The Publicity Hound’s
Tips of the Week
Issue #562 July 5, 2011
Publisher: Joan Stewart
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“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”
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In This Issue
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1. 33 Ways to Attract Facebook Fans
2. The Best Times to Tweet
3. Summer Story Ideas
4. Trigger Thousands of YouTube Views
5. Pitch “If You’re Going…” Tips
6. Hound Quote of the Week
7. And at My Blog & Mobile Site…
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1. 33 Ways to Attract Facebook Fans
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Have you used Facebook’s new Question feature yet?
If not, it’s time to start. Facebook expert Mari Smith says that
asking a question is powerful for these three reasons:
–Facebook gives a question significant weight when deciding
whether to show that content in somebody else’s news feed. You
want your content to show up in as many people’s news feeds as
possible.
–Questions engage your fans.
–Questions are also a handy way for you to find out what
problems and issues your fans are most concerned about, so you
can provide the answers and help them. Ask them what their Number
One question is about a certain topic. When you see all the
answers, you can then create a special report or White Paper. You
can host a free or paid teleseminar or webinar to answer the
questions. Or you can write a series of blog posts.
Asking questions was just one of 33 tips Mari shared during the
webinar I hosted with her on Wednesday.
After the 90-minute call, I reviewed the entire video replay and
compiled a handout listing all 33 ideas. I also created a list of
all websites she referred to during the call so you don’t have to
worry about taking good notes.
I’m using the list of 33 ideas as a checklist, and I’m
implementing all the tips one by one.
The handout, Mari’s slides, the MP3 audio and the video are
available for purchase here:
http://publicityhound.com/facebookpages.htm
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2. The Best Times to Tweet
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The best time to tweet is around noon and 5 p.m. EST.
The best days to tweet are midweek or on the weekends.
The best time to post on Facebook is noon and 7 p.m. EST.
Sharing one post every two days will garner the most likes on
Facebook.
The Eastern and Central time zones represent almost 80 percent of
the U.S. population, so keep that in mind when timing your posts
on the social media sites. If you live on the West Coast, either
get up earlier, or use a program like HootSuite or Tweetdeck to
schedule your tweets to go out early the following day.
Those are five interesting statistics in a clever infographic
from KISSmetrics, using data from social media expert Dan
Zarrella.
Ragan’s PR Daily offers the entire infographic here:
http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/8728.aspx
I get so many basic Twitter questions that I’ll be sponsoring a
webinar on Twitter for Beginners in a few weeks. Registration
details next week.
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3. Summer Story Ideas
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Here are six summer story ideas that journalists will love:
–The 5 most dangerous picnic foods. Chefs and caterers, invite
TV cameras into your kitchen to shoot you making one of the
culprits: potato salad.
–Is your company relaxing its dress code because of hot weather?
If so, what’s acceptable and what isn’t? And what about all those
tattoos that are suddenly in full view, now that the clothing is
skimpier?
–It isn’t too late to start pitching back-to-school stories.
Many newspapers publish special sections in August, and they
assign these stories early. What’s new at your school, college or
university?
–Higher gasoline prices mean many families aren’t traveling as
far as they once did for their summer vacation. What is your
resort or tourist attraction doing to encourage them to spend
money closer to home?
–With the construction industry still in a slump, many smaller
construction companies are settling for smaller “handy man”
projects in their own communities. If you’re one of the
construction people taking smaller jobs, let the media know.
Great visuals!
–5 ways to avoid the emergency room. Summer means hospital
emergency rooms fill up quickly with people suffering from heat
stroke, bug bites and ear infections brought on by swimming. Your
hospital or clinic can offer tips on how to know when you can
treat common ailments at home, and when to come to the emergency
room.
TV producer Shawne Duperon teamed up with me to present the
teleseminar “103 Sizzling Story Ideas from July through
December.” It includes a handout with all the ideas that we
invite you to steal. Great for when you’re short on ideas. Read
more about what we discussed at
http://publicityhound.com/publicity-products/marketing-tapes/JulyIdeas.htm
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4. Trigger Thousands of YouTube Views
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Two minutes.
That’s all it takes to dramatically boost your social media
traffic and sales.
Sound unbelievable? I thought so too, until I saw this video:
https://btconsulting.infusionsoft.com/go/vid4/a342/
Don Crowther, one of my social media teachers, has done it again.
This time, he’s pulled back the curtain on how to generate
thousands of likes and tweets that share your content, gets
dozens of websites to share your content, and pushes your site to
the first page of Google and Bing, with just a few minutes
effort.
I’ll never look at social media the same again.
This video shows you a unique strategy that will trigger
thousands of YouTube video views by only slightly changing what
you’re already doing.
Get the YouTube Explosion Strategy now:
https://btconsulting.infusionsoft.com/go/vid4/a342/
In 8 simple steps, you’ll be able to turn a trickle of traffic
into a wave you can ride all the way to the bank.
Getting hundreds of hits to your blog posts or videos within
hours, and thousands within a day, is easier and faster with this
strategy than you would’ve ever dreamed possible.
Watch the YouTube Explosion Strategy here:
https://btconsulting.infusionsoft.com/go/vid4/a342/
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5. Pitch “If You’re Going…” Tips
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If you’re sponsoring an event this summer, and you’ve already
submitted it to all the online and offline event calendars,
here’s how to create one more publicity hit.
Submit a list of “If You’re Going…” tips.
For example, sponsors of outdoor festivals and other events such
as garden walks, concerts, bike races, parades and neighborhood
block parties can compile a list of helpful tips that people need
to know if attending your event:
–Do they need to bring their own bottled water?
–Will they find road construction delays? If so, can you suggest
a detour?
–Are children and dogs welcome?
–Should they bring their own repellant, lawn chairs or
flashlights?
–Are grills permitted?
You get the idea. You can also submit a map that helps people
locate your event. If you have photos from past years, include
those with your pitch.
Did you know there are more than 50 places online where you can
promote your special events? I listed them all, and gave lots of
tips on how to use them to generate publicity, when I hosted the
webinar, “50+ Places Online to Promote Your Live or Virtual
Events to Reach Your Target Market & Pull Sell-out Crowds.”
Stop relying only on the same old websites to promote your
events. Use my list of high-traffic sites to promote, and smaller
niche sites where you’ll find your ideal attendees, and you can
sell more tickets, fill more seats and pack ’em in.
You can access the video replay, the handouts, the PowerPoint
slides and the audio here:
http://publicityhound.com/events.htm
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6. Hound Joke of the Week
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This isn’t a joke, but it made me laugh.
Thanks to Publicity Hound Nancy Juetten for sharing on Facebook
this incredible story of how all dog owners in an apartment
complex in New Hampshire must now submit a sample of their dogs’
DNA, taken by rubbing a cotton swab around inside the animal’s
mouth, so the complex can identify dog owners who don’t clean up
after their pets:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/02/us/02dogs.html?_r=1
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7. And at My Blog & Mobile Site…
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Review of e-readers: WSJ likes the Nook (Is your ebook ready?)
http://publicityhound.net/?p=8814
The Top 13 self-defeating practices on LinkedIn
http://publicityhound.net/?p=8793
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Joan Stewart
The Publicity Hound
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