Multichannel Surfing

It’s always interesting to check out a conference for the first time, and it’s always fun to come to Las Vegas. (Though I’ve also found it’s even more fun to leave Las Vegas.)

So I was happy to be covering the Merchant Risk Council’s E-Commerce Payments & Risk Conference on March 16-18. The only problem? more

… you give your fans an offer they can’t receive elsewhere.

I’ve published a few articles of late that indicate a few things: Facebook users do not want to be sold to while they are feeding their chickens on Farmville or whacking someone in Mafia Wars. But consumers who become your fan on Facebook do expect something in return.

It looks like woman’s apparel and accessories seller Nine West is going about it the right way. Marketing firm Fluid launched its Fluid Fan Shop app on Nine West’s Facebook page this week , and it allows the merchant’s Facebook fans to shop for select discounted items without leaving the social network. more

I’ve seen my fair share of odd swag given away at tradeshows, but a yardstick seemed last night to beat everything. Imagine leaving the Internet Retailer Web Design and Usability Conference and trying to get through security at Orlando International Airport with something that could be considered a weapon?

MyBuys knew what it was doing. Vice president-marketing Chip Overstreet explained it to me today: MyBuys really gave out a walking stick, which means the Transportation Security Administration should have no beef with any show attendee. more

So the biggest surprise I heard today: The majority of the attendees at the Internet Retailer Web Design and Usability show have not heard of the online retailer Threadless.

Speaking during a session called “Designing your web site to create social marketing success,” Fry director of creative strategy Bridget Fahrland asked for a show of hands - who in the room had heard of Threadless. Only a few hands went up.

Those hands must have belonged to subscribers of Chief Marketer, and read Brian Quinton’s profile of Threadless. more

“Please come and see us?” I was asked by a vendor whose booth was tucked away in a black hole of the exhibit hall of the Internet Retailer Web Design Show, here at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando.

The exhibit hall, actually, is hopping, and they do have it set up so you can check out the sessions by going through the exhibit hall. But this one vendor is kind of stuck away from all the action. I feel bad, and I should stop by and visit later instead of smiling and ignoring them. more

Just a heads-up, I’m going to tweet from the Internet Retailer Web Design & Usability Conference today and tomorrow. Out feed: http://twitter.com/mcmerchant. Will people care? Who knows.

What do you think about live tweets from tradeshows? Good, bad or ugly? Are 140 characters worth the keystrokes if there’s no line to an article, post or example?