When I hosted the recorded webinar last week on How to Use Twitter Lists & Directories to Promote Your Expertise and Build Your Brand,  I encouraged participants to get onto as many Twitter lists as possible because lists are a powerful form of free advertising. 

One of my suggestions was to write a blog post telling readers the types of lists where you’d be a perfect fit, and then suggesting that they add you to existing lists on those topics, or create new ones.

But before you do that, it’s helpful to first find out how people on Twitter perceive you.  This will give you other ideas to add to the list of topics on which you’re an expert, and some of them might surprise you. The instructions below are included on the handouts from last week’s webinar, and the entire package is available here.

To see whose lists you’re on:

• Log into your Twitter account
    
• Go to your Home page
    
• Look in the upper right corner, near your gravatar, for the word “Listed.” It will tell you how many lists you’re on.
    
• Click on it. You’ll see all the names of the lists and the gravatars of the people who created them. The names of the lists will be in bold.

Scan the list and you should start to see a pattern. The screenshot above shows some of the 668 lists I’m on. Many of the lists are devoted to PR, publicity, marketing communications, book marketing and social media.

Now that you have a good idea how you’re perceived, write a blog post like this one, suggesting that your Twitter followers add you to their lists on certain topics.
    
   
Add Me to These Lists

Here are topics for other lists you can consider adding me to, based on many of the other lists on which I appear:

Writing or Writers

Editing or Editors

Journalists or Journalism

Marketing

Authors

Business Women

Small Business

Online Marketing

Digital Marketing

Self-promotion

Shoestring Marketing

Book Publicity

Resources for Authors

Inspiring Quotes

Humor

Entrepreneurs

Advertising/Marketing

PR Pros

Press Releases

Blogging or Bloggers

Dog Jokes (I include a dog joke in each issue of The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week, my free weekly ezine, and often share it on Twitter)
     
     
Other Ways to be Included on Twitter Lists

1. Tweet helpful, relevant content frequently and forego the “here’s what I’m doing today” tweets. Help people solve their problems!

2. Add yourself to your own lists if you’re a perfect fit. Remember that other people will be subscribing to your lists. If you’re a small business expert, for example,  and somebody is following your list of small business experts, you want to be on it.

3. Include a short blurb in your email signature suggesting that people add you to their lists, with a link to your Twitter page.

4. Ask! Don’t be shy about suggesting that people add you to a particular list they’ve created. They might be grateful that you’ve helped them grow their lists.

Be sure to reciprocate. Welcome requests from other people who ask you to put them on your lists.

What other ways do you use Twitter lists? Is there anything about lists that you don’t understand? Sharre your own tips here on how to get onto other people’s lists.

You can lump groundbreaking ceremonies, check-passings and ribbon-cuttings into one category.

They’re tired, lifeless events staged for the media and to stroke the organizers’ egos. Smart Publicity Hounds avoid them at all costs.

But if you absolutely MUST have a groundbreaking event because your boss demands it, here’s a different twist on a tired theme. It’s courtesy of Lois Kirkpatrick of the Fairfax County Department of Family Services in Fairfax, Va. Lois submitted a “Help This Hound” question for my blog and ezine a few weeks ago, and got some great ideas from my readers about alternatives to cliche groundbreaking ceremonies.

When Lois emailed her question to me, she mentioned a clever idea for a groundbreaking her department hosted several years ago that actually resulted in fabulous publicity in her local weekly newspaper.

Deborah Lott of Giddings, Texas, writes:
  
“My husband and I opened a casual pizza and Italian restaurant in the small Texas town of Giddings, population 5,000, on Hwy. 290, a major highway between Austin and Houston.
   
“We have been open for only six months and are having a hard time getting local residents to dine here.  Money is tight so advertising has been minimal. 

“We are open to any and all ideas to help us keep our doors open. The first three months we were open, we were doing great, but this summer has been a hardship.”

Have ideas for Deborah? Please share them below. And then email me you rown “Help this Hound” question. 

When you land a big story in a magazine, it’s all too easy to become giddy with excitement, and miss doing the hard work necessary to “publicize the publicity” and turn one media hit into what can become multiple hits.

Order Reprints
You never know when you might need reprints of the article.  So it would be worth your while to order as many copies of the June issue of Golf Digest as you can afford, or see if the magazine sells reprints.  Many larger magazines have reprint services.
   
