Nonprofits, Speak Up

The Publicity Hound’s
Tips of the Week
Issue #444 March 31, 2009

Publisher: Joan Stewart

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

“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”

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

1. Nonprofits, Speak Up

2. Journalists’ Blogs a Gold Mine

3. Social Media Sells Books, Products

4. Take a Survey at Your Blog

5. How to Promote E-courses

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog…

=================================
1. Nonprofits, Speak Up
=================================

Many Publicity Hounds who completed my Customer Profile Survey
this month said they wanted more tips for nonprofits. Here’s a
timely one.

Explain how you would be affected by President Barack Obama’s
proposal to change the rules on deductions for charitable
contributions.

If passed by Congress, the budget would reduce the deductibility
of charitable contributions from 35 percent to 28 percent on
households that earn more than $250,000 a year. It also calls for
a return of the 39.6 percent tax bracket, which could affect
charitable giving.

A friend told me yesterday that an annual fund-raiser at her
church has raised only $75,000 this year, compared to the
$150,000 it had raised at the same time last year.

That’s probably due to the bad economy. But how much smaller
would the revenue be if Congress changed the rules that govern
charitable giving?

The issue is being debated right now. The Center on Philanthropy
at Indiana University acknowledged that the reduced deduction
would “increase the challenges nonprofits have,” but said it
would only have a moderate impact.

Even so, nonprofits are sweating.

Here are ways to piggyback onto the issue and attract attention,
whether you’re for or against the proposal.

–Are your board and executives discussing the impact? What would
it mean to your nonprofit and the people you serve? Let the media
know.

–Create a short video arguing for or against Obama’s plan and
upload it to the video-sharing sites.

–Write op-ed pieces for your local daily and weekly newspapers.

–Pitch bloggers who cover your topic.

–Discuss it at Twitter and link to videos, blog posts and
opinion pieces at your blog or website.

–Create a group on Facebook and keep your followers updated on
what happens with this proposal as well as other issues that
affect your nonprofit.

–If you have a good visual to offer, pitch the story to your
local TV stations.

If you’re smart, you’ll weave into the story information about
things like your events, fund-raisers and volunteers and explain
how they would be affected.

=================================
2. Journalists’ Blogs a Gold Mine
=================================

Dying to pitch a certain journalist at a top-tier media outlet
but confused about how to make your pitch stand out among all the
others?

Keep reading for the inside secret.

I’ve never met Deborah Kotz, a woman’s health columnist for U.S.
News & World Report.

We’ve never emailed each other or talked on the phone. I’ve never
pitched her.

Yet I know intimate details about her, including the type of
birth control she has used and whether her two sons are
circumcised.

You’ll never find those kinds of details in the pricey media
databases you’re buying.

But in some cases, you CAN find them buried within the bog posts
of journalists you want to pitch. Most PR people, unfortunately,
are too busy or too lazy to search for them.

To make your job easier, I’ve explained in step-by-step detail
how to find out if a journalist blogs and how to navigate the
blog to find all the juicy tidbits you need to customize your
pitch.

If you think my tips are valuable, please share that link with
your Twitter followers, Facebook friends and LinkedIn
connections.

=========================================
3. Social Media Sells Books, Products
=========================================

Puzzled about the return on investment you’ll get by
participating in social media?

David Mathison, an unknown author, has one success story after
another to share about what has happened to him as a result of
joining the conversation at sites like Twitter, Facebook and
LinkedIn.

While writing his book “Be the Media: How to Create and
Accelerate Your Message…Your Way,” he spent time on those sites
and others. As a result:

–He pre-sold 5,004 books in just 11 days through one Twitter
connection.

–He used Twitter to get invited to a prestigious university
symposium–and was invited back a second time.

–He collected thousands of email addresses and now markets to
those people.

–He used Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to create an unbeatable,
lead-qualifying machine.

–He made friends with more than 3,500 Facebook users and
enlisted them to help sell his book.

Not bad, and that’s just for starters. David will join me for a
complimentary teleseminar from 3 to 4 p.m. Eastern Time on
Wednesday, April 8, and explain how to use social media to create
a huge following and sell more books, products or services. Only
200 people will be able to participate.

=======================================
4. Take a Survey at Your Blog
=======================================

If you’re a blogger who wants more traffic, comments and sales
from your blog, here’s a simple, inexpensive idea.

Take a survey–not like the lengthy Customer Profile Survey that
many of you completed for me recently, but a short, fun or
controversial survey you can tweet about on Twitter and refer to
on Facebook. It will help pull traffic to your blog like a
magnet.

