and once again thank you so much for having me on your wonderful program here. Happy New Year to everybody. I know it’s kind of a crazy year that we’re going through, but I kind of – Michelle, what I’ve evolved into, I started off in radio and internet radio and local television and online television programming.

Now I’ve kind of evolved into I guess you can say a self-proclaimed new media expert. It just happened that way.

Michelle Tennant: I wouldn’t say you’re self-proclaimed. I’d say that people really relate to you that way.

Rey Ybarra: Yeah; thank you for that. It’s just evolved into – from the experiences and all of the programming that I produced over the years.

So new media is the way that you can get the word out about your business product, service, book, project, whatever it is and it’s a combination of a few things.

I know other people will have some elements that I talk about or they’ll have additional ones, but the basics are the blogosphere and blogging search engine optimization, online video and also the social media. I’ll be talking about that during this conversation here.

Michelle Tennant: Okay; great. I just want to invite everyone, whether you’re participating or whether you’re going to be following up with e-mails and social media connections to Rey that he really is, if you’re wanting to put video on your online presence, Rey is somebody to really talk to.

That’s somebody who I’ve been watching his work through the years and I think the he does a really good job of actually encapsulating your video presence and giving you advice on how to do that.

Let’s just step back a bit now that you know a little bit about me; someone whose been doing PR for 20 years now and a little bit about Rey who’s basically your video guru and new media guru. Let’s just step back and do a little bit of housekeeping for the Wasabi Club.

If you’re on the line with us right now and you want to mute yourself, what you want to do is you want to hit Star 6 to mute yourself. Then to unmute yourself you’re going to hit Star 7.

What we’re going to do for the first part is take a little bit of the Wasabi Publicity campaigns and talk a little bit about it with Rey so that we can kind of jump into a conversation and true to Wasabi Club form, we’re going to take questions if there are any, or Rey and I will continue the conversation on our own trying to find solutions to kind of the problems and challenges that we bring up today with regard to new media, environmental angles and the various aspects of our expertise.

So to that end I’m going to just jump right in, Rey, ‘cause I’m really interested in hearing about your green new media and life expo. I’m coming at it from the perspective of a publicist of course. I represent a lot of clients; some of whom do have some green angles.

So when it comes to pitching the media I generally look at okay, if I’ve got an environmental angle first I’m going to look at – let’s just take for example my client Bowdabra. Bowdabra has been with us for several years. We’ve gotten them some really nice coverage over the years. In fact, just last [Audio skips] or through the holiday season they were on Good Morning America.

Now, what do they do. They actually have a crafting tool where you can easily make professional looking bows simply. So for people with arthritis or young children, toddlers and so forth it’s a perfect crafting tool.

What we do to actually incorporate environmental angles for that particular PR campaign is just have – let’s just create environmentally friendly crafting projects that we then get out to the magazines, both women’s crafting magazines, general consumer media and so forth.

Why don’t we kind of just jump in right there so that we can kind of get really practical in what you would recommend from your expertise, Rey, on what we should be doing with Bowdabra but we’re not.

Rey Ybarra: Well, wow, that’s a really great question.

Michelle Tennant: I find that practical helps people jump right into the conversation. So if I’ve put you on the spot you can say so, too.

Rey Ybarra: Oh no, no; it’s really a great question because it’s food for thought here because as I’m going along and – there’s a lot of things that go into that as you well know that every day presents a different challenge on taking a new angle or which way you’re going to go with it depending on your business, your product and your service.

But one of the things that I find very quickly about all of this is that we’re in a really interesting time right now in our culture and in our societies.

We were talking just a little bit before the interview here, Michelle, and everybody is – we’re going through economic turmoil right now and there’s a lot of people that are very afraid about what’s going on, but the green industry is kind of symbolic of a new way of thinking about things.

Michelle Tennant: Yeah; I would agree with that.

Rey Ybarra: So with that said we need to think about new ways of promoting our business, product and service that’s not only going to give us maximum leverage, but that is going to help the environment as well.

What I’m talking about right away is I’m talking about like printed materials that in the olden days of publicity, that type of thing. You’re at an expo, you’re at a trade show and I’m tying it in with my show and how we came about this and how it can tie in with everybody listening.

You go to a show and the expo industry and the trade show industry, Michelle, is a very traditional industry. It’s only now starting to come around to coming up with new ways of promoting an event that’s going to be environmentally friendly.

So with that said, you have a vision and I have a vision of producing an event that is going to give us maximum leverage as well as helping the environment. The first thing I can say to everybody in a new way of thinking is blogging. Blogging is one of the most effective ways that you can promote your business, product and service and reach literally an unlimited amount of people that are interested in what you have to say.

The blogosphere. Let me give you an example is if you go to Google and you type in green blogs you’re going to find that there’s going to be literally just an unlimited amount of green blogs that are out there that are talking about all sorts of events, talking about all sorts of products and services in the green industry. Its just exploded. Its just almost unlimited amount of people out there that are really, really into what’s taking place right now in the shifting consciousness.

