Publicity tips/Feed a CPA February 20, 2007

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #334 - Feb. 20, 2007
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog) The Publicity Hound®

Circulation: 29,156

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"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"
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In This Issue
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1. Feed a CPA

2. Midwest Airlines' New Magazine

3. Valentine's Day Quiz

4. Media and Publicity Leads

5. Promoting a Commercial Printer

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Quote of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

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1. Feed a CPA
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Here's a fun, timely publicity idea that just about anybody can steal.

It's called "Feed a CPA," and I heard about it from Seth Hodes, marketing director for Hodes, Ulman, Pessin & Katz, a Baltimore law firm.

On March 1, a local caterer hired by the firm will deliver delicious gourmet lunches wrapped in a beautiful silver bag, complete with fresh flowers, to three random CPA firms throughout Baltimore, Harford and Howard counties, all in Maryland.

"CPAs are one of our great allies," Seth said. "And since they barely come up to breathe this time of the year, we wanted to do something fun to thank them, while creating some goodwill between our firms."

He wrote a three-paragraph press release, posted it at their website at http://www.hupk.com/news.asp?opt=1&id=244 and sent it to a targeted list of 200 media outlets. The story already has appeared in The Daily Record in Maryland, at an accounting blog, and in the AICPA Newsletter which goes to 350,000 CPAs.

The Publicity Hound loves this brilliant promotion for many reasons:

--It's the local angle to the national story of preparing income tax returns.

--Notice the CPA firms are in three counties, which means more newspapers and TV stations will likely cover the story. (The law firm also has offices in those three counties, by the way.)

--CPAs are a gatekeeper industry for law firms. "Being a law firm, we cover the legality of all the financial stuff the CPAs do, so we get a lot of great referrals," Seth said. "We wanted a promotion that was more than just ringing our bell or pushing our wares."

--Each year, three different CPA firms will be chosen. That means more publicity, more goodwill, and more valuable referrals for the lawyers.

--This story has all the elements TV news crews want: people, color and motion. Can't you just picture the harried CPAs surrounded by stacks of papers, a bouquet of fresh flowers and all that tempting gourmet food?

Smart Publicity Hounds can take this idea and give it their own spin. How about "Feed a Santa" at Christmas? Or "Feed a Landscaper" during the spring? Or "Feed a Florist" on Valentine's Day?

Create your pitch, make it enticing, then set aside lots of time for all those media interviews. And don't forget the bloggers who love newsy tidbits like these. "How to Pitch the Best Bloggers & Create a Publicity Explosion" shows you how to save time by finding the influential bloggers, getting in front of them without being pushy, and convincing them to blog about you.

Learn more about this CD or electronic transcript that I created with Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff (aka The Blog Squad) at http://tinyurl.com/m7ymr

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2. Midwest Airlines' New Magazine
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Midwest Airlines is redoing and expanding its inflight magazine, and the new version will debut March 1.

You can read more about it at http://tinyurl.com/28kjj4

If your product, service, cause, issue or destination would be perfect reading for passengers in the cities served by Midwest, get your hands on the first issue and read it cover to cover.

Pay particular attention to new departments and features, freelancers who write for the magazine, columns written by the editor or other staff members, and any mention of trends or topics they'll be covering.

Pitching inflight magazines like this one can really boost your exposure because of the high pass-along rate.

But many of these magazines are very picky about the type of information they publish. Some magazines want to know about your new book, but only if it's about business topics. Others don't publish any information about books. Some of them welcome stand- alone photos to accompany, for example, a calendar listing for an upcoming event. Others don't want photos of any kind.

So unless you know who wants what, you'll be wasting your time.

"Special Report #29: Fly High with Publicity in the Inflight Magazines" includes valuable pitching tips plus contact information for 42 in-flight magazines." It took us more than two weeks to compile the original list, and several more hours to update all the information in this report in August 2006.

Learn more about the report at http://tinyurl.com/2ahgqy


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3. Valentine's Day Quiz
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Congratulations to Kristin Scully, owner of Nest by Swanky, an online maternity clothing shop at http://www.nestbyswanky.com/ She had the correct answers to all 10 questions in last week's Valentine's Day Quiz. Her name was chosen at random from the nine winners, and she'll receive $100 so she can treat herself to a massage, a night on the town, or whatever pampering she needs.

Here are the answers to last week's quiz:

--Marilyn Monroe was rumored to have bathed in 350 bottles of champagne.

--There are approximately 49 million bubbles in a bottle of champagne.

--In certain parts of Italy, basil is worn by male suitors to signal the serious of their intentions.

--Aphrodite is the Greek Goddess of love and beauty.

--Aphrodite sprung forth from the sea foam on an oyster shell

--Cassanova ate 50 oysters every day.

--Attila the Hun drank himself to death with honey.

--The pine nut has been deemed the kernel of love.

--Josephine Baker ate lobster while reclining, sans clothing, in her Paris dressing room.

--Montezuma drank 50 goblets of chocolate to please his harem of women.

Other Hounds who correctly answered all the questions include Heidi Peters, Jocelyn Murray, Kate Eastman, Dora Crow, Leon Scott Baxter Lewandowski, Cory Peters, Donna Turello and Shelly Cohen.

What fun quiz can you create about your product, service, cause or issue? If you can stuff relevant keywords into your quiz, then post the quiz online in the form of a press release, you can pull all kinds of traffic to your website or blog. Learn more about "The New Rules of Press Releases: How to Write Them for Buyers, Not Only Journalists" at target="_blank"http://tinyurl.com/ndwfo

Then subscribe to Expertclick, a press release distribution service that lets you distribute up to 52 press releases a year.

This is the service I use. Learn more at http://tinyurl.com/f5evn


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4. Media and Publicity Leads
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--Blogger Laura Posey, who offers advice for small-business owners, is looking for experts to interview during telephone seminars she hosts. You can read more about it at her blog at http://tinyurl.com/ys6ttb and email her using the link you see under her photo.

--Lori LeRoy is writing a humor book on getting pregnant. She's looking for unusual but funny true stories and embarrassing anecdotes. Examples: someone who took one month to conceive or years of artificial reproductive technology methods. "I'm especially looking for stories from the male perspective.

Physician or psychologists anecdotes are welcome, too. Topics can include traditional or non-traditional ways to get pregnant such as Feng Shui; raging hormones; oddities of fertility treatment and extraordinary means, etc. Mailto:infyrtilemyrtle@gmail.com?subject=FodderforYourBook

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5. Promoting a Commercial Printer
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This week, five Publicity Hounds have tips for Chris Kelley of Emigrant, Montana. She wants to know how to publicize her client company PrintingforLess.com, the world’s largest commercial online printer.


From Garth Gibson:

"Oprah is building a whole school district for girls in South Africa. Are you giving her school supplies to help her see her dream come true?"


From Jaya Schillinger:

"I'm already a Printing for Less customer, and since I'm a business coach, I send my clients to you as well. If there was an area where you could expand that, and garner my loyalty for life, then it would be expanding your 'green' options and publicizing them. I'm now a certified green business, and was just about to break up with you (sniff, boo-hoo) because I need to go with a recycled paper & soy-based ink printer. What I learned after 6 hours of research, is that I can get greener options than PrintingforLess, but their websites are lame, which makes me nervous. When I emailed my PFL team to say I was sad to go, they said you do have green options, they're just not online. So it’s possible, but I've got to work harder to get them. (Bummer, I don't want to work harder. I like ordering online.)


From Carolyn:

"As head of the Beanery Writers Group, I deal with persons who want to self-publish. This is a popular idea today, for better or worse--and I do believe competition will separate the so-called sheep from the goats. For example, our group is unique in that it has a blog, http://www.ProBlogs.com/beanerywriters, which is the top site at ProBlogs.com, receiving 125 hits (and increasing) daily. I believe we've reached this lead because we emphasize GOOD writing, regardless of the genre. We are not the only writers group with self-published members. Perhaps this is a direction for you to investigate."