Pitch the Inflight Magazines
The target audience for these publications—business people and frequent travelers—is perfect for you!  How about offering the magazines a list of tips on how golfers can lose weight?  In your pitch, mention the June article.
  
Here’s a powerful tip for really catching the editor’s attention. If you helped a golfer from an area that’s served by the magazine, mention it in your pitch. For example, if you worked with an Australian golfer who’s fairly well-known, mention that when you pitch Qantas magazine, which serves Australia. 
  

I’ve been inundated with questions from Publicity Hounds about how to use Twitter lists. 

Lists are all the rage right now, for so many reasons.

They save you time two major ways. First, they help you categorize, group and isolate the tweets of people within a specific industry, niche or topic so you don’t have to search through your miles-long Twitter feed for their tweets. Lists also one of the most powerful research tools on the planet if you’re looking for experts within a niche. 
  
They help you spy on your competitors and let you know instantly which influential people they’re following on Twitter. Lists also help position you as an expert in your field. I’m on 660 lists, many devoted to the topics of PR, publicity and social media.  That’s a ton of free advertising!

When I host the webinar How to Use Twitter Lists & Directories to Generate Publicity and Build Your Brand on Thursday, Aug. 26, I’ll be discussing and illustrating dozens of tips, including these five ways to use Twitter lists in a publicity or PR campaign. You can use some of these tips even if you aren’t tweeting:

1. Save hours of time researching  journalists, broadcasters, Internet radio hosts, freelancers, beat reporters, editors and others by looking for lists that other people on Twitter have created. Within seconds, you can even find lists of journalists in specific cities, like this list of Milwaukee media that Tom Snyder, president of a Milwaukee web design company, created on Twitter. (You can do this even if you aren’t tweeting.)
     
2.  Want to get in front of influential bloggers who write about a particular topic? Save hours of time by finding them on Twitter lists that other people have created. (You can do this even if you aren’t tweeting.) 
     
3.  If your favorite journalists, or journalists who you want to notice you, are on Twitter, and you have a Twitter account, create a “(Fill in the blank) Journalists” list  and add them. If you have a food-related story to pitch, for example, and you want to get in front of food journalists, add them to a “Favorite Food Journalists” list. And then let them know you’ve done so. They’ll be flattered. This is a great way to start a relationship with journalists before you pitch them. 
      
4. Position yourself as a super-valuable source. Let journalists or bloggers who are interviewing you know about Twitter lists you’ve created where they can find other sources on a specific topic. They’ll love you for doing this!
      
5. Pull journalists to your Twitter profile by including links to your own Twitter lists in your online media room.

I’ll be sharing more tips like these, and giving you step-by-step directions on how to use Twitter lists and directories, during the webinar. If you can’t make it, register anyway and I’ll send you the replay link where you can watch the video, as well as the MP3 link if you’d rather listen on your iPod.

As a special bonus, you’ll also get my special report “How to Use Twitter for Business to Network, Promote, Sell, Recruit & Profit.”

This webinar is filling up fast because Twitter lists are such a hot topic. Hope to see you there.

Lois Kirkpatrick of Fairfax, Va., writes:   

“I work for a large county government that has a variety of groundbreaking/grand opening events.   

“The facilities range from libraries, parks and public safety buildings to homeless shelters and mental health centers.  

“What are some things we can do instead of the dreaded VIPs-holding-shovels groundbreakings and VIPs-holding-scissors ribbon-cuttings?  I’m looking for general ideas that can be applied to most types of facilities.”

If you aren’t using surveys in your business, you’re missing a chance to read your customers’ minds.

Surveys will let you outsmart your competitors,  generate publicity that pulls traffic to your website and blog, and know immediately which products and services your market wants, how people want them delivered, and how much they’re willing to pay.

Yesterday’s webinar hosted by survey expert Jeanne Hurlbert was filled with valuable take-aways that can help any business or nonprofit  do more with less, despite the crummy economy.

You can sign up to listen to the free replay of “Your Cash-Generating Crystal Ball: How to Use Simple Surveys to Read Your Prospects’ and Customers’ Minds, Build Lists, Create Products, and Make Money.”  Keep a pen and paper close by, because you’ll be taking lots of notes.

