Link Surveys & Social Media

The Publicity Hound’s
Tips of the Week
Issue #522 Sept. 7, 2010

Publisher: Joan Stewart

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

“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”

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

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

1. Link Surveys & Social Media

2. Create Your Own Cartoon

3. You Must be on Listorious

4. Promote Others on Shoutworthy

5. Magic Phrases for More Publicity

6. Hound Photos of the Week

7. And at My Blogs & Mobile Site…

=====================================
1. Link Surveys & Social Media
=====================================

One of the best ways to keep people interested on social media
sites–and talking about you to their friends, followers and
fans–is to ask them to complete a survey.

Ask their opinion on a controversial topic, or encourage them to
name a favorite company they love doing business with, or urge
them to give advice to someone who needs it.

You can create surveys for free, and within minutes, but you must
know the right way to ask questions. You can push your audience’s
hot buttons by choosing fun, divisive or newsworthy topics that
your followers will not only participate in, but promote to their
own followers. You can publicize the survey many ways and pull
traffic to your Facebook Fan Page, blog or website where
respondents take the survey.

You can then turn the survey results into your own breaking news
story, share results at the social media sites and pitch the
story to freelancers, beat reporters, industry publications and
bloggers.

My partner, Jeanne Hurlbert, who’s an expert in surveys and
social media, is the only one teaching how to do this in any
depth.

She’s hosting a teleseminar at 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday,
Sept. 14, that will show you how to use surveys and link them to
your social media efforts. She’ll teach you new, proven
techniques for getting a return on investment from social media
and building a huge following. If you’ve been looking for ways to
create products that will sell, new ways to do affiliate
marketing, and more, you’ll get those tips, too. Listen to Jeanne
explain more about what she’ll be teaching you during the webinar
“Create Community, Conversions and Cash by Teaming Surveys and
Social Media”: http://mixiv.com/vp/87944/18826/

======================================
2. Create Your Own Cartoon
======================================

Want an unusual way to promote a book or anything else?

How about creating your own animated cartoon, and then uploading
it to video-sharing sites, or linking to it from an online press
release, or placing the video at your blog or website?

Michael Keller, author of “Life In A Week; Book Two – What Is
Spirituality?”, created his own cartoon at Xtranormal’s site at
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7020117 to tie into his book.

The site’s terms of service say that “you agree not to use the
site for any commercial use unless you purchase a commercial
account” and that all content is their property.

I didn’t have time to experiment with this, but it looks like
fun.

=====================================
3. You Must be on Listorious
=====================================

If journalists are searching for experts to interview on
Listorious at http://www.Listorious.com, and you aren’t there,
you could blow your chances for publicity.

Listorious is my favorite directory for finding experts on
Twitter, as well as Twitter lists.

It has the best Twitter people search on the web so you can find
anyone by topic, region or profession–powered by data from the
tens of thousands of list curators. Once you find the right
person, you can interview them by asking questions over
Listorious.

By answering some questions through Listorious rather than
directly on Twitter, your answers are organized, in depth, and
have archive value. It’s like a magazine interview.

I recommended four other Twitter directories and shared dozens of
tips during the recent webinar on “How to Use Twitter Lists &
Directories to Generate Publicity and Build Your Brand.” Order
the video, MP3 and the handouts which include step-by-step
instructions on how to create, use and promote your lists at
http://publicityhound.com/publicity-products/marketing-
tapes/twitterlists.htm

======================================
4. Promote Others on Shoutworthy
======================================

Give to get. That’s the mantra in social media.

Promote others, and others will promote you.

Shoutworthy at http://ShoutWorthy.com/ is a cool new tool you can
use to compliment, recommend and showcase vendors, clients,
bloggers and even journalists whose work you love. These posts
are easier to write than LinkedIn recommendations because you
must keep them to within 140 characters. (Keep recommending
people on LinkedIn, but use Shoutworthy when your time is at a
premium.)

On Shoutworthy, you type your message into a window, much like
you do on Twitter and then, specify if you want to also send it
to your Twitter account and auto-post it to the recipient?s wall
on Facebook.

======================================
5. Magic Phrases for More Publicity
======================================

When you’ve completed an interview with a journalist or blogger,
ask:

“May I contact you again in about three months if I have
something you’d be interested in? If so, is there a good time to
call?”

Most likely, the answer will be, “Of course” and you’ll know
exactly which times or days are most convenient for a call.

Then, when it’s time to pitch again, you can contact the
journalist or blogger and say, “You said it would be OK to call
if I had something else you’d be interested in.”

That lets them know you already have their permission, and
because you called when they told you to, it lets them know that
you respect their time.

Those two phrases are among the 10 I listed during the webinar I
hosted recently on “How to REALLY Use Publicity as an Online
Marketing Channel and ZIG When Everyone Else is ZAGGING.” You’ll
learn lots of smart strategies that will give you a huge edge on
your competitors, including how to research journalists and
bloggers before pitching them. Read more about what you’ll learn
at http://publicityhound.com/onlinepublicitytips.htm

======================================
6. Hound Photos of the Week
======================================

This isn’t a joke, but it will make you smile. It’s a gallery of
15 photos of dogs, captured and edited on the iPhone, from
talented photographers all around the world:

http://mashable.com/2010/09/06/iphone-dog-photographs

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/

=====================================
7. And at My Blogs & Mobile Site…
====================================

Great fodder for retweeting:

23 ways to find media where you want publicity
http://publicityhound.net/?p=7002

——————————————-

Follow me on Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/PublicityHound

Join my Facebook Fan Page:
http://www.facebook.com/publicitytips

Connect with me on LinkedIn (and tell me how we know each other):
http://www.linkedin.com/in/publicityhound

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

Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound