If your daughter plays on the junior high soccer team, but your local weekly newspaper acts like the team doesn't exist, quit grumbling and find a notebook and a pen. If your son participates in ice skating competitions, but the team has never had its photo in the paper, get a camera and learn how to use it. Even if you participate in an obscure … [Read more...]
Ask a business journal to co-sponsor your event
Let's pretend you have $10,000 to spend promoting your organization. You have two choices. Buy an ad in the local daily newspaper. Or co-sponsor one of several events hosted by the local business journal. Which would you choose? Paul Furiga says the decision is easy. If you want to get in front of a business audience, sponsor the event--and you … [Read more...]
Take a reporter to lunch
One way for Publicity Hounds to form relationships with media contacts is to take them to lunch. If you've never done this before, it can sound daunting and maybe even downright dangerous. What if you say something stupid? What if you end up with a piece of spinach on your front tooth? What if the reporter asks you something you don't … [Read more...]
Don’t be a bodyguard
If you do PR for your company or organization, one of the best things you can do to get in the media’s good graces is to encourage media people to contact your CEO or other sources directly, without demanding that they go through you. Also, don't act like a bodyguard, shielding Mr. or Ms. Important from difficult interviews or tough … [Read more...]
The difference between journalists and bloggers
Many PR people have added bloggers to their media contact lists--and for good reason.
Bloggers are making a name for themselves as legitimate news breakers, commentators and opinion-shapers.
If you're pitching your story to bloggers, you must understand the difference between a "real" journalist and a … [Read more...]
Is your website ready to welcome journalists?
Right now, as you're reading this, a journalist could be nosing around at your website, looking for clues that will help determine whether you're worth covering.
Will the reporter find typos galore, outdated news releases or incomplete contact information? PR pro Carolyn Moncel said there's a checklist of items you should have at your … [Read more...]
Interview reporters before they interview you
Nothing can be more exciting for a Publicity Hound than getting a call from a reporter who asks for an interview.
But when the reporter starts asking questions, the worst thing you can do is immediately start answering them.
If you do, without knowing what the story is about, you're putting yourself at risk. Let's say the … [Read more...]
“Side door strategy” relies on not-so-obvious angles
Proteges in The Publicity Hound Mentoring Program heard me lecture recently on the "side-door strategy" to publicity during a teleseminar I hosted just for them. Even though I've always understood and promoted the concept, I first heard the phrase "side-door strategy" when I read an article by publicist Jodee Blanco.
The "side-door … [Read more...]
When you miss your chance
What do you do when your competitor is featured in a story on the front page of the local morning paper? Or her face shows up repeatedly on the nightly news, commenting on an issue that you know more about?
Do you retreat to the closet and silently lick your wounds? Or complain to your co-workers? Or, heaven forbid, grouse to the media? … [Read more...]
Mustard museum fights Reader’s Digest
What do you do when you’ve been hammered by the almighty Reader's Digest?
That’s what happened to the Mount Horeb Mustard Museum in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin when an article in the December issue placed the Mustard Museum on its list of "5 Museums Not to Plan Christmas Around."
"Want a fun vacation?" the article asked. … [Read more...]