The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

If you’re trying to get onto one of the big morning TV talk shows to promote a product, tie it to a current event—and then sweeten your pitch by offering similar products.

That’s what Liz Murphy of Formula PR in el Segundo, California did. Several month sago, she pitched the morning TV talk shows on behalf of her client, FatCatInc.com,  which makes pet toys. To make the story more enticing, she offered photos of other pet-related items with a political twist, including those from PoliticalPartyPets.com and RuffRuffandMeow.com.

Publicity Hound Lisa Solomon of Political Party Pets emailed me yesterday and was shocked that her company was mentioned during a six-minute segment on political items on the “Today” show yesterday.

“Liz contacted me six weeks ago and asked me to send her some high-resolution images of the Political Party Pets items to include in her pitch,” she said. “Her pitches also resulted in getting my company exposure in a Florida newspaper and on a Florida morning TV show. She rocks!”

Liz’s strategy, which also got her client onto the third hour of ”Good Morning America” on the Internet,  was incredibly smart and follows the advice given by Lissa Warren, who was my guest during a teleseminar on “How to Get onto the Morning TV Talk Shows.” If you’re pitching those shows, or any journalists or broadcasters for that matter, make their job easy. Let them know about other products similar to yours. 

Lisa, of course, can return the favor, and mention Fat Cat Inc. and Ruff Ruff and Meow in her pitches.

Posted In: Business Promotion, Pitching the Media, TV Publicity
posted On: 11/4/2008: 4:34 pm: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment

If you have a consumer product that would make a great gift for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Graduation Day, or the holidays, try to get into one of the many holiday gift sections featured by newspapers and magazines, or featured in holiday gift coverage on TV and radio.

Most of this coverage does NOT require that you buy an ad. And in many cases, the coverage can be far more effective than advertising. 

Posted In: Authors & Publishers, Holidays, Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, Photos & Graphics, Pitching the Media, Publicity Resources, Publicity on the Internet, Radio Publicity, TV Publicity
posted On: : 1:50 pm: By Joan
Comments: 2 Comments

Life coaches often complain that they have a difficult time generating publicity, perhaps because life coaches seem to be everywhere.

But Publicity Hound David Bohl, of Milwaukee, a life coach and former venture capitalist, made it happen, with some help from a sharp publicist. David was the expert sources for a more than three-minute interview on a Milwaukee TV station. That turned into another interview. His publicist, Gail Sideman of PUBLISIDE Personal Publicity in Milwaukee, explains: 

“It’s Publicity 101 and  something about which you talk all the time: piggyback onto a current event.  In this case, it’s the slumping economy.

“I started writing a series of Twitter for David to release every half hour-hour a couple of days ago.  It got some responses, which for a first time with a Twitter campaign, I thought was good.

“I took the Twitter tips and created a tip sheet/news release.  With that in-hand, I made some calls to local television outlets. I had immediate interest from two of four stations. One of WTMJ’s producers emailed me in about an hour and requested the interview.

“One interview turned into two.  Anchor Charles Benson liked David’s information so much, he asked him to hang around a few minutes until he got off the air.  Benson then did a separate interview with David that was supposed to air at 10 p.m., yesterday, but I think got bumped for breaking news.  This is something that still can air in the next few days if the station chooses.

“I think David created a nice trust element with Charles Benson and the people at WTMJ (I got great feedback from the producer), so thus far, the effort is working nicely.  Not that I hope the market continues to tank, but I’ll use this angle as long as I can!”

She thought of other ways for David to keep the publicity train chugging down the track:

• He hosted a free teleconference on how to weather the finanacial crisis without becoming emotionally overwhelmed.
• At her urging, he wrote a letter to the editor and submitted it to the Wall Streeet Journal, in response to a story that said family time is one casualty of the economic crisis.

The gloomy economy presents opportunities galore for smart Publicity Hounds everywhere, not just life coaches. Here are five more ideas:

1. Create videos offering advice and upload them to the dozens of video-sharing sites using  TrafficGeyser, a program that will save you hundreds of hours of time uploading to dozens of sites.
2. If you can’t get onto your local TV news, submit amateur videos to the stations for use on their websites. Also submit them to local newspapers, which are hungry for user-generated video.
3. Pitch influential bloggers with tips on how people can save time and money and keep their sanity when times are bad.  
4. Subscribe to one of the publicity leads services that send queries from journalists who are looking for specific types of sources for stories. They’ll be writing and broadcasting thousands of stories on the economy, particularly if we head into a recession.
5. Think far beyond traditional media and target niches such as ezine publishers.

Save the fretting for your financial statements. But be optimistic about your chances to create publicity that piggybacks onto the economy and any other trend.

