The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

If you’re promoting a Tweetup, an event where people who Twitter come together to meet in person, or an event that’s open to anyone regardless of whether they tweet—like a class, a book-signing, a fund-raiser, or a fashion show at a department store—check out Twtvite.

Just fill in the blanks on the screen (event name, where, when, time) and describe your event in 140 or fewer characters.

Here’s an example of an event on Friday, May 1, hosted by Hanes, where people can meet their Hanes Comfort Crew bloggers and experience the Disney Design-a-Tee Store at Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.:

After creating your event, you can also:

• Designate whether the event is public or private, and limit the number of RSVPs.
      
• See pictures of attendees
       
• People following you on Twitter can leave comments and questions.
      
• You can display all tweets related to your Tweetup (and #hashtags).
        
• Make it searchable and available to travelers via TwtTRIP.
      
• Display the location on a Google map and add it to your calendar.
       
• Embed the invitation on your website.

Smart Publicity Hounds should be able to think of all kinds of uses for this.

Public speakers can promote public and private speaking engagements and training sessions. Musicians can promote concerts. Artists can advertise art shows and gallery openings. Tourist attractions can use it to promote upcoming events. Retailers can promote special sales and open houses. Anyone who hosts fund-raisers can reach many more attendees and donors than through traditional media—and for free!

A hat tip to PR pro Judy Lederman, who I love to follow on Twitter, for sharing this. She says she likes Twtvite for these reasons:

“It’s shotgun—an alternative to a more targeted evite (which would be hard to send to ALL your Twitter followers).

“It’s green—no paper needed.

“It’s a wonderful way to facilitate meetings with all the random people you’ve been blasting to on Twitter. It’s always fun to meet people you’ve interacted with online.

“And yes, the events are live—although it could work for virtual meetings I suppose. But the whole point is to invite tweeps to brick and mortar events.  This is the element that is currently a bit weak in Twitter—creating the “bridge”—but apps like this will help facilitate it and hopefully assist retailers in building business.”

How will you be using Twtvite to promote your events? 

Posted In: Authors & Publishers, Business Promotion, Nonprofits, PR Consultants/Publicists, Publicity Resources, Social media marketing, Special Events, Twitter
posted On: 4/29/2009: 3:55 pm: By Joan
Comments: 2 Comments

If you’re planning a special event like an industry convention or a speaking engagement, even a teleseminar, invite the Twitter community to buzz about it.

At the opening session, announce from the stage or your teleseminar call  that participants who tweet about the event should use a hashtag, and then tell them what tag you want them to use.

A hash tag is the character # followed by a short word that describes the event, or a particular topic, on Twitter. 

For example, at the Stompernet Internet marketing event I attended over the weekend, audience members were asked to mark their tweets by typing “#Stompernet” within each one.

That makes it easy for other attendees, and even people who didn’t attend the event, to go to Twitter’s search box at  and type in “#Stompernet” and find all the tweets about the event, like this:

You might be wondering: Why would Stompernet want the rest of the world to take advantage of information at an event that only members and their guests can attend?

Here’s why:

—It creates interest in their membership site. I guarantee that if you search for all the “#Stompernet” tweets and read them, you will find at least three tips you can start using today to increse your bottom line. (Membership in Stompernet is closed but will reopen later this year. If you’re interested in joining, please email me and I’ll make sure I notify you when membership opens.) 

—Many of the thousands and possibly millions of people on Twitter who are following all the Stompernet members who are tweeting about the great speakers and tips are “retweeting” the tips to THEIR followers, and so on, thereby exposing potentially millions more people to Stompernet.

—No more whining that “The Daily Tattler didn’t cover our event, boo-hoo.” By using hashtags, you turn your entire audience into journalists and let THEM report on the event for you. Often, their reach on Twitter will be far greater than the reach of many top-tier media outlets like CNN and the New York Times. Plus, those tweets are online forever, just waiting for the search engines to find them.  

How do you use hashtags for publicity and promotion? Share your best tips.

