The news—and his music—are everywhere.  I’m a huge Michael Jackson fan, and I’m devouring the musical tributes on cable. But enough is enough already.

My sister says the same thing is happening to her. Some nights, it’s so bad she can’t fall asleep. In my own brain, the annoying “ABC” keeps trying to drown out “Rock with You,” my favorite Michael Jackson song.

I know we’re not alone. So how about turning it into a publicity opportunity?

This is a perfect time for psychologists, sleep experts, music teachers and even musicians and band members to offer some tips on how get certain songs out of our heads.

Pitch the story to morning drive-time deejays. It would make a fun call-in topic. I remember listening to several shows like this in which callers were encouraged to name the WORST song they’ve ever heard—you know, the one that just won’t stop playing inside their heads. These shows are hysterical. See How to Get onto Drive-Time Radio Shows.

What’s the worst song you’ve ever heard, the one that makes you crazy?

“I am a fashion designer, sewing instructor and fashion career advisor.

“I own The Sewing Studio in Old Town Pasadena, Calif., where I have fun teaching kids, teens and adults about the fashion industry and how to sew.

“For almost two years, I have taught hundreds of students. My goal is to teach 100 each month.

“How do I reach my goal without an ad budget?”

Enter e-Riches 2.0–Next-Generation Marketing Strategies for Making Millions Online, a new book by Internet success coach Scott Fox.

If you’re one of the victims of this economy and you want to start selling online, or you’re new to Internet marketing, you can learn all about the basics of what it takes to create a successful business online. If you’ve been selling online for several years, the book will bring you up to speed quickly on how to add social media to your marketing mix.

Here are Scott’s 10 recommendations on how to use social networking as a marketing tool.

1. Invite a half-dozen or more friends to get your network started. Practice using the tools of the social network to communicate with them. For example, you can “add” friends on MySpace, “poke” or “write on the walls” of Facebook connections, or respond to some questions in the LinkedIn “Answers” section. (See Social networking ROI: A testimonial more valuable than an ad.)
              
2. Start engaging, publishing, and interacting. Get to know some people—that’s  why you’re here.
       
3. Be authentic. A big part of being authentic is letting the “real you” out to play. Nobody wants to play with a “suit,” so don’t be afraid to be yourself (within professional and legal limits, of course). Mixing the personal and business sides of your life is more common than it used to be.
       
4. Only try to connect with others with whom you really do have common ground. Indiscriminate friend requests are “friend spam.” They are  no more appreciated than email spam or junk mail in the real world. (And if people you don’t know starting linking with you, your own network will soon be less valuable, too.)
                
5. Ask for help. Most social network users are online to be social, and most are happy to help by sharing their knowledge about how the systems work.
              
6. Use feeds to keep up with your friends’ activities and broadcast your own. Posting your own status constantly and cleverly is a great distributed engagement marketing tactic. This is one of the “missed opportunities” I discussed during the teleseminar I hosted this month on 11 Ways to Avoid Missed Opportunities on Facebook. 
      
7. If you have a blog, feed its posts into your profile page. This will automatically help keep your pages fresh and share your writings with a new audience, too.
      
8. Join some groups—learn the lingo and the tools of the network by using them and observing how others use them, too. Joining groups will also begin to create a natural dialogue with other users that will grow over time.
      
9. Be a good and involved citizen in those groups to cultivate new friends. There’s no better way to gain the respect of any community than adding value by sharing info, support, or companionship—and these tools will amplify the effect. If you are an expert, social networks are a great way to spread your reputation cloud for that expertise.
     
10. Create your own group. Once you are comfortable, start a group around your product or brand. Position yourself as an expert resource and offer to help and facilitate community. Members usually proudly display the names of the groups to which they belong on their profile pages. This can lead to lots more clicks (and members) as others see your group’s name or logo on friends’ pages and in their feeds.

Scott’s book includes more than a dozen examples  of real-life Internet marketing success stories, from a North Carolina furniture store that profitably captures high-end customers using pay-per-click search engine text ads on Google, Yahoo! andMSN (Chapter 21), to the article syndication strategy that has helped a Christian stay-at-home mom to attract lots of profitable traffic for her blog (Chapter 16).

The book  is $25 and published by AMACOM, the American Management Association.

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.

You may be writing articles, creating tips lists, and offering quizzes.

That’s great. But don’t make the mistake of abandoning online press releases, which is all too easy to do when you’re consumed with posting every day to Facebook and Twitter.

Here are eight reasons why you should continue posting them to your website:

1. Optimized press releases pull in traffic. 
   Make sure you use relevant keywords in the headline and throughout the body copy.  But don’t stuff the release with keywords, or that will be a red flag to the search engines. Take advantage of StomperNet’s excellent seven-day free email course on search engine optimization. Each lesson in “7 Deadly SEO Mistakes” takes just a few minutes to review. 
            
2. They save time for visitors.
   It’s a great way to show journalists, bloggers and others what’s new and important, without making them spend a lot of time investigating your site.  New product launch?  They’ll find it in a press release.  New CEO?  There should be a release at your site that announces that.  Special promotion under way at your company?  Write a release that explains it.  Put a link to all your releases in your online pressroom.
           
3. You can use them to reach consumers directly–and promote.
   Years ago, we had to write printed press releases and cleanse them of anything that sounded like hype or promotion before sending them to journalists.  Gone are the days, thankfully, when we had to genuflect at the altar of traditional media, say a prayer and hope they covered our story.  Online press releases let us reach consumers directly without relying on the media gatekeepers.
            