What that does is two things. First and foremost it leverages yourself and it becomes an exponential affect in terms of you getting your message out there to as many people as you can and in a quick amount of time.

Then the other thing is that it saves the environment from all sorts of hard copy materials, like papers and when you go to an expo. I’ll give you an example of this. When you go to an expo or a trade show everybody’s passing out their materials, their paper materials –

Michelle Tennant: Oh, it’s true. I was just locally here and I’m in the Smoky Mountains. We just had the motorcycle show and last Saturday I was at one. I kept pushing back the materials ‘cause I didn’t want it. I had a little notepad with me just trying to actually just write down the web site addresses so that I didn’t have to take all that crap.

It’s just so funny how old school everybody is about pushing those catalogues on you. I’m like, ‘I don’t want that.’

Rey Ybarra: Right; exactly. That’s a good point, Michelle, and everybody listening is it’s very, very important to understand what Michelle just said from her experience and what I’m going to tell you here, ladies and gentlemen, is that when you’re promoting your business, your product, your service, whatever it is [Audio skips] at an expo or a trade show, it’s very important to understand that when you’re passing out your materials that you’ve spent a lot of money and time on, about 98 percent of those materials are going to get tossed out or they’re going to be put on a shelf when people get home and they stay there.

So it’s a very labor intensive process to produce those materials and even though costs have gone down because of the technology, it’s still going to cost you a good amount of money and time and effort and manpower to pass out those materials.

Now what we’ve done and from my market research of producing programming in the multibillion dollar southern California expo trade show marketplace is – and after talking to exhibitors, both small, medium and large exhibitors from the local mom and pop exhibitor to the $100 million company, $200 million company that is exhibiting is that the biggest complaint that they have is that people take their materials and it’s the waste of materials and the rising booth costs.

So what we’ve formulated – we just had an incredible election. We have a new president that is – I’m very excited about just for the fact that it’s something new and he’s young and he’s energetic and he represents a new type of thinking. Whether you agree with me or not he’s something different in the White House and he brings a new type of thinking around.

So what we are doing is we’re bringing a new type of thinking to this traditional industry. So one of the ways that we’re going to be promoting our event and also the exhibitors at the event and saving them time, money and a lot of heartache is that we’re going to be having a new media section at our green new media and life expo.

What I mean by that, ladies and gentlemen, is that we’re going to have a live blogging area of about 15 to 20 live bloggers that are going to be interviewing the exhibitors during the event. Those interviews are going to be going immediately out into the blogosphere during the event and then those articles will be there after the event, which is going to be promoting the exhibitors during the show in real time, after the show and before our next show.

That is so important to understand because, one, what that automatically does is that automatically recession-proofs our exhibitors’ business, product and service and gives them an incredible amount of leverage where it creates a viral marketing effect.

Meaning that it’s an exponential effect that once that article goes out into the blogosphere people are searching for new information about new products and new services, especially because green is so big in our consciousness now and it’s just taking off. It’s going to get bigger and bigger and bigger.

So automatically what we’re doing for our exhibitors and those people that are interested in the products and services is that it recession-proofs them. It helps them save tens of thousands of dollars in traditional flier, business cards, press kit, printed materials and, two, what it’s doing it’s that they’re leveraging themselves where this information, as I said, is going out immediately into the blogosphere.

Then people that are online and get this information can immediately connect with the exhibitors during the event. So another thing we’ve done, Michelle, is that the traditional expo/trade show model is that the event is here for two to three days. Then you try to network with as many people as you can under one roof and try to pass out as much materials as you can in that time and then the event is over—

Michelle Tennant: Then how do you actually – yeah; the early bird or the person who follows up the fastest afterwards that’s how you keep into the consciousness.

But now let’s really bring this to practical so that people can visualize this, Rey, ‘cause I think it’s brilliant, okay. I think that it’s still – let’s just like – I don’t think that people are going to quite get it yet. So let’s help the listeners who are listening and talk in practicalities.

So let’s just take the motorcycle show I went to on Saturday. It’s already an expo about green living, correct?

Rey Ybarra: Correct.

Michelle Tennant: So let’s just say for sake of conversation that you had actually worked with the motorcycle show ‘cause everybody can figure out okay, you walk into a trade show of motorcycles. There’s a ton of booze around with a bunch of motorcycles. We can all visualize that.

So what Rey is saying and correct me if I wrong, is so here I am a member of the public. I walked in. I paid my 15 bucks to get into the motorcycle show. Then I’m like all – they hand me a bag – the closest thing they got to an environmentally friendly thing was they handed me a reusable bag, which that’s not new. That’s so old school.

My husband’s like, ‘Just take it.’ It’s not even big enough for groceries. I ‘m not going to use this. He’s like, ‘Just take it.’ So I have this stupid bag in my hand. Then we just ended up folding up those bags. Then the guys we were with just stuck them in their pockets, their back pocket. That’s the extent of what happened with those bags.

