The next time you stay in a hotel, you’ll think twice about drinking out of the glasses and coffee cups if you watch the 4½-minute video at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a7f_1194813218

It’s an I-team investigation from a TV station, presumably in Atlanta, Georgia. The team took hidden cameras into guest rooms at three major hotels–Embassy Suites, Holiday Inn and Sheraton Suites. In all three instances, housekeepers never used soap and water to clean dirty drinking glasses and coffee cups. Read More »

Identifying your target market is one of the most important factors in the success of your business. If you’re clear who your ideal client is and what problems they are dealing with, marketing to them will be much easier. You’ll know their wants, their hopes, their dreams and their desires and will be able to communicate the difference you can make for them.

Once you’re clear about who your ideal clients are, it becomes very easy to identify the media outlets you should go after. With a little research, you’ll know exactly what TV shows they’re watching, what magazines they’re reading, and radio shows they tune in to when seeking news, information, and entertainment. Read More »

Less is often more and that’s especially true with media kits. Traditionally, publicists would blanket the media with bulging, elaborate media kits (also called press kits) in the hope that a few members of the press might bite. The costs were great and the responses were slim, which helps explain why PR was used primarily by large corporations and the exceptionally rich.

Well, things have changed—drastically. Even if guerrillas could afford to send lavish pr media packages, we question whether they’re worth the cost and whether they still work.

Today’s media no longer wants to be showered with reams of promotional materials, no matter how beautifully they’re written, designed, or packaged. Read More »

Did you ever have the nightmare in which you’re taking a final exam for a college course, and it suddenly dawns on you that you’ve never attended one class?

Or how about the bad dream in which all your teeth fall out?

Or the one in which you’re going about your business, usually at work or in a public place, and realized you aren’t wearing any clothes? Read More »

I know how frustrating it is when the media doesn’t notice you, even though you know you’re exactly who they’re looking for. I’ll let you in on a little secret though: You have what the media wants and they want you too.

But there’s a problem — the media is distracted.

They’re receiving countless pitches every day from publicity seekers looking to deliver their message to vast audiences so they can take their business to the next level with media coverage. So what do you do to make your pitch stand out, so you’re the one shining in the limelight? Read More »

“Publicity is easy to get. Make yourself so successful that you don’t need it, and then you’ll get it.”
—Anonymous

Generating publicity is a cumulative process that is built by developing relationships. Your promotional efforts involve many of the same players, so it’s essential to create and maintain a record of them all. This is your media list.

Media lists are databases containing the names and information about people and organizations that can help promote your product or service. They’re your address book or Rolodex. They’re the roster of your network. Read More »

I love getting success stories from readers like you.

But sometimes I cry big, fat elephant tears when I learn about missed opportunities, or how people who generated fabulous publicity didn’t follow up.

Sue Lowery of Chattanooga, Tennessee saw a short news item on one of her local TV stations about how the Bliss spa in Dallas, Texas pampered an elephant the day before it was making its Dallas debut at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus. Read More »

“Many attempts to communicate are nullified by saying too much.”
- Robert Greenleaf, founder of the Servant Leadership movement

Recently, the value of sending press releases has been questioned. Many feel that they are ineffective and a waste of time. Then again, all it takes is for just one press release to slip through and catch the eye of someone who then runs with your story. It happens all the time! Read More »

One of the big advantages to forming relationships with freelancers is that most of them write for multiple publications. So if they sell a story that includes you as a source, there’s a good chance they’ll interview you again for another story for a different publication.

Stacy DeBroff, also known as The Mommy Expert, got a nice spike in book sales at Amazon, and traffic to her website,  when her book “The Mom Book” appeared in a May issue of Go, the inflight magazine for Airtran. Read More »

How often do you get lost because you don’t really know where you are going? You end up stuck some place you don’t want to be and in order to find your way you often must go back to where you started.

Frequently, you don’t know how to get back because you don’t know which route to take, and in the process get even more lost. And if you do get back, you may be too exhausted to start again.
Be careful—this can happen to your publicity campaign! Read More »