The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

Twenty years ago, when I worked in the newspaper business, if a local company had delivered to my newsroom a free gourmet burger that I could enjoy at lunch, I probably would have turned red from embarrassment, then eaten it, with my fellow newsroom buddies watching.

Gourmet burgers, after all, didn’t fall into the “anything of value” category that the newspaper’s ethics policy prohibited. Gifts we couldn’t accept included things like concert tickets or anything worth more than about $20. But still, we always felt a little sleazy if we accepted anything from sources, particularly from companies that hadn’t met us, but wanted publicity.

Today, however, I’m guessing that things may have changed. Now that publishers are cutting newsroom staffs to the absolute minimum, journalists are busier than ever. And inbetween writing and editing stories, they’re spiffing up their resumes, hoping to jump ship before it sinks. That gourmet burger might not make a reporter feel as guilty as he might feel if he had job security.

These days, there’s also the world of social media and using it to keep up with what journalists are doing. The July 14 issue of PR Week discusses the “pitch potential” of social media sites and points out the do’s and don’ts of pitching journalists at sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Todd Defren of Shift Communications, creator of the social media press release, read a tweet from a digital editor who was complaining that he was missing lunch because of deadlines. Defren sent the editor a gourmet burger on behalf of his client.

“That wouldn’t have been possible without something like Twitter,” he said.

Are you using Twitter to keep tabs on journalists you’re targeting? If not, you should. In my “Special Report #52: How to Use Twitter for Business to Network, Promote, Sell, Recruit & Profit,” I discuss the Twittering Journalists wiki created by Harry Hoover. It’s must reading for anybody who needs to start forming strong relationships with journalists. See if your favorite reporter is on the list.

***Important note: The PR Week article cautions that PR pros should determine how journalists are using social networking sites and be wary of inviting reporters to join their networks if they have never met. You can still follow your favorite journalists on Twitter, however, and be privy to personal and business information about them–juicy little tidbits that some of your competitors will never know because they’re too busy to bother with social networking.

Posted In: PR Consultants/Publicists, Pitching the Media, Press Releases/News Releases, Social networking, Twitter
posted On: 7/29/2008: 12:32 pm: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment

New Age Directories—sort of a MySpace or Facebook of the New Age, spiritual and alternative communities— has just gone live.

“Create your own online world and promote yourself, your ideas, your dreams; share your thoughts, expertise and advice; share your healing, love and gratitude; find, seek, look, listen, ask; make friends, business contacts, even romance – anything and everything New Age, Spiritual and Alternative.  It’s worldwide and 100 percent totally free.”

The website features:

• News about New Age, spiritual or alternative events, people or services.
• Free music and videos.
• Free classifieds.  Advertise anything.  Buy/sell/swap/barter.
• Free business directory.  Promote your business.
• Forums, blogs and live chat. Make new business contacts, friends & companions.
• New Age dating and romance section
• Show your favorite photos, mp3s or movies
• Have your say, get advice, ask questions
• Create your own clubs, private forums and personal blogs.
• Create your own free website
• Create your own opinion poll
• All blogs have public, moderate or private membership
• Full social bookmarking access
• Entire website has full email security and privacy
• Public, moderated or private membership to all clubs and forums 

This is a great site for anyone looking to connect with others in the New Age genre. If you’re promoting a product, service, cause or issue related to a New Age, spirituality or alternative lifestyle topic, add this site to your publicity plan or media plan.   

Posted In: Blogs, Business Promotion, General, Press Releases/News Releases, Social media marketing, Social networking, Special Events
posted On: 6/10/2008: 9:13 am: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment

Of all the people who need to promote what they’re sellings, artists are among those who have the most difficult time.

I don’t know why. But Nicolette Tallmadge, who blogs at The Crafted Webmaster, offers 10 tips on How to Use Online video to Promote Your Art. She makes an interesting point. People who buy artwork love to watch artists at work. They’re also curious about things like what inspired the artwork, if the artist sells fulltime or has another job, and if more works are being created.

“Those who attend craft shows say that meeting the artists and talking with them about their artwork is part of what makes the whole experience fun. If you sell exclusively to galleries or exclusively online…this is an important piece of promotion that you are missing.” 

That’s where video comes in. Create a video showing your artwork in various stages of completion. Or talk about what inspired you to create it, how long it took, and even stories about problems or challenges you encountered along the way (people love this stuff!). 

