Halloween Story Idea

Issue #864 Oct. 25, 2014
Publisher: Joan Stewart

“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”

In This Issue

1. Halloween Story Idea
2. Slogans & Taglines
3. Write for My Blog
4. Hound Video of the Week

This Week in the Hound House:

My new healthy gourmet treat: Pomegranate seeds. They’re loaded with antioxidants and good for the heart and blood vessels. I bought one last week but couldn’t figure out how to remove the seeds. I had heard you’re not supposed to cut it like an apple. YouTube to the rescue. Turns out part of the process is to beat it hard with a wooden spoon. Here’s a great how-to video.

1. Halloween Story Idea

This is an oldie but goodie and worth mentioning again.

Former TV producer Shawne Duperon says one of the best ways to get your company on TV this time of year is to have a pumpkin carving contest. Tell employees to carve the call letters of one local TV station on their pumpkins. The more creative, the better.

Call the same station you’ve chosen and let them know what you’re doing. You might even ask if one of their on-air personalities can judge it. If they can’t send a judge, they might be able to at least send a camera crew and a reporter.

You might even offer to take several of the best pumpkins to the station to make their job easy.

Buy the electronic transcript of an hour-long interview with Shawne and learn how to identify the all-knowing, all-powerful “Queen Bee” inside every TV newsroom. This is the person who decides what gets covered and what doesn’t. She also explains how to sound cool by talking the language of the newsroom, the formula for the perfect story idea, and the best time of day to call.

Publicity Hound Tom Graber used her tips and got three media hits in only two days, include an in-studio interview on a TV station in Milwaukee. Learn how you can do it too.

2. Slogans & Taglines

A client in my Mentor Program needs a tagline for her company’s new website.

As we were brainstorming ideas, I remembered Slogan Slingers.

It’s a website where you can start an online slogan contest. You set the price you’re willing to pay the winner. The minimum is $50 with a $35 administrative fee. The higher the prize, the more entries you’ll get.

Registered writers then compete to come up with your new company slogan or tagline. I used this service earlier this year when I was considering changing my tagline from “Tips, tricks and tools for free publicity” to something more creative. I received more than 100 entries, many of them way off the mark and too cutesy. I chose the 10 best and asked you to vote. You told me to keep the tagline I have.

You can use Slogan Slingers if you’re looking for:

–A catchy slogan for an ad.

–A book title.

–A tagline for your website.

–A catchy nickname that describes you and ties into your business, like The Publicity Hound.

Read what makes a great tagline.

3. Write for My Blog

If you have a publicity success story to share, or a case study about how you promoted yourself and it paid off, or any other tips that would be perfect for my audience, consider writing for my blog.

Please don’t ask, “What do you want me to write about?”

My readers love knowing about free online tools for self-promotion, anything that makes social media easier, book marketing tips, event promotion, unusual ways to promote your expertise, and almost any topic related to PR, promotion and social media.

You can find all the guidelines on how to pitch me.

4. Hound Video of the Week

This is one of my favorites. Three poodles are interrogated about who made the mess. Can you guess the guilty party?