2009 July

Blog content in short supply? 9 ideas for bloggers

7/26/2009 By Joan 9 Comments

If you’re new to blogging, or you’ve been blogging for awhile but sometimes find yourself struggling for something to write about, here are nine ideas to get you writing quickly:

1. Take a poll. Using a free tool like Survey Monkey, you can poll your readers on a fun, controversial or hot topic. You will, of course, write another blog post sharing results of the poll. For blog polls, the quickest and easiest thing to do is use a widget. You can get one at PollDaddy.com (they have a WordPress plugin) or you can use the WordPress survey plugin to put a poll inside a blog post.

2. Use Google Alerts. Create alerts for your topics at Google.com/alerts. Google will email you as often as you wish with great content that ties into your topic.

3. Create Top 10 lists. Letterman made these famous. Readers love them!

4. Create a video. Video is hot, hot, hot and it will pull traffic like crazy. Here’s one I created on how to get your consumer product into holiday gift sections. If you’re intimidated by video, let Mike Stewart help.

5. Comment on somebody else’s video which you can also post to your blog. You’ll find millions of videos at YouTube. I blogged about this video that shows Peggy Noonan, a conservative columnist for the Wall Street Journal, and Mark Murphy, a strategist during John McCain’s 2000 campaign for president, who were caught criticizing McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin for vice president. It happened during a panel discussion on the set of MSNBC, where Murphy is a commenator.

6. Report on interesting conversatons on Twitter. I frequently blog about discussions I have with my Twitter followers, how we help each other, and how Twitter is a fabulous tool for publicity, if you use it correctly. I use screenshots, too, to dress up the blog post. (Caution: Don’t let Twitter and Facebook steal you away from your blog.)

7. Find content at Digg.com. Use the search box at this social bookmarking site to find interesting content on a specific topic. You can guage the popularity of the topic by how many Diggs it has received.

8. Share humorous content. Funny photos, jokes and videos—particularly those that ties into your topic—are a nice break from the serious stuff.

9. Recycle content from other sources. If you’re a speaker, extract content from your handouts. If you’re an author, excerpt from your book. I frequently cut and paste helpful comments I post to other blogs, like the comment you’re reading, and turn it into a post at this blog. I wrote seven of these nine tips this morning for the Blogging Made Easy post I read at the Salon.com blog. (It’s the second comment.)

How do you find interesting content for your blog?

(Shutterstock photo)

Filed Under: Authors & Publishers, Facebook, Photos & Graphics, Social media marketing, Social networking, Twitter, Video, YouTube Tagged With: blog content, blog topics, Blogging, Blogs, how to blog, what to blog about

Nonprofit marketing: Contest offers ideas for creative taglines

7/21/2009 By Joan Leave a Comment

newarkmuseumlogo

Last year, nonprofit marketing expert Nancy Schwartz produced the largest collection of nonprofit taglines ever assembled as part of the GettingAttention.org Nonprofit Tagline Award Program.

Her survey showed that most nonprofits either don’t have a tagline or have a tagline that performs poorly.

“That’s a critical marketing and communication problem we’re trying to help solve, because a good tagline is one of the most powerful marketing tools available to any organization,” Nancy says. “A strong tagline does double duty—extending an organization’s name and mission, while delivering a memorable and specific message to its base.

She loves the Newark Museum tagline: “100 years. always new.” At her blog, she mentions the criteria for memorable taglines. She’s trying to improve all nonprofits’ taglines by highlighting the best examples she can find among nonprofits and foundations.

And that’s where she needs your help. If you work in the nonprofit area, enter your organization’s tagline in the 2009 Award program.

Every entrant contributes to the GettingAttention.org tagline database, and will receive a copy of the updated 2009 Nonprofit Tagline Report. It will guide any organization through the process of crafting an effective tagline, whether a new one, the first one, or a tagline for one of its programs.

PR consultants, this is a great contest for your nonprofit clients!

Later this fall, once she has processed all the entries—there are more than 1,000 already—Nancy will invite nonprofit and foundation professionals to vote for the best tagline in 13 categories. Deadline for entries is July 31. (While you’re at it, sign up for Nancy’s excellent ezine.)

I promise to announce the winners here.

