The Publicity Hound’s
\nTips of the Week
\nIssue #451 May 19, 2009<\/p>\n
Publisher: Joan Stewart<\/p>\n
==========================================<\/p>\n
“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”<\/p>\n
==========================================<\/p>\n
In This Issue
\n===============================<\/p>\n
1. Facebook’s Missed Opportunity<\/p>\n
2. Animoto Caveat<\/p>\n
3. 104-Year-Old Who Twitters<\/p>\n
4. 5 Myths About Writing a Book<\/p>\n
5. How an Artist Can Recycle Publicity<\/p>\n
6. Help This Hound<\/p>\n
7. Hound Video of the Week<\/p>\n
8. And at My Blog…<\/p>\n
=====================================
\n1. Facebook’s Missed Opportunity
\n=====================================<\/p>\n
You spend hours posting content to Facebook, commenting on your
\nfriends’ videos and replying to their messages.<\/p>\n
Day after day, you dutifully clean out your Inbox, join
\nconversations and post occasional photos and videos.<\/p>\n
You watch as your number of friends increases to 500, 1,000,
\n4,000 and beyond.<\/p>\n
But then you ask, what’s the point?<\/p>\n
You can’t track even one dollar in sales back to Facebook. Some
\ndays, the giant social networking site of more than 300 million
\nusers seems like the loneliest place in the world.<\/p>\n
It’s a common complaint.<\/p>\n
That’s because most Facebook newbies either find the site
\nconfusing, or they don’t understand all the opportunities to
\nconnect with their tribe and start building relationships.<\/p>\n
Here’s an example. The only place that Facebook permits you to
\nactively promote is on its Pages, yet many people don’t know how
\nto create them or use them.<\/p>\n
Your profile has friends. Your Pages have fans. There’s a big
\ndifference.<\/p>\n
Promote on your profile and Facebook might send you a message
\ntelling you that you’re violating its terms of service. Promote
\non your Pages, and you could start pulling in traffic.<\/p>\n
Think of Pages as the best way to flaunt your brand. Here are
\nfive reasons why Facebook Pages are so powerful:<\/p>\n
–They’re the only part of Facebook fully indexed by Google, so
\nthey serve as a traffic magnet.<\/p>\n
–Facebook limits the number of friends to 5,000. But you can
\nhave an unlimited number of fans. Someone can become your fan
\nwithout necessarily being your friend.<\/p>\n
–Pages can include your product photos, a video demonstration of
\nhow to use something you sell, sales copy, pricing information,
\nspecial offers, coupons and more.<\/p>\n
–When Facebook users become a fan of your branded Page, Facebook
\nwill notify them anytime you update the status on your Page, via
\nthe primary news feed on the homepage.<\/p>\n
–When your fans interact with your Facebook Page, stories
\nlinking to your Page can go to their friends via News Feed. As
\nthese friends interact with your Page, News Feed keeps driving
\nword-of-mouth to a wider circle of friends.<\/p>\n
My virtual assistant, Christine Buffaloe, who manages Facebook
\nfor many of her clients, has identified 10 other missed
\nopportunities. I’ve invited her to explain them all when she’s my
\nguest during a teleseminar I’m hosting on Thursday, June 4, at 3
\np.m. Eastern Time. If you can’t attend “11 Ways to Avoid Missed
\nOpportunities on Facebook,” sign up anyway and I’ll send you the
\nMP3 audio. Or you can buy the electronic transcript or the CD
\nwithin 10 days after the call.<\/p>\n
This session is for beginners and those with intermediate skills
\non Facebook. It’s an update of last summer’s teleseminar series
\nthat’s already outdated. If you attended that session, you get
\ncomplimentary admission to this one. I’ll email you with details.
