free publicity

How I use Pinterest to link to old blog posts

3/15/2012 By Joan 4 Comments

Go ahead. Drool all you want over photos of those eight-layer chocolate mocha wedding cakes.

While you’re at Pinterest scrolling through the thousands of enticing photos of strapless gowns, cute puppies, breath-taking sunsets and stiletto heels, I’ll be creating Boards around a common topic and using my pins, or images, to pull viewers back to my blog posts. Pinterest is the hot, hot, hot social media site that lets you create virtual pinboards, load them with photos, and link back to your website, or the site where you found them.

In January, Pinterest pushed more traffic to websites than Google+, YouTube and Twitter combined!

I created my first board just now and it’s called “Best Ways to Get Free Publicity.” Here’s quick peek:

Each photo has the headline of the blog post underneath and links back to the post.

Now for the best part. Those posts are filled with content-rich tips and free advice, as well as links to products I sell at my website, links to the page where I explain all about The Publicity Hound Mentor Program and even affiliate links where I earn a commission for selling other people’s products and services. You can follow The Publicity Hound on Pinterest here.

My Most Important Tip:

With so many concerns about copyright violation, it’s imperative that you use Pinterest’s “Pin It” button on your toolbar. This ensures that the photos you pin will be linked back to the website where you got them.

My Second Most Important Tip:

After you create an account and complete your profile, don’t start creating boards unless you’re fairly comfortable with the site.

Don’t just start pinning willy-nilly without making sure that you credit the source. I started pinning a few weeks ago before I knew what I was doing. And I need to go back and make sure that every photo is sourced.

Want to Learn More About Pinterest?

I’ll be explaining this cool technique for linking back to old blog posts, as well as beginner’s tips and advanced strategies, when I host the webinar “How to Use Pinterest to Generate Clicks, Traffic, Links, Leads and Sales” at 3 p.m. Eastern Time today, Thursday, March 15. If the time is inconvenient for you, register anyway because I’m recording it and I’ll email you the link to the video replay, the slides and the other materials within 72 hours.

After you create your first board, come back here, comment and give us the link so we can see what you’ve done. Then, after a few weeks, come back here again and report on what kind of traffic you’re seeing from Pinterest.

If you need an invitation to Pinterest, email me at JStewart (at) PublicityHound.com with “Pinterest Invitation” in the subject line and I’ll send you one.

Filed Under: Pinterest Tagged With: blog traffic, free publicity, how to use pinterest, pin it button

3 things you DON’T need to get onto big TV shows

2/8/2012 By Joan 3 Comments

Dying to get onto one of the big TV shows like the “Today” show?

Of course you are. Just one appearance can send your book flying off the shelves.

If you’re a small business person, it can mean thousands of people rushing to your website.

If you’re an expert in your field, it can mean more consulting assignments.

To get onto TV, here are three things you do NOT need:

A big, expensive PR firm to pitch your idea to the producers.
A highfalutin degree like a Ph.D.
A long track record of publicity successes.

What you DO need is a compelling story idea, delivered in such a way that the producers know the audience will love you.

A former NBC producer who booked guests for “Today” and “Dateline NBC” will explain what it takes to become a regular guest on national TV and even get offered your own show, during a webinar at 2 and 7 p.m. Eastern tomorrow, Thursday, Feb. 9, with my friend, Steve Harrison.

Steve will interview the producer and explain how to brand yourself for the media in a way that celebrates your uniqueness while also separating you from all the other experts in your field.

You’ll learn about publicity superstars like Jennifer, who became a regularly featured lifestyle expert on Fox News Channel and “The Early Show,” and scored coverage in hundreds of print media outlets including O the Oprah Magazine, Redbook, US Weekly, Success and Entrepreneur.

Register for the webinar “How To Become A Regular Guest On National TV And Other Secrets Of The Publicity Superstars” by clicking here.

If you can’t attend because the times are inconvenient, sign up anyway and find someone who can listen and take notes for you.

Please note, this is NOT my webinar. It’s Steve’s, and I promote it as an affiliate. He usually doesn’t record these, so show up, or risk missing it.

Filed Under: TV Publicity Tagged With: entrepreneur, free publicity, O the Oprah Magazine, redbook, success, the today show, tv publicity, TV talk shows, us weekly

Nice year-end gift for your clients and more tweets

12/30/2011 By Joan Leave a Comment

Here are my Top 10 tweets from this past week, great for retweeting! If you missed these, follow me on Twitter.

Prevent the “lago effect” from dooming your CEO who tries to “help” during a crisis. http://paper.li/clayedwardspr/pr-pros-paper

How Restaurants Are Using Social Media to Their Advantage. http://tinyurl.com/8xbuyuo

How to Use Great Testimonials, Once You Get Them. http://ow.ly/8b2LS

Get Blog Results for Business | Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad | Writing On The Web. http://tinyurl.com/7dzodzr

Top 50 Women Entrepreneur Experts to Follow on Twitter. http://ow.ly/8dj2U

Nice year-end gift for your clients. Free ebook with 2 dozen publicity/social media tips. http://ow.ly/8dj8Z

5 clever uses of LinkedIn’s brand new “group polls” feature. http://ow.ly/8dkJL

5-part strategy for cashing in on content and social media marketing in 2012. http://ow.ly/8dTU6

Freelancers: Pick up some extra cash in 2012. Pitch articles to these paying markets. http://ow.ly/8dUTu

Authors: Compare major print-on-demand companies. http://ow.ly/8dV2u

Filed Under: Authors & Publishers, Blogs, Crisis Communications, Social media marketing, Social networking, Twitter, Writing Articles Tagged With: author marketing, Blogging, free publicity, LinkedIn, pitching journalists, Twitter

3 ways to customize a pitch to journalists & get a “yes!”

8/18/2011 By Joan 2 Comments

The next time you pitch a journalist, will he read your pitch and know that you know who he is, what he covers, and why his audience should care about your story?

He will if you customize it.

That means sending a pitch that you can’t send to any other journalist because it’s unique to his media outlet, his beat or his audience. Those kinds of pitches prompt a journalist to think, “This is perfect for us!”

During the webinar I’m hosting at 3 p.m. Eastern Time today, Aug. 18, on “A Simple 5-Part Formula for Delivering the Perfect Media Pitch and Hitting it Out of the Park,” I’ll discuss how to customize a pitch. Here are three approaches:

Piggyback off a previous story the media outlet covered and pitch it as a “follow up.” That’s media lingo, and it will attract his attention. I gave an example in this post I wrote earlier this week about a candy shop in a mall.
Pitch a story idea for a specific section of his newspaper, a specific department in his magazine, or a certain portion of a radio show. Example: “This story is a perfect fit for the Consumer News Round-up segment of your show.”)
Pitch a story that appeals to a personal hobby or interest that ties into his beat. Let’s say you sell decorative corks and stoppers for wine bottles, and you’re pitching the food and wine editor of a magazine. His Twitter profile mentions he’s a wine collector. You could add this to your pitch: “Your wine collection will be as pleasing to the eye as it is to the pallet with a selection of wine stoppers from whimsical to elegant.”

Today’s webinar also includes handouts that explain how to customize the same pitch for three different media outlets, 27 story ideas you can pitch when the idea well is dry, and examples of great pitches that have generated mountains of publicity.

If the time is inconvenient, register anyway because I’ll send you the link for the page where you can download the video replay, the handouts, and all the other materials.

You can also sign up after the webinar is over and you’ll be led to the download page.