4. Video and audio links.
   Video and audio links  can lead visitors to content that goes into more depth on a particular topic.  It’s a convenient way to get that information in front of visitors instead of making them wade through page after page at your website.
           
5. They help bloggers.
   Online press releases make it easy for bloggers to provide more information for their readers.  All they have to do is link to the release from within their posts.
            
6. Links to landing pages.
   From an online release, you can link to specific landing pages at your website where readers can find more information.  Yes, you can even link to sales pages where you list all the benefits of the product you’re selling, and then ask readers to hit the “Buy Now” button.  How cool is that?
       
7. They keep your site looking fresh and updated.
   This is assuming that you post them regularly. It just dawned on me that it’s been several months since I’ve posted a new release, and I’ve just added that to my “to-do” list for today.  
            
8. They can help you build your tribe on social networking sites.
   From the releases, you can provide links so readers can connect with you at social networking sites. Why not include a link to your Facebook Fan Page, like I have here?
         

Two tips that will help anyone who wants to post online releases:

From the press room at my website, I link to my at ExpertClick.com: The Online Yearbook of Experts.  This subscription service lets me post up to 52 press releases a year with no additional per-release fee.  It also gives me a page in their online database of experts, which journalists search frequently when looking for sources for articles. If you subscribe, tell them I sent you and they’ll knock $100 off the subscription.

If you want to learn more about how to write and distribute online press releases, you can opt into the free 12-week tutorial I created on “89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases.”  More than 6,000 people have taken the course.

“I have just published my first book, From Interior Design Intern to Employee: How to be a Keeper (Including Tips from Those Who Hire.)”

“It’s written specifically to help interior design interns transition from college to career.

“Aside from social networking, contacting university design departments and all vendors, reps, designers and architects I know, how can I reach my target audience—college students?

“Any advice from your Publicity Hounds would be greatly appreciated.”

What does this have to do with publicity? Plenty.

Squidoo, a content-sharing site, is a great place to promote your expertise. Google views it as an authoritative site and gives it a page rank of 7/10. You can create a Squidoo lens on one or more topics and share content such as articles, videos, photos and other resources.

Most lensmasters include outbound links to their own websites which is fine.  I’m guessing  that too many lensmasters have been including too many links to their own sites, thus generating too many reader complaints to Squidoo.

I’ll be going over to Squidoo later this week to update my own content and count the number of links at my own lens on how to get publicity. Lensmasters who don’t comply can have their lenses removed.  All that hard work down the drain! Don’t let that happen.

Read their policy update and the 4 things you can do to get ready for the changes.

Reading the list, I thought of four common mistakes people are still making, based on the questions I’m receiving from people who read my newsletter and comment here.

If you think of social networking as a giant backyard barbecue, it will be easier for you to realize immediately when you’re making a mistake.

How many of these mistakes are you making? 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

—You’re  more obsessed with racking up huge numbers of friends, followers and connections than talking to them. This is like having a Rolodex that you never use.
                                   
—You don’t understand that spending just a few minutes a week at sites like Facebook and LinkedIn and updating their status is a way of connecting with your friends. LinkedIn and Facebook both announce status updates to Friends and connections.

—You’re still using social networking sites as places to broadcast a steady stream of free commercials for whatever you’re selling. Glance at your Facebook feed and this may become painfully obvious.

—You’re still taking Twitter’s question “What are you doing?” literally and write tweet after tweet about when you’re walking the dog, eating lunch or closing up shop for the day. Your efforts would be better spent passing along helpful tips and advice, or trying to help people solve problems. LinkedIn’s Q&A section is an ideal place to find people who are asking pressing questions about your area of expertise.

Bookmark Shane’s list and revisit it periodically. It will keep you on track.

“Already best-selling authors of five relationship books, we have turned our attention and expertise to soft-sell marketing. Our new book, The Heart of Marketing: Love Your Customers and They Will Love You Back, Morgan James Publishing, May 2009), already a best-seller at Amazon, promotes selling as spiritual service and marketing from the heart.

“This book is the voice for consciousness and conscience, caring and community in commerce—and has been released at this time when the aftershocks of hard-sell greed are being felt all around the world.

“Please don’t bother suggesting ‘get on Oprah.’  That is already a definite goal. Please DO suggest the biggest ideas you can think of to get the book standing on long legs so that word of mouth takes over and drives the book onto the New York Times Best Seller list.”

Banks do this all the time, and it’s particularly powerful for restaurants, which have been hit hard by the recession.

In the latest issue of RunningRestaurants.com, PR pro Jenny Brooks offers this tip and two more—promote your signature dish and feed local media outlets with a steady stream of press releases letting them know about things like which bands or musicians are playing at your restaurant, or local book signings that you’re hosting for a local author. 

I particularly love the idea of cooking your signature dish for local media people. Deejays LOVE this. So do TV people. But don’t offer free food to local newspaper journalists, who might consider it payola. 

Last week, I wrote about social media tips for restaurants, bars and nightclubs. Restaurants need to incorporate online PR into their publicity campaign, even if they only do business locally.

If you’re offering free meeting space, contact your local Toastmasters and your local chapter of the National Speakers Association and let members know. They might take you up on your offer.