\nEveryone who registers will receive illustrated handouts the
\nmorning of the call.<\/p>\n
=================================
\n2. Animoto Caveat
\n=================================<\/p>\n
Animoto, the nifty service that lets you create Hollywood-quality
\nvideos from still photos, was a huge hit with Hounds last week
\nwhen they read about it here.<\/p>\n
Several of them emailed links to videos they created rather
\nquickly using this program.<\/p>\n
But Publicity Hound Barbara Sundquist, who coaches entrepreneurs,
\nwasn’t as enthusiastic. She wrote an interesting blog post
\nexplaining three reasons why she thinks Animoto is too
\nrestrictive:<\/p>\n
–You can’t use the free version for anything commercial, such as
\npromoting your website or services.<\/p>\n
–If you subscribe to the commercial version for $249 a year, you
\ncan make videos promoting your own services but you can’t use it
\nto make videos for clients. Last week, I had suggested that PR
\npeople and virtual assistants consider adding this service for
\ntheir clients. They still can, but the client will have to buy
\nthe service.<\/p>\n
–If your yearly subscription lapses, you’re no longer allowed to
\nshow the videos that you made while under license. “Can you
\nimagine having to remove all those videos from video sharing
\nsites? What an administrative nightmare.”<\/p>\n
I agree. I still like Animoto and I’ll continue using it. But if
\nyou’re like me and seldom read the terms of service before you
\nbuy something, you might be surprised later, like I was when I
\nlearned about this.<\/p>\n
You can read Barbara’s entire blog post.<\/p>\n
Play around with Animoto’s free service<\/a> that lets you create an =================================== If you saw the story out of the U.K. last week about the 104- The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Sun were. They ran an article Mike Butcher, who writes for The TechCrunch blog, explained the “What none of these stories told you, however, was that poor old The Geek Squad never covered its tracks. One of Ivy’s tweets “Since when did a 104 year old suddenly start using words like Thanks to Publicity Hound Bonnie Boots, publisher of The Internet Twitter isn’t going away. It’s turning into one of the best tools ======================================== Here are five common myths that keep people from writing a book:<\/p>\n –It takes at least a year, usually more, to write the first –You can’t write a book unless you’re already an expert on a –Self-published books look cheap, cheesy and unprofessional.<\/p>\n –Major publishers are too restrictive. Signing a contract with –Most of the revenue you’ll earn from your book will come ===================================== This week, five Publicity Hounds have tips for Karren Jeske, APR From Alice Hohl:<\/p>\n “Send a link or information about the magazine (or a jpeg of the From Alyson B. Stanfield:<\/p>\n “Without having seen the article, and this is key, I’d suggest “He can also send copies to curators and potential galleries in From Ariane Goodwin:<\/p>\n “This is a perfect story to break up into a sequence on his blog “Then he should send an email blast out to his list of collectors The Publicity Hound says:<\/p>\n Read all the responses to this week’s Help This Hound question<\/a><\/p>\n Send your own Help this Hound question<\/a> and include your city and state.<\/p>\n =============================== Dave Kadavy of Chicago, Ill. writes:<\/p>\n “I run a roommate-meeting event called Flatmate Meetup<\/a>. It’s kind “We currently promote the event by posting on Craigslist where “The target audience is mostly people in their mid-20s to early The Publicity Hound says:<\/p>\n What a fun event! The Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times should be ================================ Thanks to Elaine Grassbaugh of Columbus, Ohio for this hysterical ================================ Hate social media? This may change your mind–and the boss’s<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week Issue #451 May 19, 2009 Publisher: Joan Stewart ========================================== “Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity” ========================================== In This Issue =============================== 1. Facebook’s Missed Opportunity 2. Animoto Caveat 3. 104-Year-Old Who Twitters 4. 