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Nonprofits, PR Consultants/Publicists Tagged With: nonprofit consultants, nonprofit marketing, nonprofit promotion, nonprofit taglines, not-for-profit marketing, PR consultants

Website for black doctors needs marketing ideas

7/21/2009 By Joan 7 Comments

blackdoctor2 Cynthia Barnes of Fort Wayne, Ind., writes:

“After moving to Fort Wayne, Ind., and being unable to find an African American doctor, I decided to create BlackHealthCareProviders.Org.

“The site has a nationwide free referral service that helps consumers find black health care providers in their own neighborhoods. The challenges I face are getting the word out to enough doctors so they’ll visit the site and register, and spreading the word to enough consumers to let them know that this directory is available.

“I’d like to make money from the site eventually, via pharmaceutical endorsements, but for now it’s just a labor of love. What ideas do your Hounds have for marketing the site to doctors and consumers?”

(Shutterstock photo)

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Publicity for Niche Markets, Publicity on the Internet

PR pros, how do you calculate the value of online publicity?

7/14/2009 By Joan 10 Comments

Cynthia Flash of Bellevue, Wash. writes this question in the Help This Hound section of the July 14, 2009 issue of The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week:

“I’m looking for a way to put a dollar value on web hits I get for my PR clients.

“For example, if a client is mentioned in a blog, is that worth anything in terms of dollar equivalents (like having an article appear in a newspaper)? If an online-only newspaper does a story about the client, how much is that worth? Certainly increased sales to the client is a great way to tell, but it’s difficult to know if that’s directly a result of the web publicity.

“Are PR people putting dollar values on web placements or is that only something reserved for traditional media? Thanks for the continued discussion.”

(If you need help with your own publicity problem or another issue related to publicity, email it to me, and it may appear at this blog, where my readers can help you.)

Filed Under: General

Artists, new book shows how to meet your PR goals

7/14/2009 By Joan 1 Comment

powerupwithPR Lots of books on PR dole out advice on how to generate publicity, but few encourage the reader to take the next step needed to reach a particular goal.

Power Up with PR—A publicity guide for artists by Jackie Abramian does just that. The 105-page softcover book (ArtNetworkPress, $14.95) is packed with information on how artists can claim their share of publicity in traditional media.

Except for a short section on blogging, you won’t find anything on how to promote yourself in social media. If you’re after publicity in newspapers, magazines, and on TV and radio, however, this book shows you how to get it.

On Pages 92 and 93, the author gives examples of four main PR goals, and the four steps necessary to reach each one of them.

Goal #1: Exhibit in local galleries

1: Research local galleries, including studying their websites and visiting their galleries.

2: Include local galleries on your mailing list.

3: Contact local galleries to enquire about an exhibit.

4: Hold an Open Studio to introduce galleries to your work.

Goal #2: Get a media review of your exhibit.

1. Write a catchy press release.

2. Decide on a great visual.

3. Send to media and follow up.

4. Ask an art editor to review your exhibit.

Goal #3: Publish one of your artworks in a local newspaper or magazine, with a caption that includes title, medium and price.

1. Find local publications with art features.

2. Submit your best visuals with captions.

3. Follow up with the editor to pitch your art.

4. Ask if they would use your artwork for the cover. (This is gutsy, but it might work! You never know when plans for another cover photo have fallen apart.)

Goal #4: Reach national media

1. Research appropriate out-of-state galleries to contact.

2. Submit artwork for review to 10 such galleries.

3. Let local and distant media know about your shows.

4. Use the one show you receive to get more shows.

The author then gives artists a “fill in the blanks” page where they can list their annual PR goals and steps needed to meet them.

The book also features stories about other artists’ media successes, charts to help track of media contacts, examples of press releases that will help you write your own, information on how to compile a targeted media list, and more than 300 national media contacts.

Jackie and her husband own Haley Farm Art Gallery in Kittery, Me. As a PR and marketing consultant, she conducts seminars for artists and entrepreneurs. She has created successful media strategies for national and global organizations, as well as for individual artists.

In the resources section, Abramian mentioned my free email course on how to write press releases, as well as my free publicity newsletter, The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week. (Also see How Artists Can Sell More Artwork through Online and Offline Publicity.)