Jeanne Hurlbert, the consultant who helped me design my survey,
is creating a video at her blog that explains how to do this. But
first, she wants to see questions you have about short blog
surveys.

She promises to answer every question and then use your questions
to guide her as she creates a video that explains how to survey
your readers.

Authors might want to know how a survey can sell more books.
Speakers might be curious about what kind of survey can help book
more speaking gigs. Other Hounds might want to share blog survey
success stories. Who knows? You might end up in her video.

I’ll let you know as soon as she has created the video.

P.S. Jill Cranford, who owns Stone2Furniture, a company that
makes furniture out of stone, has won the Kindle 2. Her name was
chosen from all respondents who completed my Customer Profile
Survey.

========================================
5. How to Promote E-courses
========================================

This week, six Publicity Hounds have tips for Linda Foirmichelli
of Concord, NH and Jennifer Lawler of Lawrence, KS, both well-
established writers who offer e-courses on how writers can break
into magazines and how to write a book proposal.

From Janet Roots:

“Try connecting with people who are in touch with the same market
as you are, but offering different skills, like writers’ coaches.
I’m a writer’s coach and I would love to be able to refer my
clients to a trustworthy e-class on these subjects, since my
focus is writing fiction.”

From Viveca Stone-Berry:

“Since you are both well-established, that means you have friends
and colleagues who are also well-established and they have
friends and colleagues.

“What about offering a ‘community’ discount to your contacts?
Make it at least 20 percent off. One way to do this is to post it
on ClickBank which is an affiliate program. I currently list my
fatigue recovery guide there and am putting up a duplicate page
to offer a ‘community discount.'”

From Sheryl Kurland:

“You can submit course information for free to an e-newsletter
called Scribbles for writers and wanna-be writers. Your information should actually be
emailed to darlyn@sunscribbles.com You should also
immediately subscribe to this e-newsletter because it may contain
information on other places/opportunities to connect with to
publicize your course information.

“Be sure to include a gentle request for readers to blog about
your courses or send out your information in their respective e-
newsletters. Writers are usually always willing to help other
writers.”

The Publicity Hound says:

Lots of freelancers read this newsletter and I’d love a list of
tips on how they can break into magazines. I’d share them at my
blog and then link to your course. So pitch bloggers like me.
“How to Pitch the Best Bloggers and Create a Media Explosion,” a
teleseminar I did with Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff, aka The
Blog Squad, explains how.

==================================
6. Help This Hound
==================================

Dan Janal of Shorewood, MN, owner of PRLeads, writes:

“I subscribe to UseQwitter.com which tells me when people stop
following me on Twitter.

“I recently became very active on Twitter and many people started
following me–more than 400 in a week. However, UseQwitter now
tells me that 20 people have stopped following me.

“Was this a scam by them to get me to follow them? Should I
‘unfollow’ them in return? Were they really interested in hearing
from me, or were they trying to boost their own numbers?

“What do your readers do when they find out they are no longer
being followed? I feel so used!”

The Publicity Hound says:

I don’t really care about who unfollows me. If they don’t like my
posts, they probably aren’t good leads for me, anyway. And I
don’t waste my time unfollowing. But I’ll be curious to hear from
Hounds who ‘unfollow.’

Share your tips for Dan at my blog .

===============================
7. Hound Joke of the Week
===============================

Kenny, a city boy, moved to the country and bought a hound dog
from an old farmer for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the
dog the next day.

The next day the farmer drove up and said, “Sorry son, but I have
some bad news. The hound died.”

“Well then, just give me my money back,” Kenny said.

“Can’t do that,” the farmer said. “I went and spent it already.”

“OK then, just unload the hound dog,” Kenny suggested.

“What ya gonna do with him?” The farmer asked.

“I’m going to raffle him off,” Kenny said.

“You can’t raffle off a dead dog!” The farmer replied,
astonished.

“Sure I can,” Kenny said. “Watch me. I just won’t tell anybody
he’s dead.”

A month later, the farmer met up with Kenny and asked, “What
happened with that dead hound?”

“I raffled him off,” Kenny said. “I sold 500 tickets at two
dollars apiece and made a profit of $898.”

“Didn’t anyone complain?” The farmer asked.

“Just the guy who won,” Kenny said. “So I gave him his two
dollars back.”

Kenny grew up and eventually became the chairman of Enron.

==================================
8. And at My Blog…
==================================

Jill Cranford wins Kindle2 in Publicity Hound survey drawing

Social networking ROI: A testimonial more valuable than an ad

Hip hop magazine wants to feature women deejays with clout