Britain’s The Guardian newspaper recently reported that since Muntazar al-Zaidi threw his shoes at President Bush, the shoe manufacturer has been swamped with orders. Seriously! The Turkish manufacturer has seen orders for the $41 shoes quadruple according to the story. All good humor aside, there is a point to be made for B2B marketers: In today’s multimedia world, what you show about your product may be more important than what you say about it.

During my days a magazine editor, we knew that a good photo editor was worth his weight in gold. We spent a ridiculous amount of time chasing down photos and graphics, and we invested more energy-per-word on writing photo captions than we ever did on features. And when faced with two stories and space for just one, we always chose the item with the better images.

In the world of laptops, web-enabled phones and socially driven media, photos and video are more important than ever before in supporting a PR program.

Web optimized press releases can deliver images to editor so they can see your product to know if it’s visually appealing. Video can show how it’s used or what it’s benefit is.

Video podcasts (sometimes called Vodcasts) can help editors form more intimate relationships with you, putting a face with a name.

Mulitmedia doesn’t have to be expensive, but it does have to be a part of any PR program if you want to succeed.

Related posts:

1. B2B doesn’t exist in a B2B vacuum
2. Pity about the PR Pests?
3. $5 worth of media training
4. Online video ads for the visually literate society – Rich Media is becoming “richer”
5. B2B Public Relations, Advertising, and Editorial – the Great Divide

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About the author:

Brian Courtney is a Sr. Social Media & PR executive, bringing Schubert more than 15 years of corporate PR and editorial experience. Brian enjoys traveling to exotic locations, creative writing and spending time with his family.