So what you’re saying would happen is that as soon as we walk in, like they had an area where we could sign up for a free motorcycle, but what you would have also are sort of like on the floor reporters called bloggers who are going to be doing like, ‘Here’s what I’m seeing today, everyone. Very exciting. Over here in the Yamaha booth this is what they’re doing.’ Then they’ve got like a mini-video or mini-write-up on the internet exactly talking about what the Yamaha people are doing.

Then the same with the KTM. The same thing with the BMW people. Same thing with Harley Davidson. So then what we’re seeing is these on-site bloggers who are going to be actually bringing what’s happening at the show into the internet for us.

Rey Ybarra: Absolutely; in real time. Right there as it’s happening. It’s like, if you can visualize this, ladies and gentlemen, it’s like in the old days you had the news that would come in cover and you see them go to – there’s a story that breaks and they’re interviewing somebody live.

Well, this is the new media, which means that these people will be blogging. They’re reporters and they’re just bloggers and they’re talking and interviewing all of the exhibitors and bringing that information on the internet right at the moment.

Michelle Tennant: There are possibly some people that are like, ‘What are blogs?’ Blogs are basically just public diaries that are on the internet and people access them through a regular URL.

By the way, if you’re in front of your computer while you’re listening to this you can actually look up a link to Rey’s green new media and life expo at my blog, which is Story Teller to the Media.com.

So just go over to the my blog right now and then you can get a sense of what a blog looks like. Then click on the link over to Rey’s expos so you can kind of get a sense of – but wait till after we’re through before you watch the videos because you want to pay attention to both us and them ‘cause the videos are great.

But now, okay, so we’ve got it. We’ve got the picture of what it would look like in the conference, but now so that’s what it would look to maybe a visitor at the trade show.

Now, Rey, let’s take it to a booth advertiser, okay. So like someone like Bowdabra like my client. I don’t handle their advertising. I only handle their media relations and getting them into news, their editorial stuff, but let’s say ‘cause I know that Bowdabra goes to crafting trade shows every year. Sometimes they have green angles; sometimes they don’t.

But what you’re saying is then – then do you work with the trade show exhibit hall and then you’re like – how would a booth exhibitor actually take advantage of what you’re talking about?

Rey Ybarra: Oh, well no. This is part of – we’ve created a new media package for each exhibitor to maximize their experience as I mentioned, during the expo and long after the expo is over with this new media technology. Now blogging is only the first step that we’re talking about, Michelle.

Michelle Tennant: But you’re talking about a specific expo. What if this – I can see what you’re talking about being applicable to all expos across the country, both crafting, motorcycle, boat shows and so forth. What if the exhibit hall that we go to isn’t already doing something brilliant like you’re doing with this expo that you’re talking about right now, the one that’s in Reno, Nevada?

Rey Ybarra: Right; I can guarantee you this. If we’re not the first, we’re one of the only ones that are implementing all this new media technology –

Michelle Tennant: I think you are.

Rey Ybarra: And see, this is why we came up with this, Michelle, because everybody – our wonderful president, President Obama and I want to get off a little bit on a tangent here because it relates to everything. You can say that President Obama is the first new media elected president that we’ve ever had –

Michelle Tennant: Well that’s true. I think that yeah; most people would agree to that ‘cause the reason – I was just reading an article today actually about how when we send press releases today that’s completely old model as well.

So what people were talking about with new media, that means a lot to many different people, but with regard to public relations it’s also maximizing social networking sites and search [Audio skips] you can also include video with that and some other aspects, but basically today press releases and shooting things out on the wire, it’s dead. It’s over. It’s not going to get you placements.

What’s going to get you placements are those personalized touches and relationships through the internet, through Twitter and Facebook and your phone and building those relationships.

Then you actually use e-mail to then further those relationships that have already been touched upon in social networking. So what Rey is talking about is actually Obama maximized that for the success of his campaign, this past presidential campaign and most people acknowledge that his facility in actually using new media is what had him elected. Did that underscore what you’re talking about, Rey?

Rey Ybarra: Absolutely; I couldn’t have said it any better.

Michelle Tennant: Good; okay.

Rey Ybarra: No; that’s really brilliant, Michelle, how you said that because you see, this brings up another fascinating point here. You’re talking about search engine optimization now. In the olden days of looking up a business we all went to where? We went to the Yellow Pages or the White Pages. That’s where people looked to connect with businesses and businesses did most of their advertising was in the Yellow Pages.

I was in the print media business before I became a talk show host for a number of years, Michelle. When people would come into the store they would say, ‘Give me a Xerox copy of this.’ Well Xerox was the machine. That was the brand, but that was in the consciousness of everybody.

Much like the Yellow Pages where advertisers went to connect with people first. Now what do we all do? What do we say when we’ve got to get information? We say what? Google it. Boom and you’re there.

