Hot Topic: Jobs Training

Issue #747 Sept. 3, 2013
Publisher: Joan Stewart

“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”

In This Issue

Hot Topic: Jobs Training
The Kim Komando Show
The Publicity Hound Podcast
Hound Video of the Week

This Week in the Hound House:

It sure is quiet around here. More than 100,000 Harley riders have headed for home after spending the weekend at the 110th anniversary in Milwaukee. They came from as far as Australia. Even my own little town had a “Rock the Harbor” party Friday night. Thanks, H.O.G.s, for putting on a great show, sharing the road and dumping millions into our local economy.

1. Hot Topic: Jobs Training

Why so many stories about the cost and importance of a college education, and so few stories about job training programs for kids who can acquire skills for a good-paying job in less than five years, or for those who can’t afford college?

Mike Rowe, star of the hit TV show “Dirty Jobs,” offers one of the best quotes on the job problem in the U.S.:

“We are lending money we don’t have to kids who can’t pay it back to train them for jobs that no longer exist. That’s nuts.”

Here, then, are story ideas I’d like to see. If these tie into something you or your company does, start pitching!

–Employment experts, offer your best advice on how kids, or the unemployed, can develop job skills fairly quickly. Which jobs are most in demand, and what’s the best way to acquire skills for those jobs?

–Most trade schools do a pitiful job promoting their offerings. Don’t they have PR people?

–If your company offers free training that moves qualified people into jobs, start promoting it.

–Does your nonprofit train volunteers who can then take those skills into the corporate world?

–Do you teach technology skills that others will need when applying for certain types of jobs? Look at your own blog, ezine, YouTube channel, podcasts or other content. Consider pitching it as “skills training” for the unemployed or underemployed.

–Authors, speakers and experts: Offer tips on the dozens of “soft skills” people need to not only get a job, but advance in it.
Check out the slidedesk “26 Soft Skills Training for Job Readiness”.

Find something worth pitching?

See “A Simple 5-Part Formula for Delivering the Perfect Media Pitch and Hitting It Out of the Park”.

2. The Kim Komando Show

Everybody, it seems, including me, believes they’re “technology challenged.” I’ll bet you do, too.

That’s why you’ll love “The Kim Komando Show,” a three-hour call- in radio show broadcast weekends on 450 stations throughout the U.S.

She bills herself as “The Technology Goddess,” and I’m in awe very time I listen to the show on Sunday nights here in Milwaukee. It seems like this woman knows everything, from helping callers with computer problems to the best apps or tech gadgets to help you do things faster and smarter.

What does this have to do with publicity and PR? Plenty.

Self-promotion is hard enough without hassling with a computer virus, a smart phone you don’t know how to use, or wasting time trying to do something you could have done within seconds if you had only listened to her show.

I’m hooked. You can find out which station is nearest to you, download the latest show, and subscribe to the podcast here.

She even gives you a lesson on how to write a fun, engaging bio. Read hers here.

3. The Publicity Hound Podcast

I’m following Kim Komando’s lead and thinking of finally starting a podcast, but I want to deliver the very best content that will help you.

It should take you less than a minute to answer five very short questions. One of my pet peeves is companies that ask me to take their surveys, especially long ones, but give me nothing in return for my time.

To thank you for taking my survey, I’ll email you a coupon code worth $15, to be used in the next 30 days. I have 52 terrific special reports, most $15, or you can use the coupon for any other product or service.

Take the survey here.

Thanks, too, for being one of my Publicity Hounds.

4. Hound Video of the Week

Fall is almost here. Watch this video of cute little Astoria Harris raking the leaves as her mama enjoys a good book.