Michelle Meacham of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin writes: “While the company I represent is fairly large (a bank with $1 billion in assets), all of our 27 locations are in small Wisconsin markets. The largest of them is in Green Bay. “It seems that many (nearly all!) of the public relations resources I have found are… Read More
Publicity stunt on baseball’s opening day generates TV publicity
Thanks to Jeff Crilley, an Emmy Award-winning TV reporter from Dallas, Texas for letting me excerpt this tip from his ezine: A disc jockey in Dallas named Alan Kabel knew he couldn’t fight the media attention being given to opening day for the Texas Rangers. So he came up with an angle to complement the… Read More
Does a gig on ‘Oprah’ guarantee book sales?
Does an author’s appearance on “Oprah” automatically guarantee fame and fortune? My good friend Dan Janal, president of PR Leads, a company that provides leads from working journalists, and a former journalist himself, is skeptical. Last week, he blogged here and said he doubted whether any author could sell more than $10,000 worth of books after just one… Read More
Valentine’s Day publicity ideas that worked
It’s too late for most of you to get into the news today by using a Valentine’s Day pitch, but remind yourself to start pitching Valentine’s Day ideas early enough next year. Here are some creative ways others have piggybacked onto Valentine’s Day: —Friday’s Wall Street Journal included an interesting article about how February 14… Read More
How to use Craigslist for publicity
If you’re looking for a job, an apartment, a date, or people in your own community with common interests, you probably already know about Craigslist. But did you realize you can also use these free online community classifieds and forums to promote an event, announce a new employee, advertise a workshop months before it will… Read More
How do you pitch an idea to McDonald’s, Burger King?
Publicity Hound Jon Merz of Albany, New York writes: “I have an idea for a great publicity campaign for McDonald’s or Burger King that involves a joint venture with my business. The problem is, these companies say they don’t accept unsolicited publicity ideas. “My question is this: how do I get some type of audience… Read More
Blogging for publicity? 5 tips on how to write a better blog
I’m at the winter workshop sponsored by the National Speakers Association, and I attended great presentations yesterday and today by Tom Antion, my Internet marketing mentor, and blogger Kim Snider. Both spoke about blogs. And based on their tips, here are 5 mistakes I’ve identified that Publicity Hounds make when blogging: They don’t use keywords in their… Read More
New publicity leads for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day gifts
The Gift List has just posted 75 new “short leads” for Publicity Hounds who want to promote products that would make great gifts for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and graduation. Several of those have deadlines this week. Getting your product mentioned in these guides is often far easier than convincing an editor to feature it in any other… Read More
Fitness, weight loss still big during February sweeps
Several weeks ago, I posted an item about how January was a big month for fitness and weight loss stories, because people were trying to get back on track after the holidays. The media’s love for these stories spills into February, one of three Sweeps months. Today, for example, “Oprah” is supposed to feature a woman… Read More
Alternatives to the cliche ribbon-cutting photo
A friend whose company is opening a new addition called to ask for my best tips on how to stage a ribbon-cutting ceremony the media will love. “That’s an oxymoron,” I said. “The media don’t love ribbon-cuttings. They despise them.” As I’ve explained in the ebook I wrote last year titled “How to Use Photos & Graphics… Read More