That’s how people are reaching out first to find out about a business, a product and a service. It’s becoming more – I think Google has almost 60 percent of the market share in terms of a search engine optimization, but something I want to say about that. This is what I’m extremely excited about here.

Not only will we have the live bloggers there, but we’re going to have live camera crews that are going to be interviewing our exhibitors and producing five-minute video clips that they can use for their online and offline marketing –

Michelle Tennant: I love this.

Rey Ybarra: And then on top – so you have the blogging and then you have the video, which video when you post it on your blog increases the sales or the visibility of your business, your product and service tremendously.

So if you have a blog you want to post as much video content on there because what’s easiest? I always use this example of when you want to tie a shoe lace. What’s the easiest way to teach somebody? Is it through the written word by giving them a page of written instructions or is it through audio or a short 30-second video where they can see that. It’s going to be that short 30-second how-to video.

Michelle Tennant: It is. And the other thing that I see as a possibility with what you’re doing and then we’re going to open it up to questions here in a few minutes is that we’ve done trade conferences before where we’ve supported the media that attend these conferences. So it’s two-fold what you’re doing.

Is one of course it’s going to help people extend their networking past the conference itself, but also these nuggets, kind of like the on scene reporter is going to help parlay whatever is happening at the conferences to the news media.

One of the things that we used to parlay it ‘cause it has automatic back engine search optimization is our Press Kit 247. So I’m going to talk to you offline, Rey, about Press Kit 247.com because it would actually marry in nicely as an extended service to what you’re doing with trade conferences.

Rey Ybarra: Well let me add –

Michelle Tennant: And I – yeah. No go ahead. I just – I’m like – the possibility here is to – because at trade conferences there’s always the hot news of the day and unless you’re actually attending the expo, a lot of times media will have a bee in a particular expo. They can’t make it to all the expos.

Rey Ybarra: Sure; yeah.

Michelle Tennant: And they want what’s the news. Then this would be in a digital way on the internet a way for them to get the scoop if you will on what’s up and coming in that particular industry.

Rey Ybarra: Right; exactly; and that’s a very wonderful piece of information that you’ve just given me because you’re the expert in that area in terms of PR and publicity and how its evolved over the years, especially now in this time, Michelle.

Michelle Tennant: Yeah; and that’s what we say all the time. People – they always say, ‘Let’s have a press conference.’ The media hate press conferences. It makes them feel like cattle. So what’s actually happening now are different ways of getting media the information that they need.

So you can see that if it’s on a blog and has video and they can actually see, okay, well this is how they tied their shoe laces, then they can either see, okay, this is something I’m interested in or not interested in.

It’s really exciting to me, Rey, and I – what’s still not clear to me and I bet for some listeners, too, is so can we actually get your assistance even if the exhibit hall or the actual conference doesn’t offer a piece like this? Can we just say ‘Rey, can you just come out and do this just for my booth?’

Rey Ybarra: Well that is a very good question. My director, Randy, was saying that we’re developing through this whole process we’re developing a system to where we can go to different shows and implement this system. So yes, it can be done and we’re developing that model right now.

Once we get done with this show here, then we’re going to be offering this for other models because for us, we’ve been doing this for a long time and now we’re just adding the blogging model into it, but that’s really not that big of a deal, but the system is we’re putting the system together, Michelle, and we’re going to be offering it to other industries as well.

Michelle Tennant: I think it’s really great and for people listening, look. As Rey is busy creating this model and so forth, if you’re stuck and you’ve got an expo coming up next week kind of situation it’s not going to be any skin off your back to get an intern or a college student to assist you part-time while you’re doing this and just to blog about your experience at whatever expo you’re going to. That’s the minimum you should be doing.

Then you should also take along a little camera and a video cam to at least capture your experience so that you can use it to parlay your investment to whatever expo you’re going to to the internet and then you can then share with your [Audio skips] these are the things that we’re seeing.

Then all of a sudden you become an expert source for the media, which by the way, for people who have been coming to the Wasabi Club for years and years if you’ve not checked out the new resource Pitch Rate.com where you become an expert source for the media, you should do that right now while we’re talking about this.

It’s Pitch Rate.com, P-I-T-C-H-R-A-T-E.com where you’re rated as an expert source for the media and then you’re pitch is also rated for the media so that they actually get the best interviews and the best sources to the top. They rated it five stars. So the media just loves it ‘cause it actually helps them get finished with their work sooner.

I’m not quite sure how Pitch Rate is going to fit in with the model of these trade shows with the exception of the trade people actually speaking about their trade, Rey, but I didn’t want to forget to mention that ‘cause I think this is the first Wasabi Club since we launched that.

But anyway, I get off the point here. The point is that we’re talking about the growth of this new media and how it’s actually going to be offered to trade shows. Whether people hire you directly to come make this model available to their trade show or whether they just do it on the skinny by getting a college intern. The bottom line is they need to actually parlay their investment, both time and money, into whatever trade shows they’re going into in internet presence. We all agree on that.

