The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

Every month or so, it seems, we’re hearing one more story about how somebody committed a crime with help from Craigslist.

In March, a New York City prostitute was killed after meeting a client on the world’s largest classified ad bulletin board.  

Two weeks ago, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that a 15-year-old Wisconsin girl who ran away from home sold sex acts in Milwaukee to men who found her ad and photo on Craigslist. And on it goes.

Regardless of what you’re selling or promoting, don’t let the bad publicity sway you. Craigslist remains a popular home for the kind of news Publicity Hounds want to promote:  business services, events, classes and workshops, sewing circles, dog shows, arts and entertainment, public service announcements and more. Post regularly to the Craigslist nearest to your city.

If you live in the middle of nowhere and the nearest list is in a small city, that’s OK. A Q&A in The New York Times last year called “Here are the Answers to Your Craigslist Questions” featured Jim Buckmaster, the CEO of Craigslist, and Craig Newmark, the list’s founder. They said you don’t have to live in big cities to get lots of exposure on Craigslist.

“Surprisingly, postings to smaller markets like Des Moines often get more page views than ones in large cities where there are more postings competing for attention,” Buckmaster said.

If you are unfamiliar with Craigslist, or even if you’ve been posting for several years, it’s best to read the rules before you post again.  

Nancy Mills, a Craigslist expert who shared tips on how to use Craigslist for publicity during a teleseminar I hosted, said the rules often change without warning, and if you don’t know what you are allowed to post, and where, you can get kicked off the list.

As for critics who abandon Craigslist because of the bad publicity, that would be like me closing up my business, which is almost exclusivly Internet marketing-based, because the Internet has a dark and dangerous side. That won’t happen.

Posted In: Business Promotion, Public Service Announcements, Publicity on the Internet, Special Events
posted On: 4/25/2008: 1:13 pm: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

Wayne Loder of Milford, Michigan writes:

“I’m the Public Awareness Coordinator for The Compassionate Friends/USA, a national self-help bereavement organization with a mission to assist families toward the positive resolution of grief following the death of a child of any age and to provide information to help others be supportive.
 
“The second week in September of 2008 has been designated as the first Compassionate Friends Month. Week.  ” I want to give each of our 600 chapters in the United States a CD or packet of materials they can use for PR. I have promised that I would also arrange national publicity.

“I want to give them a press release template to send to their local newspapers; a template poster to place at libraries, churches, grocery stores, etc.; Public Service Announcements for local radio and newspapers; and a template proclamation for local governmental bodies.”
 
“On the national level, I plan to distribute a press release, and will also provide information to the major nursing magazines and funeral director publications, the two major bereavement magazines, and will contact state funeral director associations in all 50 states. I haven’t, as yet, checked out what national magazines might have some type of calendar or announcement area where a notice could be placed.
 
“Would your Hounds have additional suggestions on what other backup materials I could provide chapters, and where I could try for additional national coverage?”
 

Posted In: Nonprofits, Press Releases/News Releases, Public Service Announcements, Publicity for Niche Markets, Publicity on the Internet
posted On: 12/5/2007: 1:56 pm: By Joan
Comments: 10 Comments

PR people hate being called flacks. And they despise the word “spin.” 

But not the left-leaning PR pros hosting the True Spin Conference Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 in Denver,  Colorado. It’s a media relations training session with panels, workshops and networking.  

“This conference brings together flacks from progressive advocacy groups around the country to exchange ideas and learn new and creative PR tactics,” the press release says. “Officials from giant corporations meet all the time to share their latest and greatest media relations strategies. This is our turn. It’s the only national conference of its kind.”

Keynote Speakers are Dr. Lori Dorfman of the Berkeley Media Studies Group; Alan Jenkins of The Opportunity Agenda and David Sirota, syndicated columnist and author of Hostile Takeover.

Most PR training conferences I attend have workshop titles more potent than Ambien. Not these:

• Do Progressives Suck at PR?
• Journalists Turned Flacks
• Using Web Tools to Megaphone and Hone Your Message (See “Let Bloggers Create Publicity for You.“)
• Be like PETA!
• Pranks with a Purpose: A Report from the Front Lines of the New Creative Activism

With fun titles like that, it’s no wonder last year’s Spin Conference sold out. 

Posted In: PR Consultants/Publicists, Pitching the Media, Press Releases/News Releases, Public Service Announcements, Publicity for Niche Markets
posted On: 12/4/2007: 4:18 pm: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

Wishing and hoping for your own show on national TV?

Stop waiting for an invitation to audition. Instead, create your own show on your cable TV company’s public access channel.

That’s what foodie Dave Lieberman did when he was a student at Yale University. On his show “Campus Cuisine,” he demonstrated how fellow students could cook like a gourmet on a shoestring budget. One segment, for example, showed how to whip up a smoothie using dining-hall fruit.

The show gained a cult following, with many students clamoring for recipes they could cook to impress a date. Students passed around tapes of his show, and his fame spread from the campus in New Haven, Connecticut to the studios of the Food Network, where 27-year-old Lieberman now stars in his own popular cooking show “Good Deal with Dave Lieberman.”

Taking advantage of the public access channel, where you don’t pay for air time, gives you invaluable experience in front of a camera. You can make your mistakes before a relatively small audience, and learn as you go. When you’re ready for the next step, you can take your show nationwide by buying leased access time in TV markets large or small.

PR guy Robert Smith of Rockfor, Ill. has been using this strategy for himself and his PR clients for the last few years. During a teleseminar I conducted with him called “How to Get Your Own National TV Show for Less Than $400 a Month,” he explained that using leased access lets you target specific cities during specific times of the day or night. Buying air time in 20 small, inexpensive markets throughout the U.S. can generate as many viewers as buying air time in one large expensive market like New York City.

And who knows? Somebody from one of the networks might be watching.

Posted In: Business Promotion, Public Service Announcements, TV Publicity
posted On: 10/11/2007: 4:09 am: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment

Have you ever found yourself writing a great article, or website copy or even a press release, and suddenly you’re hopelessly stuck because you can’t think of a better way to say a word like “authentic” or “beautiful” or “free”?

I’ve been known to sit there for 20 minutes staring at the screen.

My friend Denise Wakeman, half of The Blog Squad, told me about the book “Words That Sell” by Richard Bayan.

She says she keeps it right next to her keyboard at all times, and I can see why. You use it like a thesaurus.

The book is divided into separate “chapters” devoted to a specific word of phrase. Each chapter usually offers several dozen suggestions for words that are similar to the one you’re stuck on.

I particularly love the chapters devoted to transitional phrases, the P.S., justifying a high price, and flattering the reader. I can think of dozens of uses for this book: press releases, media kits, blogging, article writing, website copy, sales copy, public service announcements, information products, White Papers, office memos, marketing copy, columns, pitches to the media, and letters to the editor. Even those obnoxious annual Christmas letters.  

I was so impressed with this book that I did an entire lecture on it for members of The Publicity Hound Mentor Program recently. They loved it.

Denise and her partner, Patsi Krakoff, by the way, will be my guests tomorrow as part of Publicity Hound University. They’ll talk about the power of blogging and podcasting.

Posted In: Authors & Publishers, Blogs, Business Promotion, Information Products, Media Kits, Newspaper Publicity, Pitching the Media, Press Releases/News Releases, Public Service Announcements, Publicity Resources, Writing Articles
posted On: 6/13/2007: 4:04 pm: By Joan
Comments: 5 Comments