5 Myths About Writing a Book 5. How an Artist Can Recycle Publicity 6. Help\u2026 Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","iawp_total_views":3,"wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[42,16,34,27,10],"class_list":{"0":"post-102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-tips-of-the-week","7":"tag-artist-marketing","8":"tag-facebook","9":"tag-help-this-hound","10":"tag-social-media","11":"tag-twitter","12":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joan Stewart","author_link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/author\/jstewart\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43254,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions\/43254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nunlimited number of 30-second, non-commercial videos before
\ndeciding if you want to spring for a commercial license.<\/p>\n
\n3. 104-Year-Old Who Twitters
\n===================================<\/p>\n
\nyear-old woman who Twitters, you might have been impressed.<\/p>\n
\nand photo of Ivy Bean, also known as @ivybean104, who apparently
\nis the oldest person on Twitter.<\/p>\n
\npublicity-stunt-gone-bad:<\/p>\n
\nIvy had not joined Twitter just because it was suddenly the talk
\nof the old peoples home. No. She joined because home PC
\nmaintenance company Geek Squad signed her up, propped her up for
\na photo opportunity and press-released the hell out of it. And,
\nfrankly, I hope they paid her, or at least donated to her
\nfavorite charity because this is one of the most self-serving,
\ncynical PR stunts I can remember.”<\/p>\n
\nread: “I’m on Twitter! Come and follow my feed at IvyBean104.”<\/p>\n
\n‘feed’?” Mike asks.<\/p>\n
\nWizards Magazine, for tipping us off to this one.<\/p>\n
\nfor attracting your own community, pushing out information to
\nthem regularly, and encouraging them to know, like and trust you.
\nIn some respects, Twitter puts email marketing to shame.<\/p>\n
\n4. 5 Myths About Writing a Book
\n========================================<\/p>\n
\ndraft of your book, and another several months for rewriting,
\nediting and proofreading.<\/p>\n
\ntopic.<\/p>\n
\none is like being in handcuffs.<\/p>\n
\ndirectly from the book, which means you must sell mega-thousands
\nof books just to break even.<\/p>\n
\n5. How an Artist Can Recycle Publicity
\n=====================================<\/p>\n
\nof Milwaukee, Wis. Her friend, an artist, is looking for ideas on
\nhow to leverage recent magazine publicity for future shows.<\/p>\n
\ncover) to his email list. He could post a cover from the magazine
\non his website, as well as use his social networking sites to get
\nthe word out.” (The Publicity Hound says: Make sure you get
\npermission from the magazine to use an image of their cover on
\nyour website. They own the copyright.)<\/p>\n
\nyour friend get copies (or have copies made) and send them to his
\nbest collectors or potential collectors–along with a personal
\nnote.<\/p>\n
\nthe area, along with a personal invitation for a tour of one of
\nhis upcoming exhibits. He’d need to follow up with them and send
\nanother invite closer to the date.”<\/p>\n
\n(he does have a blog, doesn’t he?). The Before\/During\/After story
\nof the magazine article: behind the scenes is always compelling.<\/p>\n
\n(he does have a list of collectors that he can email at the drop
\nof a hat, doesn’t he?) for each of the three posts in the
\nseries.”<\/p>\n
\n6. Help This Hound
\n===============================<\/p>\n
\nof like speed-dating, but for roommates. I started it in San
\nFrancisco and expanded it to Chicago. We now have almost 1,400
\nmembers between the two cities.<\/p>\n
\npeople look for roommates, but we need more brand recognition to
\nbe successful, and that audience has proven difficult to reach.
\nWhat tips do your readers have for getting the word out–to the
\nright people–about these events?<\/p>\n
\n30s, college grads. I currently have the events at bars.”<\/p>\n
\nscrambling to beat each other on this story. Perhaps my Chicago-
\narea Hounds can suggest some other niche publications you can
\ntarget. As for social media, well, the possibilities are endless.
\nLet’s see how many ideas my Hounds can post to my blog. <\/a><\/p>\n
\n7. Hound Video of the Week
\n================================<\/p>\n
\n video of the “Jack Russell Balloon Dog” on, I assume, a Stupid
\nPet Trick segment on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.<\/p>\n
\n8. And at My Blog…
\n================================<\/p>\n