If you, or your PR client, are interviewing with the media, and you haven’t prepared answers to difficult questions, particularly if you’re in a bad news situation, you’ve blown it. That’s what happened last week when a correspondent for the BBC interviewed Mike Lazaridis, the co-chief executive of Research In Motion (RIM), the Canadian firm… Read More
Publicity Blog
Authors, meet me May 7 in Denver; discount ends today
If you’ve written a book or want to write one, don’t miss this rare opportunity to see me in person for a two-and-a-half-hour presentation on how to use traditional and social media to promote your expertise to sell more books. I’ll be presenting on Saturday, May 7, at Author U in Denver. It’s Colorado’s premier two-day authoring… Read More
Marketing tips needed for photos-on-glass company
Matthew Bivens of Gainesville, FL writes: “I work at a startup company called Fracture, which gives people an innovative way to print, mount and display their personal photographs. Send us a photo and we’ll print it on a pane of shatter-proof glass. “We’ve been in business a little over a year, and we’ve received press from various… Read More
13 ways to cross-promote on social media sites
If you’re like me, you sometimes spend so much time and effort trying to understand the minutiae on a site like Facebook, that you forget to let your regular customers know where to find you there. Here are 13 ways to create a trail of digital bread crumbs that will let your friends, followers and… Read More
With apologies to Betty Boop, I’m finding my voice
One of the questions a professional speaker never wants to hear is, “What’s wrong with your voice?” My friends in the Wisconsin chapter of the National Speakers Association started asking that more than a decade ago. They could hear me straining, almost as though I was tightening my throat muscles. I felt it, too, and… Read More
Add visual pizzazz with this versatile graphics toolkit
If you’re like me, you rush over to one of the stock photo services when you need a graphic for your website, blog, a press kit, a sales page, or a Facebook Note. But even at a buck or two each, you can burn through your credits quickly. I just discovered the really snazzy Marketing Graphics Toolkit… Read More
EveryBlock: Another uber-local site for community news
Here’s another hyperlocal website to add to your publicity toolbox: EveryBlock, perfect for publicizing local news in bigger cities, and also for finding other local blogs and media outlets you might not know about. MSNBC.com bought it in 2009 and unveiled the new version yesterday. It operates in 16 cities mostly on the east and west… Read More
How to give Facebook Fans a coupon for Liking a page?
Heather John of Los Angeles, Calif., asks this week’s Help This Hound question: “I created and manage the Facebook business page for an online store and I want to set something up on Facebook (maybe through Events?) where we send out a mass Facebook message inviting previous customers to like our new Facebook business page. … Read More
How to read Wall Street Journal, NY Times online for free
I’m always reluctant to link to articles in the Wall Street Journal from this blog—or from my ezine, The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week—because you can read them online for a short time, and then the newspaper puts them behind a paywall. But did you know you can still beat the system? BusinessInsider.com has… Read More
How to promote events on Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn
When it’s time to promote your next live or virtual event, don’t assume that you’ll find your target audience on all of the Big Three social media sites: Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Spending too much time promoting on one of those sites, particularly if the people who you’re trying to reach aren’t active there, can waste precious time.… Read More