The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

If you’re a retailer who’s looking for some clever ways to do fun in-store promotions in this sluggish economy, and you’re on a tight budget, pick up a copy of A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions by Carolyn Howard Johnson.

It’s part of her “How to do it Frugally” series. When it comes to marketing on a shoestring, Carolyn knows all the tricks.  

On Pages 67 and 68, she lists some “frugal oopmph builders” that will also create a buzz in your community.

Here are her ideas. Many of them cost nothing or nearly nothing.  Some of them will even make your event profitable. 

• Make your event so much fun or such a good deal that people won’t want to put off their purchase until later—or better can’t because the purchase is an essential part of goings-on. A Make It and Take It event falls into this category.  (A local ceramics shop that lets people make their own pottery can host a special “Make a Jewelry Dish for Mom” event just before Mother’s Day. Invite a local reporter to bring her kids and report on it.)
       
• Provide an ambiance that’s different. Include color and scent and sound. There’s nothing more delightful than a real Christmas party with wassail, carols, and the scent of evergreen. Forget those things and it’s just another hard sell. (Include a description of the colors, scents and sounds in your press releases!)
        
• Use a unique invitation. Send your customers one adorable earring for a Ring in the New Year party. (Include an earring in the invitation you send to a local reporter or blogger.)
                      
• Let your refreshments sell additional products. Put packets of the cider you use for the cider near the punch bowl with a sign announcing the price. Have the host who ladles the punch talk about how easy it was to make and mention that the do-it-yourself packets are available for purchase. Stack tins—festively wrapped and ready to go—of the rum cakes you served up in finger-sized cubes nearby. Good signs are a must. (Off the recipe for the do-it-yourself packets to the food columnist at your local newspaper, and let her know about the in-store promotion.
      
• Feature a tasting table of all kinds of other goodies you sell. If you don’t sell foodstuffs, get someone who does to set up a table in trade for publicity at your event. (Many people will JUMP at this chance to participate because they hate doing their own publicity.)
    
• Ask favored customers to help rather than hiring extra people. It is easy to get someone to be the honored punch ladler. Reward them with a gift and a public thank you. (Send a letter to the editor of your local weekly newspaper and include the names of people and businesses you’d like to thank. Also thank them on your Facebook page, by writing on their Facebook wall, and by complimenting them at other social networking sites where they hang out. See 11 Ways to Avoid Missed Opportunities on Facebook.) 

Bricks-and-mortar store owners can find lots more tips in my article on marketing tips for hardware stores and 13 publicity ideas for retailers. 

Carolyn, by the way, has three decades of experience as founder and manager of her own chain of stores. She has also been a New York publicist, and a retail consultant and journalist. Follow her advice, then be ready for the rush of customers.

The book, published by Thinking Store Press, is $17.95.

Posted In: Blogs, Business Promotion, Newspaper Publicity, Photos & Graphics, Press Releases/News Releases, Social media marketing, Special Events
posted On: 6/26/2009: 5:15 pm: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

Several readers responded to the item I posted in yesterday’s publicity tips newsletter about how Facebook is expected to announce this week that it’s offering vanity URLs.

“What’s the big deal?” one reader asked in an email. “Anyone can already do a short URL—yours would be http://profile.to/joanstewart.”

She’s right. Facebook already has an application lets users adopt a short URL for their Profile, Group or  Page. 
    
   
Two problems with those URLs

Lots of people use those shorter versions, but I don’t like them for two reasons.

First, they aren’t memorable. A URL for a profile looks like this: http://profile.to/joanstewart  A Group URL looks something this: http://groups.to/doglovers. And a Page URL looks something like this: http://pages.to/publicityproducts.

That’s too confusing to remember. How many people, off the top of their heads, would remember the “to” part of the URL? Not many.

Second, those URLs don’t have the word “Facebook” within them. Facebook FINALLY got smart and decided to offer easy-to-remember vanity URLs that, I hope, look something like this, and are so much easier to remember: http://www.Facebook.com/joan-stewart

We won’t know for sure whether those URLs are free, or if we must pay. And we won’t know for sure exactly what they look like until we see them. Even so, they’ll probably be a whole lot better than the alternatives—the current app, or the long, unsightly URLs you’re assigned when you create a profile. It looks like this: http://www.facebook.com/people/Joan-Stewart/541605146   
       
      
Facebook teleseminar tomorrow

Speaking of apps, When I host tomorrow’s teleseminar on “11 Ways to Avoid Missed Opportunities on Facebook,” we’ll talk about a variety of apps, features and tools that many newbie Facebook users aren’t aware of. I get so  many basic questions about how to use Facebook, and many of them deal with the same things, like the confusing user interface,  that caused problems for me when I created my own profile. 

My guest, Christine Buffaloe of Serenity Virtual Assistant Services, creates and manages Facebook for many of her clients and will share lots of tactics and strategies she uses to find friends, save time, spread the word, and promote products and services the RIGHT way, without getting slapped by Facebook. 

