The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

Some people collect LinkedIn connections like they collect pennies in a big, empty mayonnaise jar.

They add them one by one, watching the pile of names grow bigger and bigger.  They keep track of how many connections they’ve made.  And they feel pretty darn good when their list grows to 100. ..300…500 names and beyond.

People who don’t know any better view their LinkedIn connections like the rainy fund inside the mayonnaise jar.  They’ll use LinkedIn when it’s time to job-hunt.  But until then, their list of contacts just sort of sits there.

That’s because in the world of social networking, people have heard that they should never ever use LinkedIn to promote.

Don’t tell that to Scott Allen, an expert in social media and social networking and a columnist for About.com.  Since creating his LinkedIn profile four years ago, he has used LinkedIn to:

—Close a 5-figure consulting deal with a company that found him at that site.

—Find an agent for his first book, “The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals.” (You can download the book for free. It’s chock full of excellent examples.)

—Collect feedback from 100 contacts who read the draft of The Virtual Handshake.  Of those, about 80 had never met Scott face to face.  Yet he established such a strong connection with them on LinkedIn that they took the time to not only read his book but provide valuable comments.

—Generate media opportunities.  How many?  “I’ve lost count,” he says.

—Find joint venture partners.

—Connect with authors who interview him and quote him in their books.

Scott calls that promoting.  Not the in-your-face, obnoxious kind that most of us hate.  But the smart, subtle, savvy kind that makes it easy for people to find him if they need the kind of help and information he can offer.

He goes the extra mile on LinkedIn by answering questions from other LinkedIn users whenever he can. 
Add to his 500 connections an impressive 63 recommendations, almost all of them absolutely glowing.

He stresses, however, that someone on LinkedIn with only 70 or 80 really strong connections can make them go a lot farther than somebody with 500 names of people who they barely know. His own connections, I’m betting, are nothing like those forgotten pennies in the mayonnaise jar.  

Scott says Publicity Hounds who aren’t using LinkedIn to promote are missing a huge opportunity.  He’ll be my guest during two teleseminars from 3 to 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, July 16, and Thursday, July 17, called “How to Use LinkedIn to Promote Anything–Ethically and Powerfully.”

This series is limited to the first 100 people who register.  On July 16, Scott will explain how to build an impressive profile, use LinkedIn to position yourself as an expert and do all the little extras on LinkedIn that most other people don’t bother doing–things that can really make you stand out from the pack and get found by the search engines.

On July 17, he’ll walk us step-by-step through the entire process of how to use LinkedIn to promote.  He’ll even share case studies of LinkedIn members who have done just that, with great success.

If you haven’t built your LinkedIn profile yet, this teleseminar series if for you.  Even if you’ve been using LinkedIn for several years, we guarantee you’ll learn far more than you know already. 

Posted In: Authors & Publishers, Business Promotion, PR Consultants/Publicists, Publicity on the Internet, Social media marketing, Social networking
posted On: 7/1/2008: 6:56 pm: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment

Savvy Publicity Hounds are already using Twitter for business and publicity.

Twitter has become so popular, in fact, that almost daily, people are creating a variety of tools and widgets to help you Twitter faster and more effectively, and locate tweets about you and your company. But with more than 350 Twitter tools from which to choose, where do you start?

Today’s issue of Larry Chase’s excellent newsletter “Web Digest for Marketers” includes the top 18 Twitter tools and resources.

Decide which ones you want to use, and then follow me on Twitter.

See “Special Report #52: How to Use Twitter for Business to Network, Promote, Sell, Recruit & Profit.”

Posted In: General, Publicity on the Internet, Social media marketing, Social networking
posted On: 6/30/2008: 3:53 pm: By Joan
Comments: 5 Comments

Are you selling a car or real estate? Looking for someone to fill a job? Selling concert or sports tickets or miscellaneous items?

If so, take advantage of Wal-Mart’s new free classified ads which the giant retailer started offering about three weeks ago in partnership with Oodle.com, which aggregates listings from more than 80,000 local and national sites.  Wal-Mart’s new site allows visitors to search for items by city. Listings are free to buyers and sellers.

Walmart.com classifieds says it reaches more than 5 million consumers each month through a network of sites including newspapers, portals such as Lycos, and online communities such as Military.com.

Clearly, this site is a major competitor for Craigslist, a powerful publicity tool, and eBay’s Kijiji. It also means more bad news for newspapers, which have seen thousands of dollars in classified ad revenue lost to Craigslist.

Posted In: Advertising, Newspaper Publicity, Publicity on the Internet
posted On: 6/12/2008: 8:33 pm: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

If you’re a member of your local chamber of commerce and the only thing you have to show for it is the receipt for your annual dues, don’t even think about dropping out.

Because you’re a smart Publicity Hound, you have an opportunity right at your fingertips to be a star in the organization and generate so much publicity for yourself that all the other members will be scratching their heads, wondering how in the world you’ve done it. Nonprofits, this applies to you, too.

Here’s what to do.

The next time the chamber has an event that the local media won’t cover, act like a reporter and cover it yourself. Buy an inexpensive Flip video camera and interview people at the event. (The camera shown in the photo above isn’t a Flip.)

If it’s a routine chamber breakfast meeting with a speaker, interview the speaker after the presentation for a segment of two to three minutes. At the same breakfast, create another short video. Ask the chamber president to provide a brief infomercial of upcoming chamber events like the annual golf outing or street festival.

At bigger events, like the annual awards banquet, interview the Business Person of the Year. If you really want to create a stir, choose a controversial topic that chamber members are buzzing about, like a proposed sales tax increase in your state. Interview one person on each side of the issue. You’ve just created two more videos.

Import the videos into your computer, which takes a minute or two, edit them, upload them to your website, give the chamber the links to the videos, and then watch what happens.

The chamber will probably email all its members and tell them to go to your website. Many of those members will share the links with their friends. The links will end up in the next chamber newsletter. And who knows where else.

Here’s the best part. You can offer that same videos to the local newspaper, magazine and TV and radio stations for use at their websites. Print media, in particular, are hungry for user-generated video, even if it’s of events that they’ve decided not to cover.

That’s what videographer John Easton does in Charlotte, North Carolina. He covers local business events and uploads them to his blog, or to his own streaming video channel, sort of like his own TV station, and then he offers the video to local media.

Too busy to fuss with all these details?

John says every community is teaming with people who you can hire for next to nothing to shoot and edit the video for you. He explained how to find them when he was a guest on a teleseminar I conducted recently on “9 Clever Ways to Use Video to Become a Publicity Darling in Your Industry or Community.”

If you’re not a member of a chamber of commerce, you can still cover events in your community and submit the video to local media that are hungry for user-generated content.

Posted In: Blogs, Business Promotion, Citizen journalism, How to Interview, Magazine Publicity, Media Leads, Publicity on the Internet, Radio Publicity, Special Events, Video
posted On: 6/3/2008: 6:35 pm: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment

Merri Cvetan of Big Bend, Wisconsin writes:

“As an interior designer, I’m always looking for ways to drive people to my website and business. 

“I am creating a fun survey to find out the relationship between a woman’s wardrobe and the colors she decorates her home with.  I will offer a designer notebook to one or two entries.

“It won’t be scientific, but I think the results should be interesting and garner some publicity.  I can post the questionnaire on my site and at a few blog sites as well as Craigslist.  Any other suggestions on how to get it to women across the country?

Posted In: Blogs, Business Promotion, Publicity on the Internet
posted On: : 9:55 am: By Joan
Comments: 7 Comments