Posted In: Pitching the Media, Publicity Resources, Publicity on the Internet, Social networking, Special Events, Twitter
posted On: 3/10/2009: 11:54 am: By Joan
Comments: 3 Comments

When somebody uses Google to search for a person with your expertise, and types in “time management expert” or “leadership expert” or “parenting expert” or “(fill in the blank) expert,” does your name show up near the top of the list of search results?

Does it even show up on Page 1 of the results?

If not, here’s a powerful way to land a spot on Page 1. If you’re already on Page 1 for your website or blog, you can use this same trick to generate another listing on Page 1. 

Use a service like Expertclick: The Online Yearbook of Experts to appear near the top of the list. As you can see below, my Expertclick subscription which includes my expert profile, gives me a #3 ranking for the term “publicity expert,” just behind the #1 ranking for my website and the #2 ranking for the bio in my online press room. 

This drives my competitors crazy.

 
Send releases free for a week 

Here’s the great part. Mitchell Davis, who owns Expertclick and NewsReleaseWire.com, is letting anyone take a free test drive for a full week, with no commitment to subscribe.

I recommend you take advantage of his offer and create a profile. Then start writing and distributing several press releases. You can distribute up to 52 a year with a paid subscription, in addition to getting a listing in the Yearbook of Experts, which journalists search frequently when they’re looking for sources.

Your profile won’t land you on Page 1 of Google instantly because Google probably won’t index the page for several more weeks. But if you stick with the service, you’ll most likely make it onto Page 1 of Google for the phrase ”(fill in th blank) expert,” assuming that you use it within your Expertclick profile. The search engines view Expertclick as an authoritative site. That’s why you’ll rank high.

I’ve written about how Adam Armbruster’s Expertclick listing gives him the #1 spot on Google for “TV advertising expert” and “television advertising expert.” Tim Walsh is #1 for “toy expert.” And Debra Holtzman has the #1, #2 and #3 spots for “child safety expert,” thanks to Expertclick.

 
Sign up by Feb. 19

To take a test drive, you have until the end of tomorrow, Thursday, Feb. 19, to sign up:

—Call Mitch at 202-333-5000 and ask him for The Publicity Hound special. He’ll set it up for you so you can see how the service works—with no commitments to subscribe.  (They answer their own phones.) 

—Or set it up yourself by clicking here. Choose the Gold Level.  Then complete the “Participant” information for the person who the account will be bout and the ”Subscriber” info for the person in charge of the account.  Check the credit card box, but don’t enter your number because you aren’t paying for this.

In the “Special Offer” box enter: “Free Week from Publicity Hound.”  Then click on “Create Your Press Room Page” and you’ll able to edit instantly.  Once they approve your account, you’ll be able to start sending press releases.  Their terms of service apply, so be sure to read them. 

 
Use Expertclick to bury bad news

If you’re ever in a bad news situation, you can ”push down” or bury the bad news on the search listings by using a service like this one to distribute several press releases on different topics. Because your press releases are more current than your older, bad news, they will usually be closer to the top of the list.

Posted In: Business Promotion, Press Releases/News Releases, Publicity Resources, Publicity on the Internet
posted On: 2/18/2009: 3:43 pm: By Joan
Comments: 4 Comments

One of my newsletter readers writes:

“We’ve used PRWeb a couple times for press releases.  The first time, last summer, resulted in a few small market radio show interviews.  The second release, this past week, which seemed to be more likely to gain some attention, resulted in nothing.  Zero.  We realize that a press release needs to be written well and newsworthy to get coverage, but also wonder if a release is more likely to get lost in the media sea through a service like PRWeb.

“In your experience, do you find EReleases.com more effective?  Or is there an even better service that may cost the same ($399) or less?”

The writer is making the Number One mistake that many people make with press releases: using them to catch the attention of journalists. Here’s what I told the reader:

“You’re using online press releases incorrectly.  In the vast majority of cases, you cannot rely on online press releases for media hits.  Why?  Because that’s what everybody else is doing.  And a one-size-fits-all-media-outlets press release ends up appealing to no media outlets, many of which are different.  The far better way to generate publicity is through customized pitches to a targeted list of media outlets, either from you or from a publicist. (See How to Create a Media Plan.)