Rey Ybarra: Right; well let me mention this before I forget it here because this is – then I want to comment on that because it’s very important what you just said about that, Michelle.

Now the ace in the hole that we have here believe it or not, is not blogging and the video and the social media internet activity with Facebook and Twitter during the show that’s going to be available as well, but is this.

We have partnered with an incredible, incredible company that specializes in search engine optimization, but social media niche marketing. This company found out about us, what we were doing and we found out about them and they absolutely fell in love with what we were doing, the model because nobody else has it.

The name of this company is Insyndia Media. It’s absolutely brilliant what they do. Through their technology, they call it pyro-marketing. It’s a new way of marketing online and this is just absolutely phenomenal –

Michelle Tennant: What are you saying? You’re not saying viral. You’re saying something else.

Rey Ybarra: Yeah; pyro with a P, like fire, like pyro –

Michelle Tennant: Nice; okay; yeah; yeah.

Rey Ybarra: They came up with this term because it’s like if you see a pile of dead wood in the forest and you just light a little match, what happens? It flames up and then the whole forest light is on fire.

Well it’s absolutely phenomenal what these guys – they’ve got this new technology. It’s just absolutely incredible. They showed it to me and they backed it up with statistics that by using their technology they’re putting together a web site for us to where when those exhibitors who exhibit with us are uploaded with a little article on our site, that’s going to get them top Google page ranking. It’s just absolutely phenomenal what this technology does.

So let’s say for example that there’s Bowdabra is exhibiting with us, Michelle, as a client. We produce all of the new media tools for them during the show and they can use them after the show and before the next show if they decide to exhibit with us.

But then what’s happening is that because they’re on our site through this new druple technology that these guys are using, they’re going to in a very quick time achieve top page Google ranking on Google.

So, for instance, let’s say Bowdabra – what is it that they do again? I’m sorry.

Michelle Tennant: They do a crafting tool.

Rey Ybarra: Okay; so let’s say somebody puts in crafting or tools or something like that. Once they’re up on our site through this technology, once there they type in the key or whatever it is that they’re using to search for your client, they’re going to show up right on the front page of Google for those keyword categories.

Michelle Tennant: See, and this is so important. The search engine optimization. I don’t know if people really realize with regard to a PR presence on the internet.

One of the things that we always tell our clients is that if we’re not – I always laugh about page six. For years page six has been the prized celebrity media placement for Hollywood, right. You’re the it gal if you’re on page six.

Well, I’d like to now call it page one. If you’re not on page one of Google, close your shop. There’s several ways you can actually get the search engine optimization going. I’m really excited to hear about your guys and how we’re applying that to the trade shows.

I want you to also know, Rey, about another tool and that’s Press Kit 247. Press Kit 247 and it’s – you can just get a press kit for 99 bucks a month and then boom. Immediately you’re page one.

Rey Ybarra: Wow; that’s amazing.

Michelle Tennant: I know. So like even if you don’t want it for the media aspect of it to be part of search Press Kits.com, the 99 bucks a month is alone very important for this STO, which is also the search engine optimization.

There’s a lot of different ways to get at the same goal here, but the bottom line is you definitely want to be high up on your search engine rankings and it has all to do with the back ending coding of your blog, your web sites, your online press kits and so forth.

So you want to make sure that whoever you’re entrusting your online presence to actually has the know-how to get you to page one. I can’t even tell you.

Let’s open it up a little bit ‘cause we do have people on the line with us. If you want to actually ask Rey a question hit Star 7 to unmute yourself and I think that’s the right command for that. Star 6 to mute yourself. Is there anyone on the phone right now that would have a question for Rey? Maybe not. Well the people just put us on speaker and just kind of listen to the conversation in the background.

Rey Ybarra: Right; exactly.

Michelle Tennant: Well it’s now open for questions. So if you have a question for Rey or for myself or if you just have a comment about search engine optimization or trade show new media, just chime in ‘cause I’m not gonna ask again until we’re kind of toward the end of the house. So go ahead, Rey.

Rey Ybarra: Yeah; one important comment that I’d like to make here about what we were talking about, you were talking about just a few minutes ago about offering this model to trade shows or videotaping your exhibit booth is that believe it or not, now there’s a huge trade show coming up here next week. It’s the natural products expo over here in Anaheim at the Anaheim Convention Center. It’s a huge event.

This is what you’re going to run into with this old thinking here is that when we first started producing programming some five years ago and interviewing exhibitors and offering them this service, we had carte blanche. We were opened up and we spent three, four days there just interviewing as many people as we could, but as time went on they became very protective of their expo. Now they limit the press and the media in there for only a couple of hours at a time and that’s it.

Michelle Tennant: Oh really.

Rey Ybarra: Yeah. So this is what you’re going to come across for most of the trade shows and expos and the expos is that you’re going to come across a lot of resistance. A matter of fact, a lot of shows don’t allow you to videotape anything. It’s the craziest thing, Michelle, but –

Michelle Tennant: Yeah; I’m like really like yeah; that’s really interesting.

Rey Ybarra: Now why we came up with this show was because I basically got fed up with bumping my head up against the wall with all of these people. All of the resistance was over the years and resistance to the new media of something different because the promoters of the event, they have the attitude of well if it ain’t broke, why do we need to fix it.

They haven’t evolved. So this is something I became very frustrated about over the years and finally I got to the point where I just got some partners and said we’re going to put on our own and we’re going to do this because when I was talking to the exhibitors they wanted all of this new media, even though they may not have understood all of it, but they knew that they needed something different because what expos and trade shows have become is basically an outdated model of doing business now, okay.

It’s a very traditional type business. So I just decided I’m going to put my own show on here, but you’re going to meet up with resistance. As a matter of fact I was producing some programming for a jewelry expo here, another expo taking place a little ways down and there was a big sign up there that said, ‘no video cameras allowed.’ None; okay.

So people are very, very resistant toward all of this and this is why, like Michelle was talking about, be careful about shows or people that you’re getting involved with. Make sure that they understand the new media and that they’re up to date about it. But you would never think that, Michelle, because of course –

Michelle Tennant: I know. I’m a little like are you crazy. If you’re in charge of exhibits and you’re listening to this and you’re not open to new media, just be aware of that. That is not honoring the trends that are actually evolving. What’s next and I think that those conference halls that are going to be really open to what we’re talking about here, they’re going to be the ones where people are going to be seeking their business.

They’re going to be like, ‘ Okay, we want your exhibit hall. We want to do business with your expo because you’re actually going to then parlay it into the internet presence. Smart.

Rey Ybarra: You’re right; exactly. So what you see is you see the traditional media there. You’ll see like say Channel 4 news or people with cameras, but that kind of publicity is very dated and it doesn’t work because what happens is that you have a short 30-second clip of the event and it’s broadcast after the event is over and what good does that do. That doesn’t help anybody during the event.

So this is the kind of thinking that we’re hoping to break through what we’re going to be producing here with the green new media and life expo. It’s going to be something that is going to be breaking ground and we’re very excited about it because what it’s going to offer exhibitors is that what you’re going to be able to do at our event is basically recession-proof your business during this down economy.

You’re going to be saving yourself thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars even with these new media tools that we’re going to be giving you because let’s face it. We’re in this new – as Tony Robbins says, we’re in this new paradigm shift that’s taking place.

Down the street from me, Michelle, there is a shopping center and it had a Mervyn’s and a K-Mart in it and both of those that were staples of doing business in our culture for years are now gone. That to me is representative of the companies not evolving enough.

Same thing that’s happening to the auto industry. It’s an old outdated model that never changed, that didn’t want anybody messing with them and now they’re asking for millions of dollars or billions of dollars in bailout just to make payroll. You don’t want to be there.

Each and every one of you that are on this call, you don’t want to put yourself in a situation to where you’re using an old outdated business model to promote your book project, to promote whatever service or business that you have.

Now you have the tools and hopefully we can be bringing you a lot of these tools along with our experience to help you flourish during this down economy.

A lot of people are scared and rightfully so, but I always believe and I talked to Michelle about this before we came on the air, that this is a wonderful opportunity to be flourishing, to coming up with something new and most fortunes and most new products and services that come out of times like this, for those people that think different and think outside of the box.

So we’re here to help you do that. We’re here to help you and like I always tell people who are going to exhibit with us just because you exhibit and the event is over doesn’t mean that I’m going to be gone. I’ll be available to you 24/7 because I want to help you succeed. You succeed, then I succeed through this whole thing and there’s strength in numbers.

Michelle Tennant: Well I think that one of the things that you’re talking about is parlaying an on-site experience to an online experience. A lot of people who are going to expos, like that motorcycle show. How are they going to keep people like me who attended this show engaged?

A perfect opportunity that I see is now missed because nobody’s coming after me as having participated in that motorcycle show with video, with – in fact, the – now I don’t want to pick on the motorcycle show. I’m sure there’s plenty of trade shows that do things differently, but I was also surprised with the online presence there in the booths.

Clearly they were not the most experienced. They’re just people manning the booths. So there were missed opportunities to sell me as a person who’s looking at motorcycles to purchase on in the next year.

There were missed opportunities that I saw and I thought, gosh, a smart marketer would be the one who would then parlay the relationship with me and all the people who visited the booth over the next year. There was very little done to extend that relationship with me and I was really shocked by that because there are so many opportunities rather than okay, we’re going to go to a show and here’s the catalogue.

Well what about getting my e-mail address? What about sending me video afterward of the bikes in action? What about having the top CEO of those companies [Audio skips] will say Harley Davidson, even though I don’t really like those motorcycles ‘cause I like to go out into the forest, they had a whole special section for women, which I also felt like was a missing opportunity, like special niches inside. Who’s coming to the trade shows.