I watched the webinar and listed these seven ways Publicity Hounds can use surveys for publicity and to build their businesses:

1. Speakers and trainers, deliver a mobile survey to your audience while you’re on stage, at the start of your presentation. Ask them what they want to learn, and weave the answers to their questions into your program. You’ll look like a hero on the stage!
2. Use a customer profile survey to find out what business problems keep your customers up at 3 a.m. Then create products and services that help them solve the problems.
3. To find joint-venture partners. Once you create that new product or service, a simple survey of no more than five questions can results in hundreds of leads that include names and contact information for people who’d like to help you promote it for a commission.
4. Conduct an annual survey relating to an interesting, hot or controversial topic in your industry. Brian Kluth, a former church pastor, takes an annual “State of the Plate” survey to see if church giving is up or down.  More than 150 media outlets have covered his survey results.  You can see his press release, read the survey results and see the array of dozens of media logos at his website.
5. Conduct a survey that relates to your product or service, ties into an upcoming holiday, and reports on how people behave. One of my favorites is the survey taken several years ago by Iams, the pet food company, on the relationship between people and their pets. It found that more than 90 percent of respondents surveyed admitted saying “I love you” to their pets. The survey results were released several weeks before Valentine’s Day, and the story was covered by top-tier media outlets and picked up by the Associated Press.
6. To gather dozens of instant testimonials. In a customer profile survey, you can ask respondents about specific products and services, or general comments about things like your customer service. You can use those responses as testimonials on sales pages, at your website, and in marketing materials. That’s what I did when Jeanne created my customer profile survey for me 18 months ago.

How to Avoid Survey Suicide

Jeanne also shared tips on how to avoid what she calls “survey suicide.”

The first questions on your survey should never ask respondents for information about demographics. Do that, and they’re likely to abandon the survey.

You must get them engaged immediately, and Jeanne showed exactly how to do that.

If you think have a good idea for a survey you want to conduct, or even if you have no idea about what you can ask your target market, sign up to watch the 77-minute replay. By the time you’re halfway done, you’ll have all kinds of ideas of how to use surveys to build your business.

Important: At the end, Jeanne made a special offer that expires at  5 p.m. Eastern Time tomorrow, Aug. 14.

UPDATE on Aug. 16 at 9:38 p.m. Central:

I just learned that Jeanne is extending her offer again because so many people who wanted to listen to the webinar were on vacation. Listen by clicking the link above  but do it before 5 p.m. Central Time on Wednesday, Aug. 18. If you snooze, you lose!

If you’re new to hosting webinars, the team at SocialBrite.org has a very helpful summary of 10 steps for planning a successful webinar.

It includes nine ways to promote your webinar. I took their list and added to it. Most of these ideas will also work when promoting teleseminars. Here’s their list of suggestions on how to promote:

1. At your website.

2. On online event calendars such as Upcoming.com

3. Relevant listservs

4. In print and online newsletters

5. On Twitter channels

6. In Facebook groups

7. As a local event for nonprofits (SocialBrite.org specializes in teaching social media to nonprofits).

8. On Web pages that promote webinars in your industry.

9. At the end of current webinars.

Here are my own ideas

I added to their list and came up with 12 of my own ideas:

10. On Craigslist, but only on the list for the city that’s closest to where you live. (See How to Use Craigslist as a Global Publicity Tool.)

11. In the events or calendar sections in traditional media, including newspapers, magazines, trade journals and business journals.

12. In an online press release. (See Keywords: The Magic Magnets That Pull Consumers & Journalists to Your Press Releases.)

13.  On the websites of local newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations.

14. In videos, where you can excerpt tips and lead viewers to the sign-up page. Upload the video to video sharing-sharing sites.

15. At your guest experts’ blogs, at their websites, in their newsletters, and on their social media sites.

16. Create an Event on Facebook, and share with your Friends and Fans. (See 11 Ways to Avoid Missed Opportunities on Facebook)

17. In an email blast to your opt-in list, and the lists of your guest experts.

18. In a podcast.

19. At the end of a quiz you create around the topic of the webinar.

20. In targeted ads on Facebook and LinkedIn.

21. If you have an affiliate program, encourage your affiliates to promote the event, using their affiliate links.

Add to this list

Did I miss any? How do you promote your webinars and teleseminars, and which are the most effective?

What about paid ads? Have you used them,
and are they effective?

My Next Webinar: How to Use Twitter Lists

I’m presenting “How to Use Twitter Lists to Generate Publicity & Build Your Brand” at 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, Aug. 26.   This one-hour webinar is perfect for anyone who hasn’t yet started using Twitter lists, or for Twitter users who aren’t sure how to get the most out of their lists.

