Publicity for Niche Markets

Artists need publicity ideas for water tank mural

10/4/2011 By Joan 12 Comments

Publicity Hound Kate Farrall of San Diego, CA, writes:

“I need to get national/international publicity for my two muralist clients who are completing a five-story public art installation this November for the City of Davis, just outside of Sacramento. They have transformed a water tank into 360-degree kinetic art installation. You can see a short video that explains the project.

“My pitches have done well, thanks to your great advice. So far, I’ve gotten my clients a segment on our local PBS channel that will run for a year and a half, along with a few other news and print hits. The feedback on my pitches has been really good and I’ve tailored each one.

“How do I create a hook for national publications, especially art publications? Or even publications that are not so big but located elsewhere? Local has been a good hook for us so far, but that won’t work in the Midwest, New York or Europe. My clients want to be recognized as professional artists and to have a broader name recognition so they can expand where they work and the types of projects they do.

“You can read a press release about the project and see photos on Flickr.”

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Newspaper Publicity, Photos & Graphics, Pitching the Media, Publicity for Niche Markets, YouTube Tagged With: art publications, art publicity, pr for artists, water tank mural

Inventory clearance on CDs, transcripts, booklets

6/15/2011 By Joan 4 Comments

Recruitment & Retention Tips Booklets

Information products can become out of date so quickly, particularly those dealing with social media sites or any type of technology.

For that reason, I’m cleaning out my massive inventory and practically giving away more than 20 titles.

CD and transcripts, regularly $39.95, are only $5 each, plus shipping. Tips booklets on employee recruitment and retention, regularly $5 each, are $1.35, and include shipping.

Even though many of the products are out of date, all of them include valuable tips that are still as good today as they were when I created the them. Topics include Facebook, how to get PR clients, press releases, nonprofit publicity, how to get your own TV show, special event planning and promotion, employee recruitment and retention, and more. Here’s the complete list of titles.

Some of the CD titles are gone already, and we aren’t reordering, but you can still order the transcripts. Grab them while you have the chance.

Questions? Contact my assistant, Christine Buffaloe, at 619-955-5772 or Chris (at) SerenityVA.com.

Filed Under: Information Products, Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, Nonprofits, Press Releases/News Releases, Publicity for Niche Markets, Publicity on the Internet, TV Publicity, Twitter, Writing Articles Tagged With: how to use Facebook, inventory clearance, nonprofit promotion, press releases, publicity hound products, special event planning, special event promotion

EveryBlock: Another uber-local site for community news

3/22/2011 By Joan 2 Comments

Here’s another hyperlocal website to add to your publicity toolbox: EveryBlock, perfect for publicizing local news in bigger cities, and also for finding other local blogs and media outlets you might not know about.

MSNBC.com bought it in 2009 and unveiled the new version yesterday. It operates in 16 cities mostly on the east and west coasts: Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

EveryBlock offers news down to the block level and encourages collaboraton among neighbors. Enter any address in one of those cities and you’ll see news articles, blog coverage, crime reports and a wide variety of other local information, all updated throughout the day.

You can also submit your own news, which they don’t edit. Create a free account, and you can participate in discussions and even get email updates.

3 Main Types of News

Civic information, including building permits, crimes, restaurant inspections and more. In many cases, this information is already on the Web but is buried in hard-to-find government databases. In other cases, the data hasn’t been posted online, but Everyblock gets it through government agencies.
News articles and blog entries, including information from major newspapers, community weeklies, TV and radio news stations, local specialty publications and local blogs. If you can track down a local blogger who you didn’t know about, you can start pitching that blogger when you have local news to share. I found Meetups and even school reviews for Atlanta.
Fun from across the Web, including local photos posted to the Flickr photo-sharing site, user reviews of local businesses on Yelp, and lost and found postings from Craigslist. You’ll even find local deals from Groupon and ValPak.

This site is perfect for news from clubs and civic groups, schools, nonprofits, churches, political campaigns and neighborhood groups, and it’s continually updated daily throughout the day. EveryBlock welcomes you to draw a map of your own neighborhood (the example here is from Atlanta) if you don’t see it on the master list.

It differs from Patch.com because EveryBlock concentrates on larger motropolitan areas. Patch is for suburbs and outlying areas.