In additon to Nicollete’s many great ideas, I think artists—and anyone else for that matter—should embed video links within press releases. They make the releases more interseting and will help them rank higher in the search engines. My free email tutorial ”89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases” explains everything you need to know about how to write and distribute direct-to-consumer releases.

That’s the topic I discussed during the second annual smARTist™ Telesummit in January. Artists from 35 states in the U.S. and 12 countries participated in the art career conference that taught artists about topics like marketing, how to sell more artwork and how to license their work. Ariane Goodwin, who sponsored the telesummit, is offering all the conference materials for sale at her website.

The testimonials from artists who already have seen great results from the telesummit and the line-up of guest experts ought to convince any artist that the materials can turn “just a hobby” into a thriving business.  Artists, you have until June 16 to take advantage of the early-bird special.

Posted In: Business Promotion, Press Releases/News Releases, Video
posted On: 5/30/2008: 10:24 am: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

Your ezine might be packed with free content and do excellent job promoting your expertise.

But it’s worthless if it ends up in the recipient’s spam folder, or in one of several other spam traps that have been set by Internet service providers.

That’s why it’s worth the extra time to run your ezine or important email you’re sending, like pitches to bloggers and journalists, through a spam-checker. Ditto for emailed press releases. Just one little innocent-looking word or phrase can send your email into a big black hole.

Here are four spam checkers:

EzineCheck is very easy to use but flags fewer words than some others.

SpamCheck will give you a report within seconds, but make sure you follow the directions exactly.

Lyris’ content checker gives you your score within seconds, and then emails you a list of offending words that need to be removed from the newsletter. This is the service I use, and I wish they were a little more specific when flagging words and phrases. Sometimes it isn’t apparent what they’re objecting to.    

Kick-start Cart, the shopping cart I use, has a built-in spam checker but it doesn’t seem to be as strict as some of the others.  (If you’re in the market for a shopping cart, check out the free ebook Internet Cash Machines: How to Pick a Shopping Cart System That Makes You Money.)

During the teleseminar I conducted a few years ago on “How to Turn Your Ezine into a Cash Machine,” I mentioned that run my ezine through two spam checkers: the one from Lyris and the one from Kick-start Cart, just to play it safe.  

Posted In: Blogs, Pitching the Media, Press Releases/News Releases
posted On: 5/27/2008: 11:12 am: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment

It could be a lawsuit against your company.

Or a health department violation against your restaurant.

Or a post at somebody’s blog, written by a rabble-rouser who wants to drag your name through the mud and destroy your business.

If it’s bad news and it’s online, it could live on forever.  Anybody who uses the search engines to research companies can find it.  That is, unless you know how to bury it.

Enter Glen Selig, a former TV investigative reporter who today writes and distributes press releases for his clients to bury or “push down” the bad news on the organic search list.  That’s the list that appears on the left side of the screen when you type a keyword or keyword phrase into a search engine like Google.

“You still need something newsworthy to disseminate, but then it’s about strategy and technique,” says Glen of PressReleasePros.com.

I’d go one step further and say you don’t even need something newsworthy to write about. 

Let’s say you sell jewelry.  Three years ago, a consumer group incorrectly accused you of selling fake gems.  Their accusations appeared online and kept popping up in the searching engines when people typed certain keyword phrases about gems.

Here’s how you could bury it:

—Write and distribute a press release about your new money-back guarantee.

—Write and distribute another release about how to buy gems.

—And then another on what to do if you love jewelry, but you’re allergic to certain types of metal.

—And then another on the most popular types of gems.

—And then another on what to look for when buying gems.

Get the idea?  You aren’t writing these releases for journalists.  You’re writing them for consumers.  If journalists find them, that’s great.  But the whole point of the exercise is to bury the bad news. The more press releases you write, the further down the list the bad news will fall. Even if it ends up on page 3 or 4 in the organic search list, most consumers wouldn’t bother looking that far into the list. 

“I help large and small companies use this secret weapon all the time,” says Selig.  “And it works like a charm.”

He distributes his press releases through his own company, PRNewsChannel, so they get picked up by Google News, Ask.com, Yahoo and MSN.

You can hire someone like Glen to write and distribute press releases for you.  Or you can do it yourself with help from my free email tutorial called “89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases.” 

Posted In: Blogs, Crisis Communications, PR Consultants/Publicists, Press Releases/News Releases, Publicity on the Internet
posted On: 5/6/2008: 1:01 pm: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment