Social media, bloggers, news sites….these media types are gaining influence by the minute it’s true. But until they start to generate millions of impressions within four minutes there’s no way they will ever replace traditional media.
In honor of being incredibly lazy this week, here’s one of my fave 2009 posts – the last Friday of every month I’ll throw a repeat of one of the more popular posts, just in case you missed it!
A product, service or book is probably the greatest thing in the world – to its creator. But when an editor or producers says “pass” it’s the publicist who has to tell the client. Sometimes ZERO media are interested. And for anyone who has written a book, started a business or provided a service, that can be a pretty personally hurtful message no matter how carefully it’s couched. For me, it’s the equivalent of having to tell clients “your baby is ugly” 95% of the time, without hurting their feelings. Nearly impossible.
The good news is that almost any celebrity can be booked if you have enough money. Here are a few tips for figuring out how to find someone, how much they cost and what the process might be like.
Since I’m working the Minneapolis Boat Show this week I thought it would be appropriate to share my top tips for getting great public relations for any event. Although they all might not be as big as this one, events work well for traditional broadcast and print pitches. But there’s definitely a trick to it – here are some things that work for me.
How much time should you spend on a weekly basis doing marketing and promotion tasks? It will vary of course but there are some rules I’ve learned working with a broad swath of companies and industries over the past couple decades including B2B, B2C, online and retail.
I tell my clients that marketing is a lot like working out – you have to be consistent or you won’t see results. No one expects to see muscles popping out all over after one visit to the gym. For the same reaons you can’t expect immediate, lasting results from one promotional campaign.
Time’s a bit more manageable now and I’m really excited to announce that I’m doing one on one coaching again. Here’s the scoop – it’s pretty affordable, you just buy a package of hours – minimum of 10 at $125 per hour. Folks who read this blog also get a 30 minute phone consultation totally free.
There are so many books out there for business owners on how to do your own marketing and/or public relations. Frankly most of them say the same thing – know the reporter, don’t be too salesy, etc. Here are my top five picks – not only are these books current, they go into real tactics that you can use right away. I think if you read these books, whether you’re a small business owner, author, entrepreneur…. you can start promoting or upgrade what you’re already doing and get some results fast.
We’ve had some juicy celebrity crisis’ lately that make writing this post lots of fun. When your company, product or personal brand encounters a crisis it’s important to decide what ‘voice’ you’re going to use. Choosing the right approach is one of the reasons little-known (but uber-powerful) flacks like Marty Chalmers and Eliot Mintz make the heavy wood. Let’s take a look at some of the characteristics of voices being used most recently – as well as a few thrown in from the past.
In PR speak a crisis is any “public challenge to your reputation”. Mostly we think of crisis in terms of big scale events, like the Motrin Moms, but really, a crisis happens anytime something could damage your personal or professional brand long term. It can be as simple as a negative comment on a public forum – or it could be a lot worse.