There were lots of women like me walking around. I met them. So there’s a lot of money that’s walking out the door if you don’t target me.

Mostly what Harley Davidson did is they had on-site demonstrations on how to pick up a motorcycle. They had a whole magazine that they handed me that then I put back down in the booth ‘cause like I said before I didn’t want to take a bunch of material home.

Rey Ybarra: Right; exactly.

Michelle Tennant: But they didn’t have anywhere where I could sign up my e-mail address. They had no where so that they could actually then begin and form a relationship with me over time. Really fascinating how people marketing and what people – just easy marketing stuff that people could be capturing to then parlay to a relationship over the next year or so.

Rey, what you’re talking about with regard to trade shows and exhibits I think is a wide open territory. I’m excited to see how this project grows for you and how will you be giving us information on how this first green expo goes for you all and where we can actually then see the reports and so forth so that we can actually watch – will you be sending it to that link that we’re seeing right now online that I have linked from Storyteller to the Media.com? Like how can we see updates on this?

Rey Ybarra: Oh, we’re going to be – our web site, our blog site is being produced by Insyndia right now. It’ll be done shortly and you’re going to be getting updates through there and various blogging communities as well that we’re putting the word out. Through the social media sites, like Twitter and Facebook, My Space, You Tube and all of that. You’ll be able to get information and see it on social media as we get moving toward this and getting closer to the event.

Michelle Tennant: Will you send me communications so that I can update the Wasabi Club users? I will for sure, as I hear from Rey, everyone, I will for sure update my blog, Storyteller to the Media.com so that you can actually track how this is actually going so that we can all learn from each other as we further support the exposition and conference centers across the country. I said that wrong didn’t I? Exhibition halls. I’m not quite sure what I said, but I don’t think it was right. Conference places.

Rey Ybarra: One other thing I’d just like to say real quick, Michelle, is that when you were talking about just a moment ago about people passing out their materials and how are they going to capture e-mail at this last expo to engage people that have come to the show and keep them in the loop.

Well that’s a very good statement to make because of the fact that there’s two types of marketing. There’s what you call your push marketing and your pull marketing.

Michelle Tennant: For people who don’t know what that is, explain that just a little bit, Rey.

Rey Ybarra: Exactly; push marketing is when you’re getting your word out to people, you’re throwing it out to them and it’s giving them the materials. Handing out the materials and you send them a blast e-mail of something, but poll marketing is where you engage the client.

One important aspect of blogging is that you can create a poll marketing affect where you have an instant two-way communication with someone who leaves a comment on your blog and you reply back to them.

What you’re doing is you’re creating a conversational type of marketing model where you’re talking to that person. You’re communicating with them two-way and the lines of communication are not just one way of you throwing out information to them, but you’re engaging them where they come back to you.

This is the new model of marketing is that conversational type marketing, the poll marketing where they’re really interested in what you have to do and what you have to say. It starts off with of course getting their e-mail address and you offering them a newsletter or go to the blog and take a look at our new programming or whatever it is.

They like it. They leave a comment on there and you start that relationship right away. That is the way to build your business. The old model of trying to sell something to someone first is dead. You want to build those relationships and you want to build that trust.

With video on your blog where they can see a face and they can see you on there, that creates an instant amount of trust with someone who is watching you. They say, ‘I like what this person has to say. I like what Bowdabra has to say. That person really makes sense to me and I want to communicate with them.’ You pull them in.

It’s so powerful. This is what I’m so excited about, Michelle. All of these tools are going to be pulling everybody in.

Michelle Tennant: It always grows. The other thing that I’m really thinking about is how the internet continues to grow and evolve every single year. I can still remember and I’ll be 40 this year. I’m not that old, but I’m old enough to remember faxes and pre-internet days.

There are two things that come to mind while Rey is talking is, one, there are plenty of people who doubt the power of the internet and how it’ll actually affect business. I don’t even see how you can actually doubt that anymore.

It’s so very obvious how things are morphing and pretty much everything’s going to be on demand in the future, even our TV I think. It already is. We already have so much control over what we watch when we watch it.

But the other thing to keep in mind is I’m a Generation X-er. I don’t know. Rey, what generation are you? Baby Boomer, Gen X or Millennial? Who are you?

Rey Ybarra: I’m at the tail end of the Baby Boomer; I’m 44.

Michelle Tennant: Okay; great. Alright then. So now here’s the thing for everybody to understand about the Millennials. The young people today that are coming into the work force, they are dialed in to social marketing. Social networking for them is like breathing. They’re going to be looking for new and different ways to connect with everybody on their social networking sites.

So for them it’s going to be a natural expression to do expos, trade shows and they’re going to be actually talking to the old people, the old timers. Those people who are still doing phone calls and faxes on look, you need to text, you need to Twitter, you need to update your Facebook and blah, blah, blah and integrate all of these different and wonderful new media options into a way that actually works well for your business.

