2008 July

How to make news when there’s no news

7/23/2008 By Joan 1 Comment

Here’s a quick trick for creating news when there’s absolutely nothing new to pitch.

Be willing to talk about your business problems and how you solved them.

Pick up any business journal and you’ll see company after company mentioned, usually because they’ve figured out ways to solve a problem, whether it’s delivering the product faster to customers, or finding and keeping great employees, or how to enter a new market that’s already crowded with competitors.

But these stories don’t only play well in business journals. They’re great for general interest magazines, daily and weekly newspapers, and television, particularly if you have enticing visuals.

This tip is one of more than a dozen I’ll be sharing tomorrow during Bulldog Reporter’s teleseminar on “Evergreen Magic for PR: Media Masters Show How to Make News When There’s No News.”

We’ll talk, for example, about editorial hot buttons: pegging your story to rumors, future trends, features, divisive issues, dramatic hooks and other sure-fire ways to supercharge your hit ratio, even when you’re not breaking news.

Four other panelists will join me, and moderator Brian Pittman will make sure we move things along quickly so we can squeeze in everybody’s tips. Don’t miss this one! It promises to be fast-paced, and you’ll come away with enough ideas to keep yo upromoting through the end of this year and beyond.

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, Pitching the Media, PR Consultants/Publicists, Publicity on the Internet, Publicity Resources, TV Publicity

Philadelphia remodeling firm needs marketing ideas

7/22/2008 By Joan 9 Comments

Teresa Berger of North Wales, Pennsylvania writes:

“As marketing director for Creative Contracting, Inc., a Philadelphia-area design/build remodeling firm, it’s my responsibility to get the company and its ownership more exposure in the community. The owner wants me to get him in front of more people, and find outlets for giving seminars and speeches to consumers, business networking organizations and others.

“With a tight marketing budget and limited resources, how can I work toward positioning the organization and owner as “the premier design/build firm in the area”? Any innovative, cutting edge suggestions from Hounds?”

Filed Under: Business Promotion

Facebook, social networking sites make the cash register ring

7/22/2008 By Joan 2 Comments

This is for the doubting Thomases who aren’t convinced that social networking can be profitable.

I promoted last week’s teleseminar series “How to Use LinkedIn to Promote Anything–Ethically & Powerfully” by creating an event on my Facebook page. My assistant then invited my 1,028 friends. At $77, I wasn’t sure how many Facebook friends would attend, but it was definitely worth it.

Fifty-four people RSVP’d to tell me that they were attending, or had already signed up. That’s $4,158 in registration fees just from Facebook! Something else started to happen. I started to build the buzz about these teleseminars. Warren Whitlock, one of my Facebook friends, wrote on my wall:

Kim Beasley, The Blog Queen, who Warren referred to, has more than 400 followers on Twitter, and I have no idea how many of those people signed up after reading her tweet.

If I still haven’t convinced you, you can listen to social media success stories galore at The Social Media Summit Sept. 10-12 in Chicago, sponsored by Ragan Communications. I attended Ragan’s “Unconference” on social media last year in Chicago. I made great contacts, came back with hundreds of tips to share with you, and learned about how to incorporate social media into my own marketing campaigns.

At this year’s summit, you’ll learn about Web 2.0 strategies such as podcasts, message boards, video and wikis. The conference includes one track for internal communications and a separate track for external and marketing communications. Curious about what Web 3.0 might look like? You’ll get a sneek preview.

I hope to see you there. This conference is so important that I worked out a special arrangement with Ragan. Publicity Hounds save $100 on the $1,195 registration, plus an additional $100 if you take advantage of the early-bird registration, which has been extended to this Friday. To get $200 off and pay only $995, you must use this link.

Let me know if you’re going to the conference. Maybe we can have coffee between sessions.

Filed Under: Blogs, Business Promotion, General, LinkedIn, PR Consultants/Publicists, Publicity on the Internet, Social media marketing, Social networking, Video

Journalists suspicious of ‘green’ story ideas

7/16/2008 By Joan 2 Comments

When Bulldog Reporter invited me to be a guest panelist on the July 24 teleseminar designed to help Publicity Hounds create news when there is no news, I jumped at the chance.

I wrote three pages of notes for the session titled “Evergreen Magic for PR: Media Masters Show How to Make News When There’s No News” and reviewed them on Monday with the three other guest experts who will be on the panel with me. During the call, I learned something fascinating.

Always-cynical journalists are becoming increasingly suspicious of story ideas tied to the green movement. That could be because PR people are bombarding the media with them.

“Everybody wants to be the next Al Gore,” said one panelist, a corporate PR person who says she’s been meeting increasing resistance from journalists when pitching green stories.

If you’re pitching them, too, you’d better know what you’re talking about, have facts to back up your claim, and make the angle unusual enough.

We’ll discuss this topic in more depth next week. We’ll also explain how to get into the news, front and center, when there’s absolutely nothing happening at your business that’s remotely exciting.

Filed Under: Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, Pitching the Media, PR Consultants/Publicists, Radio Publicity, TV Publicity

Learn killer sound bites at media training Aug. 1 in New York

7/16/2008 By Joan Leave a Comment

If Oprah called tomorrow, or Larry King, or the “Today” Show, and wanted to book you for an appearance later this week, would you be scurrying around at the last minute trying to find a media trainer?

What about that New York Times reporter you’ve been pitching for two years? If he called to interview you, would you be ready?

If Oprah called, would you be practicing your sound bites between making travel arrangements to Chicago and shopping for something to wear on the big day?

Here’s a quick tip from Jess Todtfeld, president of Media Training Worldwide, who worked as a producer on “FOX & Friends” for seven years:

One way to craft great sound bites is to use rehetorical questions. Reporters like rhetorical questions because they break up the structure of their stories. And during broadcast interviews, they make viewers really think.

Examples:

“Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”

“Are we going to face a possible bankruptcy next year?”

“Why has the governor betrayed the faith of the voters?”

The one thing all of these questions have in common, Jess says, is that they aren’t real questions. They aren’t expressions uttered by someone seeking new information. They’re rhetorical questions, meaning they’re simply a way of making a point in the form of asking a question. The question doesn’t have to be answered in order for the point to be made.

Jess knows at least a dozen other ways to create compelling sound bites. He’ll arm you with all of them and give you valuable on-camera experience and a critique during PR Leads’ daylong media training on Friday, Aug. 1, in New York City. This session is perfect for speakers attending the National Speakers Association convention that weekend in New York and for anybody else who will be in the area.

I spoke at an event with Jess two years ago and I watched him work his on-stage magic with members of the audience. This promises to be a fun, information-packed session with practical experience in front of a camera. But only 20 people can attend.

Sign up for “Media Training for Experts and Authorities Workshop–From Sound Bites to Messages That Make The Media Take Notice.”

By the way, Dan Janal, president of PR Leads, the sponsoring company, is attending the media training as a student. He’s publishing a book soon on how to negotiate, and he says he needs to learn sound bites for his many upcoming media interviews.

Filed Under: General