The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

If you’re working on a political campaign this year, or vowing to get involved in the 2008 presidential election, download a free copy of the ebook Online Politics 101: The Tools and Tactics of Online Advocacy.  

Written by Colin Delany, editor in chief of epolitics.com, the free 44-page handbook shows how to promote candidates, shape public opinion, motivate supporters and raise money.

The book recommends that various online activities such as blogging, viral marketing and text messaging should be used in combination with websites such as MySpace and YouTube and tied tightly together with each other and with a campaign’s offline organizing. The ebook lays out several essential rules for online politics and focuses on which methods work best in different settings and why.

Posted In: Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, Nonprofits, PR Consultants/Publicists, Press Releases/News Releases, Publicity for Niche Markets, Publicity on the Internet
posted On: 10/15/2006: 8:16 am: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

Slap me if you ever hear me uttering the phrase “thinking outside the box.”

I’m adding it to David Meerman Scott’s list of most offensive and overly used words and phrases in press releases. (I interviewed David several months ago on “The New Rules of Press Releases: How to Write Them to Attracty Buyers, Not only Journalists.”) 

His list of gobbledygook includes:

• “next generation”

• “flexible”

• “robust”

• “world class”

• “scalable”

• “easy to use”

• “cutting edge”

• “mission critical”

• “market leading”

• “industry standard”

• “turnkey”

• “groundbreaking”

• “interoperable”

• “best of breed”

David suggests that before you write, identify your various target audiences.

“What are their problems? Business issues? Needs? Only then are you ready to communicate your expertise to the market. Here’s the rule: when you write, start with your buyers, not with your product.”

Many of the words and phrases above show up repeatedly in a company’s boring and pompous boilerplate. If you’re among the guilty, start editing.

Posted In: Press Releases/News Releases
posted On: 10/14/2006: 11:25 pm: By Joan
Comments: 6 Comments

If you’re a Publicity Hound who promotes yourself as an expert, you’d better be blogging.

The time is coming soon when experts who don’t blog will erode their own credibility—sort of like companies that, for whatever reason, don’t yet have a website.

Blogger Michael Coté makes a convincing argument for why experts must blog.  

If you aren’t blogging yet, you can create a blog today in less than 10 minutes at Blogger.com. But I recommend WordPress (that’s what I use) or Typepad which will let you create categories, then assign your posts to one or more categories.

If you blog, check out The Blog Squad and Don Crowther’s excellent ebook “Blogging for Business.”

Posted In: Blogs, Business Promotion
posted On: 10/13/2006: 7:04 am: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

Publicity Hound Lisa Cupolo writes:

“I am the marketing facilitator for Northwoods Health System. We offer six different health care facilities in upstate New York providing rehabilitation and long-term care services. This is a setting that bridges the gap between hospital and home (patients are discharged from the hospital but are unable to return home until they are fully healed so they come to our facilities).

“We provide 24-hour care for patients with serious medical needs. I’d like to generate broadcast and print media attention for our pediatric unit. I recently sent a press releases to all local media regarding the pediatric unit and incorporating the physical rehabilitation needs of patients with the educational needs of them as well.

“I thought this topic would tie in well to the start of school a couple of weeks ago, however, I only received the interest from one local media outlet.

“Do your readers have any advice as far as how to gain more media attention? What’s a good way to pitch this idea over the phone? This would be a great topic for educators, parents with children who have special needs and the public in general.”

Posted In: Business Promotion, Newspaper Publicity, Pitching the Media, Publicity for Niche Markets
posted On: 10/10/2006: 9:17 am: By Joan
Comments: 5 Comments

My article in the October issue of Professional Speaker magazine, the trade magazine for the National Speakers Association, offers 11 ideas on how authors, speakers and experts can come up with new products simply by giving their old products a new twist.

They include:

1. Get rid of those old cassette tapes and convert them to CDs.
2. Turn audio products into electronic transcripts and ask, “Do you want fries with that?” In other words, upsell them to the transcript if they buy the CD, and vice-versa. When customers buy my CDs and transcripts, many go for the upsell. 
3. Turn CDs into MP3 files and offer an instant download.
4. Turn audio products into podcasts. A six-CD package, for example, can be sliced and diced into 24 short podcasts that customers can buy for $5 each.
5. Turn a handout into a notepad. I sell notepads with “10 Magic Phrases to Use with the Media.”  You can use them as cheat sheets when you’re talking to reports on the phone.
6. Slice and dice your printed book into electronic special reports. I’ve written 50 special reports on a variety of topics.
7. Take an existing product and turn it into one or more videos.
8. Take the best tips from your ezine and turn them into an ebook. I did exactly that with “The Best of the Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week from 2005″ that I give away.
9. Take any existing product and turn it into a tips booklet. Paulette Ensign, The Tips Booklet Queen, will show you how.
10. If you’re a speaker, customize generic handouts for a specific industry and bundle them with other products. Turn the handouts into a spiral-bound workbook.
11. Turn a print book into an ebook.

Now isn’t that a lot better than starting from scratch?

Posted In: General
posted On: 10/9/2006: 7:34 am: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment