2009 February

PitchRate matches sources, journalists and rates your pitch

2/12/2009 By Joan 5 Comments

pitchrate1 Publicity Hounds hoping to connect with journalists who need their expertise now have another free service to use.

PitchRate, created by Drew Gerber of Press Kit 24/7, connects sources with journalists, bloggers and anyone who provides content.

When you visit the Pitchrate website, you can log in as a journalist or as a source. I logged in as both and had to use two separate email addresses.

When journalists are looking for specific types of sources, they send their query to PitchRate. If they’re from major media outlets like USA Today or the New York Times and want to post anonymously, they have that option.

Sources who sign up for the service can see all the queries, and decide whether they’re a good match. If so, they contact the journalist on their own.

Here’s where this service differs from Help a Reporter Out (also free) and the two subscription services, PRLeads and ProfNet. PitchRate actually rates your pitch on a scale of from one to five stars. Ratings are determined on things such as keywords that sources use within their pitch. Because humans don’t actually do the rating, I don’t know whether it’s accurate. Journalists who receive many responses to their queries can sort them according to how they’re rated, thus saving themselves time.

If they contact you for an interview, they can rate your value as a source on your PitchRate profile so other journalists can see quickly whether you’re worth pursuing. This second rating should force sources to be extra careful when responding to queries.

During a teleseminar I conducted recently for Publicity Hounds in my mentor program, I offered tips on how to reply to queries from these services. My tips included:

—Answer only queries that are a perfect match with your expertise.

—If you’re answering by email, make sure your pitch takes up no more than one screen of type.

—Answer concisely. Don’t tell the journalist “the whole story.” Instead, provide just enough information to entice them to pick up the phone and call you for an interview.

—Always offer little extras like tip sheets, photos, graphics or additional sources to round out the story.

—If the journalist is a good fit with your area of expertise, add their name to your list of media contacts. You should then do your research and f id out if they have Facebook and Twitter pages, or blog.

The PitchRate site is still so new that this is a terrific time for Publicity Hounds to get in at the ground level while there’s still little competition among experts.

Filed Under: How to Interview, Pitching the Media, Publicity Resources

Pennsylvania farmer’s market needs publicity ideas

2/10/2009 By Joan 15 Comments

isolated colorful vegetable arrangement Rose Strong of Springtown, Pa. writes:

“I am a volunteer for the Springtown Farmers Market and I’m looking for some marketing and publicity ideas.

“We started off with a bang last year but for some reason we lost our shoppers, and our vendors sort of dwindled down a bit. One week there’d be lots of customers, but not too many vendors, the next week is was a good vendor attendance and a lack of shoppers.

“This year we were fortunate to receive a $10,000 donation from a local resident as well as applying for a Dept. of Agriculture grant. So we are planning a website, major advertising in a local weekly newspaper and rack cards for local businesses to have on their counters and hand out.

“What other other inexpensive, creative ideas can your Hounds suggest to help us promote this year’s market from May 20 to Oct 28?”

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, Nonprofits, Publicity for Niche Markets

Speakers: Use local stories in towns where you speak

2/9/2009 By Joan 1 Comment

If you speak for free or for a fee, and you’re trying to generate media attention in towns where you speak, steal a great idea from motivational speaker Terry Hershey of Vashon, Wash.

When he speaks in communities throughout the United Staties, he tries to find a local angle that ties into his topic—something he can pitch to the media so they’ll view him as a local story, not as just another speaker who breezes into town one day and is out the next and wants free publicity.

Over the weekend, when I was visiting in Columbus, I saw him on the local NBC station’s Sunday morning news program. The segment showed him speaking at the First Community Church in Columbus as part of the church’s “Spiritual Seekers” series. It included archived video of Jake Porter, the 17-year-old special needs student from Northwest High School in McDermott, Ohio, who scored a touchdown for his high school football team several years ago during the last home game of the season because both teams were willing to change the rules. You can read the heart-warming story here and then watch the video here.

