The Publicity Hound’s
Tips of the Week
Issue #533 Nov. 30, 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. Your Local ‘Time Person of the Year’
2. Jump on the Kindle Craze
3. Tips for Social Media Events
4. LinkedIn Adds a Share Button
5. Help This Hound
6. Hound Video of the Week
7. And at My Blogs & Mobile Site…
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1. Your Local ‘Time Person of the Year’
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What person made the biggest difference in your community this
year?
Time magazine wants to know. Plan a Meetup with your neighbors on
Wednesday, Dec. 8, to decide who you want to nominate, and take a
photo of your group. A Meetup is an offline event that’s
organized and promoted at http://www.Meetup.com
While you’re there, Time also wants you to help decide who the
magazine should choose as its “2010 Person of the Year.” You can
use the magazine’s current list of candidates as a guide.
After the Meetup, report back to Time and let the magazine know
about your nominees. Submit the photo of your Meetup, too.
This is a great way to generate publicity for your local
neighborhood group, nonprofit, or volunteer organization that has
helped your community. Don’t forget to contact your local TV
stations and newspapers to let them know when you’re meeting. If
it’s a slow news day, they just might cover it.
Anyone can organize a Meetup. If there isn’t one already planned
in your town, start one at http://www.meetup.com/time
Learn more about the competition and see which cities and
countries are already participating at
http://www.time.com/time/meetup#ixzz16SEXymsH
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2. Jump on the Kindle Craze
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Amazon’s Kindle is at the top of Christmas lists all over the
world, and if you haven’t jumped on this craze yet by selling
your own content for Kindle users, you’re missing a chance to
promote your expertise and create a new revenue stream.
The Kindle is so popular that for Amazon’s 10 best-selling books,
Kindle digital books are outselling print (both hardcover and
paperback combined) more than 2 to 1. Kindle books are also
outselling print books for the top 25, 100 and 1,000
bestsellers–pretty remarkable when you consider that the Kindle
has been for sale for only three years.
Somewhere on your hard drive, you have content that can be turned
into an ebook for the Kindle. But writing it could take months.
Formatting it can be a pain. And pricing it always dicey.
Tomorrow, Dec. 1, Daniel Hall will walk you through all the steps
on how to create an ebook for the Kindle–fast. He’ll be my guest
during a complimentary webinar at 4 p.m. Eastern Time, and you
should set aside at least two hours. You’ll learn how to:
-Get an Amazon Digital Text Platform account so you can start
publishing immediately.
-Use material already on your hard drive to create your first
Kindle ebook.
-Make an attractive ebook cover quickly.
-Take the actual steps to publish your first ebook.
-Price strategically so you squeeze the most profit out of each
title.
all this without spending a dime.
Register now at http://www.realfastbook.com/joanweb.html and come
with questions.
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3. Tips for Social Media Events
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A Meetup, like the Time magazine event mentioned above, or a
Tweetup, or other offline events that you promote using social
media, can turn into a disaster if you haven’t attended to all
the little details.
WordWrite Communications in Pittsburgh is offering a free White
Paper with 20 tips on how to host, plan and execute a successful
social media event. You can claim it by opting in with your email
address in the third section of the left margin at
http://www.wordwritepr.com/social-media-whitepapers-for-growing-
your-online-business/
When you need help promoting it, don’t forget about the dozens of
online event calendars and websites that will post your event for
free. Last month’s webinar, “50+ Places Online to Promote Your
Live & Virtual Events to Reach Your Target Market & Pull Sell-out
Crowds,” explains them all. The video replay also comes with a
handy checklist of all the sites so you don’t miss a beat. Read
more about it at http://publicityhound.com/events.htm
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4. LinkedIn Adds a Share Button
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Encourage people to share your articles, tips, blog posts, video
and other content by inserting the new Share button on your
website and blog.
Go to http://www.linkedin.com/publishers and choose from one of
three styles. Grab the code and insert it onto your site. (If you
can’t do this yourself, delegate this to your techie.)
If you’re confused about other ways to promote on LinkedIn, check
out the teleseminar I did with Scott Allen on “How to Use
LinkedIn to Promote Anything–Ethically & Powerfully.” It’s all
about adding value for your connections, not producing a non-stop
string of free commercials. Learn more about what Scott can teach
you to do at
http://publicityhound.com/publicity-products/marketing-
tapes/linkedin.htm
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5. Help This Hound
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Teri Arnold of Norfolk, Va., writes:
“I work for the American Heart Association and we are rolling out
a new interactive website at http://www.MyLifeCheck.org that
provides a free health score and personal action plan for ideal
health.
“You simply plug in your numbers (blood pressure, BMI, height,
weight, etc.) and you receive a detailed plan on how to make
small changes in seven key areas that will add up to a big
difference in heart health. The goal for our Mid-Atlantic
affiliate is to have 25,000 people go to the site by June 2011.
“We have it in our email signatures. We are promoting it on our
main website at Heart.org and we have promotional materials. Any
advice on ways to get more people to visit the site without
paying for advertising?”
The Publicity Hound says: Dovetail social media and traditional
media. OK, Hounds, how can Teri do that? What are your best ideas
for promoting this site either online or offline? Post them to my
blog at http://publicityhound.net/?p=7498
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6. Hound Video of the Week
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Check out Chester, the Amazing Peeing Dog that has a most unusual
way of relieving himself. He’s also the dog with the world’s
biggest bladder, and he won $100,000 for his owners on “America’s
Funniest Home Videos”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcgVUtojg68
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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7. And at My Blogs & Mobile Site…
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You can now sign up to receive email notifications every time I
publish a new blog post. Submit your email address to “Subscribe
to Email Updates” on the right side of my blog at
http://www.PublicityHound.net
Here’s my post from the last seven days:
Videos: How 2 businesses deal with bad reviews on Yelp
http://publicityhound.net/?p=7484
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Joan Stewart
The Publicity Hound
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