Archive for the ‘Publicity’ Category

Social Media and Online Marketing for Book Publicity Campaigns

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

We are  working on book publicity and marketing for  Dr. Catherine Athans, who has two motivational, inspirational books: Make Your Dreams Come True Now! and Just Imagine.

book_imagine

Some of the marketing communication tools that we are using to publicize and promote Dr. Athans include:

Websites: Dr. Athans has a website that promotes her latest books. The site serves as a home base with essential information including bio, testimonials, information about her books, appearances and more.  They help to enhance awareness of the author’s brand.

On her site, Dr. Athans’ video shows the work she does transforming the lives of the many people she works with (http://www.catherineathans.com).

Blogs: A blog is an essential way to be found and to build a network and fan base. Google feeds off new content with the use of strong key words added to a blog’s tags.

Using keywords increases the chances her blog will come up in Google searches and means more traffic will come to her site.

In fact, there are many people who have ongoing searches for key words within the blogosphere. All it takes is for a writer’s blog content to turn up in someone’s email account, and the writer may have a new fan.

Athans is committed to adding content to her blog at least once a week. She writes about events, issues and concepts that are in her book as well as causes she is committed to. Currently Dr. Athans  is soliciting donations so that every high school junior in the Oakland Unified School District (Oakland, CA) can have a copy of her book, “Just Imagine” to be used as part of a district-wide poetry curriculum. Donations can be made at: http://tinyurl.com/yhargm8

Twitter: Dr. Athans can be found on Twitter @CatherineAthans. With about 6-million new users a month on Twitter we find continual opportunities to get people to link to her web site, blog and ultimately her books by providing them with tidbits of information that they can use. Keywords are included in their tweets in order to attract followers interested in their topics.

And for our work on her publicity, Twitter offers us a way to directly contact journalists and have a conversation with them about our authors’ stories. We also use Twitter to tweet about book launches live events, speeches, and book signings and we promote her Twitter URL every time we talk about her in an email or through another source.

Journalists go to the web and social media for story ideas.

Monday, February 15th, 2010

Where do journalists go to get a story? These days, they go to the Web, and more often than not, they go to social media sites. Jack Loechner of MediaPost did a great analysis of the new survey that was conducted by Cision and Don Bates of The George Washington University. They surveyed journalists to find out where they get their stories. Of the journalists surveyed, “89% said they turn to blogs for story research, 65% to social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and 52% to microblogging services such as Twitter.” (more…)

Toyota needs some Crisis Management lessons.

Monday, February 8th, 2010

Placemaking Group’s Crisis Management guru, Irv Hamilton, has some ideas for you… The headlines every day demonstrate the importance of preparing forthat time when bad news happens. There are countless bad-news triggers.   Accidents, earthquakes, criminal acts, health challenges… The list goes on.

No one is immune from bad news.  And badly handled, it can have serious consequences.

Toyota is a case in point.  (more…)

Companies will increase their digital marketing budgets in 2010.

Monday, February 8th, 2010

Are you still wondering if social media is a good marketing tool for your company? Caroline McCarthy of CNET has some interesting numbers for you. She says that “companies will increase their digital marketing budgets by an average of 17% in 2010, according to new research by Econsultancy and ExactTarget today. The new report, Marketing Budgets 2010: Effectiveness, Measurement and Allocation, finds that digital marketing will account for 24% of overall marketing spend this year.” She points out that Social media is driving much of that increase. (more…)

Tips about blogging

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

Q: What tips and tricks have you learned about blogging?

Chrysta Bairre, asked this. She has a personal blog that she values. “I have kept a personal blog for many years,” she says. “I have enjoyed many benefits of blogging, including expressing my thoughts and experiences, sharing knowledge, making new friends/connections, and deepening existing friendships/connections.” Now she wants to start a blog for her business. (more…)

Two excellent books about social media and PR.

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

“Let’s say you were asked to design a graduate-level course on the implications of social media for public relations. What are the top resources you would be sure to include?”  Joe Klimavich President of Boston’s Klimavich Communication WebMechanic, asked recently.

I’ll tell you about two books that I’m going to have my Saint Mary’s College PR class read next semester… (more…)

How to have a New York Times Best Seller.

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

Do you want to be the author of a New York Times best seller? Are you thinking that writing a book can be an important part of the foundation of building your personal brand?

Well, our friend Kevin Daum has done the research for you on how to get your book on the New York Times best sellers list.

As he points out, “The New York Times Best Seller List is the pinnacle of status and prestige for any author.” Most writers just want to get their book published. But, Kevin has higher goals. He knows that having a best seller business book is a great way to achieve credibility and increase business.  So, if this interests you, go to Cracking the code on making The New York Times Best Seller List.

Getting Media to Your Next Event

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
2009 Holiday Tree Lighting at Oakland City Center

Would you like tips on getting media to show up to your next event? Last Thursday evening, December 3, we helped our client Oakland City Center/Shorenstein Realty Services bring media out for its annual Holiday Tree Lighting event. Our charge was to showcase the kind of activity that’s going on in Oakland year round, with a long-term goal of building positive association for the city and its merchants. These positive association are important to City Center, as well as the newly formed Downtown Oakland/Uptown/Lake Merritt Community Benefit Districts (CBDs), of which it is a founding member.

In response to a short and sweet event news release and focused follow up prior to the event, the media turned out in force. Two TV stations and the Oakland Tribune covered the event.

Here are a few tips for getting media to your next event: (more…)

Employees can be the best Brand Ambassadors.

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

Anne Sauve, a Toronto-based marketing communications consultant asked, “What do you think the role of employee communications is in the context of brand-building?”

One of the most important groups that we advise our clients to communicate with are the employees of their own company. They often know the brand intimately.

If they don’t project a good brand message, the problem can be that no one has helped them to understand it. So they tell it from their perspective–but then it might be their own individualized perception rather than the company’s well-thought-out brand message. If the branding is “created” or “fake,” that won’t do any good, either, because the employees won’t believe it (and might even resent it). (more…)

Be the Expert, Get Famous–Make Business Come to YOU

Sunday, November 15th, 2009

One of the ways to really show that you are an expert is to write a book and get it published. I’ve been telling you to Get Famous and one good method is to have a book. It’s not something that needs to become a best-seller. It just has to tell your story clearly.

The thing to keep in mind is, if you have a book you have credibility.  Kevin Daum, who has been making a very good case for writing and publishing a book to further your career, does a seminar on the concept. (more…)