12 Ways to Spark Controversy

Issue #1036 July 9, 2016
Publisher: Joan Stewart

“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”

In This Issue

12 Ways to Spark Controversy
Librarians Turned Columnists
Thursday: Learn How to Pitch
Hound Video of the Week

This Weekend in the Hound House:

My garden club hosts our annual Garden Walk today. Six gardens for only $5. Tonight, we enjoy a big potluck picnic with the homeowners, featuring food made by our talented gourmet cooks and bakers. So that I don’t go back for seconds, thirds and fourths, I weighed in this morning at Weight Watchers.

1. 12 Ways to Spark Controversy

Many publicity pups, scared of their own shadows, want to be as far removed from controversy as possible.

But smart Publicity Hounds know controversy commands attention. And they use it a variety of ways to claim their time in the spotlight.

Publicity expert Marcia Yudkin says conflict, disagreements, disputes and differences in perspectives are a key ingredient for coverage of your product, service, event, company or your expertise in traditional media, blogs, online news and social media.

One way is to take sides on a controversial issue. School boards and parents groups, for example, have argued against offering Harry Potter books in school libraries. They claim the books they promote witchcraft, that Harry Potter and his friends lie and disobey authorities, and that some of the later books in the series are too dark and frightening for children.

If you’re an author who writes in any genre, or your expertise ties into this in some way, look for squabbles like this one as perfect opportunities to state your views.

Marcia has 11 other ideas for ways you can use controversy to promote just about anything.

To do: Read Marcia’s guest post, “12 Angles for Sparking Controversy That Generates Publicity.”

2. Librarians Turned Columnists

Many local weekly newspapers are flourishing.

That’s one reason public librarians Julie Winkelstein and David Kent both delved into writing columns for their local papers.

For six years, Julie wrote “At the Library,” a weekly column appearing in San Francisco Bay Area newspapers. David, director of the Cooperstown Village Library in upstate New York, currently writes “From the Librarian” for the Cooperstown Crier. Both have used their columns to share library news, events and book reviews. They’ve also offered their opinions on local library issues, written about local authors, and connected with their readers on a personal level.

My local weekly has a gardening column written by a woman in my garden club. Other weeklies feature columns for sports, parenting, pets, health, humor, food, business, books, over-50, and even “around town” gossip.

Can you spin your area of expertise into a newspaper column?

Columnists can land lucrative consulting jobs because their columns give them instant credibility. Columns can help you draw traffic to your website. They lead to paid speaking gigs. And if you suddenly find yourself unemployed, a column in the local paper can give you a leg up on finding a new job.

To do: In my “Special Report #34: Secrets to Becoming a Columnist in Newspapers and Magazines,” I explain the realities of writing a free column, how to get started, how to approach editors, what to do if they say yes or no, writing tips and other tactics to make your column a reader favorite. Only $7. Buy it here and check out my other special report titles.

3. Thursday: Learn How to Pitch

Have you ever created a publicity pitch, and then sent it to a dozen or more journalists, bloggers and podcasters?

That’s called the “spray and pray” technique. You spray a pitch to whoever is on your media list and you pray that somebody bites.

They seldom do. Then you moan and groan that “nobody cares about my story.”

The secret to perfect pitching is a customized pitch that you change each time you deliver it, depending on who you’re pitching.

If you’re pitching your story to a TV station, there’s nothing wrong with calling, particularly if you’re piggybacking onto a breaking news event and your story would be perfect for that
night’s news. But if you’re pitching the same story to a national magazine, you’d almost never call.

How do you know when to call and when to email? How do you pitch on Twitter? Or would you?

I’m hosting a paid webinar from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, July 14, on “How to Pitch Your Story in 5 Easy Steps for a Publicity Homerun.” If the time is inconvenient, register anyway because you’ll receive the video replay and other materials within 72 hours.

You can use my formula as a cheat sheet every time you pitch. And I’ll give you 27 story angles you can steal on days when the idea well is dry.

To do: Register here.

4. Hound Video of the Week

This is, by far, one of the nicest car commercials I’ve ever seen. Who wouldn’t want this for a “dream weekend”?

[Tweet “RT @PublicityHound #PublicityTips — 12 Ways to Spark Controversy #PitchingtheMedia”]