“The big advantage to online press releases is that you can use them to pull in lots of traffic to your website.  How can you measure results from such a release? Two ways:

“Within the release, you use a URL that leads people to a landing page at your website that was created specifically for that press release.  Then you check your web stats to see how many people have visited.

“You also set as a goal how many additional email addresses you want to gather as a result of that press release.  You are collecting email addresses at your website, I hope? I use the Hover Ad Creator, special HTML coding that creates the box that bounces down from the top of the screen at my website. This simple box TRIPLED sign-ups to my newsletter as soon as I started using it.”

Sure, the media can find your press releases online and, in some cases, you generate publicity. But the percentage of success stories is slim. Anyone who is serious about using online press releases should subscribe to Expertclick, the Online Yearbook of Experts which will also let them distribute press releases. I’ve been a subscriber for several years and you can see some of the Expertclick press releases I’ve posted.

Two other huge advantages of Expertclick:

—A subscription automatically gives you a spot in the online Yearbook of Experts which journalists use frequently when looking for specific types of sources. I’ve interviewed dozens of Publicity Hounds who have been interviewed as a result of their Yearbook profiles.

—Because the search engines view Expertclick as an authoritative site, my Expertclick profile gets excellent ranking when someone types “publicity expert” into Google. In fact, I have the top three positions for that keyword phrase. The first position is the homepage at my website. The second is to the bio at my website.  The third is my Expertclick profile.

So, in effect, I’ve trounced my competitors for this keyword phrase, and I’m working hard to secure the fourth position. How well do you trounce your competitors? Are you even on the first page of Google?

If not, an Expertclick subscription could put you there. In addition to your profile, you can post up to 52 press releases a year at no additional per-release charge.

This week is an ideal time to give Expertclick a try because Mitchell Davis,  who runs www.NewsReleaseWire.com and Expertclick, wants you to “taste” his service and send press releases this week without cost or obligation. You can get a free week to send releases and create a Press Room Page about your business.  See their video about how it all works. You must respond by Thursday, Feb. 19. Call them at 202-333-5000 during Eastern Time office hours and for the “Free Week from Publicity Hound,” and they can set it up for you.

Posted In: Pitching the Media, Press Releases/News Releases, Publicity Resources, Publicity on the Internet
posted On: 2/16/2009: 3:14 pm: By Joan
Comments: 3 Comments

If you sell a consumer product that has a celebrity connection, or supports a good cause, you’ll be able to pitch your product to the media, face to face, at a media event on Wednesday, April 1, in New York City.

Two shows—The Celebrity Connections Media Event and the Good Causes Media Event—will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the New York Marriott Marquis. Registration is $1,250 for up to 2 company representatives to attend.

Journalists are always looking for a great angle when it comes to covering new products, and many journalists are looking for products with a celebrity connection. The celebrities event will showcase:

—Products celebrities love like the jewelry that pop R&B star Rihanna is shown wearing at left
—Products they’ve endorsed
—Products from a celebrity product line (Rihanna also has her own line of umbrellas)
—Products that have been in a movie or TV show
—Products that have appeared in a paparazzi snapshot

Exhibitors at last spring’s media event met and talked to representatives from more than 70 media outlets including “Good Morning America,” “Every Day with Rachael Ray,” Working Mother, Real Simple, People, O at Home, Lifetimetv.com, Bridal Guide, CosmoGirl!, Country Home, Parents magazine and Playgirl magazine.

The good causes event calls itself “an intimate showcase of products that do good deeds.” It will feature products that have an association with a good cause or charitable organization, from saving the rain forest to literacy, solving world hunger and helping the homeless.

The show is limited to 50 exhibitors and offers agency discounts. If you’re going, be sure to read the helpful tip sheet for exhibitors. If you’re not going, remember to piggyback off celebrity news and gossip, regardless of what you’re selling. This blog has an entire category of posts on celebrity tie-ins. Also see “Special Report #50: How to Piggyback onto Celebrity News to Promote Your Product, Service, Cause or Issue.”

Posted In: Business Promotion, Celebrity tie-ins, Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, Pitching the Media, Publicity Resources, TV Publicity
posted On: 2/15/2009: 10:50 am: By Joan
Comments: No Comments