Then they’re as big as the Baby Boomer market. I don’t know the numbers. I just pull them out of the air. I think it’s something like 70 million to where like Gen X’s are 20 million or something. It’s like three times the amount of Baby Boomers and Millennials force to be reckoned with as far as like a buying force, like as a media force.

Whereas the Gen X-ers are just kind of the irreverent mavericks who are just in their doing it their own way. Also a force to be reckoned with, but in a different way.

But that’s something to keep in mind like looking at the trends for this future and where the buying power is going to come from. It’s already those – like Obama could command those online relationships. So how does yours really contribute to the poll marketing. How does your online presence contribute to the poll marketing so that the business is coming to you so that you actually have – like you’re stomping it on the internet.

That’s what we like to say over at Press Kit 247. Usually when we get a client it’s like stomp it. You’ve got to get to page one. Are you stomping it.

Rey Ybarra: Right; and I love that –

Michelle Tennant: You have to; you have to.

Rey Ybarra: I love that term because the youngsters would understand that a lot and like you say, the youngsters are tech savvy and they’re becoming the major force very quickly, especially when I was talking about the green industry.

We just picked up one of our first and big sponsors for our show, which is a radio station, one of the top radio stations in Reno, Sparks, Nevada; Magic 95.5 FM. The reason we picked them up was because they’re a young, hip radio station that understands new media.

So when I approached them, they have a whole green page up on their web site. Nothing but green and they jumped right on the opportunity and they said, ‘Yeah; we want to do this.’

So they’re going to be hopefully broadcasting live on broadcast radio and internet radio from the event, but they understand the gig. They understand it and they jumped on it right away.

Michelle Tennant: Yeah; see, and I think that’s going to happen more and more where people kind of see – now before I let you go today Rey, though get inside the world of fees around this. Like your potential client would be somebody who’s organizing an expo or a trade show or would it be a specific business owner who’s exhibiting at a booth and then also what are kind of the price ranges behind that?

Rey Ybarra: Yeah; that’s a good question because since I’ve been very busy with this show here and my partner mentioned this to me and talked to me about it a few times. I still don’t have all the answers for those questions yet because we’re busy putting on our show and everything.

Right away my experience though from trying to deal with promoters at all of these shows has been a very negative one over the years. Probably because they’re older people that own these shows and trade shows. So I don’t know yet. I don’t know what that model is. I’d like to take it to them, but I know from experience its always been a hard egg to crack with these people.

One of the reasons we went to the green expo is because it’s a younger, hipper crowd and they get it right away.

Michelle Tennant: Yeah; that’s smart. I can see that. Well, before – so at least I want people to be able to reach you directly. So a phone number, an e-mail address or what is the best way? Do you want them just to connect with me and then I pass them to you?

Rey Ybarra: That would be fine because right now I’m extremely busy with producing the show and that would be probably the best way to go, Michelle.

Michelle Tennant: Okay. Then everyone, you probably already have it, but I’ll remind you how to reach me. My e-mail address is michelle@publicityresults.com. I’m a two L Michelle and there’s an S on results. You can also leave comments if you forget how to reach me or you want to just connect with me online.

Of course you can go to Storyteller to the Media.com and then click on the 411 page and you have umpteen numbers of social networking pages to link to me. So I’m pretty much available online.

I stomp it, baby. I stomp it online.

Rey Ybarra: I love that. That is just really cool and hip, Michelle. Stomp it.

Michelle Tennant: Stomp it, stomp it, baby. Because, Rey, as you know, one of my things is always it’s not just who you know. It’s also who knows about you and that’s where stompin’ it online comes in.

Well I really appreciate you being with us today and kind of explaining what you’re doing with expos and the whole new media realm of it. Its really got me kind of excited and thinking and trying to figure out the things I’m committed to, like Press Kit 247 and Pitch Rate.com and what we’re doing around Wasabi Publicity.

Like how can we actually get on board with this and actually empower our clients to really seek out new media. So thanks for sharing all this today, Rey.

Rey Ybarra: Absolutely. Well thank you so much for having me on the program, Michelle. It’s always a pleasure to speak with you and I enjoy your openness and your professionalism, especially now in this time in our society, in our culture where change now, the people that change, like yourself, like myself and those others, we’re the ones that are leading the way.

So I appreciate very much you having me on your program.

Michelle Tennant: Oh, my pleasure. And everyone, like always we’re going to have more Wasabi Clubs in the future. Let me know what type of topics you want to hear about. If you want to see the years and years of Wasabi Clubs that we’ve had in the past simply go to Publicity Results.com, sign up as a VIP member and everything is there for free.

You can download it to your iPod or to your computer and listen to it in the background; whatever you like. Be in touch and let me know what you need with regard to insider tips for PR. Thanks everyone.

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