The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

If you’re releasing a report on the state of your industry, what’s the purpose of writing a press release? Why not just post the information to your blog?

In fact, why even bother with press releases? Can’t blog posts serve the same function?

That’s what law firm marketing expert Kevin O’Keefe asked at Real Lawyers Have Blogs.

He will be releasing a report later this week on the use of blogs by large American law firms, and he asked:

“My question is who do I send the press release to? Don’t I accomplish the same thing by posting a blog post with the report as I always have? As a courtesy to reporters and editors, couldn’t I just email them a link to my blog post? How does a press release help them?

“Some law firms and companies use press release services such as PR Newswire or PRWeb for press releases, many in large part for Search Engine Optimization.  Getting links from such sites to your company website or blog using keywords describing your offering causes your website or blog to rank higher on such keyword searches.  But that feels a bit like a sham and I’m not looking for SEO.”
   

Write a release and a blog post

Do both.

Press releases are written much like a newspaper article would be written with “just the facts.” And, of course, you can link directly to the report and anything else you wish.

One of the big advantages of press releases is that journalists, bloggers and others can simply cut and paste from the press release and add what you’ve written to their own copy.  Blogs, on the other hand, are written in a more informal, personal style that make wholesale copying difficult.
  
A blog also serves as a great platform to comment on various aspects of the report, in one or more blog posts. So while that press releases is pulling traffic at PRWeb, your post is pulling traffic at your blog. 
         
  
How to publicize an industry report

I gave Kevin seven ideas for publicizing his report:

1. Write a press release and post it to PRWeb.  Journalists and others can also search the PRWeb site by topic.  I found eight RSS feeds at PRWeb just for legal news. So if the only place that somebody can find info on the report is at Kevin’s blog, they’ll miss it if they’re at the PRWeb site.
       
2. Let your Twitter followers, Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections know about the release. Just give an enticing headline and link to it at PRWeb. (See 11 Ways to Avoid Missed Opportunities on Facebook.)
       
3. Write a blog post that ties into the press release.  Why was the report written? Are the results surprising? Can you offer a behind-the-scenes look at the benefit of blogging for big law firms, something the press release doesn’t explain?
       
4. Post the same press release at your website, in your online press room.  You want to do this so that people who come to your website can find recent information about what you’re doing.
       
5. If you wish, you can now pitch the story to a select group of journalists and bloggers.  These can be people whose names you have collected and put into a database.  I’d create individual pitches for each journalists or blogger, customized for their audience, and then include a link where they can see the press release.
       
6. What about people on Twitter who “tweet” about law-related topics?  Don’t forget about them.  Sometimes you can get far more traction on Twitter than you can in traditional media, simply because of the retweets.
       
7. How do you find people who would be interested in the report and are most likely to retweet?  Go to Search.Twitter.com and search for #law, #lawyers, #legal and other related words, using hash tags.  Twitter will return a list of tweets written by people who have used those keywords in their posts.  You can then go to each person’s Twitter page and decide if they’re worth following.  If so, follow them.  They might follow you back.  You can then send them a direct message and let them know about your report, and link to the press release on PRWeb.
       
8. Finally, how about creating a short video, about two and a half minutes, discussing the report?  You can do this with an inexpensive Flip video camera and upload the video to YouTube, which can pull more traffic to your blog or website.

Kevin might also consider a subscription to Expertclick, the Online Yearbook of Experts. A subscription puts you in their experts directory and lets you post up to 52 press releases per year.  You can then link to these releases from your blog or the online press room at your website. That’s what I do.  Learn more at Expertclick.com.

How do you use press releases in conjunction with your blog?

Posted In: Blogs, LinkedIn, Pitching the Media, Publicity for Niche Markets, Social media marketing, Twitter, Video, YouTube
posted On: 3/8/2010: 12:32 am: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment

Jenni Bowring-McDonough of St. Paul, MN, writes:

“My husband, Tim McDonough, is a graphic artist who is now producing book trailers at Standard Book Videos.

“Because I work in publishing, I introduced him to our president who hired Tim to design several trailers (book videos) for us. That’s terrific, but Tim needs more exposure to attract more clients. He advertised in the event catalog for a regional publishers conference and he will be running an ad in ForeWord Magazine’s national online newsletter later this month. 

“We have reached out to other local publishers to introduce Tim’s business. He’s on Twitter, and we will be building a Facebook page soon. We have also reached out to other contacts via the local Book Publishers Association, but thus far, to no avail.

“I even pitched Tim’s story of reinventing himself after 20 years in broadcast news to several weeklies and dailies, but no one bit on the idea.  We have also begun branching out into web videos and hope to expand into promotional/sales web videos for small businesses. Thanks for any and all advice!”

Posted In: Advertising, Authors & Publishers, Facebook, Twitter, Video
posted On: 2/9/2010: 12:46 pm: By Joan
Comments: 8 Comments

Piggybacking onto hot celebrity gossip ranks right up there as one of the best ways to generate free publicity for your product, service, cause or issue.

But hurry. This story may be old news by the end of the week.

Here are the Top 10 ways to create free publicity for yourself by participating in the Tiger Woods conversation online and offline:

1. If you’re an expert in a topic that ties into this drama, pitch influential bloggers who are writing about the story. Explain your area of expertise and offer commentary.
       
2. Post comments at high-traffic blogs like Huffington Post that are discussing the story. Ditto at blogs written by journalists, like sports columnist Jason Whitlock whose post on Tiger’s Real Crime? Not Playing the Media’s Game attracted more than 500 comments in about two hours this morning. Weave into your comment information about your expertise. If appropriate, lead people back to your website where they can find tips, advice or a quiz that ties into the topic.
        
3. If you’re a divorce attorney who can talk about prenups, an ad agency executive who’s an expert on branding or celebrity endorsements, a crisis counselor or PR pro who can discuss PR 101, and even a minister who can offer tips on how to forgive, write a letter to the editor of local, regional and national publications where the stories are appearing.
         
4. Call your local TV stations and offer yourself as the local angle to this international story. Offer a list of short tips.
         
5. Create a short two-minute video offering advice on what others can learn from Tiger’s mess and upload it to YouTube and the other video-sharing sites. Tag it with keywords that people are using to search for information on the story.
         
6. Subscribe to free media leads services like HARO and PitchRate, or paid services like ProfNet and PRLeads, so you know about the types of sources journalists are seeking for their stories.
           
7. Offer to write a guest blog post about it, with tips and advice. BloggerLinkUp helps guest bloggers and bloggers who need guest posts find each other. 
       

8. Pitch clever angles to this story to drive-time radio show hosts. Example: A cell phone expert can pitch a story on “Got a dirty little secret? 5 ways to cover your tracks on your cell phone.”         

9. Write your own blog post that ties into Tiger Woods, include lots of outbound links, and then bookmark it at sites like Digg and Delicious. The “Top 10 Tips…” headline works well. I got the idea for this post while reading Tip #3 in Bryan Eisenbertg’s blog post on Top 3 Problems of Social Media.
           
10.  Do all of the above, and link to them from Twitter and Facebook.

If you’ve piggybacked off the Tiger Woods is story to generate free publicity for yourself or clients, or you’d like to add to this list, join the conversation.    

Posted In: Advertising, Blogs, Celebrity tie-ins, Crisis Communications, Facebook, Newspaper Publicity, PR Consultants/Publicists, Pitching the Media, Social media marketing, TV Publicity, Twitter, Video, YouTube
posted On: 12/3/2009: 1:27 pm: By Joan
Comments: 3 Comments

If you sell anything online, from dog sweaters to corporate training programs, StomperNet is the single best resource for Internet training.

I’ve been a member for two years, and there’s no way I could possibly do what I’m doing today without this group. One of the biggest complaints from my own followers, however, is that Stompernet’s $800-a-month fee is too far out of reach for most business owners. 

StomperNet has reworked its fee structure, added a whole bunch of terrific tools and resources, and they’re opening up membership tomorrow for as little as $197 a month. This is a STEAL. Depending on your level of membership, here’s what you can get:

—They’ll train you in every facet you need to be successful online, whether it’s how to make sense of the millions of social networking sites to the quickest way to edit video.

—You’ll have access to their library of more than 14,000 pieces of training, including thousands of videos that show you how to do everything from optimize your website for the search engines to make your Google pay-per-click ads convert to sales.

—They’ll teach your their strategy that’s critical to online success: the proper business model, the most profitable niche, and ensuring that you understand which are your “money” keywords.

—Their state-of-the-art portal delivers has more than 200,000 forum posts, well-organized and easy to find, that probably have 95 percent of your questions already answered.

—The 21 faculty members, some of the most successful Internet marketers on earth, answer your questions via telephone Faculty Office Hours, patrolling the StomperNet forums, or backed into a corner at a live StomperNet live event.

–If, after that, you still have questions, StomperNet members and moderators will gladly help you out in the portal.

–If you need more strategic guidance, you can get it from a StomperNet coach, either in a group setting,  or via a Mastermind group, or one-on-one.

–Live events several times a year for hands-on, in-person training.  They’ve even announced the StomperNet World Tour—18 cities next year—and StomperLocal to bring StomperNet to the rest of the world.

That’s what StomperNet WAS for three years.  And that was enough for many members to build great businesses.

But tools were missing…

But StomperNet concluded that if one thing was missing, it was tools. So they hand-picked the software and tools they considered to be MUST HAVES for online success and to create competitive advantage for your business. They’re called StomperTools and they’re included in a StomperNet Membership:

—Market Samurai: Best-in-class Market and Keyword Research tool
                     
—Traffic Geyser: An automated video submission tool to social media sites
                                 
—StomperStorm: An incredibly easy-to-use split testing and Taguchi testing tool. Use this to test two sales pages against each other to see which of two headlines, graphics or copy converts more sales.

—StomperCommerce: An easy-to-use, SEO-friendly shopping cart.

—SEOQast: A semi-automated massive ranking-oriented syndication tool.

—ArticleQast: Send your articles directly to a network of over 17,000 subscribing sites with YOUR links and link text defined

—StomperQast: Add text messaging to your integrated marketing efforts with this platform that includes text messaging, email, and social media

—CommuniQast: A telephone platform for EACH member (not VOIP). Includes a personal 800 number for inbound calls, plus conferencing, and 21 other features

—ReviewQast: Ethical reviews of your products or service from third parties, that get posted to Google Local or other review sites.

—StomperSocial: Like Tweetdeck on Steroids + Twitter Twenius training program

These tools would cost you well over $500 per month if you got them separately, and that doesn’t count over $1,000 in setup charges and fees.

Shock and Awe

But there’s more. StomperNet is piling on even more tools—worth more than $26,600—which they’re referring to as their “Shock and Awe” offer. You get ‘em if you sign up. Review them now, give StomperNet your email address, and they’ll contact you when membership open tomorrow.

Hope to see you in the StomperNet forums, on the faculty calls, and at the live events.

Posted In: Advertising, Business Promotion, Social media marketing, Video
posted On: 9/22/2009: 2:14 pm: By Joan
Comments: 2 Comments

If you’re participating in Make a Difference Day, the annual day of doing good in the U.S., let your local media and bloggers know.

Typical projects. like cleaning up neighborhoods and helping the elderly with repair projects, make great stories for newspapers and magazines, and great visuals for television, particularly if the media are part of the Gannett Company, Inc. which sponsors the event through USA Weekend magazine.  

This year, the event will be Saturday, Oct. 24. 

You can get tips about planning a volunteer project, and register your plans in the Make a Difference DAYtaBANK. This searchable database will help you recruit volunteers and get recognition for your efforts.

Once your project is registered, you become eligible to receive free breakfast for your volunteers from Newman’s Own. A total of 50 projects (one from each state) will be chosen to receive a donation of Newman’s Own Sweet Enough Cereal to feed their volunteers on Make A Difference Day. 

Don’t forget to share your Make a Difference activities with your social media friends and followers:

• Recruit volunteers from your Facebook groups, and Meetup.com.
• You can upload video after the event to Facebook, Twitter and your YouTube channel. 
• Upload photos to photo-sharing sites like Flickr.
• Update your Twitter followers throughout the day.     
• Report on activities before and after the event at your own blog.
• Thank your volunteers through newspaper and magazine letters to the editors and via social networking.

Your projects—and the accompanyhing publicity—don’t necessarily need to be grandiose. If you’re doing something to benefit your local church, for example, try to get a story into the church bulletin. If you’re helping a local nonprofit, offer to write an article for their newsletter.  

Posted In: Facebook, Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, Nonprofits, Photos & Graphics, Pitching the Media, Social media marketing, Special Events, TV Publicity, Twitter, Video, YouTube
posted On: 9/20/2009: 12:03 pm: By Joan
Comments: No Comments