Issue #727 June 22, 2013
Publisher: Joan Stewart
“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”
In This Issue
- Paula Deen Cooks Up a Mess
- Build a Loyal Audience Online
- New Posts at My Blog
- Hound Video of the Week
This Weekend in the Hound House:
My favorite weekend is just like this one: Nothing on the calendar. No commitments. No meetings. No Publicity Hound work. Just two days of doing what I please.
1. Paula Deen Cooks Up a Mess
Why didn’t Food Network star Paula Deen, who could easily have afforded a crisis communications counselor, not hire one immediately?
She could have kept her racism scandal from becoming far worse than it already has.
Without expert guidance, she has cooked up one giant mess.
On Wednesday, the National Enquirer broke the story about a lawsuit deposition in which Deen admitted using the “N” word on several occasions.
On Friday morning, after the story went around the world and the Twittersphere was having a blast, she bailed out of the “Today” show with Matt Lauer, claiming she was physically exhausted.
Later yesterday, she issued two video apologies.
The first one, only 38 seconds, was spliced together from four separate clips and uploaded to YouTube. Later, it was taken down and replaced by a second one that was almost two minutes long. It was unedited and sounded much more sincere.
You can see both Paula Dean apology videos here.
I went to her YouTube channel after both videos had been online for several hours and found nothing there. Another mistake.
Media reports stated that Deen’s black employees are furious and want to defend her, but that her attorneys won’t let anyone talk.
A good crisis counselor would have told her that taking an attorney’s advise during a crisis, despite the lawsuit, is usually a big mistake.
See “In a Media Crisis, Your Lawyer Will be Wrong,” an interview I conducted with crisis counselor Clarence Jones, who says attorneys can cost clients millions of dollars in damaged reputations. Order the CD.
2. Build a Loyal Audience Online
Too many so-called marketers say you can’t be successful online unless you build a big audience.
That’s a lie.
You don’t need a big audience. You need a loyal audience, even if it’s small.
Danny Iny, one of the most successful online marketers I know, has come a very long way in a very short period of time. He doesn’t get hung up on reaching huge groups of people who will get onto his email list, and then ignore his emails.
He goes after people in a specific target audience, brings them into his fold, and then dazzles them with free information and fabulous customer service. He has started sending daily email Q&As on topics that people want to know more about. I love reading them and learn something new every few days.
Publicity Hounds already love him because he has presented two fabulous webinars in the last year: one on how to get your blog posts onto high-traffic blogs, and another on how to build your own thriving audience-based business online.
I was inundated with emails from people who loved what he taught.
Danny will be back again, this time at 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday, June 27.
He will present “The Proven 4-Step/12-Month Process for Creating a (Raving) Fan Base That Buys Over $250K Worth of Products (and Services) From You Per Year.”
You will be sent the free Audience Building Technology Map after you register.
If you can’t build traction online because you can’t find the right audience, or they aren’t responding to you, don’t miss this one.
3. New Posts at My Blog
Publicity Hounds are casting their votes in my slogan survey.
7 easy ways to find guest bloggers (and enjoy vacation)
How to pitch a guest post for The Publicity Hound blog
Dog Tweets: Here’s what “off the record” really means
Share Your Two Cents