I’m adding EveryBlock to the long list I’ve already accumulated and shared on the webinar 50+ Places Online to Promote Your Live or Virtual Events to Reach Your Target Market & Pull Sell-out Crowds.


Share a Tip for Using EveryBlock

Are you already using EveryBlock? If so, share tips on exactly how you use it, or how it has saved time for you.

If not, how will you integrate it into your publicity campaign?

Filed Under: Blogs, Business Promotion, Newspaper Publicity, Publicity for Niche Markets, Publicity on the Internet, Publicity Resources, Social networking, Special Events Tagged With: civic groups, event marketing, everyblock, groupon, local news, online journalism, patch.com, Special Events, valpak, yelp

Pitch unusual angles, like witches, on how to sell a home

1/13/2011 By Joan Leave a Comment

The housing market, which is still flat throughout most of the U.S., offers a timely opportunity to pitch stories to journalists, broadcasters and bloggers about unusual techniques for selling homes.

This morning’s Wall Street Journal, for example, had a Page 1 story on how The Housing Slump Has Salem on a Witch Hunt Again. Buyers and sellers, worried about bad vibes from foreclosed homes, are turning to witches, feng shui consultants, psychics and priests to perform the ancient tradition known as the house cleansing.

Ringing bells, sprinkling holy water and pouring kosher salt on doorways are among ways to cleanse houses.

The media love stories like this one, and others that explain techniques like burying a St. Joseph statue. If you have compelling visuals, pitch the story to your local TV stations. And don’t forget about writing a press release and distributing it online, using relevant keywords for good SEO.

Pitch these story ideas to bloggers who write about real estate, spirituality, New Age topics, and to sales and real estate experts who blog. But make sure you and others involved in the story are willing to let their names be used.

What unusual tactics have you seen that have resulted in a home sale, or publicity?

Filed Under: Blogs, Newspaper Publicity, Pitching the Media, PR Consultants/Publicists, Press Releases/News Releases, Publicity for Niche Markets, TV Publicity

50+ (almost all free) websites to promote events

10/5/2010 By Joan 1 Comment

When it’s time to promote a live or special event, do you rely on the same old websites to spread the word?

Posting on Craigslist, Facebook and LinkedIn is a no-brainer. But if you aren’t doing much more than that, you could be missing the smaller niche websites where you can target your ideal attendees like a laser beam.

A Great Site for Musicians to Promote

For example, did you know that more than 25,000 musicians have used the free account at ArtistData.com to promote more than 4. 9 million shows, events and other news across MySpace, Twitter, Facebook and other websites that reach their niche audiences?

You can submit information about a gig and it will automatically post your music-related calendar listing to more than 25 sites. That’s a lot of eyeballs reading about you. (Thanks to my friend, indie music marketing expert Bob Baker for that tip.)

But that’s just for musicians. Major websites like Craigslist and niche sites abound for businesses, tourist attractions, authors, speakers, experts, nonprofits, sports events and more.

Join me from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, Oct. 19, for the webinar “50+ Places Online to Promote Your Live & Virtual Events to Reach Your Target Market and Pull Sell-out Crowds.”

Update on Oct. 27, 2010: I recorded the webinar and it’s now available as a download link, along with the MP3, handouts and the PowerPoint presentation I used for the video. click on the link above.

Bonus for the First 20 Registrants

The first 20 people who sign up get my handy checklist of all the sites I mention during the webinar, plus a long list of offline places to promote events.

If you aren’t among the first 20, you still get a replay link for the video, the PowerPoint slides I used during the presentation, and the MP3. I will email you the handouts the morning of the call.

This webinar is perfect for:

PR pros and publicists whose clients host events
Authors who want to promote book-signings
Experts who host teleseminars and webinars
Virtual assistants who do PR for their clients
Speakers who promote classes, workshops, training events, seminars and boot camps
Nonprofits that host fund-raisers, from neighborhood activities to black-tie charity balls
Anyone who does PR for tourist attractions like museums, parks, festivals and sporting events
PR people who promote activities at schools, colleges and universities
Event and meeting planners
Corporate PR departments that promote events for their companies
Volunteer groups that help with event promotion
Arts groups that must pull crowds to art festivals, gallery tours and meet-the-artist events
Party planners
Anyone who co-sponsors events