If you’ feel like you can’t do it all, start pushing the monkey off your back by delegating some of your work—particularly the stuff you hate doing—to an assistant.

A good virtual assistant and other subcontractors can free you up to concentrate on the strategies and tasks that bring in the money.

But knowing where to look, understanding the kinds of work you can delegate to an assistant, and working in tandem with an assistant so you aren’t stepping on each other’s toes, can be confusing.

Here are my top five tips for outsourcing:

1. Ask for referrals.

Ask business friends and your social media connections for referrals.  LinkedIn is an excellent resource. Do this before you follow Tip #2. 
    
2. Use the outsourcing sites.
  
VWorker and ODesk are great, but you have to spend a lot of time sorting through bids, portfolios and other details, then communicating back and forth via email until your project is completed. 
   
3. Check references

When you find an ideal assistant, check references!  If you’re looking for someone to help with PR or write press releases, checking refernces is imperative because those tasks require special skills. Ask to see samples of their work. When checking references, ask about the person’s weaknesses as well as strengths.
   
4. Ask your assistant for suggestions

Give your assistants the freedom to suggest other types of work they can do for you. My assistant, Christine Buffaloe of Serenity Virtual Assistant Services, often suggests that I delegate tasks she KNOWS I hate doing.  And she shares with me tasks she has done for other clients.

5. Listen to Charlie Cook’s series of interviews on hiring assistants.

If you need more guidance on hiring an assistant, take advantage of Charlie Cook’s free series of interviews with 10 of the top experts who will reveal their practical insights on how they achieved their BIGGEST dreams through outsourcing and delegation. You’ll hear hundreds of tips you can start using immediately. It starts next week. Many of these luminaries charge $30-$20K for keynote speeches, but you can listen to the entire series of interviews for free by signing up here.

What tips can you share about hiring and working with an assistant? What pitfalls should people avoid? What horrible tasks have you been able to delegate to an assistant?

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.)

You win an industry award and you’re so tickled that you can hardly wait to call a press conference.

Problem is, you’re only one that’s excited.  Your publicist, in fact, is reluctant, because she thinks a press conference sounds, well, so old-fashioned.

That’s what happened this week to a publicist who’s one my readers. Her client, whose organization got high ratings, told her to arrange a press conference to announce the good news. She turned to me for advice.
     
    
No one will come

Here’s my response:

“I suggest you NOT hold a press conference because I can virtually guarantee you that if you do, nobody from the media will show up, and you will look bad in the client’s eyes.  (“How come you couldn’t get anyone from the media to show up?”)

“If somebody from the media DOES show up, they will be angry when they find out your client wasted their time and that they could have gotten the same information in a press release, especially if they battled rush-hour traffic to get there on time. And they could blackball you.

“Clients have huge egos, especially when they have good news to share.  You must explain to the client why useless press conferences about topics like this can damage their reputation with the media forever.”
     
    
Better ways to spread the word

I suggested that she convince her client to:

—Write a press release and distribute it through PR Web.  Dan Janal has a fabulous deal where where the client’s press release is guaranteed to make it onto more than 50 big websites like Forbes, Reuters, etc. I wrote about this in my publicity tips newsletter a few weeks ago.  The client will be much happier about achieving this kind of exposure vs. spending all the time coordinating a press conference and then delivering the news in an empty room.

—Create a video (two and a half minutes) explaining what the company did to achieve the high rating. Feature clients talking about what they like about the service they received. Upload it to YouTube and other video-sharing sites.  It will pull traffic to their website.

—Tweet about this and put this on their Facebook Fan Page.

—Take photos that illustrate why the company got the high rating and upload them to Flickr.

—Also do a special mailing to their email list sharing the good news.

—There are many creative alternatives to boring press conferences, like events that are open to the public, or even publicity stunts that are done well. A new florist association, for example, delivered 50,000 roses and carnations to new moms in area hospitals, generating fabulous media attention and word-of-mouth publicity.

The next time you or your PR is tempted to call a press conference, consider the disadvantages. Then think of a better way to spread the good news.

Journalists and booze don’t mix.
    
Just look at what happened to Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who was dumb enough to let an investigative  freelancer for Rolling Stone into his inner circle and conduct a tape-recorded interview—over drinks.

1. After-work networking events
The  media sometimes attend these events, often hosted by the local chamber of commerce. Smart reporters know how to make nice with you and get you talking. If you aren’t holding a drink in your hand, and you’re busy prattling on about your business, they can slyly lead you to the bar and offer you a drink.
    

2. Events hosted by the media
Business journals and other business magazines generate a large portion of their revenue from these events, and reporters and editors are everywhere. It’s a great chance to schmooze with the media, but only if you aren’t drinking.
  