Everyone who attends will also receive a bonus special report I wrote on “How to Use Twitter for Business to Network, Promote, Sell, Recruit & Profit,” a $10 value, as well as slides of the PowerPoint presentation I’m using for the video, a link for the streaming video and the video download, and the MP3 recording.  So if the time is inconvenient for you, register anyway and you can watch it afterward at a time most convenient for you.

Register here.

If you’re around today, Thursday, Aug. 5, join Steve Harrison for a free webinar (or teleseminar) and discover 12 strategies you can use to get more publicity. It’s called “Discover the Secrets of the Publicity Superstars & Get a Lot of Media Coverage.”

The call is at 2 and 7 p.m. Eastern.

Steve will be talking about things you can do right away to score more media coverage including:

• What one Publicity Hound did get on Fox News Channel repeatedly.
• A clever thing Robert Kiyosaki did to catapult sales for his bestselling book “Rich Dad Poor Dad.”
• The two types of stories you need to tell if you want to sell more on radio shows.
• Publicity strategies you can glean from watching Donald Trump, Suze Orman and Dr. Oz.

You’ll learn some great stuff so I hope you can make it.  The call is part of a free series of calls that Steve is offering to promote the National Publicity Summit Oct. 20-23 in New York City, where 100 pre-qualified Publicity Hounds will be able to meet dozens of journalists and broadcasters face-to-face and deliver a pitch.

I’m promoting the summit as an affiliate, because I’ve received great feedback from people whose topics were a perfect fit for the event.  If your topic is better suited to trade publications, or niche publications, you probably won’t be accepted.

Register for today’s call. If the time is inconvenient for you, recruit somebody to listen and take notes.

The next time you’re looking for a topic for your blog, ask yourself these three questions, suggested by small business marketing coach Sydni Craig-Hart in 5 Simple Steps to Generate Relevant Content for Your Blog:

1. What’s keeping your clients up at night?
 
2. What’s the biggest challenge or problem they’re facing right now?

 3. What information and resources do you have to share to make their lives easier?

Here’s what I love about those questions. 

For each one, you can probably come up with more than one answer. Three answers equals three blog separate blog posts. Eight answers? Eight posts. 

Here are four more questions I’d like you to consider when trying to find content:

4. What question have I received from someone recently in my email?

Pay attention to ALL questions in your email. When you answer, cut and paste it into a new blog entry, and then elaborate and, if appropriate, link to resources.  

5. What’s the most frequent question beginners in my niche are asking? If I’m a speaker, I’d ask myself, what’s the Number One question that beginners in my audiences are asking? 

Keep a running tally of all these questions, and use them when you need blog content. Never assume that just because you know the answer, it isn’t interesting to others who follow you.

6. What’s the one issue I’m struggling with right now and searching for the answer?  

When I can’t find the answer to a question, I go to LinkedIn and ask. Sometimes, only one or two people respond. But often, I receive several great answers that can be woven into a blog post. I’m suddenly smarter, and so are my readers.  I’m careful to explain within the LinkedIn question that I want to blog about the issue.

7. What’s the “hot new thing” or controversial topic in my industry that everybody wants to know about? For example, people in my audience, mostly self-promoters, want to know what they need to do to get a great return on their investment of time with social media. They might know how to use Facebook. But they want to know how to use Facebook to make money. 

Patsi Krakoff, who was my guest expert on the teleseminar Time-saving Tips for Smart Business Blogging, partnered with me to create a list of 101 ways to find content for your blog, a handout we offered to teleseminar participants.

Here’s a sneek peek at six more ideas on that handout:

8. Invite your followers to ask you questions. Answer them at your blog. Become “The Answer Man” or “The Answer Woman.”  

9. Find inspiration in photos. Browse through photos on a site like iStockPhoto.com. Look for a cute animal photo, or a funny image, or a photo that makes you think, and write a post around it.

10. Industry definitions. Create a list of industry definitions, particularly those that confuse people.

11. Visit Craigslist. You might find interesting workshops, press releases or other material worth a comment in the small business, community or events categories for the cities nearest you. (See How to Use Craigslist as a Global Publicity Tool.)

12. Don’t do it all yourself. Recruit a guest blogger on BloggerLinkup.com.

13. Show readers both sides of an issue. Write about the advantages/disadvantages of something.

How about adding to the list? How do you find content for your blog?