Archive for August, 2009
Use Twitter to boost your publicity efforts
By now, you’ve heard of Twitter, a social media service.
Considered a combination of social networking and texting, Twitter allows users to write short (140 characters or less) messages which anybody can read.
Often used by companies as an alternative to memos and even intra-office email, Twitter allows almost instant distribution of messages to a large number of people at once. If you have something appealing to say, you can find yourself with a large number of users following your tweets (as Twitter messages are known) in a short amount of time.
That’s why it can become a great avenue for getting the word out about you and your business.
You can use Twitter as a way to notify your readers about news and exciting developments, develop a powerful presence – as do many celebrities – and develop more credibility as an expert.
Since Twitter allows you to create a sort of personal relationship (or at least a perceived relationship) with your followers, it can be a powerful tool to create appeal in whatever you’d like to let the world know about. On Twitter, there’s a level of intimacy that many will recognize immediately: Call it the “Wow! Demi Moore just sent me a text! She’s eating lunch!” factor. (I used to brag to my pals that I had a conversation with Supermodel/Entrepreneur Kathy Ireland on Twitter, but at least our conversation was about healthcare… not lunch!)
Start by signing up for a Twitter account and filling out a profile page; try to give a feeling of how you’re an expert in your field and share a bit of your personality. Others who resonate with who you are and what you have to say will find you and follow you.
Using Twitter as a Publicity Tool
If you’re promoting a organization, it’s a good thought to find other business owners in your industry who are on Twitter and observe those with the largest followings to find out what they are Tweeting about. They are doing something right so follow in their footsteps by finding out what’s working.
Boring posts about what you had for lunch or your kid’s bowling score won’t inspire people much. Instead, place interesting view about your area of expertise, occasionally including a link to your site when related to the content of your Tweet.
If you’re not familiar with text messaging, the 140 character limit may be challenging at first. If it helps, think of it as a form of haiku; economy is the key to writing Twitter posts.
Make sure to invite folks you already know to follow your Tweets. Like other social networking sites, people are more likely to start following your Twitter feed if their acquaintances do. You’ll start off with a small following, but it will grow.
Post at least once a day and before you know it, you’ll have the attention of more Twitter users than you ever thought possible. And as these people get to know, like and trust you, they will turn to you when they have a problem that can be solved by you.
Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter to get more PR & marketing tips and ideas. I have two account:
Are you using Google News Alerts for your publicity efforts?
Are you looking for a free tool to help you get publicity for your business? One free resource which makes it easier for business owners and public relations professionals to manage their reputations is Google News Alerts.
Google News, a place where you can go to read the news of the day, has an additional feature, called News Alerts. The news is emailed to you when you choose: on a daily, hourly or as-it-happens basis.
Now you may already be using this service to stay aware of entertainment, news events and topics of personal interest to you. But savvy business owners also use these alerts to make sure they are aware of developments in their own industries.
And this idea is exactly how Google News Alerts can help you start getting exposure.
Set alerts for topics which relate to your industry and the products and services that your organization deals in. Don’t forget to create alerts for your own business and your name; it would be a shame to be covered somewhere and not even know it.
Knowing what your competitors and your industry is up to can help you in two ways:
- If you hope to keep up with (or better yet, ahead) of your competitors, you need to know what they’re doing so you can either follow suit or start thinking a few moves ahead to outmaneuver them.
- Being current with how your industry or your products and services are being covered in the media allows you to get out in front of issues as they develop and better yet, gives you an inkling of when to pitch an idea to the media.
If you see a trend happening your industry, it’s time to get in touch with journalists to inform them what else is going on in the field, respond to news stories and receive some extremely valuable visibility by offering yourself as an expert source.
Yet, following trends to pitch to the media is only one way Google News Alerts can help your publicity.
By following coverage of your organization, you will easily be able to add links on your website or blog to this coverage, effectively increasing your online press room’s resources. Showing off your media coverage will add credibility to you, and your products or services. And you can increase this publicity by featuring the coverage on the front page of your website, in a blog post, or urging people who follow you on Twitter and other social media sites to have a look.
There’s also another very helpful benefit you can get by using this service. When you see a journalist covering topics significant to your organization, add them to your list of media contacts. When you have your own news to offer, you now have additional media outlets to send it to, knowing they already do news on your topic. (If you don’t have a journalists contact list, now is the time to start creating one.)
A publicity seeker’s secret weapon
Do you know the secret of how PR professionals know what stories will be covered before they hit the newstand or get on the air? It’s editorial calendars. Understanding this all-important calendar can help your company to get some much-needed and best of all – free – exposure.