3.  Local and national Press Club dinners and special events
Reporters and editors have a well-deserved reputation for boozing it up at Press Club dinners and awards ceremonies.  I recommend that anyone who wants publicity consider attending these events, often open to the public,  because you can establish valuable relationships with the media—sober.
  

4.  Trade shows
If you’re attending a trade show, you should do your homework and touch base with reporters who you know will be at the show so you can meet them for coffee, offer your expertise and find out what they need from you. Beware, however, of evening cocktail parties hosted by the trade show’s sponsor, where food and booze are plentiful.
  

5. Conferences and conventions the media cover

If you work in PR, and you’re trying to explain to somebody what you do, and they look at you with a blank stare, explain it this way:

“If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying ‘Circus Coming to the Fairground Saturday,’ that’s advertising.  If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town, that’s promotion.  If the elephant walks through the mayor’s flower bed, that’s publicity.  And if you get the mayor to laugh about it, that’s public relations.”

I can’t remember where that quote originated. But I used it once in my newsletter and receive requests every now and then from readers who remember the quote, but need the exact wording.

If you work in any of these industries, tuck away this saying in a safe place and use it the next time you need something fun for a speech, White Paper, or just to make a client smile.

Does anybody know who first said this? Was it P.T. Barnum?

Company PR departments spend hours—entire days even—poring over a press release, picking apart every paragraph and sentence—and then waiting for multiple layers of approval before it goes live.

Everyone puts their stamp of approval on the document that includes words and phrases THEY like. If only the readers were that receptive.

The next time you write a press release, or copy for marketing materials, or your CEO’s next speech, don’t guess about whether the message will resonate. Know exactly which words and phrases drive persuasive communications.

Word wizard Dr. Frank Luntz will discuss “Words That Work in the Press, Politics & Public Relations” during an audio teleconference at 1 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, May 4, hosted by Bulldog Reporter. Registration is $99 per person. You can lean more and register here.

If Luntz looks familiar, it’s probably because he’s been a guest on almost every talk show in America, including  Meet the Press, Nightline, The Today Show, Charlie Rose, The Jim Lehrer News Hour, The O’Reilly Factor, Tavis Smiley, Montel Williams, and Hardball.  He also served as a consultant to the award-winning NBC hit show “The West Wing.”

The “Instant Response” focus group technique Luntz pioneered, in which focus group respondents “dial” their approval  or disapproval on hand-held gadgets, has been profiled on 60 Minutes, Good Morning America (on Election Day 2008) and on the award-winning PBS show Frontline.

His focus groups have become so influential that presidential candidate Barack Obama had this to say following the PBS presidential debate, “When Frank Luntz invites you to talk to his focus group, you talk to his focus group.”

During next Tuesday’s call, you’ll learn how to grab your audiences’ attention and, ultimately, influence their behavior. You’ll also discover how to maximize what Luntz e calls “ROL” (return on language) in areas ranging from corporate reputation and employee satisfaction to product development and media relations.

Here’s a chance for publicists to generate some super publicity for their clients who are experts in workplace issues.

Mildred Culp, who writes the syndicated column called WorkWise,  which appears in newspapers from The Miami Heralds to The Modesto (CA) Bee, needs sources in two areas:

Ethnic Minorities

In the last several issues of my newsletter, I’ve been writing about the gold rush that’s about to occur in the world of mobile marketing.

Imagine you’re in San Francisco in 1848, but you’re the only one with a gold-sifting pan.  That’s what mobile marketing is like right now.

• A “click to call” link. StomperMobile students will even get their own 800 number as part of the course.
     
• Widgets that let you use PayPal on your mobile site.
      
• Links to your social media profiles.
     
• Opt-in forms so you can subscribe people to your ezine, or just bring them into your funnel.
     
•  ”Tell a Friend” forms.
    
• I’ve even include a smattering of dog jokes, quotes and videos taken right from my newsletter. (No need to create new content!)

Stay tuned for some cool offers that I’ll throw your way—for mobile subscribers only, of course. 

Are you trying something new at work?

Mildred L. Culp, who writes the syndicated column WorkWise, needs employees who are trying something that doesn’t involve software or social media.

If you’re a business owner, pitch your employee.  If you’re a publicist, pitch a client.

WorkWise is syndicated from The Miami Herald to Modesto (CA) Bee.  It uncovers emerging trends in the workplace.

Email Mildred at Workwise at comcast.net.

Jennifer Melnick Carota, aka The Gift Therapist,  of Pittsburgh, Pa., writes: