The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

If you’re sponsoring a special event or a speaking engagement and you want to fill the room, don’t just try to create publicity by pitching the local media in the town where the event will take place.

Create a grassroots publicity campaign that reaches thousands of people who are likely candidates for your event.

That’s what I did this past summer to generate interest for my first public seminar in Norfolk, Virginia on August 23. I hired PR guy David Rourk of Norfolk, who also knows all the local media. But more importantly, David is a master networker who knows the heads of all the local business groups, nonprofits and other organizations whose members needed to hear what I had to say about how to generate publicity .

All those groups have lists of members, along with their email addresses. They all have newsletters. They all talk to each other. And they all were eager to help publicize my workshop to their members. In other words, David convinced them to promote my event—for free. I didn’t spend a penny on advertising.

David also made sure my event was listed in all the community calendars. He convinced a columnist with The Virginian-Pilot to call me for an interview. He even got me a column in one of the local business publications after the event so I could stay on the Norfolk radar screen.

The day of the workshop, I was thrilled to see 52 paid attendees in the audience. But no one was prouder than David. His hard work resulted in more than four dozen Publicity Hounds who now read this newsletter. Many of them bought my products from the back of the room. And one says she’s ready to join The Publicity Hound Mentor Program.

If you’re a professional speaker who’s having trouble getting publicity for speaking engagements, follow David’s lead and start a grassroots publicity campaign that focuses on the groups that are the best match with your topic. David, who wrote an article on how he did it for the November/December issue of The Publicity Hound subscription newsletter, says it’s important to follow up once you call or email your media contacts.
In fact, he keeps a detailed chart that shows who he called, when he called, and any additional follow-up that’s needed.

Posted In: Authors & Publishers, Business Promotion, Special Events
posted On: 10/27/2005: 10:05 am: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

Barbara Florio Graham of Gatineau, Quebec, Canada writes:

“The 20th anniversary edition of my popular book, Five Fast Steps to Better Writing, just came out this fall, and I’d like to capitalize on the ‘five fast steps’ theme (which is also the title of my second book, Five Fast Steps to Low-Cost Publicity), by arranging some special events where the book might be offered at a discount or as a prize.

“I wonder if other Publicity Hounds might have some ideas for events.”

Posted In: Authors & Publishers, Publicity on the Internet, Special Events
posted On: 10/25/2005: 10:23 pm: By Joan
Comments: 5 Comments

When news breaks and journalists need to find sources to interview, they can’t waste time Googling under certain words or phrases, then wading through a long list of websites and articles in search of the perfect source.

Many of them go directly to Yearbook.com, a website where they can search among the thousands of sources and find exactly what they need within seconds, and with just a few clicks of the mouse. The online book of experts, arranged by category, includes authors, speakers, academics, celebrities, government officials, executives in the nonprofit world, and anyone else who is considered an expert and has something to offer the media.

Because I am a publicity expert, journalists call me frequently to comment on things like the Michael Jackson trial and Martha Stewart’s prison sentence.

If you’re not in the Yearbook, consider an annual membership which includes not only an ad, but lots of other goodies:

—Your profile is included in the free downloadable and printable Yearbook of Experts online editions, and in the printed editions (twice annually) of the Yearbook of Experts.

—You can send 52 news releases a year, without any per-release charges, to tens of thousands of journalists via NewsReleaseWire.com. Your releases are linked directly to your Yearbook.com profile. You can also send Talking News Releases that invite broadcast journalists to hear how good you really sound.

—You can post your special events or speaking engagements at Daybook.com.

—Your profile and news release are catalogued at the LexisNexis database, the leading professional search engine.

—At the Online Media Database, you can download databases or print your own mailing labels to have direct contact with America’s leading print and broadcast journalists, including syndicated columnists, freelancers, newspapers and magazines, and trade journals.

—New members and those who renew by November 1 also receive the Power Media Blue Book, a directory featuring America’s leading print and broadcast journalists. PR Week called this “an Internet dating service of PR.” The book comes with a CD that includes databases, and an “@Cloaked Email.com” address system to prevent spam. You send an email for a journalist and the Yearbook forwards it to them.

