Struggling to find a good story idea to pitch to the business reporter at your daily newspaper?

Wondering how to use your Facebook Fan page to promote your product or service?

Trying to catch the attention of the editors at Oprah’s magazine?

Help is on the way. Actually, it’s called “Help This Hound,” and it’s one of the most popular features in my weekly ezine, The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week, delivered every Tuesday.

      
Here’s how it works

Anyone who needs help with publicity or marketing can email a question to me, along with their name and town. If I use your question, I’ll post it here at my blog, and then print the question in my ezine.

Readers who are willing to help can offer their best ideas as blog comments.  I choose the best ideas and print them in the following week’s newsletter. Authors, small business owners, PR people, publicists and nonprofits submit the most questions.

  
Here’s why “Help This Hound” is so popular

• Most of us are too close to our own businesses to be able to see clever angles or unusual hooks that can catch a journalist’s attention.
    
• Many Publicity Hounds are on razor-thin or non-existent publicity and marketing budgets. They appreciate the free ideas.
     
• The blog posts live forever. That means that as the search engines pull in traffic, ideas will be accumulating here over several months or years. If I use your question, check back every few weeks to see who else has commented.
     
• Even though I created this service to help you solve a problem, your question exposes you to my audience. Several people who have submitted questions over the years have gotten calls from journalists and bloggers who read about them in my newsletter. Others have even received additional business.

No anonymous questions, please. Be sure to offer enough information in your question so that my readers fully understand the problem. Explain what you’ve done that has or hasn’t worked. And include a link to your website. If appropriate, attach a photo of your product.

Right now, I’m short on questions, and I could really use yours. But don’t just email it to me. Help other Hounds by contibuting your best ideas when you see a question in my newsletter that you can answer.

  
How to subscribe

If you don’t subscribe to my newsletter, you can do so by typing your name and email address into the box on the right side of this screen, under my photo. Then check your email box (or spam folder) and click on the confirmation link.  

By the way, have you downloaded the five free publicity ebooks that include the best publicity tips from my ezine in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009? They’re chock full of ideas, and there’s something there for everyone. 

As you’ll notice in the ebooks, many of the best publicity tips, success stories, and dog jokes and videos come directly from my readers, with attribution. 

I’d love to see yours.  Bring ‘em on!

If your organization publishes a membership directory, allow members to include URLs for social media sites like Facebook Fan pages, Twitter profiles, YouTube channels and LinkedIn profiles, not just URLs for their websites.

That would be a nice value-added feature for chambers of commerce, convention and visitors bureaus, health care associations, school groups, etc. and it would distinguish your group’s benefits from those of your competitors.

I just received a copy of the 2010 Business Directory for the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce. While glancing through the members’ section, I noticed that all the companies, even mine, have only the URLs for their websites.

Can’t afford to let every member include social media URLs because of high printing costs? Then charge a small additional fee. 

Does your organization include these URLs in its membership directories? If not, why not? What other information do you include that members find valuable?

Every year since 2001, Rebecca Morgan and her cadre of volunteers have been going into the Willow Glen neighborhood in San Jose, Calif., just before Halloween and encouraging readers to give 6,500 of their “gently read” books to children in place of trick-or-treat candy.

“Books feed children’s minds, while candy only feeds their cavities,” says Rebecca, a speaker, author and consultant. “Many children rarely receive books as gifts, so even gently read books are special treats.”

The Books for Treats campaign has been bolstered by lots of local publicity as well as articles in Spry magazine, which is distributed to 9 million households in national newspapers, and in the American Association for the Advancement of Science magazine.
  

Taking the campaign nationwide

But this past October, Rebecca pursued a wild idea for publicity that attracted national attention.

“I’m reading the Luann cartoon in the paper and I see that once a month, Luann goes to the library to read to the kids,” she said.

She suspected that Greg Evans, Luann’s creator, supported literacy. So she Googled his name and, within seconds, found his email address. She wrote to him and asked if he’d be willing to have Luann give out books at Halloween.

The result is this strip, published Oct. 29 in hundreds of newspapers, and reprinted here with Greg Evans’ permission:

It includes the URL of Rebecca’s Books for Treats site in the lower right corner of the strip. Two days later, on Halloween, another strip shows Luann taking a stack of books to her parents and suggesting that they give trick-or-treaters books instead of candy.

“When it hit the blogosphere, and I got 60,000 hits that week at my website, up from only 250 a month,” she said.
    
      
Whom to pitch and where to find them

Rebecca says she hopes Greg isn’t inundated with pitches.

Not to worry, Rebecca. Publicity Hounds can refer to this site which includes hundreds of links to comic strips that might tie into their causes or issues. 

Here are some ideas to get you started, along with my ideas for the strip you might want to pitch, and the name of the artist:

• The military: Beetle Bailey. (Mort Walker)
     
• Babies: Baby Blues (Jerry Scott and Rick Kirkman)
     
• Dogs: Mutts (Patrick McDonnell) — There are dozens of comic strips devoted to dogs, cats and animals.
    
• Latino-related issues: Baldo (Hector Cantu & Carlos Castellanos)
     
• Cats: Garfield (Jim Davis)
     
• Families: Family Circus (Bil Keane)

I know you can think of more. If you see a strip that ties into what you want to promote, Google the name of the strip or the creator. Or check the strip’s fine print and you might find the URL.

Does the artist have a blog? If so, you may have struck gold because that’s a perfect place for you to start a conversation with the artist before pitching. Artists’ and journalists’ blogs offer valuable clues about how to pitch them.

Is the artist on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or other social media sites? If so, start the conversation there. And then send your brief pitch, just like Rebecca did. (See “How to Create the Perfect 30-Second Pitch.”)

What other favorite comic strips might tie into your cause or issue? Do you regularly read strips about your industry or occupation? If so, which ones?

By the way, I think Rebecca’s Books for Treats campaign would be perfect to pitch to dental associations.

If you aren’t blogging yet, or you’re looking for shortcuts to save time and blog more frequently, here are three ideas to get you started:
    

1. Can’t write? Then talk!

 Too many people don’t blog because they can’t write, or it takes them too long to write well. The solution? A small tape-recorder.

When an idea strikes, simply dictate your blog post into the recorder. Then transcribe it yourself or hire an inexpensive assistant to transcribe it for you and post it to your blog.

Also consider using voice recognition software. Dragon Naturally Speaking turns your voice into text three times faster than most people type, with 99 percent accuracy. I haven’t tried this product, but I know people who have, and they rave about it.

2.   Recruit guest bloggers.

Most of your blog content should be your own.

But you can recruit guest bloggers occasionally to fill in when you’ll be on vacation, taking time off, suffering from writer’s block, or when you simply want to expose your readers to another viewpoint. Blogger LinkUp links bloggers who want to write guest posts with bloggers who need them. 
      

3. Recruit others on your team to blog with you.

Don’t carry the entire load on your shoulders. If you work for a company or nonprofit, ask fellow employees in your own department or other departments to contribute to your blog occasionally by writing their own posts. Be sure to include their photos.

If you’re a sole proprietor, ask your virtual assistant, or a vendor, or business associates to write on a topic that would interest your target audience. They’ll probably be thrilled to receive the exposure.  

If you like these tips, you’ll love the teleseminar on “Time-saving Tips for Smart Business Blogging” at 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, Jan. 20, with blogging expert Patsi Krakoff. Everyone who registers will receive a handout that includes 77 ways to find content for your blog, and simple formulas you can use for better, faster blog writing.

If you’re participating in the teleseminar, bring your questions for Patsi. If you can’t attend, you’ll get the MP3 recording the next day.

Make 2010 the year you finally commit to blogging and pulling tons of traffic to your website.  

What time-saving tips do you use to make blogging go faster? Share ‘em here. (Shutterstock photo)     

Have you claimed your copy of “The Best of The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week of 2009″ yet?

It not, grab it here. You’ll find the 26 tips that generated the most response from readers of my ezine last year. 

I give away this ebook each year, and my readers eagerly look forward to it. Many of them regift the book to their own friends and followers. And the big attaction is that anyone can access the ebook. You don’t have to opt in with your name and email address. 

