The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

If you’re a member of your local chamber of commerce and the only thing you have to show for it is the receipt for your annual dues, don’t even think about dropping out.

Because you’re a smart Publicity Hound, you have an opportunity right at your fingertips to be a star in the organization and generate so much publicity for yourself that all the other members will be scratching their heads, wondering how in the world you’ve done it. Nonprofits, this applies to you, too.

Here’s what to do.

The next time the chamber has an event that the local media won’t cover, act like a reporter and cover it yourself. Buy an inexpensive Flip video camera and interview people at the event. (The camera shown in the photo above isn’t a Flip.)

If it’s a routine chamber breakfast meeting with a speaker, interview the speaker after the presentation for a segment of two to three minutes. At the same breakfast, create another short video. Ask the chamber president to provide a brief infomercial of upcoming chamber events like the annual golf outing or street festival.

At bigger events, like the annual awards banquet, interview the Business Person of the Year. If you really want to create a stir, choose a controversial topic that chamber members are buzzing about, like a proposed sales tax increase in your state. Interview one person on each side of the issue. You’ve just created two more videos.

Import the videos into your computer, which takes a minute or two, edit them, upload them to your website, give the chamber the links to the videos, and then watch what happens.

The chamber will probably email all its members and tell them to go to your website. Many of those members will share the links with their friends. The links will end up in the next chamber newsletter. And who knows where else.

Here’s the best part. You can offer that same videos to the local newspaper, magazine and TV and radio stations for use at their websites. Print media, in particular, are hungry for user-generated video, even if it’s of events that they’ve decided not to cover.

That’s what videographer John Easton does in Charlotte, North Carolina. He covers local business events and uploads them to his blog, or to his own streaming video channel, sort of like his own TV station, and then he offers the video to local media.

Too busy to fuss with all these details?

John says every community is teaming with people who you can hire for next to nothing to shoot and edit the video for you. He explained how to find them when he was a guest on a teleseminar I conducted recently on “9 Clever Ways to Use Video to Become a Publicity Darling in Your Industry or Community.”

If you’re not a member of a chamber of commerce, you can still cover events in your community and submit the video to local media that are hungry for user-generated content.

Posted In: Blogs, Business Promotion, Citizen journalism, How to Interview, Magazine Publicity, Media Leads, Publicity on the Internet, Radio Publicity, Special Events, Video
posted On: 6/3/2008: 6:35 pm: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment

John Easton of Charlotte, North Carolina asks:

“My new web video portal, Broadcast Charlotte, features local small business events, and I would like some help from your Hounds on how to generate my own publicity for it.

“Broadcast Charlotte provides on-demand video coverage of a variety of small-business events, from grand openings trade seminars. We want to attract not only small business owners, but anyone whose busy schedule keeps them from  missing important local business news.”

Posted In: Business Promotion, Citizen journalism, Publicity Resources, Publicity for Niche Markets, Publicity on the Internet, Social networking
posted On: 10/16/2007: 3:37 pm: By Joan
Comments: 8 Comments

What’s behind that four-star rating of a restaurant review at your favorite foodie website? Diners can’t always know for sure. 

That’s because as online food sites become increasingly influential in the restaurant business, chefs and owners are offering bloggers complimenary meals to get good write-ups, explains an article in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal.

In fact, publicists across the restaurant industry are now including bloggers and food website forum hosts on their media lists, and regularly inviting them to opening parties, free meals and other events.

Bribery? Maybe.

But companies have been sending free samples of their products to the traditional media for years, hoping for good reviews. And reaching out to influential bloggers is now a key component to almost any publicity campaign. With restaurants, however, the difference is that when you’re dealing with bloggers, you might have to suffer in silence if they write a bad review.

That’s because some bloggers don’t allow comments at their blogs. A bad review can live online forever, with no opportunity for the restaurant to write a rebuttal. If a restaurant gets a bad review in a newspaper or magazine, however, it has several options such as submitting a letter to the editor.