The Publicity Hound says:

Jeff Zbar, the Small Business Administration's 2001 Journalist of the Year, has lots more ideas on how small businesses can generate publicity. He explains them all during the interview I conducted with him called "The Fastest, Cheapest, Easiest Ways to Publicize Your Small Business--Even if You're a Solo Entrepreneur." It's available as a CD or an electronic transcript you can be reading as soon as your order has been approved.

Read more about what you'll learn at http://tinyurl.com/3tbbp

Read all the responses at http://tinyurl.com/3dcxxc


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6. Help This Hound
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Cheryl Beck Pickett of Detroit, Michigan writes:

"Samaritan House provides food and other pantry items for families in need and has been around for about 13 years. They serve a handful of small towns within our county which have populations of 3,000 to 5,000 people each. Their primary support and donations come from local churches.

"There are two free weeklies, which are typical small-town papers, one countywide daily and then the Detroit News/Free Press as far as available press opportunities.

"My friend mentioned recently that they have trouble getting any coverage at all from the primary weekly. They are mostly trying to promote fundraisers/special events and most of their response would come from readers of these weeklies.

"Resistance is from the editor’s desk as one of the reporters/associate editors already tries her best to get stories in for them. One of my thoughts is that there is a mentality of 'if we do it for one, we have to do it for all of them' and of course there are lots of charities.

"As a puppy Publicity Hound, I'm stumped. Any advice for getting this editor to budge, as well as other avenues they could pursue instead, would be appreciated." You can learn more about Samaritan House at http://samaritanhousemichigan.org/


The Publicity Hound says: Cheryl, this problem is a perfect example of why newspapers are becoming increasingly irrelevant.

If people can't rely on their local free shoppers and daily and weekly newspapers to cover, or at least mention, these kinds of grassroots local events, then they will look elsewhere for their news. But enough pontificating. Many of my Hounds face this same problem and have found creative ways around it. Hounds with suggestions on how to work with a stubborn editor and promote the Samaritan House can post them to my blog at http://tinyurl.com/3xu6an


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7. Hound Joke of the Week
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Thanks to Publicity Hound Max Weiman for this one.

A dog walks into a bar, jumps up on the stool and says to the bartender, "Hey, it's my birthday today. How about a free drink?"

The bartender turns, looks at the dog and nods his head, "Sure pal. Toilet's right down the hall."


DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes, perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few good laughs.
BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50 best websites for dog humor.
Http://www.publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/


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8. And at My Blog...
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Advertising Age editor offers pitching tips
http://tinyurl.com/386u2n


Employment lawyer blogs about NBC hit 'The Office'
http://tinyurl.com/2vuhrt


Press release tips from a Tennessee city editor
http://tinyurl.com/2p6yt9
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Where to Meet or Hear The Publicity Hound®

March 8, 2007: PR University's Bulldog Reporter Teleconference

"PR Writing--Top PR Wordsmiths Analyze Proven Press Releases to Reveal Best Practices for Writing Compelling Copy That Reaches Millions," 1 p.m. Eastern. Want to improve your press releases and boost media pick-up fast? I'm part of a panel of wordsmiths that will deconstruct some of the year’s best releases and personally hand you the keys to duplicating their successes.
Register at http://tinyurl.com/2cf7aq


March 17, 2007: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

"Savvy Media Relations: How to Get Free Print, Broadcast and Online Publicity." 8 a.m. to noon. Register at http://www.nsapittsburgh.com/


May 12, 2007: Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Florida Speakers Association: "The New Rules of Press Releases: How to Write Them for Consumers, Not Only for Journalists." 9 a. m. to noon. "Sleeping with the Competition: How to Collaborate with Other Speakers to Create Profitable Products and Programs." 2 to 4 p.m. For more information, call 561-630-7766 or visit http://www.florida-speakers.org


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Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity. Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email the handy list "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

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Joan Stewart
a. k.a. The Publicity Hound®
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI 53074
U. S.A.
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737