The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

The January issue of The Advisor, the monthly newsletter for the American Society for Safety Engineers, includes a cover story I wrote for them on “31 ways to market with free publicity.”

When I wrote the article, it didn’t take me long to come with the ideas. Many of them are the same things you can do to market yourself. For example, get to know reporters, tip them off to trends, hit the speaking circuit, follow up your speech with an article in the group’s newsletter, create a media award, start blogging, and write opinion columns for newspapers and magazines.      

If you need a similar article for your corporate, nonprofit or government newsletter, email me. I’ll be glad to customize it for your industry and give you whatever size you need.  

Posted In: General
posted On: 1/23/2006: 12:12 pm: By Joan
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When someone who has never gotten publicity tells me they want to get onto “Oprah,” or onto the front page of The Wall Street Journal, I tell them they’re in for a rude awakening.

“Do you really wnat to make all your mistakes on America’s Number One daytime talk show?” I ask.

If you want publicity in major media, you must get experience at a variety of smaller media outlets. It’s called “climbing the media ladder,” and I discuss it in the January issue of Country Sampler’s Country Business magazine. Freelancer Traci Bisson interviewed me about what the ladder looks like. I wrote more about it in this article at my website.  

The ladder looks like this:

Top rung: National network news, Top 20 radio stations

Next-to-top rung: National newspapers, national magazines

Middle rung: Local Daily newspapers, radio and TV stations, business journals, city and regional magazines

Next-to-bottom rung: Trade publications, weekly newspapers, special interest publications, alumni publications

Bottom rung: Print and online newsletters, public access channel of cable TV station, small niche publications 

Why do you have to start at or near the bottom of the ladder? So you can make all your mistakes in smaller media outlets and to get valuable experience learning how to interview with reporters. Besides, Oprah’s producer’s probably won’t even look twice at you unless you have experience on smaller TV programs.

So if you’re new to publicity, seek out media outlets that don’t look like they’re worth the trouble. Then start working your way up.  

Posted In: How to Interview, Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, TV Publicity
posted On: 1/22/2006: 8:18 am: By Joan
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You can score a great publicity hit if you tie into TV Weatherpersons Day on February 5, which this year also happens to be Super Bowl Sunday.

I’ve been preaching about this for years because so many Publicity Hounds have told me it works. A few days before February 5, send your local TV weatherperson who will be on camera that day something that says “Happy TV Weatherpersons Day.” It can be a sheet cake. Or a basket of bagels and cream cheese.

Or do what Cookies by Design franchisees have been doing. They send cookie bouquets. And as a result, their favorite weather people all over the U.S. have mentioned them on the weather segment. I blogged about this back in March.

Since Feb. 5 falls on a Sunday this year, make sure you send the goodies to the person who will be on camera. At many TV stations, that’s usually the weekend weather person.

February is bubbling over with other story possibilities. My friend, TV reporter Shawne Duperon, who conducted a teleseminar with me called “116 WOW! Story Ideas from January through June,” says TV reporters love to report on health stories in February, such as mammograms, cholesterol screenings and prostate tests.

So think health next month.   

Posted In: Pitching the Media, TV Publicity
posted On: 1/20/2006: 9:57 am: By Joan
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Back in September, just before McGraw-Hill published Maria Grace’s book “Reel Fulfillment: A 12-step Plan for Transforming Your Life Through Movies,” Maria worked with me to create a media kit that would scream “Read me!”

She joined The Publicity Hound Mentor Program, and I helped her with the eight items that needed to go inside the media kit so that she’d make it as easy as possible for the media to cover her.

Today, four months later, she’s a media darling. Her impressive list of media hits includes The New York Times, Marie Claire magazine, the Orlando Sentinel, the Boston Herald, Publishers Weekly, the New York Daily News, plus dozens of radio interviews with stations all over the United States. You can read the entire list of media that have covered her. 

Her media kit has the essential elements that authors MUST have, such as the standard news release, a mock book review, the book sell sheet, a catalog sheet and a sizzling bio. You can see two versions of the entire kit—one for print journalists and one for broadcasters.

In fact, her publicist at McGraw-Hill liked the media kit so much, that she’s using it when she pitches the media on Maria’s behalf.

Most authors who call me asking for help with their publicity campaigns miss this critical step. They want to start pitching reporters before the media kit is completed. In fact, many of them have no idea that they’re supposed to create things like a sell sheet. And they’re horrified when I suggest that they write their own mock book review.

“I’d never, ever write my own review,” one of them said. “That would be unethical.”

Dawn Josephson, who was my guest during a teleseminar last year titled “How to Create Eye-opening Promo Pieces That Sell Books,” disagrees.   In fact, she’s a former magazine editor. And she said most media people don’t have time to read your book. If they want to write about it, they need a quick summary of what it’s about and how it will help their audience. The review provides that information. Many journalists, most of them ethical, will pick up the review verbatim and print it. 

So if you’re writing your first book, or your next one, don’t forget about writing your own review so you make a journalist’s job easy. 

Posted In: Authors & Publishers, Media Kits
posted On: 1/19/2006: 4:26 am: By Joan
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When Publicity Hounds think of ways to get onto “Oprah,” they spend days and sometimes even weeks crafting the perfect pitch that will appeal to her producers.

Most of them, I’m guessing, probably miss a vital step that could save them a lot of time. They fail to visit her website and click on the “Be on the Show” link.

If they did, they’d know that right now, the Queen of Daytime TV, wants guests who:

—Are drowning in debt

—Have partners that are physically abusive

—Have children that have gotten into trouble on the Internet 

—Are concerned about terrorism

—Have relatives living in Iraq or North Korea

—Are fans of clothing designer Marc Jacobs or shoe designer Jimmy Choo

—Have discovered that their children have been leading a secret life and are struggling with gambling, compulsive shoplifting or an eating disorder

—Are Katrina survivors or who have taken in Katrina survivors

—Make minimum wage

—Have a marriage built on lies

—Are nervous about saying their wedding vows

—Have wives that have let themselves go

Not exactly the kind of warm and fuzzy topics you’d want to be associated with on camera, right? Controversy sells, particularly on TV talk shows. And nobody knows that better than Oprah. If you can tie into these topics, you might stand a better chance of getting onto her show. 

Susan Harrow, an expert on how to get onto “Oprah,” was my guest a few years ago during a teleseminar we called “How to Get Booked on ‘Oprah.’” Susan said one of Oprah’s four hot-button topics is child and domestic abuse. Another is taking charge of your life. Her favorite phrase is “live your best life.” Those two topics show up several times on the list above. 

This website is worth bookmarking and checking periodically.

Posted In: TV Publicity
posted On: 1/18/2006: 11:11 am: By Joan
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