If you want to invite bloggers to your food-related event, by all means do. But understand that:

—Most writers don’t have to abide by ethics policies like the ones that are in place at many newspapers and magazines. Traditional food reviewers usually try to dine anonymously and pay their own way to ensure that the review reflects the way average customers can expect to be treated. If a restaurant invites a blogger to dine, chances are good that the steak might be a little bigger than the steaks served to regular patrons.

—Unlike traditional food reviewers, bloggers don’t have to fact- check their reviews.

—Bloggers love to link to each other. That means one lousy review can find its way onto other blogs and into discussion forums.

The advantage, of course, is that consumers are increasingly turning to the Internet to research products and services before they buy. One glowing review can bring droves of diners to your restaurant.

The Wall Street Journal article also mentioned that some food blogs and discussion forums are policing each other. Eater.com, for example—which discusses gossip on the New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco restaurant scenes—tips off readers if it suspects that restaurant owners or employees wrote postings about their own restaurants at other blogs or food sites. Eater highlights those postings in a section called “Adventures in Shilling.”

Reach out to bloggers, but cover the all the bases with traditional media, too, by being proactive and trying to generate more than just food reviews. During the teleseminar “Publicity Tips for Restaurants, Chefs & Foodies,” which I conducted with Jaime Oikle of The Restaurant Report, I discussed the importance of tipping off food writers to food and restaurant trends.  Suggest profile stories about your chefs. Pitch story ideas on how you recruit and retain employees. And don’t forget to tie into regional and national breaking news events.

Posted In: Blogs, Business Promotion, Citizen journalism, Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, PR Consultants/Publicists, Publicity for Niche Markets, Publicity on the Internet
posted On: 10/12/2007: 9:19 pm: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment

I wrote about how I loved the very clever Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest sponsored by Cheap-Chic-Weddings.com.

And the publicity just keep on coming.  Website owners Susan Bain; her mother, Roxie Radford; and sister, Laura Gawne tell me that Hanah Kim, the 2007 winner, and her dress will be featured on “The Martha Stewart Show” tomorrow.

That’s not all. Susan, Roxie and Laura also say that Charmin has invited them to participate in a giant event in New York City this fall.

As I’ve mentioned in my ebook “How to be a Kick-butt Publicity Hound,” a clever contest can generate months and sometimes even years of publicity. You don’t have to spend big bucks promoting it. Sometimes all it takes is getting in front of a few influential bloggers with your message, or writing and distributing an online press release like the Cheap-Chic-Wedding women did. Their entire campaign cost them only $200.

If you want to learn how to write and distribute your own press releases, take my free email course “89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases.”

Posted In: Business Promotion, Citizen journalism, TV Publicity
posted On: 9/24/2007: 9:20 am: By Joan
Comments: 2 Comments

Today’s issue of USA Weekend includes details on how your company, nonprofit, government agency, social club or neighborhood group can participate in Make a Difference Day on Oct. 27, the annual Saturday set aside to make a difference in your community.

How? Paint a building, pick up litter, help at a home for the elderly, refurbish a community center, plant flowers in the park or any other good deed that makes a difference. 

If you’re participating, be sure to let your local newspapers and TV stations know. They often cover these events because you are the “local angle” to the national story. Also, create video of your good deeds and post to YouTube and to your website. If TV stations won’t cover your volunteer efforts, submit the video anyway to your local TV stations.

This year, USA Weekend is giving volunteers a chance to win a vacation and save sea turtles in Costa Rica, teach English in Vietnam or help out at an orphange in Russia. Simply keep a photo diary of the day’s activities, then submit one picture that best illustrates your Make a Difference Day giving. A selection committee will pick one winner (and guest) to go on a paid volunteer vacation to the destination of his or her choice through Travelocity’s Travel for Good Program.   

Make sure the photo doesn’t look amateurish. See “How to Use Photos & Graphics in Your Publicity Campaign.” 

Posted In: Business Promotion, Citizen journalism, Contests, Newspaper Publicity, Nonprofits, Photos & Graphics, Pitching the Media, Publicity on the Internet, Special Events, TV Publicity, The Local Angle
posted On: 9/16/2007: 11:49 am: By Joan
Comments: No Comments