What will you learn in this book? Plenty.

For example, I explain how to create your own day, week or month of the year. You’ll learn about lots of tricks and tools for participating at the social media sites. Read about 10 dead or dying PR tactics. 

And for Publicity Hounds who are looking to connect with journalists, I’ve given you several resources.  The book will help you, regardless of what business or nonprofit you’re in. 

Use the ebook one of these 12 ways:

1. Create a Facebook note, and excerpt the entire tip. Use the photo along with the text, and you’ve got a nice little item that your followers and fans will love. Christine Buffaloe discussed Facebook notes when she was my guest during a teleseminar on “11 Ways to Avoid Missed Opportunities on Facebook.” 
        
2. No time for a Note? Write about it and share the link (http://tinyurl.com/bestof2009tips) in a Facebook status update.
       
3. Write about it in a LinkedIn status update.
        
4. Blog about the book, and include your own success story that ties into one of the tips. 
        
5. Offer the ebook as a bonus along with other products and services you’re selling.
       
6. Give it to your clients and customers.
       
7. Mention it at your weekly staff meetings.
       
8. Add it to the Free Articles page at your website.
       
9. Give it away to the winner of a contest you’re sponsoring.  
         
10. Offer the ebook as a freebie to help you capture names and email addresses at your website. 
       
11. Create a video that discusses the ebook and upload it to your website or to YouTube, then share that with your social media friends and followers.
       
12. Include the link  (http://tinyurl.com/bestof2009tips) in a book you’re writing, or in handouts you’re using for a speaking engagement.

What about you? Have you thought of any other clever ways to use the ebook? If so, share them here. I’d love to hear them.

Occasionally, I’ll get a call from somebody who thinks it might be “fun and interesting” to be in the world of PR, or a publicist. But they don’t want to go back to college and spend more than $50,000 on a degree in PR or communications.

So they ask me what the best way is to break into the business. I suggest they follow the same people I follow:

—BL Ochman and her whatsnext blog

—David Meerman Scott

—Book marketing guru John Kremer and his excellent blog and weekly ezine

—Anything published at the Bulldog Reporter site, particularly its Journalists Speak Out interview series. 

I’m adding Gaetan Giannini Jr.’s new book, “Marketing Public Relations: A Marketer’s Approach to Public Relations and Social Media” (Prentice Hall, $93.33) to my list. Several years ago, Giannini, business department chair at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pa., seached for a public relations textbook tailored to marketing students, instead of communications or journalism students.  When he couldn’t find what he was looking for, he decided to write one.

He has had an extensive marketing background, having worked for several years in sales and marketing for industrial instrumentation companies before landing at Cedar Crest . In addition to writing a public relations book from a marketer’s perspective, he reveled in the opportunity to write about the burgeoning world of social media, which he claims has been widely ignored by academics.
    
      

PR and social media from a marketing perspective

“Most of the textbooks that were written about Web 2.0 were written on the technical side.  As far as I know, there is not one textbook out there at this point that covers this topic from a marketing perspective,” he said. 

Each chapter begins with a PR success story. They include:

• Dunkin’ Donuts’ Facebook page that boasts more than 825,000 fans.
     
• Ben & Jerry’s “Random Acts of Cone-Ness” campaign. Employees “showed up” in undisclosed locations in three major cities and distributed ice cream in support of the company’s new waffle cone. The story attracted the attention of CNN, ESPN, national and local newspapers, and trade magazines.
          
• Gary Vaynerchuk, a New Jersey liquor store owner who founded Wine Library TV, a “shoot-from-the-hip” Internet video podcast about wine that boasts nearly 100,000 views daily.  Vaynerchuk connects with his audience through frank, honest wine talk to which people can relate.
    

Practical experience for students

What really makes this book a must-read for anyone going into PR or publicity, or for marketing student who want to learn more about PR, are the “chapter objectives” that kick off each chapter and show show students what they should be able to do after reading it, and the three special sections at the end of each chapter. They include:

1. Chapter key terms, which lists words and phrases used in that chapter, with their definition.
     
2. Application Assignments. Students can  complete from one to five assignments that involve more research, reading articles online or finding examples of strategies and tactics they just learned.
      
3. Practice Portfolio. This activity is related to the material covered in the chapter. It allows students to contribute to a marketing public relations portfolio that they can use during their job search. The portfolio can be based on a fictitious company or on a real company that the instructor assigns to them. The student “works” with the company the entire semester. At the end of the chapter on press releases, for example, students are asked to write a backgrounder, fact sheet and two press releases for their company.   

One of the problems with books about social media is that sections can be out of date by the time the ink is dry. Still, this is a valuable book that encourages the student to not just learn it, but do it. My only wish is that it had included informaton about the importance of using keywords in press releases so they are search-engine friendly. 

Don’t let the steep price deter you. There’s three times as much content as you’ll find in most other PR books, and most chapters tackle a topic in-depth, with lots of practical tips.

I loved the chapter on Building a Connector List, and how to determine the types of media that can help you spread your message. I’ll be sharing those tips later this week and excerpting more from the book in the months ahead. (Disclosure: I contributed to the book.)      

While “Marketing Public Relations” is a textbook for mid-level marketing students—one which Giannini will use in his classes this fall and which will be available for general consumption for educational institutions by spring semester—he is quick to note that the content is perfect for any organization that wants ideas and strategies to promote its products and services.

 By the way, I love the press release about the book.

John and Bobbi Robinson of Vanderbilt, PA write:

“Unity, a Journey of Hope, is our nonprofit that grants wishes to adults with a life-limiting illness.

“We take them to concerts and sporting events, introduce them to people they want to meet, send them on vacation with a friend or family member, or send them on trips to meet relatives they haven’t seen in awhile.

“It has been impossible to get our story onto the local Pittsburgh TV stations. Coverage in the local newspapers has been awesome.  But the TV stations are like a fortress. If your Hounds have any ideas on how we can pitch an idea to the local stations and get on the air, their help would be appreciated.”

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?”

If you’re participating in Make a Difference Day, the annual day of doing good in the U.S., let your local media and bloggers know.

Typical projects. like cleaning up neighborhoods and helping the elderly with repair projects, make great stories for newspapers and magazines, and great visuals for television, particularly if the media are part of the Gannett Company, Inc. which sponsors the event through USA Weekend magazine.  

This year, the event will be Saturday, Oct. 24. 

You can get tips about planning a volunteer project, and register your plans in the Make a Difference DAYtaBANK. This searchable database will help you recruit volunteers and get recognition for your efforts.

Once your project is registered, you become eligible to receive free breakfast for your volunteers from Newman’s Own. A total of 50 projects (one from each state) will be chosen to receive a donation of Newman’s Own Sweet Enough Cereal to feed their volunteers on Make A Difference Day. 

Don’t forget to share your Make a Difference activities with your social media friends and followers:

• Recruit volunteers from your Facebook groups, and Meetup.com.
• You can upload video after the event to Facebook, Twitter and your YouTube channel. 
• Upload photos to photo-sharing sites like Flickr.
• Update your Twitter followers throughout the day.     
• Report on activities before and after the event at your own blog.
• Thank your volunteers through newspaper and magazine letters to the editors and via social networking.

Your projects—and the accompanyhing publicity—don’t necessarily need to be grandiose. If you’re doing something to benefit your local church, for example, try to get a story into the church bulletin. If you’re helping a local nonprofit, offer to write an article for their newsletter.  

One of the biggest mistakes people make when measuring the success of a publicity campaign continues to be counting the number of newspaper clippings, or the number of page views, that result from a press release or promotion.

But a pile of clips, or thousands of page views, don’t mean diddly.

Instead, determine whether your campaign did one of these three things:

• Build awareness
    
• Shift opinion
         
• Motivate people to do something (the most powerful of the three)

Changing behavior is so much more effective than simply getting an article published in the Daily Tattler. If your target audience is the under-30 crowd, the Daily Tattler is probably insignificant to your customers. You need to find out where they are, and present a compelling marketing message.  

