The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

National Public Radio, with its hundreds of shows, offers opportunities galore for people to pitch a story about their product, service, cause or issue.

But here’s an important caveat: Don’t pitch to more than one show at the same time.

That was one of several tips from (Ms.) Alex Cohen, a reporter and local host for “All Things Considered,” at KPCC-FM in Los Angeles, in an article for Bulldog Reporter.

“Don’t send the same pitch to a bunch of reporters in the same general area. If you send me something and I like it, but discover it’s already been pitched and accepted by one of the talk shows on my station, then you’ve wasted my time and put me in an awkward situation with my own colleagues.”

Are you listening, authors? Eager publicists who are pitching your book, particularlyone that ties into a hot breaking news story, might be tempted to pitch multiple NPR outlets concurrently.

“If you pitch a book to both ‘Morning Edition’ and ‘All Things Considered’ at the same time and both shows are interested, one will have to back down.”

Book publicist Lissa Warren, who I interviewed during a teleseminar on how to get booked on National Public Radio, says one of the best ways to find shows that are good candidates for your pitch is to use the search box at the NPR site. NPR will deliver a list of shows, and you can spend your time listening to them to find out which are the best fit.

Make a list of shows you want to pitch, with your preferred shows at the top of the list, and then pitch one at a time. If, within several days, you hear nothing, pitch another show.

Posted In: Authors & Publishers, Pitching the Media, Radio Publicity
posted On: 9/30/2009: 3:13 pm: By Joan
Comments: 2 Comments

Joel Kweskin of Charlotte, NC, asks this week’s Help This Hound question:

“What should I do when I send out press releases to, among others, the local newspaper and they simply don’t publish them? I’m talking legitimate and even entertaining news items.

“Do you just keep throwing the proverbial stuff against the wall until something sticks?  Or, is there a tactic for following up to better give the release a chance to be picked up?”

The Publicity Hound says:

This is a great question, and one that’s perplexed many Hounds. If journalists are consistently ignoring your releases, you need to solicit feedback from other trusted sources who can tell you whether THEY think the releases are newsy—or interesting. Do you know somebody who used to work in the media? Or somebody who does marking or PR? Have you tried coming up with an angle or news hook and pitching it, along with contact information for other sources, to the media?

If you’re posting press releases online, they don’t necessarily have to be newsy. They can be chock full of helpful advice, and if they include the right keywords, you can pull traffic to your press releases and eventuall to your website. On Oct. 21, I’m hosting a teleseminar on how to use keywords, the “magic magnets’ that pull consumers and journalists to your releases. 

Let’s see what other ideas my Hounds have for writing better releases, and following up once you send them. 

Need help with your own publicity problem? Email it to me and I might use it in my weekly ezine, The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week.  

Posted In: Newspaper Publicity, Press Releases/News Releases
posted On: 9/29/2009: 12:36 pm: By Joan
Comments: 7 Comments

If a reporter at a magazine interviewed you for a story, reassured you that he wouldn’t present you in a bad light, and the story that was published described you exactly as you had feared, would you criticize the reporter publicly?

In the old days, most people wouldn’t.

“Don’t pick fights with people who buy their ink by the barrel,” we’ve always been told.

That’s not necessarily the case today, now that blogs and the world of social media let anyone be a publisher or broadcaster. We don’t need to rely only on traditional media to communicate our message to the masses. When they report about us, and we want to critique the job they did, we can do it in discussion forums, on our own blogs, and on sites like Twitter and Facebook. 

Publicity Hound Judith Lederman, a former publicity manager for Lord & Taylor who’s unemployed and looking for a PR job, called me recently, concerned. She wanted to know if I thought she was committing professional suicide by publicly chastizing a reporter at Forbes magazine for the shoddy treatment she got when he interviewed her for the story titled When Work Doesn’t Pay for the Middle Class.

The story came about after Judith contacted the reporter in response to a Profnet request for someone who has had trouble navigating the “Making Home Affordable” program.  The subject line on her email read: “Affordable, yeah right!”  The reporter, who said he was doing a story on refinancing options, found Judith a good subject, because a bank rep told her to stop making mortgage payments. 

After the interview was completed, the topic apparently took a turn, and the new focus was on how high-paying jobs don’t pay for people in the middle class because it renders them ineligible for other benefits. 

Judith, who’s looking for a job with a six-figure salary, said she’s not interested in perks.  She’s much more interested in finding a job and refinancing her home.  She asked the reporter to remove her from the story.  He assured her that he wouldn’t portray her in a bad light and urged her to reconsider, which she did.

When the story appeared, she was dumbfounded.  She took to her blog, TheThinClub.com, to set the record straight:

“The person described in the cleverly-worded article in Forbes is not me! Instead of painting me as someone seeking an appropriate salary so she could support herself, it portrays me as someone who is torn between the prospect of being employed and being eligible for tax breaks, college scholarships and other incentives. It simply isn’t so. It never was. In the online story, not a single quote of mine was published. My quotes would have painted a very different picture.”

She also posted this comment at the end of the Forbes’ story:

“Just want to say—since I’ve become the poster child for a middle class single mom who is being advised to work for less—I love my work, I want to go back to work, and getting a paycheck (as close to what I was making as possible, or even slightly more) is more important to me for PSYCHOLOGICAL reasons, than the perks I would get if I stayed underemployed.  I have a work ethic—one that was NOT showcased by this article!  I love working and a nice paycheck and good benefits is a reward at the end of the day… Now you know ‘the rest of the story.’ “

Judith said that since she’s job hunting for another PR job, she doesn’t want potential employers to see her as “desperate” or as a “goldigger” or as somebody who is willing to take a much lower paying job because of the tax issue.  

