Issue Issue #829 June 24, 2014
Publisher: Joan Stewart
“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”
In This Issue
- What’s #1 on Your Bucket List?
- How to Ask a VIP for a Favor
- Insider Publicity Secrets
- Hound Video of the Week
This Week in the Hound House:
When your family comes to visit, I’ll bet you treat them to a good time. Not me. I take advantage of them. Five of them will start arriving on Thursday in their SUVs filled with power tools, to help with a major remodeling project. (Hey, they love this stuff and they offered!) On Saturday, I’ll let you know if it’s as easy as it looks on HGTV.
1. What’s #1 on Your Bucket List?
I almost lost my cookies when I drove over the 200-foot-high Coronado Bridge in San Diego two years ago.
But that hasn’t stopped me from writing “skydiving” at the very top of my Bucket List. When I saw a news clip on TV a few weeks ago of wheelchair-bound President George H.W. Bush celebrating his 90th birthday by jumping out of a helicopter, I knew my dream isn’t that far-fetched.
What about you? What’s at the top of your Bucket List? Many of your friends and followers–and especially your fans–would love to know.
It’s a fun piece of trivia that you can slip into the “About Me” section at your website. Or into the short bio that appears in your Chamber of Commerce directory. Or into your author bio in your media kit.
In my newest article for Entrepreneur.com, I share “13 Fun Facts That Will Make Your ‘About Me’ A Lot Less Boring.” C’mon over and share something on your Bucket List, or another fun fact about yourself, in the Comments section.
2. How to Ask a VIP for a Favor
Keep your eyes open for important people who will be visiting your town, or speaking at events you’re planning to attend.
It’s a convenient opportunity to meet them face to face and ask them for a favor.
Maybe you need an endorsement for your new book. Or you want a celebrity CEO to be a guest on your webinar. Or you’d love to host a best-selling author when your book club meets. Maybe you just want to meet a journalist who writes for the Wall Street Journal.
I know what you’re thinking. Why would they care about you?
That’s what Publicity Hound Jacqueline Whitmore, an etiquette expert, asked herself when she needed an endorsement for her first book, Business class: Etiquette Essentials for Success at Work. She admired Jack Valenti, former president of the Motion Picture Association of America and knew he was coming to West Palm Beach, where she lives, to speak at a charity luncheon.
With a little help from the event coordinator, Jacqueline found a way to turn a very brief introduction into the first endorsement for her book. She has eight suggestions for things you need to do before, during and after the meeting, even if you’re face to face for only 30 seconds.
Jacqueline is also an Entrepreneur.com contributor, and you can read her step-by-step tips in her recent article on “How to Ask a VIP for a Favor.”
3. Insider Publicity Secrets
If you were able to sit in a room with the producers of some of the big TV shows you want to get onto, what would you ask them?
What if the editors of all the big magazines you want to get into were in the same room? What would ask them?
The chances of you being in a room with all of them is slim. But this Thursday, June 26, from 7 to 9:15 p.m. Eastern Time, you’ll be able to hear lots of insider secrets from many of the print and broadcast journalists who can cover you.
It’s a webcast with Steve Harrison and it’s two hours and 15 minutes, so set aside this entire chunk of time because Steve won’t be sending out the replay afterward.
Steve asked the journalists, who you will hear, one simple question: “If you had a brother or sister who wanted to get a lot of publicity and they asked you for your advice, what would you say?”
Their answers might surprise you. Register now so you don’t forget and prepare to take lots of notes.
4. Hound Video of the Week
A collection of more than a dozen funnies, all short clips.
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