The SXSW Interactive Festival has long been a test bed for new trends that frequently capture global attention. The most anticipated subjects and hottest new trends being discussed at this year’s festival offer a glimpse of the new technologies and social trends that may be just around the corner. In addition to making waves at the latest festival, the following five trends all have the potential to make a significant impact in consumer markets far beyond the city of Austin.

The SXSW Festival provides entrepreneurs, new business founders and those seeking to invest in a new startup the chance to meet and interact. Changes seen in the past year, including the controlled deflation of both the early- and late-stage private company economic bubbles, has done much to influence the startup ecosystem. This subject is one that may have a considerable impact on the ways that new businesses establish themselves in the days to come. From privatized aerospace businesses to tech-startups that cater to micro-niches, new developments shaping the full market-wide startup ecosystem has been a hot-button issue that conference goers have been unable to ignore.

In a previous post, we highlighted how your company can benefit from tying in a product/company launch with PR – and the huge ROI that comes with the strategy. Today, we will break down several crucial aspects that your company must include on their pre-launch checklist. Creating a business plan requires more work than many people tend to anticipate. Conjuring up a basic business model devours close to 100 hours of mental consumption in total. This means the process of thinking non-stop for roughly eight hours daily would have to continue uninterrupted for about 10 to 12 days to make one step in moving a business forward.

But let’s face it. Pacing around for eight hours consecutively just to think is something very few people have time to do. So you’ll need an advantage to push your business concepts forward while still giving your venture the attention it needs. You’ll find more information on a few things to be done in our pre-launch checklist below.

Social Media Marketing strategies assume a crucial role in any digital branding campaign. Many people use social networking sites to position themselves as thought leaders. The return on investment with Social Media is huge, because there is no cost associated with creating accounts. The only investment needed is time to monitor and deploy – and a solid social media strategy.

Someone once said, “it’s not your customer’s job to remember you, it’s your obligation to make sure they don’t have the chance to forget you”.  As the online landscape continues to change, making your mark and achieving greater sales is more challenging than ever. With the drive to attract and retain consumers becoming more competitive, PR firms are working harder than ever to strengthen the relationship of companies with their consumers.

Being visible in a competitive market is all very well, but without strong strategies and innovative campaigns, converting potential consumers to loyal customers is unlikely. Using integrated, media savvy PR campaigns can make a tangible difference to your sales, bringing results and rewards to all parties: you, your brand and your customers.

The first few years of this decade have proven to be a bullish time for those who are able to combine technical expertise with business acumen and successfully build a start-up from the ground up (ideally in Silicon Valley). However, this gold rush has not been isolated to the first few companies who had access to the Valley’s network of investors.

Rather, the market has become incredibly attractive to a wide variety of entrepreneurs, all desperately working to bring their business to the next level. In such a competitive environment of PR for start-ups, a compelling story can be the difference between a start-up surviving into the future or crumbling before it gains its first customer.