The Publicity Hound’s
Tips of the Week
Issue #445 April 7, 2009
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. Like Rats on a Sinking Ship
2. Google Measures Your Influence
3. Let ’em Know You Twitter
4. Before You Write a Nonfiction Book…
5. Advice for Twitter ‘Unfollowers’
6. Help This Hound
7. Hound Joke of the Week
8. And at My Blog…
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1. Like Rats on a Sinking Ship
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Those newspaper and magazine journalists you’re pitching are
grumpier than ever.
You’d be grumpy, too, if you had an ax hanging over your head.
The 2009 PRWeek/PR Newswire Media Survey shows that half of the
2,174 journalists surveyed this year are considering careers
outside of journalism.
Doug Elfman, entertainment columnist at the Las Vegas Review-
Journal describes the situation like this:
“I know several people who have changed careers or have
considered changing their careers because they don’t want to feel
like rats on a sinking ship anymore.”
That confirms what I’m hearing from my friends in the newspaper
business.
PRWeek’s survey results also show:
–70 percent of journalists are working harder this year than
last.
–They’re taking on more work on the Web, where publishers
feel they have the best chance of recouping lost revenues.
–At magazines like Teen Vogue, journalists produce numerous
daily online-only items and blog posts to tide over readers
between issues.
–The number of journalists who have a social networking profile
has increased from 54 percent last year to 77 percent this year.
Many of them say they look for story ideas, sources and other
information on sites like Facebook and Twitter.
What this means to you:
–Pay attention to a newspaper’s or magazine’s website, not only
the printed edition. You might find many more opportunities for
publicity online than offline.
–The emphasis on the Web means journalists are no longer “print
journalists” or “broadcast journalists.” They are all “multi-
media journalists.” So think “multi-media” when you pitch by
offering a video clip for a newspaper’s or TV station’s website.
–If you’re obsessed with generating publicity in traditional
media, you need to have a presence on the social networking
sites, where many journalists hunt for stories.
–Position yourself as a helpful source who’s willing to go the
extra distance. Many journalists are still confused about how to
use sites like Facebook and Twitter. If you can help them by
showing them, in step-by-step detail, how to do something like
search Twitter by topic, you could score points.
If you’re creating video for, let’s say, your local newspaper,
you can recycle it in other ways for additional publicity.
Videographer John Easton does it all the time in Charlotte, North
Carolina, and the local chamber of commerce and TV stations love
him. During a teleseminar I hosted, he explained how you can do
what he does without fancy equipment or much techie know-how. “9
Clever Ways to Use Video to Become a Publicity Darling in Your
Industry or Community” is available as a CD, MP3 or electronic
transcript that you can download as soon as your order has been
approved.
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2. Google Measures Your Influence
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If you’re one of the many people who thinks Twitter is a waste of
time and you refuse to participate, please reconsider.
Rumors have been circulating that Google is interested in buying
Twitter, the micro-blogging site that lets users send messages of
no more than 140 characters to everyone who follows them.
For now, it’s nothing more than gossip. But if there’s a nugget
of truth to the rumor, here’s how it could affect you.
Google, the granddaddy of search engines, already measures your
influence.
Let’s say you sell dog toys and somebody types “dog toys” into
the Google search box. Google will rank your site on the left
side of the screen according to several factors. One of the
biggest is whether your site includes those keywords in the title
bar, description, meta tags and copy on your website.
Another factor is how many other influential websites link to
yours.
It gives high ranking to videos, too. When Google bought YouTube
for $1.65 billion in October 2006, that was the company’s way of
screaming “We think videos are important.”
Same with Twitter.
If Google buys Twitter, chances are good that one of the factors
it will use to measure your influence is your Twitter presence,
how often you tweet and how often you join the conversation.
If your competitors are on Twitter but you’re not, what kind of
message do you think that will send to Google?
At Stompernet’s Internet marketing seminar in Atlanta last month,
several speakers predicted that the search engines will place a
greater emphasis on your influence in the social networking
world.
Already, you can measure your influence on Twitter with a variety
of tools and applications. One of them is Twitalyzer.
Type in your Twitter name, and it will grade your impact and
success in social media according to several factors: relative
influence, signal-to-noise ratio, generosity, velocity and clout.
