• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, February 10, 2009

Cisco Systems has plans to teach search and social media techniques to its value-added resellers (VARs), which contribute about 80% to Cisco's nearly $40 billion in fiscal annual sales.

The conference, dubbed Velocity, gets underway this evening in Florida to give VARs experience on driving demand through online marketing.

The event has attracted more than 250 VARs from across the globe, up from 212 last year. About 70% of attendees are executives willing to pick up the tab on flights and hotels to learn how to mix traditional marketing with social media and search. They will learn from industry thought leaders such as Charlene Li, Seth Godin, Daniel Pink and Gerry McGovern, who will deliver keynotes.

Li, coauthor of "Groundswell" and founder of Altimeter Group, San Mateo, Calif., will focus on marketing and customer-facing strategies. "You don't need to be online tech-savvy to use social media," Li said. "The VARs are really good at building relationships, working with clients and understanding their needs. That's the root of social media."

While keynotes provide thought-provoking concepts, the breakout sessions that follow will give attendees hands-on experience with experts. Taking a tip from the Genius Bar in Apple retail stores, San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco will have a Skills Clinic to provide how-to tips for building marketing campaigns on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as tricks for using collaboration, blogging and search engine optimization tools.

Each topic will have a workstation pod where people can get advice on getting started, according to Luanne Tierney, VP of worldwide channels marketing. "Regardless of the challenging economy, partners see that marketing is critical to drive demand," she said.

The success of the 2008 event prompted this year's. Last year, Cisco launched a social marketing tool that enabled resellers to embed video into their marketing campaigns. About 70% adopted the tool and began co-marketing with Cisco.

As an added perk for attending the conference this year, executives get a chance either to host a virtual event, deploy a demand-generation campaign, or become a Cisco success story. "We're going to make sure that they leave this conference understanding the importance of social media," Tierney said. "Cisco is committed to putting the marketing muscle behind our partners, especially during challenging times."