Posted In: Business Promotion, PR Consultants/Publicists, Pitching the Media, TV Publicity, The Local Angle, Twitter
posted On: 10/17/2008: 9:44 am: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment

Can’t think of a story to pitch about your business, nonprofit or government agency?

Thanks to TV producer Shawne Duperon’s excellent newsletter Shawne’s TV Guide, for this timely story idea: politics in the workplace.

Shawne suggests you pitch the idea to your local TV stations, daily and weekly newspapers, and bloggers who cover your industry. It’s too late for trade publications but still a great opportunity for publicity in business journals.

Shawne suggests these talking points:

• Is it safe to talk politics in the office?
• Is it unavoidable?
• How loud and frequent is the conversation in your workplace?
• Does your organization have a policy about discussing politics with clients or customers?
• What’s the proper office etiquette?

I suggest these:

• Do you have policies governing T-shirts, campaign buttons and bumper stickers inside the office?
• Are you a sole proprietor? If so, do you ever discuss politics with your clients or customers? If not, would you consider discussing it if you knew that you and a client or customer are backing the same candidate? 
• Do you make your political affiliation known on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, and comment about things like the presidential debates and the campaigns? Have you gotten any flack from people who following you and disagree?
• What about LinkedIn, the social networking site that’s strictly for business? If somebody asks a question on LinkedIn about something pertaining to politics, do you make your political views know without fear of alientating your connections? I’ve seen a few political questions that have led to political debates that have no businesses on a site like this one. 

Keep this story idea in mind for when you’re creating your publicity plan or media plan in the years ahead, even when you have hot local or statewide contests. 

Shawne is one of my favorite Publicity Hounds. We teamed up and brainstormed more than 200 story ideas you can pitch to print and broadcast media when we presented teleseminars on 116 WOW Story Ideas from January through June and 103 Sizzling Story Ideas from July through December. 

Posted In: Blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Newspaper Publicity, Nonprofits, Pitching the Media, Social networking, TV Publicity, Twitter
posted On: 10/2/2008: 11:39 am: By Joan
Comments: 5 Comments

Too many Publicity Hounds are still chasing after top-tier newspaper reporters, national magazine editors, the highest rated TV talk show hosts and major market radio deejays, hoping that if they mention you, you’ll make it big.

Problem is, so are thousands of other publicity seekers. And because lots of those big media outlets reach a general audience of millions, you’d better have a damn good pitch.

Sometimes you’d be far better off targeting niched newsletter editors, ezine publishers, discussion forums, bloggers and Internet marketers who have a decent-size email list of people who are also your target audience. Many of these “journalists” and “publishers” have followers all over the world, unlike many mainstream media that reach regional audiences, or mostly people in one country.

BL Ochman’s 12 Tenet’s of Social Media Marketing is sort of 12 Commandments for those seeking publicity online. Tenet #2 reads: Though shalt cover all media.

Today media is a collective term for the producers of content for mass and, yea, also for niche consumption. Thou must niche or be niched. Thy niches may include surly teenagers in fly-over states, as well as disgruntled consumers. To communicate with them successfully you must approach them from the right perspective.

Thou shalt not piss them off by ignoring or patronizing them, for if thou do, they shalt bite you on the ass.

If you pitch big-time media you need to have big-time story ideas. However, despair not because these days everyone with a web site, newsletter, blog, e-zine, Mail List or forum is a journalist.

So how do you find these niche audiences? Here are a few suggestions:

—Asked a question on LinkedIn. For example, I would ask, “Can someone recommend the best print newsletters, ezines, blogs, discussion forums and websites that target people who want to promote a product, service, cause or issue?” The LinkedIn community responds quickly, and many LinkedIn users provide thoughtful and very helpful answers.  

—Ask the same question on Facebook and Twitter. The more friends and followers you have, the more responses you’re likely to get.  

—Google. Do a search for keywords and keyword phrases and see what you can find.

—Search at Technorati. This search engine will let you know which bloggers are discussing your topic.

—Create Google Alerts for your topics. You can read more about how to use Google Alerts and how to Google reporters, bloggers before pitching. (Also see Let bloggers create publicity for you.)

—Search for electronic newsletters. New-List.com lists almost 9,000 ezines.

Follow through on just one of those suggestions and you’re likely to find new media that are dying to hear what you havce to say.

Posted In: Blogs, LinkedIn, Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, Pitching the Media, Publicity Resources, Publicity for Niche Markets, Publicity on the Internet, Radio Publicity, Social networking, TV Publicity, Twitter
posted On: 9/14/2008: 7:47 am: By Joan
Comments: 4 Comments