Compare your score to the scores of your competitors.
If you ranked really low, you can boost your score by
understanding all the ways you can join in the conversation and
be helpful to the people who follow you. Warren Whitlock
explained how to do this, and he gave dozens of tips when he was
my guest during a teleseminar on “How to Use Twitter to Amass an
Army of Followers, Customers & Valuable Contacts–and Promote.”
We recorded it and it’s available as a package of electronic
transcripts and your choice of CDs or MP3s that you can download
immediately.
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3. Let ’em Know You Twitter
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Hardly a day goes by when the mainstream media isn’t reporting on
Twitter. It’s obvious many journalists and broadcasters are still
confused about the value of this site.
If you Twitter, particularly for business, and you’re seeing a
return on your investment, offer yourself as a source for this
story. Explain what has happened to you since you started
Twittering, how many followers you have, how much time you spend,
how many valuable contacts you’ve made, and how many clients or
customers you’ve generated.
Consider pitching this story to your local business journal,
daily and weekly newspapers, TV stations and even your trade
journals.
How about offering a short list of three or four Twitter tools or
apps you use that save you time and help keep you organized? I
blogged about a cool directory that separates all these tools by
category.
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4. Before You Write a Nonfiction Book…
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Don’t write one word until you’ve made a long list of all the
ways you can use that book as a springboard to other products and
services.
Too many authors view the book as the end product. Then, if the
book doesn’t sell, they’re stuck.
Smart authors use their books as calling cards. The book
“upsells” readers to a variety of other products and services.
After working with more than 9,000 authors over the last 20
years, Steve Harrison has learned that the most successful
authors simply do seven key things differently than poor authors.
Some of them are very famous bestsellers, like the creators of
the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and Rich Dad Poor Dad.
Others are happily not-so-famous but quietly raking in high six-
figure and even seven-figure annual incomes without ever being on
Oprah or hitting any bestseller list.
To learn what wildly successful authors know that poor authors
don’t, join him for a free 75-minute telephone seminar at 7 p.m.
Eastern Time tonight, April 7. There’s no cost to participate in
the call (except for your normal long distance charges).
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5. Advice for Twitter ‘Unfollowers’
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This week, eight Publicity Hounds have tips for Dan Janal of
Shorewood, Minn., owner of PRLeads.com. He subscribes to
Qwitter.com and wants advice on what to do when the service
notifies him that one of his Twitter followers has “unfollowed” him.
From David Kadavy:
“For me, it’s not about reciprocity, it’s about genuine
relationships and useful information. Follow that principle and
you’ll know when it’s right to unfollow someone.”
From Gail Sideman:
“I have a small follower base compared to many of those with whom
I have Twitter relationships, but can say that all I choose to
follow are valuable minds in their industries or are lots of fun.
If they unfollow me, I’m not going to analyze why. You can’t
please everybody, especially in a base as broad as social media.”
From Meryl Evans:
“I signed up for Qwitter a long time ago and forgot about it.
Suddenly, it hit me with a bunch of unfollowers. Obviously, the
service was flaky. Nonetheless, I unsubscribed to the service
after that. It’s just not worth getting hurt or emotional about
those who stop following you.”
Read all the responses to this week’s Help This Hound question.
Send your own Help this Hound question to me and include your city and state.
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6. Help This Hound
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Karen Nardella of Conway, N.H. writes:
“I am a sole proprietor who owns the Emporium Consignment Outlet
and Home Staging Center, a consignment shop for high-end
furniture in Conway, N.H.
“I sell gently-used, high-quality, brand-name furniture such as
Ethan Allan, and I pay the owner 55 percent of the sale. All the
furniture is no more than 10 years old.
“With the sagging economy, what’s the best way on a very tight
budget to spread the word about what I’m doing? I need to attract
the attention of people who have furniture to sell as well as
people who can’t afford new furniture. What tips can your Hounds
share with me, either through traditional marketing channels or
by generating publicity?”
The Publicity Hound says:
The bad economy presents all kinds of great tie-ins to your
pitches. Let’s see how many ideas my Hounds can suggest. If you
have a great idea for Karen, post it to my blog.
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7. Hound Joke of the Week
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Dogs have owners. Cats have staff.
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8. And at My Blog…
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