News is breaking all around you.

Here are 6 tips on how to generate publicity from breaking news.

Update: We’ll be discussing these tips and many others during the webinar “How to Tie Your Story Pitch to Breaking News and Make the Media Interview YOU” tomorrow, Wednesday, July 21.

1. The local angle. If you’re the “local angle” to a national breaking news story, let the media know.  Example: Coffee prices nationwide skyrocket.  You own a coffee bar.  How will you deal with the price increase?  Let your local newspapers and TV stations know. (This blog has an entire sub-category on the local angle.)

If you’ve always dreamed of having your own TV show because you just KNOW it would be a lot better than all the other junk on the tube, this is your chance.

Oprah Winfrey and her new network, OWN TV, are looking for the next big TV star.

Not surprisingly, that certain someone must have a lot of the same characteristics Oprah has. Let her tell you herself. Watch the video at her website.  

Open casting calls for your OWN show will be held in New York, Dallas, Los Angeles and Atlanta. Deadline for entries is Saturday, June 26.

Not interested in your own show but you’d like a shot at being on Oprah before she ends her current show next year? Susan Harrow knows all the inside secrets on how to get booked on Oprah. 

Consuelo Okdie from Tampa Bay, Fla., writes:

“I’m hoping that you or one of your readers will be able to tell me how to get my artwork used as set decoration for TV or films. 

“My work is unique in medium and application as I am one of a very few artists using polymer clay to create illustrations & paintings.  Any information you may be able to give me will be greatly appreciated.”
 
The Publicity Hound says:

First, you need to be willing to do the research necessary to pitch set designers, costume coordinators, production coordinators, prop masters and product placement decision-makers for specific movies and TV shows. I hosted a teleseminar with Amy Bates Stumpf two years ago on How to Get Your Consumer Product  onto the Sets of Movies and TV Shows.

A few quick pointers from that training session:

• The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety are magazines that report on upcoming production schedules. That’s a good place to start.
    
• If you’re pitching specific TV shows, be sure watch the show first. In your pitch, explain why you think your product or artwork is a good tie-in.
      
• Don’t send unsolicited products.
     
• Pitch early. Getting in on the ground floor of a TV show or movie or you might miss your opportunity. 

Piggybacking onto hot celebrity gossip ranks right up there as one of the best ways to generate free publicity for your product, service, cause or issue.

But hurry. This story may be old news by the end of the week.

Here are the Top 10 ways to create free publicity for yourself by participating in the Tiger Woods conversation online and offline:

1. If you’re an expert in a topic that ties into this drama, pitch influential bloggers who are writing about the story. Explain your area of expertise and offer commentary.
       
2. Post comments at high-traffic blogs like Huffington Post that are discussing the story. Ditto at blogs written by journalists, like sports columnist Jason Whitlock whose post on Tiger’s Real Crime? Not Playing the Media’s Game attracted more than 500 comments in about two hours this morning. Weave into your comment information about your expertise. If appropriate, lead people back to your website where they can find tips, advice or a quiz that ties into the topic.
        
3. If you’re a divorce attorney who can talk about prenups, an ad agency executive who’s an expert on branding or celebrity endorsements, a crisis counselor or PR pro who can discuss PR 101, and even a minister who can offer tips on how to forgive, write a letter to the editor of local, regional and national publications where the stories are appearing.
         
4. Call your local TV stations and offer yourself as the local angle to this international story. Offer a list of short tips.
         
5. Create a short two-minute video offering advice on what others can learn from Tiger’s mess and upload it to YouTube and the other video-sharing sites. Tag it with keywords that people are using to search for information on the story.
         
6. Subscribe to free media leads services like HARO and PitchRate, or paid services like ProfNet and PRLeads, so you know about the types of sources journalists are seeking for their stories.
           
7. Offer to write a guest blog post about it, with tips and advice. BloggerLinkUp helps guest bloggers and bloggers who need guest posts find each other. 
       

8. Pitch clever angles to this story to drive-time radio show hosts. Example: A cell phone expert can pitch a story on “Got a dirty little secret? 5 ways to cover your tracks on your cell phone.”         

9. Write your own blog post that ties into Tiger Woods, include lots of outbound links, and then bookmark it at sites like Digg and Delicious. The “Top 10 Tips…” headline works well. I got the idea for this post while reading Tip #3 in Bryan Eisenbertg’s blog post on Top 3 Problems of Social Media.
           
