The Publicity Hound’s
Tips of the Week
Issue #517 Aug. 10, 2010
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. Grab Attention on LinkedIn
2. What’s Your #1 Free PR Tool?
3. How Others Perceive You on Twitter
4. Make Money While Writing Your Book
5. Read Your Customers’ Minds
6. Publicity Summit Discount Ends Today
7. Dog Joke of the Week
8. And at My Blogs & Mobile Site…
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1. Grab Attention on LinkedIn
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With more than 70 million people on LinkedIn, it’s often
difficult to attract attention to your profile, particularly if
you’re in a crowded industry.
But Paul Furiga, owner of WordWrite Communications in Pittsburgh,
Pa., has found an unusual way to do just that.
In his LinkedIn profile, rather than stating his job title, he
includes a pithy one-sentence elevator pitch that quickly
summarizes what he does at his PR firm:
“I use every tool in the public relations toolbox to make our
clients the heroes in their own stories,” it says.
It’s easy enough to do. When creating your profile, you simply
include your elevator pitch where your job title would be.
I discovered this last week as I was posting a question to
LinkedIn about what PR people think is their Number One free PR
tool. I liked Paul’s idea so much that I wrote a blog post about
it for SocialMediaToday.com at
http://socialmediatoday.com/publicityhound/157407/how-tweak-your-linkedin-profile-stand-out-crowd
You can even see how I illustrated it with screen shots to show
how his profile really stands out.
That’s one tiny way to promote on LinkedIn. Social media expert
Scott Allen shared more tips that involve well-thought-out
strategies, not just tactics, during the two-part teleseminar I
conducted on “How to Use LInkedIn to Promote Anything–Ethically
& Powerfully” at
http://publicityhound.com/publicity-products/marketing-
tapes/linkedin.htm
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2. What’s Your #1 Free PR Tool?
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I’m compiling a list of free tools that Publicity Hounds use in
their PR and publicity campaigns, and I’d like to hear about your
favorite, not including this newsletter.
Examples:
–Any of the free media leads services like PitchRate, Reporter
Connection, HARO or the new service called NewsBasis.
–The free social media press release template from Shift
Communications at
http://www.shiftcomm.com/downloads/smprtemplate.pdf
–My free course on how to write and distribute online press
releases at http://www.89pressreleasetips.com
–A blog or ezine.
Let’s hear it. What’s the one free PR tool you absolutely cannot
live without? Email me, put “PR Tool” in the subject line and
explain where other Publicity Hounds can find it.
Mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com?subject=PRTool
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3. How Others Perceive You on Twitter
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The two best ways to put yourself in front of influential people
on Twitter are to:
–Retweet them. Your tweets will show up in their Mentions
column, and if you retweet them often enough, they’ll know who
you are.
–Reply to their tweets. Many people, even big-wigs, will be more
than happy to carry on a conversation with you.
How do you find the most influential people in Twitter? One way
that really saves time is to check out other people’s Twitter
lists and see who they’ve identified as the best (fill in the
blank) within an industry. When you subscribe to THEIR lists,
you’ll see a list of all the tweets from people they’ve
mentioned.
Publicity Hounds have flooded my email inbox with Help This Hound
questions about how to use Twitter lists, a topic that isn’t
answered easily in a blog post. So I’m hosting a teleseminar at 3
p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, Aug. 26, called “How to Use
Twitter Lists & Directories to Generate Publicity and Build Your
Brand.” I’ll even show you a nifty tool that you can use to find
out, within seconds, the Number One keyword or keyword phrase
that people on Twitter use to describe you.
If the time is inconvenient for you, sign up anyway because I’m
recording it. You?ll get a link where you can watch the streaming
video, or download the video. Read more about what you’ll be able
to do with Twitter lists and directories at
http://publicityhound.com/publicity-products/marketing-
tapes/twitterlists.htm
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4. Make Money While Writing Your Book
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The moment you decide to write a book, you can begin to leverage
that fact to attract new clients and revenue.
John Eggen, a publishing and marketing mentor, says one way to do
that is to include this one-liner in your email signature:
“Author of the forthcoming book, (insert your title and subtitle
here).”
Independent professional Jeanna Pool tried it. She reported, “I
got two new clients and $25,000.00 in income, all within 30 days
of starting my book. It took just three minutes to use John
Eggen’s simple technique.”
John has two more incredibly easy ideas that I’ll email you later
this week, along with information on how to join me when I
interview him during a teleseminar at 8 p.m. Eastern Time on
Wednesday, Aug. 18. Don’t miss this one if you’re writing a book,
or thinking of writing one.
You can sign up now at http://mypublishingopportunity.com/joans/
or wait to see the email.
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5. Read Your Customers’ Minds
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One of the worst mistakes I made when I started creating
information products was guessing what Publicity Hounds were
willing to buy.
A handful of the more than 100 products I’ve created turned out
to be stink bombs that, to this day, have fewer than five buyers.
Fortunately, I found Jeanne Hurlbert last year and hired her to
create a customer profile survey for me. The responses showed me
exactly what my customers wanted and how much they were willing
to spend. Ditto for services.
Jeanne is hosting a free webinar at 4 p.m. Eastern Time on
Thursday, Aug. 12. She’ll explain the four survey principles that
will let you read your customers’ minds to create products to
order that they will beg to buy.
She’ll show you how to leverage surveys for PR and publicity that
you couldn’t buy with a million-dollar advertising budget. You’ll
learn how surveys let you build a tribe that loves you, spelling
the difference between falling victim to an economic downturn and
making a fortune from it.
Jeanne will also explain how mobile surveys can put you on the
cutting edge of online marketing.
Register at http://mixiv.com/vp/47965/18826
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6. Publicity Summit Discount Ends Today
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Today, Aug. 10, is the last day to get the full discount on your
tuition for the National Publicity Summit, October 20-23, in New
York City, where you can meet more than 100 top journalists and
broadcasters face to face and pitch your story ideas.
After today, the price goes up. Host Steve Harrison will begin
pre-Summit training for the 53 people who already have been
admitted to the summit.
To apply for one of the 47 open spots, go here now:
http://www.nationalpublicitysummit.com/apply/?10011
I promote the summit as an affiliate because many of my readers
have attended, and reported great results. Watch this video Steve
created, in which four people who attended past summits explain
what happened to them after the did:
http://www.nationalpublicitysummit.com/info/npsvideo.html?10011
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7. Dog Joke of the Week
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A 3-year-old boy went with his dad to see a new litter of
Labrador puppies.
When they returned home, the boy breathlessly informed his
mother, “There were three boy Labrador puppies and four girl
Labrador puppies.”
“How did you know that?” his mother asked.
“Daddy picked them up and looked underneath,” he replied. “I
think it’s printed on their bottoms.”
DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes,
perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few
good laughs.
BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50
best websites for dog humor.
http://publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/
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8. And at My Blogs & Mobile Site…
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My blog at http://www.PublicityHound.net has a new look that
matches the HTML version of this newsletter. I’ll be adding
widgets, categories and other features in the next few weeks. In
the meantime, check out these posts:
13 fun, easy ways to find content for your blog
http://publicityhound.net/?p=6824
How to tweak your LinkedIn profile and stand out from the crowd
http://socialmediatoday.com/publicityhound/157407/how-tweak-your-linkedin-profile-stand-out-crowd
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Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound
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