« September 2005 | Main | November 2005 »
October 21, 2005
How To Get Publicity For Your Charitable Activities
Hurricane Katrina opened the hearts and pocketbooks of many Americans. And many of them sought to generate free publicity for their generosity.
The problem was that the media quickly became overloaded with press releases announcing that yet another company was giving money to hurricane relief.
So they stopped running the stories. Contributions that may have been news in a normal situation quickly became non-news simply because everybody was doing it.
This is a key factor that everyone should recognize - if everyone's doing something, no matter what it is, it's no longer news.
Plus, the reporters quickly develop a hardening of the attitudes, causing them to say "if you want to give, then give, but don't expect me to make you look like a hero because of your generosity."
Frankly, they're probably right...
But if you want to get publicity for your charitable actions, you've got to do something to stand out.
So when someone asks "will I get press if I give all of my profits for the next month to Katrina victims?" I answer "it depends." Of course, that could be news if you're P&G, but probably less if you're the corner barber. And maybe yes if you're trying to get attention in your small town newspaper, but not in the national or larger city papers.
One side note here - contributions that are tied to sales like giving a percentage of profits have a slimy feel to them - "we only donate if you buy" doesn't sit right with people...
But what about "I've just chartered a plane and am sending 400 members of my staff to New Orleans to dig people out for two weeks." I'd say that's news. In fact, if you positioned it correctly, you may be able to get one of your local news reporting teams to go along, scoring you a major hit!
Posted at 11:15 AM
Thanks for Your Help - The In-Flight Magazines Report Update
Recently we asked for additional contact information for editors of in-flight magazines we didn't yet have included in our special report
Fly High with Publicity in the In-Flight Magazines. Several of you responded with great input, enabling us to add 7 more airlines to the list. Thanks!
Just so that you know, the offer's still open. Anyone who sends us contact information for the in-flight magazines *not* currently shown on our In-flight Magazine Report page will receive either a free $10 report or $10 off any purchase from 101PublicRelations.com
To send us your information, just drop a note on our contact-us page including your contact information.
Posted at 09:36 AM
October 20, 2005
More On Building Your Business Through Social Proof
Not long ago we talked about how powerful the concept of "social proof" can be to turn lookers into buyers.
As a review, social proof is the concept that we tend to be guided by what we perceive that everyone else is doing. So marketers who can demonstrate that others are also buying their products can tap into this innate behavior to spike their sales.
In that last post, I also gave you a link to obtain a recording of a conference call that my friend and mentor Jeff Walker did on the subject of social proof and how to utilize it to build your sales and profits. Since then, Jeff has also added a transcript of that 2.5 hour teleseminar that makes it easier for those of us who prefer to learn through reading to tap into his information. You can get your copy here.
As I told you last issue, Jeff's a master at using innate human behaviors to effectively market products. This week he's done something else that I think is brilliant...
He's created a contest giving away 3 copies of his product as the reward. Here's what he says:
"Now this isn't a random contest - to qualify for the contest, you need to post a comment to my blog and tell me WHY you need the course and WHAT you are going to use it for. If you look at the bottom right of this blog entry, there is a link that says "comments". Click on that link and type in your entry."
Now what do you think happened - did he get any entries?
Posted at 09:45 PM
What If You Could Get Reporters To Contact You For Information Rather Than The Other Way Around? A Recommended Publicity Resource
I'm like you. There's nothing I hate more than pitching to an unreceptive audience.
When I do this it always feels like I'm purposely changing from beating my head against a nice soft sheet rocked wall to a beating it against a solid cement one. Frankly, it hurts to do all of that work and never hear a thing in response.
Frankly, that's why we exist as a company - to help you learn techniques to get through to the media and increase your chances of getting your story picked up. Several of our products were created just for that purpose, like How To Write Killer News Releases That Stop Reporters In Their Tracks, Secrets of Perfect Pitching to Reporters, and How to Create the Perfect 30-Second Phone Pitch For Your Story
But now I want to introduce you to what is literally a better way...
What if you no longer had to contact huge numbers of uninterested reporters, who, trust me, aren't waiting with baited breath to hear the 132nd story pitch they've received that day?
What if you could open your email to find messages from reporters who are working on stories in your area of expertise and who are looking for quotes and information from you to help them write their story?
In other words, they're asking you for help, instead of your trying to talk them into running your story.
Posted at 05:13 PM
October 10, 2005
How To Instantly Get Onto Newsweek's And The Washington Post's Website
Psst - Wanna hear a really cool secret?
Would you like to know how to quickly and easily get included and linked to from the Washington Post's and Newsweek's websites?
(This is great stuff!)
Blog about them!
Yep, it's that easy. And it costs you nothing! Just a few moments of your time!
Both the Washington Post and Newsweek have now added a cool new feature to many of the pages of their sites - a box which reports what people who write blogs are saying about the stories and writers in their stable.
|
Newsweek’s Trackback Box |
Technorati then includes a link to your article in their box, and a portion of it, including a link to your site, is run on the Washington Post or Newsweek site.