10.  Do all of the above, and link to them from Twitter and Facebook.

If you’ve piggybacked off the Tiger Woods is story to generate free publicity for yourself or clients, or you’d like to add to this list, join the conversation.    

If you can’t afford your own photographer, or you take lousy photos, or you hate creating graphics, use a stock photo service to enhance everything from press releases to media kits in a PR campaign.

Royalty-free stock images can save you a lot of time and money trying to generate graphics on your own. Royalty-free means you can use the downloaded images forever and not have to worry about infringement issues.

Shutterstock has given me a complimentary subscription so I can try their service, and their photos come in handy at this blog. They’ve helped me compile this list of 13 ways you can use stock image photos in a PR campaign.

1. Blogs. Many bloggers are missing the opportunity to dress up their posts and make their blogs more attractive. Regardless of what topic I write about, I can usually find a stock image to accompany it.  
       
2. Ezines and print newsletters. Stock photos and illustrations can enhance articles in company newsletters and ezines. Now that so many ezine publishers produce HTML newsletters, stock images come in handy.
         
3. Press releases. Most press release distribution services allow customers to upload several images at no extra charge. If the headline doesn’t call attention to your release, the stock photo just might. Adding editorial stock images of premier events such as concerts or sports competitions can add weight and influence to a related press release, blog post or ezine article.
       
4. Presentations. Whether you’re submitting a proposal for a client, or you’re a speaker who’s presenting to an audience, compelling stock images used to illustrate business presentations can help capture the attention of your audience. Highlight key points with photos and illustrations in PowerPoint. 
       
5. Reports. Stock photos are a great way to add excitement to client reports and reinforce your accomplishments.
       
6. White Papers. White Papers often cry out for colorful stock imagery to break up text and hold readers’ attention. 
        
7. Media kits. Including stock photos and illustrations when designing a media kit or media kit inserts to add extra visual appeal. 
       
8. Event invitations and posters. Stock photos and illustrations allow PR professionals to create attractive event invitations. Stock images can also help create just the right mood for the event itself. Simply enlarge them to poster size and place them throughout the event location.  
       
9. Social media. Use them to enliven your your social media presence on sites such as Facebook, Twitter (Twitpic), Wikipedia, and more.  
       
10. Search engine optimization. By properly tagging a stock image within a release, blog or website, you can raise your site’s rankings. PR clients will appreciate the added value as well as your SEO savvy.
        
11. Your own website. Stock photos and illustrations are a great way to demonstrate creative flair and generate interest in your website, or your PR client’s.
        
12. Advertising.  If you’re buying an ad, a good stock photo can come in handy.
        
13. For the media. Offer stock photos to journalists if they’re coving a story about you, and the photos are a good tie-in. Sure,  the media have access to their own stock photos, but Rule #1 when working with the media is “Be helpful.” 

My ebook How to Use Photos & Graphics in Your Publicity Campaign offers thousands of helpful tips on how to  incorporate images into your publicity efforts.  

In this week’s issue of my ezine, I wrote about how Rep. Joe Wilson, tennis star Serena Williams and rapper Kanye West are handing anger management experts and others a perfect opportunity to piggyback their story ideas and expertise onto the well-publicized outbursts.

I suggested that therapists, sports coaches, etiquette experts and anyone else who needs a good angle pitch journalists and bloggers with tips that tie into how to keep cool when the going gets tough.  

Cleveland TV personailty Connie Dieken  wrote something similar at her blog. Her advice on “the art of the apology” is an excellent example of how an expert can share tips and advice to anyone, when a celebrity or politician scews up.

What I love about Connie’s tips is that, presumably, she wrote them long before Wilson uttered “You lie!” They came directly from Page 134 of her book, Talk Less, Say More. (Download a free chapter.)

“Don’t blame the victim.  You’ll sound pompous and insincere.  Don’t begin with ‘If I offended anybody…’ That sounds like you’re blaming a resentful person for being overly sensitive to remarks that you feel you obviously didn’t intend as an affront. Instead, take responsibility. Say something like, “I offended you and I’m sorry.“

“Focus on the recipient.  An apology involves much more than a quick ‘Oops–sorry!’ Make sure the recipient knows that you fully understand the impact of your transgression and that you won’t let it happen again.”

Authors:  Pay attention to stories in the news. If something from your book is a perfect tie-in, offer it to bloggers or the traditional media. Pitch yourself as a guest on a TV talk show. Connie, by the way, is a TV personality in Cleveland, Ohio, and discussed how to be a TV talk show host’s dream date during a teleseminar I hosted several years ago.   