Publicity Hound readers can get $100 off the price of membership but only if you use this link.

November 1 is the deadline for the 2006 listings.

Posted In: , Business Promotion, Publicity on the Internet
posted On: 10/24/2005: 12:04 am: By Joan
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As I was writing the previous tip about the “Coats for Kids” drive, I couldn’t remember all the details. So I Googled weatherman Vince Condella.

Here’s what I learned about him within about 30 seconds:

–He rides a Harley.

–He’s a “Seinfeld” junkie.

–He likes guitar music, quality coffee and ice hockey.

–He was named one of the 15 best local TV Weathercasters in America, according to “Partly Sunny,” a 1995 book by Alan Fields.

–He grew up in Lombard, Ill., in the western suburbs of Chicago.

–As a child, he would try to copy the style of his hero, longtime Windy City weathercaster Harry Volkman. Condella performed his own weather broadcasts in his parents’ basement where his dad helped him paste a United States map on a huge sheet of metal. Young Vince put magnets on the back of home-made weather symbols to stick them on the map, just like Harry did every night on TV.

–He was petrified of thunderstorms when he was a boy.

I learned all this from just one article. OK, Publicity Hounds, listen up. If you were trying to pitch a weather-related story to Vince, or trying to get him to promote your product, service, cause or issue on one of his weather segments, what would you mention in your pitch?

If you said Harleys, “Seinfeld,” good coffee, ice hockey, his weathercaster award, his ties to Chicago, or his fear of thunderstorms, give yourself a dog treat.

The Publicity Hound® urges you to Google your media contacts before pitching. You just might find a treasure trove of facts you can weave into your pitch to get their attention. If you know the hobby of a particular reporter, and it happens to tie into your product or service, you can invite the reporter to participate in your story, not just take notes on the sidelines. If you teach ballroom dancing and you just read a column in your local newspaper by a columnist who says he would love to learn ballroom dancing, you can invite him to your studio for a lesson. In my “Special Report #42: Tips for Letting Reporters Experience Your Story, Not Just Write About It,” I give give you lots of ideas on ways to get reporters excited about your story. Not all reporters will agree to “participate,” but many will, and you’ll end up with a better story.

Posted In: Publicity on the Internet, TV Publicity
posted On: 10/19/2005: 11:59 pm: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

I never guarantee you’ll get publicity by following my tips. But this tip falls into the category of an “almost guarantee.”

While watching the local FOX TV news recently, I saw a short news item about a group of first-graders at a Milwaukee elementary school. They were shown singing a song to the tune of “Old McDonald Had a Farm.” But instead of singing about Old McDonald, they were singing about “Vince Condella’s Coats for Kids,” the annual charity drive named after the station’s chief meteorologist.

Cut to Condella in the TV studio, who was shown holding a coat that had been donated. He urged viewers to donate more coats because of the cold months ahead.

Most major media outlets have some kind of holiday or seasonal charity drive. If you or your company, nonprofit, government agency, school or service club can do something special to participate in the drive, chances are excellent that the media outlet will cover the story. At one newspaper where I worked, we loved printing stories, sometimes on the front page, about local groups that were supporting our “Clothe-a-Child” holiday drive in unusual ways. One company held a chili cook off. They sold the chili to their employees during lunch and donated all the money to our charity. A service club went door-to-door asking for donations. Of course, they got a story.

Is that easy or what? Keep your eyes open for holiday charity drives sponsored by your local TV stations, radio stations, newspapers and magazines. Consider pitching columnists, the weather person, the sportscaster, the drive-time deejay and anybody else who is involved.

The next two and a half months are packed with potential if you want publicity because you can tie your story ideas to holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. My friend, Shawne Duperon, a TV reporter, joined me for a telephone seminar called “103 Sizzling Story Ideas from July to December.” We spoon-feed you 103 story ideas and tell you which ones work best for print and which work best for TV. For example, the day after Thanksgiving is the traditional start of the Christmas shopping season, and retailers can pitch stories about what they’re doing to bring more customer sinto their stores.

Posted In: Newspaper Publicity, Pitching the Media
posted On: : 11:32 pm: By Joan
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