The Publicity Hound’s
Tips of the Week
Issue #490 Feb. 2, 2010
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. When Google Speaks, Listen
2. Five Blogging Must-Haves
3. LinkedIn Recommendations
4. For Authors & Publishers Only
5. A Book on Inappropriate Touching
6. Help This Hound
7. Hound Slide Show of the Week
8. And at My Blogs…
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1. When Google Speaks, Listen
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So you think social media is a big fat waste of time, huh?
What if I told you that Google, the granddaddy of search engines,
is now including links and posts from social media sites like
Twitter, Facebook and MySpace as soon as they appear online? If
you aren’t participating at social media sites, and your
competitors are, they could be elbowing their way onto the top of
the Google search list for your keywords, if they’re using those
same keywords and sharing links.
You can read about it here: http://ow.ly/12CLQ
As you’ll see from that article, it’s more important than ever
for Publicity Hounds to use social networking sites to spread
information via shared links. If you’ve been putting off
participating, that should change your mind.
Jeanne Hurlbert, my new business partner, and I created Social
Media Rx, a new product specifically for Publicity Hounds who are
petrified about getting involved in social media, or can’t figure
out what to say or how to act at these sites.
Tomorrow, Feb. 3, we’re offering you a free webinar, chock full
of social media tips, for people who haven’t even dipped their
toes into the social media waters yet, or for those who are
participating, but aren’t quite sure what they’re doing or aren’t
seeing a return on investment.
It will be at 3 p.m. Eastern Time (Noon Pacific), and we’re
sharing tons of social media tips and success stories. We’ll also
give you a glimpse of Social Media Rx, our new product. It’s an
assessment you can take by answering a series of questions
designed to show you how much you do or don’t know about social
media.
When you’re done, it delivers, within seconds, a customized
report and your own formula that explains exactly what you should
be discussing at social media sites, based on your job, hobbies,
interests and level of expertise. It’s already received rave
reviews, and we can hardly wait to show it to you.
Everyone who registers for the call will receive the free report
“3 Dangerous Social Media Problems & How to Solve Them.”
For instructions on how to sign up, go to
http://budurl.com/socialmediarxwebinar
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2. Five Blogging Must-Haves
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If you’re blogging, here are five things that blogging expert
Patsi Krakoff says you must have at your blog:
–An email subscription form so your followers get each new post
via email. (I’ve added this to my to-do list.)
–An “About” page.
–Something you can offer them for free. (Another to-do for me.)
–A “retweet this” button to make it easy for readers to share
your post on Twitter. I use Tweetmeme. You can check it out at my
blog at http://www.PublicityHound.net
–An analytics program so you can see how much traffic you’re
getting and where it’s coming from.
Patsi listed seven more “must haves,” and the one issue that many
people waste time obsessing over, when she was my guest during a
teleseminar on “Time-saving Tips for Smart Business Blogging”
last month. The CD, MP3 replay and electronic transcript come
with 23 pages of handouts that include 101 ways to find content
for your blog, templates for writing a post quickly and easily,
and a list of 20 common mistakes you don’t want to make. Read
more about it and check out all the rave reviews at
http://tinyurl.com/businessblogger
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3. LinkedIn Recommendations
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If you aren’t regularly recommending people on LinkedIn, you’re
missing a chance to accumulate your own recommendations from
people who know, like and trust you.
That’s because every time you recommend someone, LinkedIn asks
that person if they’d like to return the favor.
Don’t just ask for recommendations. Offer them! It follows the
give-to-get rule that’s so important in the world of social
media.
See “How to Use LinkedIn to Promote Anything–Ethically &
Powerfully” at http://tinyurl.com/5zvzyd
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4. For Authors & Publishers Only
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Want to make your book a best-seller? You’re invited to a free
telseminar on Thursday, Feb., 4, at 2 and 7 p.m. Eastern Time.
Steve Harrison will interview Peggy McColl about the simple
blueprint she’s developed to quickly make many books instant
best-sellers at practically zero cost. This works for all types
of books: fiction, non-fiction, ebooks, novels, print on demand,
etc.
Interested? Register at
http://www.BestsellerBlueprintCall.com/?10011 (I’m an affiliate.)
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5. A Book on Inappropriate Touching
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This week, 10 Publicity Hounds have tips for Jill Starishevsky of
New York, NY, author of My Body Belongs to Me, a children’s book
on inappropriate touching. Jill needs ideas on how to promote it
to traditional and social media.
From Martine Ehrenclou:
“Submit your book to the Mom?s Choice Awards. That’s the book
awards competition that acknowledges the best books that benefit
families. They do a lot of promotion for their winners.”
From Eric Gruber:
“You should be writing top tips, how-to, top mistakes, and top
question-type articles, and then submit them to the top websites,
ezines and article directories that parents are going to every
day. For example: Iparenting.com, About.com, Child Parenting.”
From Christel Hall:
“Send a copy of your book to Dr. Laura, who has her own
syndicated radio show. Whether you agree with all of her advice
or not, she is a big children?s advocate and covers a new book at
least weekly on her radio program.”
The Publicity Hound says:
Create a Facebook Fan Page just for the book, and share the link
with mommy bloggers. See “11 Ways to Avoid Missed Opportunities
on Facebook” at http://budurl.com/jfgw
Read all the responses to this week?s “Help This Hound” question
http://budurl.com/touching
Send your own Help this Hound question to:
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com?subject=HelpThisHound
and include your city and state or province.
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6. Help This Hound
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Phyllis May of Key West, FL, writes:
“March 1 is my day in Chase?s Calendar of Events. It?s ?Refired
not Retired Day? and it?s also the title of my humorous book that
shows people how to make the most of life after retirement.
“Might your Publicity Hounds have ideas for things I can suggest
for people to do on March 1? Amazingly, because I have a Google
Alert, I know that there’s a restaurant in Australia that has it
on their calendar. I wrote and told them I thought I should be
there but they didn’t respond. Darn.
“One time I saw an assisted living facility promoting it but I
truly don’t know any BIG ideas. Can your creative readers help?”
The Publicity Hound says:
Hounds can create their own holidays like you did, or their own
days, weeks or months of the year, at http://www.Chases.com (the
deadline is April 15).
The hard part is figuring out how to promote it. But my Hounds
are, indeed, a creative bunch, and they’ll be glad to help by
posting their best ideas to my blog at http://tinyurl.com/ygrw3oa
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7. Hound Slide Show of the Week
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The popular exhibit “First Dogs: American Presidents and their
Pets,” at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., showcases some of the
top dogs that have lived at the White House. On display are
images of dogs belonging to 23 presidents, including the newest
addition: Bo, a gift to the Obamas from the late Sen. Edward M.
Kennedy.
Here’s a slide show that features six presidential pups: Barney,
Liberty, Bo, Him, Her and Checkers. Before you view the slide
show, can you guess which pups belong to which presidents?
http://www.newseum.org/exhibits_th/first_dogs/
Dog Jokes & Quotes Ebook: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes,
perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few
good laughs.
BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50
best websites for dog humor.
http://publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/
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8. And at My Blogs…
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Consider retweeting these blog posts:
6 ways to use the Newspaper Map of the World
http://tinyurl.com/yb4x7su
Shotgun Sports needs articles on trap, skeet, hunting
http://tinyurl.com/yjfb2r6
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Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound
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