The Publicity Hound’s
Tips of the Week
Issue #684 Jan. 22, 2013
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. LinkedIn to End Its Q&A
2. More Typing Tricks
3. Save the Dates
4. Hound Video of the Week
This Week in the Hound House:
It’s 0 degrees here today in Wisconsin. I’d buy more suet for the
birds, but my car died yesterday in the driveway, in the bitter
cold. Triple A jumped the battery but couldn’t keep it running.
So off it went to the repair shop. I still walked for a half hour
this morning, with fingers that felt like icicles inside two
pairs of gloves.
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1. LinkedIn to End Its Q&A
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On Jan. 31, LinkedIn will yank its questions-and-answers feature,
much to the dismay of experts who have been using it to answer
questions, rack up “Best Answer” designations and flaunt their
knowledge.
I suspect not as many people were using it as LinkedIn had hoped
and that Quora, the giant Q&A site, had robbed LinkedIn questions
of lots of attention.
So now what?
Alternatives include Google+ communities, industry Twitter chats,
wikis, LinkedIn Groups, niche Facebook groups, and many more.
Read about all of them here:
In the post Kent Lewis wrote for the Business2Community blog.
My two personal favorites are Quora.com and LinkedIn Groups.
Learn advanced strategies for writing a killer LinkedIn profile,
cashing in on Groups and creating LinkedIn Company Pages. You can order
the video replay of the webinar I hosted with LinkedIn expert
Wayne Breitbarth.
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2. More Typing Tricks
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My thanks to two Publicity Hounds who read my recommendation for
Shortkeys, in Saturday’s newsletter, and offered more tips you’ll
find helpful.
Shortkeys, is an inexpensive text
replacement utility that lets you insert blocks of text into
other applications like your email program, or Microsoft Word, by
simply typing a few keystrokes. I use it when someone asks for my
bio, and when I don’t want to type my long email address.
Publicity Hound Jason Womack created a very helpful video that
explains an iPhone shortcut you can use to avoid typing when
someone emails you with a request for information. It’s similar
to Shortkeys.
Publicity Hound Mark Viergutz says “Don’t forget about us Mac
users.”
FastFox Text Expander is an alternate version of Shortkeys, for
either Windows or Mac. You can find it at and it’s
free. But beware of the “extras” they ask you to download along
with the program. After it downloads, you can watch a helpful
video tutorial.
These tools are perfect if you find yourself typing the same
things over and over again like your address, answers to
frequently asked questions, or a URL at your website.
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3. Save the Dates
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Two webinars you won’t want to miss:
–Thursday, Jan. 24, at 2 or 7 p.m. Eastern
“How to Become a Regular Guest on National TV and Other Secrets
of the Publicity Superstars,” hosted by Steve Harrison. Lots of
tips on how to differentiate yourself from your competitors when
pitching big TV shows, and what producers want. The call is free.
–Thursday, Jan. 31, at 4 p.m. Eastern Time
“How to Use Powerful Pinterest Contests to Grow Your Audience and
Explode Your Profits.” I’m hosting this one, with guest expert
Beth Hayden who will explain how to finally start making money
from all those pretty pictures. Stay tuned for sign-up
information.
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4. Hound Video of the Week
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Thanks to Publicity Hound Christel Hall of Minden, Nev., for this
YouTube video of a dog at the park, trying to persuade a statue
sitting on a bench to throw a stick.
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