Publicity tips/Facebook Makes the Cash Register Ring July 22, 2008

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #408 July 22, 2008
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/(Blog)
The Publicity Hound®

Circulation: 48,851

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"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"

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Sell Books by the Truckload:

If you're an author, and you're selling most of your books
through book stores, you're doing it the hard way.

If your title is a good fit, and you know what you're doing, you
can sell 5,000, 10,000 books or more to corporate buyers--many of
whom give away books as special premiums along with other
products and services they're selling.

Sign up for a free teleseminar to learn how you can unload
thousands of books.

See Item #3 below.

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In This Issue
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1. Facebook Makes the Cash Register Ring

2. LinkedIn Also Makes the Cash Register Ring

3. Sell 120,000 Books with One Phone Call

4. How to Make News When There's No News

5. Internet Help for the Blind

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog...


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1. Facebook Makes the Cash Register Ring
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This is for the Publicity Hound who aren't convinced that social
networking can be profitable.

I promoted last week's teleseminar series "How to Use LinkedIn to
Promote Anything--Ethically & Powerfully" by creating an event on
my Facebook page. My assistant then invited my 1,028 friends. At
$77, I wasn't sure how many Facebook friends would attend, but it
was definitely worth it.

Fifty-four people RSVP'd to tell me that they were attending, or
had already signed up. That's $4,158 in registration fees just
from Facebook! Something else started to happen. My Facebook
event started to grow legs.

Warren Whitlock, one of my Facebook friends, wrote on my wall:

"I found out about this from the Kim Beasley day celebration at
Twitter. http://www.Twitter.com/kbeasley

"I'm sharing the event with my LinkedIn subscribers and many
authors that have been asking about LinkedIn.com when I teach
publicity at http://BookMarketingStrategy.com.

"I'll be sharing this event for sure."

You can see what this wall post looks like here:
http://tinyurl.com/6qcrv4

Kim Beasley, The Blog Queen, who Warren referred to, has more
than 400 followers on Twitter, and I have no idea how many of
those people signed up after reading her tweet.

If I still haven't convinced you that sites like Facebook make
the cash register ring, you can listen to social media success
stories galore at The Social Media Summit Sept. 10-12 in Chicago,
sponsored by Ragan Communications. I attended Ragan's
"Unconference" on social media last year in Chicago. I made great
contacts, came back with hundreds of tips to share with you,
blogged about it while there, and learned about how to
incorporate social media into my own marketing campaigns.

At this year's summit, you'll learn about Web 2.0 strategies such
as podcasts, message boards, video and wikis. The conference
includes one track for internal communications and a separate
track for external and marketing communications. Curious about
what Web 3.0 might look like? You'll get a sneak preview.

I hope to see you there. This conference is so important that I
worked out a special arrangement with Ragan. Publicity Hounds
save $100 on the $1,195 registration, plus an additional $100 if
you take advantage of the early-bird registration, which has been
extended to this Friday. To get $200 off and pay only $995, you
must use this link: http://www.ragan.com/publicityhound

Let me know if you're going to the conference. Maybe we can have
a cup of coffee between sessions.


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2. LinkedIn Also Makes the Cash Register Ring
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If you want to use LinkedIn to promote, here's step Number One.

This sounds like a no-brainer, but you must have a profile at the
website--preferably a darn good one.

Do nothing more than that and the cash register can start
ringing. It did for my friend, crisis counselor Jonathan
Bernstein.

"I landed one of my best clients--Craigslist--because the person
searching for a firm like mine looked at LinkedIn first," he
says.

If a multi-million-dollar company needs the kinds of products or
services you provide, and searches at LinkedIn, will it find you
there right now?

Once that you've created your profile, it's time to start making
connections with other LinkedIn users. This is an ongoing
process, but not to be taken lightly. Social networking expert
Scott Allen cautions that if you're asking somebody to connect
with you, they'd better know you, or could be digging a hole for
yourself.

"If you send out invitations to connect with people and five
people say they don't know you, your account is going to be
suspended and you're going to get a letter from LinkedIn
explaining their connection policy and asking you to adhere to it
and warning you that if you get more in the future, you'll have
your account locked," he said last week, during the first of two
teleseminars on "How to Use LinkedIn to Promote Anything--
Ethically & Powerfully."

His other tips on how to promote include:

--Give at least as much as you take. Instead of always asking
questions on LinkedIn or asking for connections, take the time to
answer questions that other LinkedIn users ask. Offer lots of
helpful advice.

--85 quality connections that include people who already know,
like and trust you are much better than 585 connections
consisting mostly of people who barely know you.

--Let's say you're hosting a live event and you want to use
LinkedIn to help fill seats. But many people would have to travel
by plane. You should be using the question-and-answer feature at
LinkedIn and asking a question that ties into the topic of the
event months before the event. This plants a seed in your
readers' minds that you care about this topic, that they can find
helpful advice related to the question or problem, and that
you're the go-to person who can help solve this particular
problem.

During the second teleseminar on Thursday, Scott created an
entire timeline that explains what you should be doing on
LinkedIn, and when, to promote. As of today, more than 150 people
have signed up for the teleseminar series, or to get the MP3
audios and electronic transcripts, a steal at only $77.

Read more about what it includes at
http://www.publicityhound.com/teleseminar.htm

You'll receive the MP3 audio download links immediately. The
electronic transcripts should be ready in about 10 days.


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3. Sell 120,000 Books with One Phone Call
==========================================

Dr. Neil Baum, author of the book Marketing Your Clinical
Practice, tried lots of different ways to promote and distribute
the book--but most of them didn't work and he ended up
frustrated.