Did your PR campaign encourage people to make a donation? Or write to their U.S. Senator? Volunteer their time? Opt into an email newsletter? Follow you on Twitter?  Visit your YouTube channel? Download a free White Paper? 

All of those “calls to action” are much better indicators of success, particularly if you can measure the results.

Nancy Schwartz, an expert in marketing for nonprofits, wrote an excellent item about this in the most recent issue of her Getting Attention newsletter. It’s must-reading, even if you’re a for-profit company. In fact, I recommend it for anyone creating a media campaign or a 12-month publicity plan. 

I like her tips so much that I’m featuring Nancy here as this month’s guest blogger. I love her blog, too.   

Media Relations Planning — 11 Steps to Success

By Nancy Schwartz

Relax and breathe a sigh of relief.

• Once you buckle down to this media planning process, it’s extremely doable.  Depending on the time you can dedicate, the process can be executed in a variety of ways.  For example: 
      
• If time is extremely tight, allocate 2 hours weekly to this process.  It will take longer but it will get done.
      
• If you have a bit more time, spend 6 hours a week on this process.  You’ll be done in two weeks max, assuming you have a colleague or freelancer doing the research for you.

The staff or consultant primarily responsible for media relations should own this process and do the initial strategic thinking.  That person, or another team member, can be assigned to research (e.g. to develop your press list).

    
Here’s How to Start

Begin by reviewing this list.

Next, dive into the low-hanging fruit (#1-5 below).  You should be able to complete these tasks without additional research.  Run by colleagues to ensure you are on target.

Assign an intern or assistant (you could even hire a virtual assistant for this) for tasks #6 and #7 to start researching key media to follow, and to draft a top ten press list.

Take these findings, finalize the press list, and address the balance of the planning tasks (#8-11).

Review the draft plan with key colleagues, and revise as needed.

   
The 11 Steps 

1. Estimate what you can invest in building your media relations program, time and budget.
    

2. Set goals.

—What are your three main program goals? 

—How can media relations be used to achieve these goals:  Build awareness, shift opinion, motivate action?

   
3. Define realistic objectives, both output and outcome. 

What do you envision your media work will generate?  These objectives serve as the measures you’ll track to evaluate your success.

   
4. Identify three or less primary target audiences.

—Define each group’s connection to each issue or story, what you want them to do, what is important to them, and what they read, watch and listen to.

—Audience definition shapes your key messages and press list.
   
   
5. Tell your story.  Pinpoint the key messages you’re trying to communicate.

—Try to distill your message into a 25-word (maximum) statement that will get the point across.  Add supporting messages of one to two sentences each, max.

—Make sure these messages are integrated into all of your communications. 

—Mixed messages are confusing.  Consistency ensures that your points are heard and recognized and likely to be repeated.

  
6. Build your media database/press list. 
  
Identity key media covering your issues, themes, geographies via these strategies:

—Capture information on reporters who contact or cover your organization (log conversations/emails with media so you have this information). 

—Find related stories via Google news, noting sources and reporters’ names.

—Exchange media contact lists with your colleague organizations.
      

7. Read, watch and listen to these media over a month or so to pinpoint your top-ten press list.

   
8. Identify the best way to get journalists to cover your story.

Through news releases?  Personal visits to reporters?  On-air interviews?  Each approach has its own advantages and disadvantages.

   
9. Craft the timetable.

—Consider external events, editorial calendars and date-based news hooks.

—Organize key media outreach efforts chronologically and prioritize, being realistic about what you can accomplish.
  

10. Define the work plan, and roles and responsibilities.

Remember, everyone on your staff and your external supporters are communicators.  Give them what they need to spread the word directly as well as via media contacts.
    

11. Track, measure and fine-tune (ongoing, forever).

—Log all contacts with the media.

—Make the log easily accessible.

Let me know how this process works for you!  I’ve used it with client organizations time and time again with strong results.

And please let me know if you have any steps to add to this process, or guidance on those listed here?  Please share them with me today.

*     *     *

Nancy mentions hiring a virtual assistant to help. I offer more tips on how to do this in my article on how to train your virtual assistant to help with publicity.