Total incremental time investment: 5 minutes. Value of that mention on their site? Priceless (sorry, Mastercard...) Do this 10 times a week and you could get some pretty significant additional traffic, while building your PR presence at the same time.
|
The WashingtonPost’s Trackback Box |
This tactic is huge! Not only does it give you direct control over whether your comments get displayed on their sites, but:
- You get a link into your site that will generate visitor traffic
- You get into the habit (or better yet, systematize the process) of submitting your blog postings to Technorati, which is sure to increase your traffic and reputation in the future
- And probably most importantly, you raise your visibility to the writers at these key media outlets, improving your expert status and increasing the chance that they are going to call you the next time they need a quote in an article.
Think about that last point while I tell you about a conversation I had last week with my good friend, blogger extraordinaire, Dave Taylor (Intuitive.com - Leadership for the 21st Century and AskDaveTaylor.com - Tech Support and Business Questions being among my favorites >
I was asking Dave about why he invests so much time in tracking the blog postings of other people. His answer was very revealing.
Dave makes it a point to track blog postings from opinion leaders in the spaces he covers. When he sees something interesting, he quickly posts a comment to their blog, and oftentimes writes something about their posting in one of his blogs.
After a few instances of this, that opinion leader starts seeing Dave's name over and over again in his comments and trackback links section and wonders who this Dave Taylor guy is that seems to be so fascinated with their work. So the opinion leader checks out Dave's sites, finds him to be a brilliant thinker and someone who deserves respect. Then oftentimes they drop him an email, give him a phone call, make some comments on Dave's blog, and eventually set up meetings and conversations that go way beyond the content of the original postings.
In other words, Dave is using blogs as a way to develop personal relationships with a number of key individuals, people who are normally so insulated from the general public that there would be no way he could otherwise get into contact with them.
And, once personal contact starts, Dave finds that it's already progressed way beyond the normal "let's get to know each other" status, because both parties have already developed a positive opinion of each other, know the other's opinions and capabilities, and are interested in seeing how they can benefit from the relationship.
Another way to get publicity on these sites is to post comments on their blog postings. Here is an example of a comment from the Washington Post site. Note that it contains a link to the site.
|
Now let's take Dave's excellent points and bridge them to working with members of the media.
As you know, reporters and editors are oftentimes difficult to contact and are, by training, skeptical of people who approach them.
But what if you were to find their blog (many media outlets are now providing blogs for their key personalities and encouraging / forcing them to write in those blogs), read it regularly, then when you see something where you can add intelligently to the conversation, you post a comment to their blog and / or write about their posting in your own blog, linking back to them?
Posted at 11:38 AM
October 07, 2005
Reward: Airline Magazine Contacts Wanted
We have just finished our latest update of our special report Fly High with Publicity in the In-Flight Magazines which provides a contact list for editors of the major in-flight magazines. Included in this report are the editorial contacts for the in-flight magazines at:
ATA
Air Canada
Alaska Airlines
Aloha Airlines
American Airlines
American Airlines Latin American Routes
American Eagle
British Airways
British Mediterranean Airways operating as British Airways
Continental Airlines
Delta Airlines
Delta Airlines Shuttle
easyJet Airlines
First Air
Frontier Airlines
Hawaiian Airlines
Horizon Air
Island Air
KLM
Latin America Airlines
Midwest Airlines
MyTravel Airlines
MyTravel Lite Airlines
Northwest Airlines
Quantas
SkyWest's Delta Connection
Southwest Airlines
Spirit Airlines
Stratos (Provided to passengers on private jet aircraft)
Swiss Airlines
US Airways
United Airlines
VLM Airlines
Virgin Express
West Jet Airlines
You can see more information about it here
That said, we'd like to offer you a reward.
Posted at 07:13 PM
How To Use Social Proof To Build Your Business
There's a marketing concept that you have never thought of that affects you almost every day.
It's called "social proof".
Basically, social proof means that we tend to use the behavior of others as an indicator of what we should do in a particular situation.
It's why teenagers who tell you that they want to be individuals, but wouldn't be caught dead in an outfit that didn't look like everyone else's.
It's why people are attracted to a line, wanting to know what it's for.
It's how we know what to do with the popcorn box at the end of the movie, how we know how to answer the telephone, even how we should eat, kiss, speak, dance, and treat others.
And social proof can be an extremely powerful tool in marketing. Whenever we can convince our target market that they should buy our product because "everyone else is doing it", you have a significantly higher probability of closing the sale.
Apple's is using social proof in a huge way in the marketing of their iPod. Frankly, you can get better products for less money, but Apple has been able to convince the world that the iPod is the MP3 player that everyone else is buying. They've gone so far as to actually institutionalize it as part of the youth and tech-oriented worlds.
And look what it's doing to Apple's bottom line!
Fashion marketers are another great example, They go to the magazines, the clothing chains, and the rockstars and convince them to include their latest trends in clothing looks in all of the articles and in their music videos... sure enough, within 3 months, you can't find a top that's long enough to cover the belly button of even the shortest of girls (I know, I have two tall teenage ones!)
So how can you make this work for you? I have an idea...
Posted at 05:29 PM
What's That Again? Airplane Crash
From a newspaper article titled
Safety Board Investigates Fatal Crash:
"So far they have determined that the crash occurred when the plane struck the ground..."
I wasn't there, and I didn't see it, but I could have told them that!
Posted at 04:57 PM