McDermott is about five counties from Columbus but close enough that, I suspect, it’s in the Columbus TV market which makes the Jake Porter tie-in the local angle. It was the perfect story for a weekend news program because it wasn’t competing with the newsier stories that break during the week. Terry said he received several emails from people in the Columbus area who saw the segment.

He offers these three tips to speakers seeking publicity in towns where they speak:

Rule #1: Speak to a person, not a department

When you call a TV station, ask to be forwarded to the person who is in charge of deciding which stories the news department will cover, and pitch the local angle. Include that person’s contact information in your records and start building the relationship. (My teleseminar series on ‘How to Create a Media Plan” includes a segment on how to create a targeted media contact list.)

Rule #2: Tell a story.

The media love stories, Terry says. Any time you can tie your presentation to a local heart-warming, enlightening or inspirational story, you’ll score points with the media.

Rule #3: Do the media’s work for them

“Media people hate a speaker who wants a one-win story that benefits only them. You need to make it a win-win: a win for the station and a win for you.”

Here are three other tips, excerpted from my “Special Report #21: 67 Great Publicity Tips for Professional Speakers”:

—Offer to help publicize your programs every time you book a speaking engagement. That includes mailing press releases to local media, being available for radio interviews and letting local reporters know about your program, in case they want to attend. Meeting planners will appreciate this thoughtful gesture. Take advantage of my free email tutorial on how to write a press release.

—Every time you speak before a group, offer to submit a short summary of your presentation for the group’s newsletter. Don’t forget to send your photo. It gets you in front of those you just spoke to as well as those who missed you the first time around. Many groups also send their newsletters to the media. Be sure the last paragraph tells people what you do and how to get in touch with you. Include your URL.

— Call the advertising department of every newspaper and magazine you want to get into and ask for a copy of their editorial calendar. It’s a free listing of all the special topics and special sections coming up during the calendar year. It will tip you off to sections where your story idea would be a good fit, so you can query the editor weeks and even months ahead. If you’re going to be speaking in that town, be sure to mention that in your pitch.

Filed Under: Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, Pitching the Media, Press Releases/News Releases, The Local Angle, TV Publicity

How a Dallas hardware store generated national publicity

2/8/2009 By Joan 2 Comments

Here’s how a locally owned independent hardware store in Dallas, Texas piggybacked off President Bush leaving office and generated a ton of national publicity when the Associated Press picked up the story.

Elliott’s Hardware in Dallas invited former President George W. Bush to spend his retirement working as a part-time greeter at its Maple Avenue store. It mailed an invitation to Bush and also bought a full-page ad on Page 7B of Thursday’s Dallas Morning News.

“Our greeters are a legendary part of our customer service,” said Kyle Walters, Elliott’s Hardware president & CEO. “And we are offering the position to Mr. Bush in all sincerity. We think it would be a great fit for him as he settles back into life in Dallas.”

Job perks include:

–A flexible part-time schedule (to allow travel to Crawford)

–An opportunity to keep up on his people skills

–A seven-mile commute between the store and his new home

–Ample parking (including space for his security detail)

–Employee discount (for any projects Mrs. Bush may have on the
“Honey-Do” list)

–The chance to wear a company name tag with a big red W on it.

Elliott’s said it would be willing to let Bush try out the position for a day to see how he likes it before committing.

The complete greeter letter was posted at numerous blogs and websites including The Huffington Post. Bush, who hasn’t yet moved into his new home in Dallas, intends to focus on construction of his presidential library and think tank at the nearby Southern Methodist University.

Note to Elliott’s: This story is clever enough that you could have gotten the same amount of publicity without the full-page ad.

Filed Under: Advertising, Blogs, Business Promotion, Celebrity tie-ins, Newspaper Publicity, The Local Angle

Workplace columnist needs sources in South Florida

2/7/2009 By Joan 1 Comment

If you live in South Florida and you’d be willing to be a source for Mildred L. Culp, who writes the syndicated column called Workwise, please email her.

She’s looking for sources for upcoming columns, which are featured in The Miami Herald and elsewhere. Sources must represent the diverse ethnic community.

Filed Under: Media Leads, Newspaper Publicity, Pitching the Media