Besides including months and the year, these calendars bear little in common with the ones you are familiar with. An editorial calendar is a strictly functional item: there are no swimming suit models or adorable pets here, just lists of the main issues and approaching features slated for future stories. While most people wouldn’t be all that interested in these calendars, they can be a gold mine for PR professionals looking to get more coverage.
By taking a look at the editorial calendars of the media your target market uses, you can see what topics they will be covering in the future.
More than 7,000 publications in the U.S. And Canada publish editorial calendars and a few thousand do so for TV and radio shows.
Typically, editorial calendars can be found in advertising sales kits. The calendar topics are included so advertisers can tie their ads into topics covered in the media outlet each month.
The smallest niche publications (those put together by a single enthusiast, for instance) generally don’t work with an editorial calendar. Media outlets which are not supported by advertising may not use one – or just may not make it public. And the same goes for publications whose content is entirely reader-contributed.
Once you’ve looked over a media outlet’s calendar, you can determine which of their upcoming stories you may be able to offer your knowledge as a source. If you’re looking at a trade journal, you may want to look at the calendar in terms of what topics you could offer an industry-insider opinion piece on.
Don’t wait to the last minute to pitch your idea, however. If the publication isn’t working on a tight deadline, a good rule of thumb is that they will be looking for information about 4 months ahead of publication.
Have you thought of bloggers for publicity?
Are you using the blogosphere to increase your exposure and build a powerful presence? If not, you are missing out on free publicity. That’s why many look to bloggers to get the word out about their product or service.
However, many don’t know how to pitch a blogger in a way to help ensure a connection is made. Some consistently break the first rule, wasting their time, as well as the blogger they are targeting.
So what is the first rule you need to know? TRADITIONAL PRESS RELEASES ARE A WASTE OF TIME AS BLOGGERS HATE THEM!
Even though a press release is out, there are some basics that both the traditional and online media want. Here’s a quick list:
- Is it newsworthy? Bloggers are just as picky as journalists. They’re going to toss your pitch if it isn’t relevant, interesting or worth telling their readers about.
- Get rid of the jargon. Just like in traditional media, the blogger is speaking to the general public to some extent. Most will not understand jargon, and the blogger might not either. Keep it down-to-earth, as always.
But there are some differences you need to know when pitching bloggers. Here are some things that should be done differently for the blogosphere:
- Keep it personal. It is useful to follow and be actively participating by leaving comments on their blog. This way when you pitch to them, you already know them. Get to know the blogger. Dig a little deeper showing them you’ve done your homework.
- Don’t be pushy. Bloggers can do what they want with their blog, so don’t tell them what they should do (like talk about your story) or that you can’t believe they didn’t cover something you pitched to them. Sure, they may give you some publicity for this, but in a negative way.
- It’s about having a conversation. Blogging is a mainly personal activity. Most bloggers write as they chat more or less. Do the same. Make it short, sweet, to the point and more casual than a traditional pitch. You will be rewarded.
- Stop asking for a link or a link trade. Instead, ask them to take a look at your material, blog or product. If they like it, you will know about it if you are actively following the blog anyway, so there is no need to chase them.
Clean up your act
Being a publicist is often portrayed as glamorous. (Think Samantha Jones from Sex in the City.) So I am not surprised when some recent (and not-so-recent) college grads approach me about how to break in the business.
What I am surprised is how unprepared these people are for the real business of public relations. They got sucked in by the ’sexy-ness’ of the title and its portrayals in the media, but the job is quite a balancing act of writing, understanding the media and social media, and keeping on top of trends, and so much more.
This week alone I received seven requests to help people break into the field on Twitter. What shocked me more than anything else is the avatar, that tiny photo used to show people what you look like, that these women (yes, they were all women) chose to use.
All of the photos cast them in a, shall we say, revealing nature. Sexy photos have their place, but not when you are trying to get a professional job.
What’s wrong with these people? I certainly wouldn’t consider them good candidates for a PR job. Part of the job of a publicist is to understand image, which they obviously don’t.
I know you may be thinking: but Shannon, maybe that’s why they are seeking your help, because they don’t get it. I think that at their age, they should know better. They wouldn’t dress like that for a job interview (at least I hope not), so why would they be publicly looking to break into the business looking like they do?
If you’re using today’s media, you need to know what you do is transparent, and easily searchable. If you want to build a powerful presence, whether getting a job in public relations or just promoting your own business, make sure what you do, what you say and how you look is exactly what you want others to perceive you as.