Speakers: If you see a news story that ties in perfectly with one of your keynotes or training sessions, offer yourself as a resource.

Experts: Make sure you’re listed in experts databases, like the one provided by Expertclick: The Online Yearbook of Experts.

Everyone: Create Google Alerts for your relevant keywords, and pay attention to the articles that Google returns to you each day. If you see a good tie-in to a breaking news story, write an online  press release.

And be sure to share your tips with your friends, followers and contacts in social media.

Karma Bennett, a publicist for Ulysses Press, asks:

“My company is publishing a compilation of zombie stories.  It will be direct-to-trade-paperback, so I can’t get reviews in the leading periodicals that review fiction since it isn’t coming out in hardback. 

“Some, but not all, of the stories have never been printed before.  The editor is not local and, although the compilation does include some of fiction’s biggest names—Steven King, Clive Barker, Harlan Ellison, H.P. Lovecraft, Richard Matheson, Christopher Fowler, Robert E. Howard and Joe Hill—I don’t think they will be responsive to interview queries. 

“We are only just starting to venture into releasing fiction and I’m not sure how to go about this. I can’t get reviews. I can’t get interviews. But the topic is zombies which are so popular now because of movies like World War Z, 28 Days Later, and the film version of Pride and Prejudice, and Zombies.

“Can your Hounds suggest ideas for publicity?”

Ever since the news of Michael Jackson’s death, my brain won’t  stop humming his songs.

The news—and his music—are everywhere.  I’m a huge Michael Jackson fan, and I’m devouring the musical tributes on cable. But enough is enough already.

My sister says the same thing is happening to her. Some nights, it’s so bad she can’t fall asleep. In my own brain, the annoying “ABC” keeps trying to drown out “Rock with You,” my favorite Michael Jackson song.

I know we’re not alone. So how about turning it into a publicity opportunity?

This is a perfect time for psychologists, sleep experts, music teachers and even musicians and band members to offer some tips on how get certain songs out of our heads.

Pitch the story to morning drive-time deejays. It would make a fun call-in topic. I remember listening to several shows like this in which callers were encouraged to name the WORST song they’ve ever heard—you know, the one that just won’t stop playing inside their heads. These shows are hysterical. See How to Get onto Drive-Time Radio Shows.

What’s the worst song you’ve ever heard, the one that makes you crazy?

When a producer calls you and needs you to fill in for a guest who has canceled, move a mountain if you must, and say yes.

That’s what I did when Jon Missall of VoiceAmerica Business Network called yesterday afternoon and asked if I’d serve as a fill-in on the PRInsider show this morning with Maureen Kedes. Someone canceled, and they needed confirmation, within 30 minutes, that I could appear along with a guest of my choosing.

Of course, I said yes.

I invited Michelle Tennant of Wasabi Publicity, who has a string of A+ media hits to her credit, along with a really fun style. We’ll be a great team. And I know we’re on the same track because she was in The Publicity Hound Mentor Program for several years.

We’ll talk about a half dozen or so of the most important things Publicity Hounds must do to generate online and offline publicity. Michelle will share recent successes she has had getting her clients—including authors, nonprofits and small business owners— onto NBC in Dallas, AOL Canada, Good Morning America, the Colorado Business Journal, Dr. Phil and in other online and offline media.

The show will be at noon Eastern Time and you can listen here. I hope you join us.

If you blog, the worst of your worries shouldn’t be how many times to post, or what to write about, or whether to use WordPress or Typepad.

Your Number One concern—the question bloggers never think to ask—should be: “What if somebody sues me tomorrow for copyright infringement, defamation or invasion of privacy—what does that mean?”

Here’s what it means. It could cost you your house, your car and your future income stream.

Take it from me. Being named in a defamation suit that asks for a quarter million dollars in damages turns your world upside down, then drops the bottom out of your stomach.

That’s what happened last October. A reporter from People magazine had called, asking me to comment on a story they were writing about a lawsuit that had been filed by the former headmistress of Oprah Winfrey’s school for girls in South Africa. The plaintiff named me in the suit, along with Oprah and Huffington Post.

Nomvuyo Mzamane, the former headmistress of the Leadership Academy for Girls, cited comments to the media that Oprah made in October and November of 2007 after a dorm matron at the school was charged with assaulting and abusing students.

Mzamane named the Huffington Post and me for a blog item I wrote in November for this blog and for Huffington saying Mzamane was charged in connection with the scandal. She was not charged. I had erred. And the first I had learned about the lawsuit was when People called asking me to comment.

