The Publicity Hound’s
Tips of the Week
Issue #692 Feb. 19, 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. Prepare for These 4 Questions
2. Send Me Your New Bio
3. Social Media for Authors
4. Hound Video of the Week
This Weekend in the Hound House:
Two weeks without TV, and I don’t even miss it! I can’t believe
how much extra time I have–about 15 hours a week–to sleep,
walk, read, cook, meditate, and live a calmer life. If you’ve
been wanting to do something important but you keep saying “I
just don’t have time,” tally up the number of hours you spend in
front of the tube. You don’t have to go cold turkey.
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1. Prepare for These 4 Questions
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A reporter from a major daily newspaper reads the press release
you wrote about your new product.
She calls you for an interview. You explain how the product is
the solution to a thorny problem your target audience
experiences.
She’s intrigued. Then she asks a question you weren’t expecting:
“Do you have any case studies?”
Huh? Does she mean testimonials from happy customers?
No.
She means a report you’ve written yourself that tells the story
of how a customer struggled with a problem, used your product to
solve it, and got fabulous results.
A testimonial is something the customer writes. A case study is
something YOU write.
It’s a fabulous chance to give the reporter information that will
save her a lot of time writing the story. She might even feature
the customer in the case study as her anecdotal lead. And it will
impress her.
Good reporters ask for case studies. They also ask two other
questions:
–“How do you know that?”
–“Do you have any statistics?”
–“Can you prove what you say?”
If you don’t have at least five case studies, 15 testimonials and
statistical data that shows that at least 9 out of 10 customers
would buy from you again, you could be leaving money on the
table.
Jeanne Hurlbert, who created my customer profile survey a few
years ago, says case studies, testimonials and scientific data
about what your customers want and need are essential to selling
more products and services, and generating more publicity.
Register for the free webinar I’m hosting with her from 3 to 4
p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, Feb. 21. It’s called “Connection
2X: Master Your Marketing, Skyrocket Your Sales, and Catapult
Product Creation to Double Your Business in 2013.”
It’s perfect for authors, experts, speakers, coaches,
consultants, publicists, PR pros, service providers, business
owners and nonprofits.
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2. Send Me Your New Bio
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If you listened to the replay of the webinar I hosted with Nancy
Juetten, “The Bio Doc,” last week, you know the basics on how to
rewrite a lackluster bio.
Mine is undergoing major surgery right now, and I’ll share it
with you when it’s done.
How about showing me your old and new bio? I’ll feature some of
them at my blog, with a link back to your website.
Put the “Before” and “After” versions into a Word document and
email it to JStewart@PublicityHound.com.
I received dozens of comments from Publicity Hounds who loved
Nancy’s advice. If you haven’t listened to the free replay yet,
you can access it here.
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3. Social Media for Authors
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Three frequent questions authors ask about social media:
Q. Can I use my Facebook profile to sell my books?
A. No. It violates Facebook’s Terms of Service. If you want to
sell books, create a Facebook page.
Q. I’m tweeting a lot about my books and linking to my Amazon
pages. But nobody is buying. Why?
A. Because it’s difficult to get them excited about a book in
only 140 characters. From Twitter, link instead to a blog post in
which you describe the book, or its characters, or why you wrote
it. From within the post, link to Amazon.
Q. I wrote a book about how women can duplicate hairstyles worn
by famous celebrities. The book is part of my business. So why
can’t I talk about hairstyles on LinkedIn, a business networking
site?
A. Because LinkedIn isn’t a site where people discuss how to wear
a celebrity hairstyle. You belong on Pinterest, where you can pin
hairstyle photos from your book and from other websites.
Those answers are from Christine Buffaloe, my virtual assistant
who manages social media campaigns for authors and her other
clients.
She hears questions like those all the time, mostly from authors
who don’t understand the basics of how to create profiles on
these sites, and how to use them. She’s hosting a 10-part series
of webinars especially for authors who need help only with the
basics of sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and blogging. It
starts Feb. 28, and you can register only for the webinars you
need, or grab the entire series and get a bonus Q&A call at the
end.
Read more about what it includes here.
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4. Hound Video of the Week
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Misha loves singing along to music on the iPad and really starts
getting into it near the end.Take a look.
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