I told her that her personal integrity and convictions outweigh whether her blog will anger Forbes. The magazine could retaliate by not covering any of her clients. (There’s a clever work-around for that problem, I told her. Just ask another PR friend to pitch the story.) Besides, I said, if Forbes would give her that kind of treatment, they might do the same to her clients.

I encouraged her to call the magazine and complain to the reporter’s supervisor, which she decided not to do.

PR pros are lining up on both sides of the debate. The PRBlogNews.com blog supports Judith. But a columnist at MediaBistro.com, a subscription site, isn’t as understanding and wrote a column faulting her for not managing her own PR.

Where do you stand? Was Judith right or wrong, and how would you have handled it? 

Do people, particularly PR people, lose more than they gain by calling reporters on the carpet publicly at their blogs if they feel they were mistreated or maligned?

Posted In: Blogs, How to Interview, Magazine Publicity, PR Consultants/Publicists
posted On: 9/28/2009: 9:57 pm: By Joan
Comments: 7 Comments

If you sell anything online, from dog sweaters to corporate training programs, StomperNet is the single best resource for Internet training.

I’ve been a member for two years, and there’s no way I could possibly do what I’m doing today without this group. One of the biggest complaints from my own followers, however, is that Stompernet’s $800-a-month fee is too far out of reach for most business owners. 

StomperNet has reworked its fee structure, added a whole bunch of terrific tools and resources, and they’re opening up membership tomorrow for as little as $197 a month. This is a STEAL. Depending on your level of membership, here’s what you can get:

—They’ll train you in every facet you need to be successful online, whether it’s how to make sense of the millions of social networking sites to the quickest way to edit video.

—You’ll have access to their library of more than 14,000 pieces of training, including thousands of videos that show you how to do everything from optimize your website for the search engines to make your Google pay-per-click ads convert to sales.

—They’ll teach your their strategy that’s critical to online success: the proper business model, the most profitable niche, and ensuring that you understand which are your “money” keywords.

—Their state-of-the-art portal delivers has more than 200,000 forum posts, well-organized and easy to find, that probably have 95 percent of your questions already answered.

—The 21 faculty members, some of the most successful Internet marketers on earth, answer your questions via telephone Faculty Office Hours, patrolling the StomperNet forums, or backed into a corner at a live StomperNet live event.

–If, after that, you still have questions, StomperNet members and moderators will gladly help you out in the portal.

–If you need more strategic guidance, you can get it from a StomperNet coach, either in a group setting,  or via a Mastermind group, or one-on-one.

–Live events several times a year for hands-on, in-person training.  They’ve even announced the StomperNet World Tour—18 cities next year—and StomperLocal to bring StomperNet to the rest of the world.

That’s what StomperNet WAS for three years.  And that was enough for many members to build great businesses.

But tools were missing…

But StomperNet concluded that if one thing was missing, it was tools. So they hand-picked the software and tools they considered to be MUST HAVES for online success and to create competitive advantage for your business. They’re called StomperTools and they’re included in a StomperNet Membership:

—Market Samurai: Best-in-class Market and Keyword Research tool
                     
—Traffic Geyser: An automated video submission tool to social media sites
                                 
—StomperStorm: An incredibly easy-to-use split testing and Taguchi testing tool. Use this to test two sales pages against each other to see which of two headlines, graphics or copy converts more sales.

—StomperCommerce: An easy-to-use, SEO-friendly shopping cart.

—SEOQast: A semi-automated massive ranking-oriented syndication tool.

—ArticleQast: Send your articles directly to a network of over 17,000 subscribing sites with YOUR links and link text defined

—StomperQast: Add text messaging to your integrated marketing efforts with this platform that includes text messaging, email, and social media

—CommuniQast: A telephone platform for EACH member (not VOIP). Includes a personal 800 number for inbound calls, plus conferencing, and 21 other features

—ReviewQast: Ethical reviews of your products or service from third parties, that get posted to Google Local or other review sites.

—StomperSocial: Like Tweetdeck on Steroids + Twitter Twenius training program

These tools would cost you well over $500 per month if you got them separately, and that doesn’t count over $1,000 in setup charges and fees.

Shock and Awe

But there’s more. StomperNet is piling on even more tools—worth more than $26,600—which they’re referring to as their “Shock and Awe” offer. You get ‘em if you sign up. Review them now, give StomperNet your email address, and they’ll contact you when membership open tomorrow.

Hope to see you in the StomperNet forums, on the faculty calls, and at the live events.

Posted In: Advertising, Business Promotion, Social media marketing, Video
posted On: 9/22/2009: 2:14 pm: By Joan
Comments: 2 Comments

Vicki Young of Dallas, Texas writes:

“What’s the best way for a very worthy nonprofit agency to get free help with their PR campaign?

“I’ve been doing PR work for Captain Hope’s Kids as a nonprofit client for years, but I have to step down. It’s a great organization in Dallas, Texas, that’s dedicated to meeting the critical needs of homeless children in North Texas.

“They need an annual marketing and public relations plan developed, and help publicizing their annual special events. 

“I know this agency isn’t the only one that needs volunteer PR help, so I’m hoping your Publicity Hounds can recommend ideas that will help many other groups, too. Where should we be looking for volunteer PR people who can write press releases, or at least advise nonprofits on how to create a good marketing plan?”

Posted In: Nonprofits, PR Consultants/Publicists, Press Releases/News Releases, Publicity Resources, Special Events
posted On: : 8:48 am: By Joan
Comments: 8 Comments