Then he thought that perhaps a big pharmaceutical company might
want to buy his book in mass quantity and give it away to doctors
as a gift. Pharmaceutical companies have very strict regulations
on what they're allowed to give to doctors. But giving them
educational products wasn't problem.

So Dr. Baum contacted the Bayer company and asked if they'd like
to give his book away to their customer doctors as a way of
showing appreciation for their patronage. Within a week, Bayer
bought more than 120,000 copies of his book and sent it to
doctors throughout the U.S. Today, his book is on the shelf of
virtually every medical clinic in the U.S.

And it all happened from just one phone call.

These kinds of deals happen all the time. But few authors
understand the step-by-step process of how to make that happen.

Matthew Bennett, a self-published author who's relatively unknown
to the general public, has had even greater success than Dr.
Baum. He has sold more than 5 million books in quantity to
Fortune 500 corporations including Disney, Reebok, NBC, Abbott
Labs, Pfizer, US Healthplans, Subway and many others.

Want to learn how he does it--and how you too can get started
selling your books by the truckload to big companies?

You're invited to a free telephone seminar tomorrow--Wednesday,
July 23--to hear my friend, Steve Harrison, interview Matthew
about his methods for the proven system for selling tons of
books. Register here:
http://www.freepublicity.com/mattbennett/?10011


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4. How to Make News When There's No News
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Here's a quick trick for creating news when there's absolutely
nothing new to pitch.

Be willing to talk about your business problems and how you
solved them.

Pick up any business journal and you'll see company after company
mentioned, usually because they've figured out ways to solve a
problem, whether it's delivering the product faster to customers,
or finding and keeping great employees, or how to enter a new
market that's already crowded with competitors.

But these stories don't only play well in business journals.
They're great for general interest magazines, daily and weekly
newspapers, and television, particularly if you have enticing
visuals.

This tip is one of more than a dozen I'll be sharing Thursday
during Bulldog Reporter's teleseminar on "Evergreen Magic for PR:
Media Masters Show How to Make News When There's No News."


We'll talk, for example, about editorial hot buttons: pegging
your story to rumors, future trends, features, divisive issues,
dramatic hooks and other sure-fire ways to supercharge your hit
ratio, even when you're not breaking news.

Four other panelists will join me, and moderator Brian Pittman
will make sure we move things along quickly so we can squeeze in
everybody's tips. Don't miss this one! Sign up at
http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/?Clk=2488570


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5. Internet Help for the Blind
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This week, 10 Publicity Hound have tips on how Marcus Simmons,
president of the Motown Automotive Professionals, can get around
the image registration on websites. He's blind and his screen-
reader can't decipher images.


From Carol E. Dunsworth:

"I am including a link to a report describing the work of Prof.
Jonathan Lazar of Towson University, his Towson University
student Jonathan Holman and their two collaborators from the
University of Notre Dame: http://tinyurl.com/5e896x

"Abstract \CAPTCHAS are widely used by websites for security and
privacy purposes. However, traditional text-based CAPTCHAS are
not suitable for individuals with visual impairments. We proposed
and developed a new form of CAPTCHA that combines both visual and
audio information to allow easy access by users with visual
impairments."


From Linda Swisher:

"The people who brought you CAPTCHAS recommend reCAPTCHA for
those with visual disabilities.
http://recaptcha.net/whyrecaptcha.html"


From Barbara:

"I, too, am blind. I've used Internet courses offered by
YahooGroups and some on Google. I use the JAWS screen reader. If
the site has a moderator, contact them via email. They can
register you. Sometimes they have an alternative audio sign-in.
But, these have a lot of static and you may have to braille the
numbers as they come in as they run to 7 or 8 characters. Your
best bet, if no moderator is noted, would be to contact the
organization putting on or sponsoring the course and tell them
you need assistance to register for the course. All of the
courses I've taken have been willing to aid me in signing up for
their course."


Read all the responses to this week's Help This Hound question at
http://tinyurl.com/62trrn


Send your own Help this Hound question to:
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com?subject=HelpThisHound
and include your city and state.


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6. Help This Hound
==================================

Teresa Berger of North Wales, Pennsylvania writes:

"As marketing director for Creative Contracting, Inc., a
Philadelphia-area design/build remodeling firm, it's my
responsibility to get the company and its ownership more exposure
in the community. The owner wants me to get him in front of more
people, and find outlets for giving seminars and speeches to
consumers, business networking organizations and others.

"With a tight marketing budget and limited resources, how can I
work toward positioning the organization and owner as the premier
design/build firm in the area? Any innovative, cutting edge
suggestions from Hounds?"


The Publicity Hound says:

Here's my tip about how to get speaking engagements before
business groups. Get a copy of the Philadelphia Business Journal
and look in the back of the newspaper, where the calendar of
events is listed. Look for groups that are featuring speakers.
Call the number listed and ask for contact information for the
program chairman who books speakers. This is how I got dozens of
speaking engagements when I started my business.

You should also try to get your boss mentioned in The Business
Journal. Paul Furiga, former editor of the Pittsburgh business
Times, shares dozens of ideas on how to get in front of editors
and reporters who have the power to give you thousands of dollars
in publicity.

I interviewed him, and it's available as a CD or electronic
transcript that you can be reading as soon as your order is
approved. Read more about "How to Use Business Journals to Tell
Your Story" at http://tinyurl.com/q4rf7


==================================
7. Hound Joke of the Week
==================================

"You may have a dog that won't sit up, roll over or even cook
breakfast, not because she's too stupid to learn how but because
she's too smart to bother."

--Rick Horowitz, Chicago Tribune

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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Campaign fun: Put yourself in this election video
http://tinyurl.com/6qt8zj


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