We’ll cover things like the best way to promote events, how to create and promote Fan Pages, and how to use Facebook in conjunction with other social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and Plaxo. You’ll also learn about a few simple things you can do to give you massive exposure.

The teleseminar is from 3 to 4:10 p.m. Eastern Time. If that’s inconvenient, you can listen to the MP3 recording you’ll receive within 24 hours after the call.

Register here. Hope to see you tomorrow!

Posted In: Facebook, LinkedIn, Social media marketing, Social networking, Special Events, Twitter, Video
posted On: 6/3/2009: 4:18 pm: By Joan
Comments: 2 Comments

Dave Kadavy of Chicago, Ill. writes:

“I run a roommate-meeting event called Flatmate Meetup.  It’s kind of like speed-dating, but for roommates.  I started it in San Francisco and expanded it to Chicago. We now have almost 1,400 members between the two cities.

“We currently promote the event by posting on Craigslist where people look for roommates, but we need more brand recognition to be successful, and that audience has proven difficult to reach.  What tips do your readers have for getting the word out—to the right people—about these events?

“The target audience is mostly people in their mid-20’s to early 30’s, college grads.  I currently have the events at bars.”

Posted In: Business Promotion, Publicity for Niche Markets, Social networking, Special Events
posted On: 5/19/2009: 9:03 am: By Joan
Comments: 4 Comments

If you want to create a video for an upcoming event as part of your publicity campaign, or for a product or service you’re launching, and you’re on a tight deadline, here’s a great alternative to a talking-head video where you have to look good.

Animoto lets you produce TV-quality music videos using your own photos, or stock photos, in just minutes. You don’t need any technical expertise. If you can click the mouse, you can create a professional-looking video that has a lot of pizzazz.

I’m doing publicity for my garden club’s annual plant sale May 23. Yesterday, I created this fun little video in less than an hour and uploaded it to YouTube:

 How I did it:

• First, I chose my still photos. I took photos with my iPhone at a garden club event over the weekend. We were planting annuals inside teacups to sell at the plant sale. 
      
• Then I searched Animoto’s limited photo archive for photos of flowers.
        
• Then I bought a few stock photos from iStockPhoto.com.
      
• In Animoto, I lined them up according to how I wanted them to appear in the video.
      
• Next, I wrote all the text boxes. 
     
• When all the photos and text boxes were in place on the tiles, I clicked and dragged to rearrange them. One thing that tripped me up: When you create a text box, it appears as the first tile, right at the beginning of the video. Once you’ve added text, click and drag it to whereever you want it to appear in the sequence.
            
• When I produced the video, I chose one of Animoto’s jazz soundtracks, Blowin’ in from Chicago, from Hank Hirsh.
     
• Animoto worked its magic behind the scenes and delivered a sharp-looking video with fun transitions.

If you don’t like the way the video looks, you can ask Animoto to remix it for you. No two videos are the same, so you never know what the second version will look like.
   
  
Share your Animoto videos

Sharing your videos is a cinch. Add them to your MySpace & Facebook profiles, on your blog, email them to friends, put them up on YouTube or download them onto your computer. I uploaded mine to YouTube, added it to my Facebook profile and sent it to everyone in the garden club. Later this week, I’ll upload the video to the local TV stations’ websites.

Some of Animoto’s founders used to produce shows for MTV, Comedy Central & ABC. They studied classical music in London, played in rock bands in Seattle and developed software in Japan. They developed a patent-pending, Cinematic Artificial Intelligence that thinks like an actual editor and director.
    

How much it costs

You can create all the 30-second videos you want, for free. Each can accommodate from 12 to 15 images.

An all-access, non-commercial pass costs $30. Or buy a non-commercial three-month pass for $99. I paid $249 for an annual commercial pass which gives me several nice options the two others don’t have. First, I can remove the Animoto logo from the video. Second, I can include a button at the end that lets visitors click and visit a website. 

Animoto supports not-for-profits and other humanitarian causes with free pro accounts. You can apply at the site. 

One other thing I’ll do differently the next time I create a video. When I produced the video, Animoto gave me the option of mentioning the musician’s name and the name of the song, which I did.  But after I uploaded it to YouTube, YoutTube notified me and said I might be violating copyright. It said I don’t need to do anything but I can refute that if I so choose. I decided to do nothing.

Also, when visitors click on the link to watch the YouTube video, YouTube gives them the option of buying the music while the video is playing, which is distracting. Next time, I’ll remove the artist’s name from the video.

If you create Animoto videos, share them here. And have fun.

Posted In: Business Promotion, Facebook, Nonprofits, Photos & Graphics, Social media marketing, Special Events, TV Publicity, Video
posted On: 5/12/2009: 12:09 pm: By Joan
Comments: 19 Comments

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