Newspaper Publicity

Feel dumb in social settings? Respond to this media lead

1/30/2012 By Joan Leave a Comment

A reporter at a national publication is exploring the phenomenon of how smart people sometimes feel dumb in intimate social settings and needs sources to interview.

Have you ever clammed up in a business meeting, at a cocktail or dinner party, on jury duty, or at some other small social event—-even though you know you’re as smart (or smarter) than anyone else in the room? And is this a departure from your usual personality?

If you have funny or interesting stories to tell about this topic, please respond as soon as possible to aceb5@aol.com with details of your anecdote and contact information. Anyone quoted must be willing to use to use their name.

Filed Under: Media Leads, Newspaper Publicity Tagged With: newspaper publicity, shy people

Relationships columnist needs tips on psychology research

1/17/2012 By Joan Leave a Comment

A columnist who writes about relationships for a top-tier media outlet (you or your PR clients will want to get into this one) wants to develop relationships with people who do research on psychology or relationships, particularly psychologists or academics.

“One of my frustrations in my column is that I don’t often hear about the research early,” the columnist says.

Respond in the comments section below and explain why you’d be a good source.

Should you pitch?

Nope. She, like other journalists, wants exclusive material. Just give what she asked for and let her decide if you’re worth pursuing.

Filed Under: Media Leads, Newspaper Publicity Tagged With: psychology research, relationship studies

Nominate a newspaper for a notable idea, achievement

12/12/2011 By Joan 2 Comments

Don’t be surprised if the newspaper, as we know it today, is gone a decade from now.

But before it disappears, let’s give the newspapers that do an exceptional job their due. If you have a favorite local, regional or national newspaper that achieved something noteworthy in at least one area this past year, nominate it for Editor & Publisher’s “10 Newspapers That Do it Right” award.

The annual award spotlights newspapers that have done an oustanding job at things such as sponsoring community events, offering hyperlocal content, covering high school sports or introducing a Groupoin type of “deal of the day” program. Ideas can be for editorial coverage, advertising or circulation campaigns, or anything else you’ve noticed.

Winners will be featured in the magazine’s March 2012 issue. You can see winners from last year. Deadline for nominations is Jan. 24.

Publicity Hounds: If a newspaper you nominate wins, it’s just one more way to build a relationship with a media outlet that might cover you later.

Filed Under: Newspaper Publicity Tagged With: 10 newspapers that do it right, community journalism, deal of the day, E&P, Editor & Publisher, high school sports, newspaper ad campaigns, newspaper awards

6 ways to promote your retail business before you open

10/11/2011 By Joan 3 Comments

Create a buzz all over town long before your store opens.

These days, in a sour economy, businesses opening just about anywhere are major news. So don’t shy away from publicity. Here six ways to promote your retail business before you open.

Display a large banner or sign outside your building letting people know you’ll be opening. Thanks to Alyson Stanfield, a business coach for artists and an art marketing expert, for this idea which I read at her blog yesterday.
Pitch the story to the local media. Contact a reporter at your local newspaper, business journal or business magazine and pitch a story about the opening. Angles can include why you chose this time, when the economy is bad, to open a new business.
Write a press release. Post it on a site like Craigslist, which gets millions of eyeballs. Post it only in one category and only in the city closest to where your business is located.
Plan a fun grand opening celebration. Publicize it on a local event sites like Yelp, EventCrazy.com and MeetUp.com. This list of 27 questions to ask before promoting your event will stimulate ideas and help you plan a more interesting event. Please, no boring ribbon-cuttings. You can do better than that. Here are some alternatives to ribbon-cutting events.
Just before you open, create a business profile on Google Maps.
Contact related businesses and offer to cross-promote. Ask them to display flyers about your grand opening at the front counter. Tell them that once you open, you’ll be happy to promote something they’re doing. If you’re opening a pet store, contact owners of dog kennels, dog obedience schools and veterinarians.

What other ideas can you offer for ways that retail businesses can promote long before they open? Any examples in your own community?

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Google, Newspaper Publicity, Pitching the Media, Press Releases/News Releases, Special Events Tagged With: DIY public relations, DIY publicity, new stoie publicity, retail PR, retail publicity, ribbon cutting event, ribbon-cutting, store opening

PR & Marketing Pros: How to find the most influential people online & offline—within seconds

10/7/2011 By Joan 4 Comments

It used to be easy to find the movers and shakers who were the most influential people within their topic areas. But not anymore, thanks to social media.

PR and marketing pros who need to find the heavy-hitter journalists, talk show hosts, bloggers, authors, experts and Facebook users who are discussing a particular topic right now, can slog their way through a variety of tools.

They can use Klout, which measures online influence, but only for those who are on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Klout’s generic score ignores how often that person is quoted or discussed in traditional media.

Google Alerts can tell you instantly which bloggers are discussing certain topics. But the alerts don’t measure the blogger’s influence.

A new tool from Appinions, a New York company, tracks traditional and social media to round out a true picture of influence. It’s a subscription-based service that matches influencers to specific topics, based on opinions it finds from news reports, blogs, tweets, TV transcripts and social networks.

Give Your Clients an Edge

Within seconds, PR and marketing people can identify the most influential people who can move the needles of influence. Then, they can lead their clients to those experts to comment on a blog post, write a letter to the editor, pitch a story, offer background information for a journalist’s article, or offer commentary for an author’s forthcoming book—long before the client’s competitors are even aware that there’s a hot topic being discussed.

Watch this short video to see how it works.

Larry Levy, CEO of Appinions, will give you a free demonstration, perfect for PR and marketing pros, during a webinar I’m hosting from 3 to 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, Oct. 13. Register today because we have room for only 50 people.

Levy will explain the three key elements that the service measures to determine influence:

Are trusted writers and publications covering the influencer’s opinions?
Is the influencer’s opinion being shared, retweeted, quoted, requoted and linked?
When did a certain topic or issue first emerge, and who introduced it?

The ideal company for this service is a PR or marketing agency that has multiple clients and does at least $5 million a year in revenue.

After you sign up, email me the topics where you need to find influencers. I’ll forward them to Levy, and he’ll use as many as he can during the demonstration so you can see how this service applies to your clients. Full disclosure: I will earn a commission from all subscriptions sold.