The Publicity Hound’s Blog

If you work in PR, you should be reading snarky Gawker

About half the posts on the popular blog Gawker deal with pop culture and celebrity gossip. That’s why it’s all too easy to dismiss this blog as frivolous.

But Michael Sebastian, a former Chicago newspaper reporter who writes for Ragan Communications, says Gawker is must reading for anybody in PR. That’s because the other half of Gawker’s posts deal with the PR, advertising and marketing industries.

In his blog post The blog PR pros should be reading, Sebastian says:

Gawker bloggers are talking about your industry—and so are the dozens of comments each post gets. ..Gawker is to public relations what The Huffington Post and Drudge Report are to politics: informative, thought-provoking, slanted, infuriating.

As for its celebrity news, every good Publicity Hound should be paying attention and piggybacking onto celebrity gossip every chance they can get. In my Special Report #50: How to Piggyback on the Celebrity News to Promote Your Product, Service, Cause or Issue, I give numerous examples of how other self-promoters have done that. One of the best is Debra Holtzman, a child safety expert who distributes online press releases via Expertclick: The Online Yearbook of Experts about topics like Britney Spears driving her car with her baby on her lap to tips on how Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes can create a safe nursery for little Suri.

Another reason to read Gawker. A tip of the hat to Dan Janal of PRLeads.com for this one.

Posted In: General
posted On: 6/25/2008: 10:34 pm: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

Working with a virtual assistant? Follow these 4 golden rules

If you’ve hired a virtual assistant to help with your publicity campaign, or for any other tasks you don’t like to do or don’t have the talent to do, Tough Love & Accountability, or Four Golden Rules for Working with Your Virtual Assistant is must reading.

Denise Aday of Aday VA Solutions, a Dallas, TX based virtual assistance firm, reminds us to:

1. Pay bills promptly.

2. Respect procedures that our VA has put in place

3. Remember that we are the VA’s client. The VA is not our employee.

4. Communicate, communicate, communicate. That means picking up the phone and calling my own VA, Chris Buffaloe of Serenity Virtual Assistant Services, if I get the feeling that our email communication just isn’t working. She does the same.

If you haven’t hired a VA yet, what are you waiting for? During the telseminar I conducted on “How to Hire a Virtual Assistant to Help with Your Publicity Campaign,” VAs Cindy Greenway and Diana Ennen, both excellent VAs, said the VA and the client are responsible for building the relationship. They stressed that VAs must set boundaries right at the beginning and let clients know when they can and cannot call, when they are available to work on projects, and how much lead time they need.

Publicity Hounds can hire VAs to write press releases, update their online media rooms, manage social networking duties, and write how-to articles.

A tip of the hat to Chris, my VA, for alerting me to this. (Chris, are you trying to tell me something???)

Posted In: Publicity Resources, Social networking
posted On: : 2:04 pm: By Joan
Comments: 2 Comments

How to get journalists to mention your website

A common frustration with media interviews results when the reporter, for whatever reason, never mentions your website.

Here’s a way to solve that problem.

The next time somebody interviews you, and the reporter asks for the name of your company, use your website URL, not the actual company name.

Instead of me being the owner of “The Publicity Hound,” my company is simply PublicityHound.com.

That little trick won’t work every time, but it should work with telephone interviews, and especially when the reporter is rushed.

OK, but what happens if you can’t even persuade reporters to call? You pitch a story and it goes nowhere. Then what?

Have you followed up your pitch at least seven times?

If you haven’t, no wonder they’re not calling you. Jill Lublin, author of “Guerilla Publicity,” says you shouldn’t believe journalists who say they hate follow-ups. They hate lousy follow-ups. When I interviewed her during a teleseminar on “Failproof Ways to Follow Up with Reporters,” Jill said reporters often appreciate it when sources call a few days after they’ve pitched a story idea to offer something special like a graphic, or a photo, or an interview with a somebody who lives in the newspaper’s circultion area.

I agree. I worked in a newsroom for 22 years as a reporter and editor and was grateful for sources who saved my hide.

Posted In: Newspaper Publicity, Pitching the Media, The Local Angle
posted On: 6/24/2008: 1:24 pm: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment

If a journalist uses humor in a query, use it in your pitch

If you subscribe to a service that gives you leads from journalists who are looking for certain types of sources, pay attention to the way the reporter has written the query.

Peter Shankman, whose free leads service called “Help a Reporter Out,” flags this terrific pitch from Jenny Schmitt, who works for the Georgia State Parks.

“Every once in a while, I come across SUCH a great pitch, so perfect in form, function, so on target, and so exactly what the reporter is looking for, I’ve no choice but to call the pitcher out and blog about it.

“Jenny Schmitt saw a pitch on HARO about fun father/daughter ideas that wouldn’t cause a ‘guy to get his guy card revoked.’ Seeing that the reporter obviously had a sense of humor, Jenny crafted the perfect pitch, filling it with information, exactly what the reporter wanted, and topped it off with a touch of humor. I don’t know what the result is (Jenny, let us know!) But I just had to call this pitch out as one of the best I’ve seen in a while. Learn from this one, gang.

How about it, Jenny? Did you get the publicity?

Posted In: General
posted On: : 1:21 pm: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment

Couple needs help promoting book on depression, suicide

Patricia “Trish” Gallagher of Worcester, Pa. writes:

“My husband, John, and I are doing a print on demand book and need help to publicize it and try to book paid speaking engagements.

“The book is Don’t Jump! Out of the Shadows about Depression and Suicide. It’s about how John tried to commit suicide by jumping from a building onto a cement slab. The attempt failed, and he was seriously injured.

“For nine years, he stood behind a wall of silence, hiding the truth of his resulting injuries, and sabotaging his relationships. In January this year, after reading about a teenage boy who tried suicide but was unsuccessful, John knew it was time to end the silence.

“His message will help anyone who is personally dealing with a crisis or tragedy, and will inspire caregivers, people struggling with addictions, and anyone who wants to learn how to help others during times of despair.

“We have a possible 700 Club interview, a local NPR affilitate interview, and we were featured in an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer. No luck with any paid speaking or major interviews that have helped with expenses. So we’re putting out the white flag.”