Grab 2013 Editorial Calendars

The Publicity Hound’s
Tips of the Week
Issue #655 Oct. 9, 2012

Publisher: Joan Stewart

==========================================

“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”

===================================

In This Issue
===================================

1. Grab 2013 Editorial Calendars

2. 3 Stale Social Media Tactics

3. Must-Have for Your Press Kit

4. Hound Joke of the Week

======================================
1. Grab 2013 Editorial Calendars
======================================

October is the month when magazines start releasing their
editorial calendars for the following year.

Editorial calendars help advertisers know which topics will be
featured in which editions. They also give Publicity Hounds a leg
up on the competition because you can see instantly where your
story might be a good fit. And you can pitch long before the
deadline.

Look for editorial calendars on the magazine’s website, under an
“Advertise with Us” link or in the magazine’s Media Kit.

Ebony Magazine’s 2013 editorial calendar, for example, gives you a bird’s-eye view of the
entire year. Let’s say you want publicity for your company’s
tech gadget. You can see instantly that November’s edition,
devoted to men, would probably be the best fit because it will
feature a special section on “Tech Toys and Gadgets.” You’ll want
to pitch about six months before publication date.

When I hosted the webinar on “How to Find Your Way into Glossy
Magazines” last week, I explained how editorial calendars are
road maps to publicity in so many other ways.

–Some calendars include valuable information on the magazine’s
demographics such as the percentage of male vs. female
subscribers, and the total household income.

–Some calendars will even tell you the types of vacations
readers prefer, or the most popular models of cars they bought.
Why is this important? Because if your story idea ties into
vacations or cars, you can use the information in your pitch.

–Meg Weaver publishes the terrific ezine “Wooden Horse Magazine
Media News,” which features news for the magazine industry and an
inexpensive magazines database. She says that even old editorial
calendars are valuable. “Savvy writers can get a lot of mileage
even from this ‘outdated’ information,” she says. “First of all,
reading the calendar gives you great insight into the kind of
topics a magazine publishes.”

–Use last year’s calendars, Weaver says, to brainstorm ideas for
competitive magazines, which you can often find listed in her
company’s database.

The video replay of last week’s webinar is ready, and you can
access it, along with the bonus tip sheet, “11 Ways to Prepare
for a Magazine Interview.”

=====================================
2. 3 Stale Social Media Tactics
=====================================

Here are three social media tasks that don’t work anymore:

–Automating identical status updates for three different social
media accounts using a program like Ping.fm. People who follow
you on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn don’t want to see the same
content repeated.

–Scheduling status updates to drip out through the day, but
never checking back to see who commented on them, thus blowing
your chances to communicate with people who care about what you
have to say.

–Using social media primarily to market your products and
services. Instead, using it to share valuable content with people
who look to you for guidance can be far more powerful than the
“buy me stuff, buy my stuff, buy my staff” mantra.

Facebook expert Mari Smith will explain the other social media
tactics that don’t work anymore when she hosts a free online mega
event called Crunch Time on Oct. 23, designed to help you get
through the remainder of your to-list for 2012 and create a game
plan for next year.

====================================
3. Must-Have for Your Press Kit
====================================

Make sure your online press kit includes your high-resolution
head shot. Print publications will require it for sharp
reproduction.

A friend submitted a column to a newspaper and had to make a
special trip to the newspaper office, on deadline, last week to
have his photo taken, because he only had low-resolution photos
available online.

If you have environmental photos in your press kit, like a shot
of a train collector standing next to a toy train, offer high-
resolution images for those, too.

When having your photo taken by a professional photographer, make
sure every photo is available at a high resolution.

My ebook “How to Use Photos & Graphics in Your Publicity
Campaign” includes tips galore for this often-forgotten package
of publicity tools.

====================================
4. Hound Joke of the Week
====================================

Thanks to Dan Poynter of Santa Barbara, Calif., for sharing these
Canine Letters to God.

Dear God:
Why do humans smell the flowers, but seldom, if ever, smell one
another?