I responded quickly, and People used the entire statement:

“I’ve learned that in my November 7, 2007, blog post, ‘Oprah Scandal: A Lesson in Crisis Management,” and in a column I wrote for Huffington Post on November 19, 2007, I inadvertently erred by saying that the former head mistress of Oprah Winfrey’s Dream Academy was charged with a crime. I deeply regret that error and apologize to former head mistress Nomvuyo Mzamane.

“Journalists, including those on blogs, make mistakes, and if Ms. Mzamane had contacted me about that directly, I would have corrected it online — with an apology — immediately. I have not, in fact, been contacted by her or served with a lawsuit. I’m a firm believer in full compliance with the law, with the Public Relations Society of America’s Code of Ethics and with the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics, and know that I was in compliance with all three in this case.”

I also wrote a correction for my blog. That weekend, I started contacting business associates who might be able to tell me where I could turn for help defending the suit.

I tracked down an old college friend who had worked as a libel attorney in Philadelphia, where the suit was filed. She gave me two good leads:

—She told me about a segment she had heard the day before on NPR’s “On the Media” show. It was called The Calculated Risk of Blogging. It featured Robert Cox of the Media Bloggers Association discussing all the ways bloggers can get into trouble—from threats and cease and desist letters all the way up to federal lawsuits. The Media Law Resource Center, which tracks these cases, reports that there’s been over $16 million in judgments against bloggers. I went to the group’s website and emailed Cox, asking if he could help.

—My friend also referred me to an excellent libel attorney in Philadelphia, where the suit was filed. It would cost me about $10,000 up front for the attorney’s firm to take the case. The attorney recommended I go back to the Media Bloggers Association for help.

How to join the MBA

You can join the Media Bloggers Association for only $25. Even if you stay out of trouble, the membership fee is well worth the interactive, online crash course in libel and defamation, regardless of the topic of your blog.

The course was created by the well-respected Poynter Institute, and it ends with a multiple-choice quiz that you’ll have to pass before you can join. The course will take about an hour to complete and it’s actually fun.

After I passed the test and joined MBA, Cox referred me to Ronald Coleman, an attorney with Goetz Fitzpatrick LLP, whose office is in New York, for a free telephone consultation. Coleman took the case, worked on it many hours, and kept me apprised every step along the way.

Two months later, under a settlement agreement, the Huffington Post agreed to post an apology, in exchange for the dismissal of the claims by Mzamane. She dismissed the claim against me, too, because I already had posted a correction as soon as I learned I had been sued. Neither I nor Huffington were required to pay any money.

I paid nothing for legal counsel, but would have paid my attorney’s fee if the case had gone to trial.

“Had the case gotten to trial and had you lost, you would have paid the judgment,” Cox said. “So bloggers need to consider that to defend a defamation case, it might cost $50,000 or more, even more if appealed. And the blogger might lose and have to pay the plaintiff.”

The MBA does still offer access to its legal network “but we cannot promise the sort of support you got where Ron put in quite a few hours,” Cox said. It now offers members a discount on liability insurance through a separate insurance company.

What bloggers can learn

If you blog, you might consider yourself a writer first. Or a humanitarian. Or a passionate advocate for a favorite cause or issue.

But first and foremost, you are a content publisher. The second your finger hits the “publish” button, you’re as vulnerable to a lawsuit as a major newspaper. Unlike a newspaper, however, which often has an entire team of attorneys to represent it, the blogger usually ends up alone.

I’m not an attorney and this isn’t legal advice, just a few other things you need to know:

• If you make a mistake, correct the record as soon as possible and apologize.
• Even if you know that what you’ve written is 100 percent accurate, a jury can still find you guilty.
• Anyone can file a lawsuit. Even if you win, it could take months and hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend, and you could lose your personal possessions like your house and your car.
• Conducting your research online before you blog, and then saving time by cutting and pasting content you’ve found elsewhere into your own blog, website or article—without rewriting it—can invite a lawsuit for copyright infringement. (I hosted a teleseminar several years ago with intellectual property attorney Patricia Eyres on the topic of “Legal Issues You Must Know about Writing Articles for Fee or for Free.”)
• Understand what can get you into trouble and what can’t. Make sure you know what you can say about a public person and what you can’t say about the guy who lives next door.

During my 22 years of training as a newspaper editor and reporter, I learned how to always check facts, strive for accuracy, be fair, and tell both sides of the story. Yet all the training in the world can’t prevent mistakes, or a lawsuit.

If it happened to me, it can happen to you. Know your options and be prepared.