The call was set for 10. We had a list of questions for them. But, before we could interview them, they wanted to interview us.

Thanks to Mark and Robert for taking time [almost an hour] to talk to Jeff Willinger and me about their take on social media. During our interview, Mark and Robert share stories about international entrepreneur successes, how they use social media and what they’ll cover when they speak to Social Media Club Chicago.

If you’re in ...]]>

The call was set for 10. We had a list of questions for them. But, before we could interview them, they wanted to interview us.

Thanks to Mark and Robert for taking time [almost an hour] to talk to Jeff Willinger and me about their take on social media. During our interview, Mark and Robert share stories about international entrepreneur successes, how they use social media and what they’ll cover when they speak to Social Media Club Chicago.

If you’re in Chicago, you’re invited to join us for our live Social Media Club Chicago Meets Mark Victor Hansen and Robert Allen conversation on September 23 at the Doubletree Hotel.

Bestselling authors Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen are back following their mega-hit The One Minute Millionaire with new strategies to generate cash quickly. In their new book, Cash in a Flash, two of the most successful entrepreneurs in the country show readers how to use the skills and resources they already have to generate permanent and recurring streams of income—all in 90 days or less. Mark Victor Hansen is the co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. Robert G. Allen is the author of three New York Times bestselling personal finance books, including Creating Wealth and Multiple Streams of Income.

What would you ask Mark and Robert about social media, entrepreneurship or publishing?

If there’s one thing every speaker and author could use it’s more publicity.

“I See Your Name Everywhere,” the title of PR/PR founder Pam Lontos’ new book, was also the topic of her presentation to NSA-IL today. Pam covered what you need to know to get more publicity, media attention and bookings!

My top takeaways:

- start at the top and work you way down – it’s often easier to get into national publications

- keep at it: one author sent a ...]]>

If there’s one thing every speaker and author could use it’s more publicity.

“I See Your Name Everywhere,” the title of PR/PR founder Pam Lontos’ new book, was also the topic of her presentation to NSA-IL today. Pam covered what you need to know to get more publicity, media attention and bookings!

My top takeaways:

- start at the top and work you way down – it’s often easier to get into national publications

- keep at it: one author sent a new press release to Oprah every week – for four years! – before he got on the show

- write the book; you’ll get instant credibility

- contain media kit costs by limiting your information to one page

- produce an easy to reproduce and update speaker promotion book you can print-on-demand

- don’t be in a rush to get industry book reviews

- contact trade industry publications directly to place 800-1000 word articles

- author popular articles that can run over and over again – one of Pam’s clients’ articles ran over 120 times!

- grab attention with your headlines that list benefits or solve problems

- get in the habit of responding to news immediately with a press release

- tie your news into a special date on Chase’s Calendar of Events – today is Pi Day!

- accept every media interview – the smallest connections can pay off big time

- be patient, one story took almost two years to place in Fast Company

- visit Pam’s site to read her public relations articles

Your Turn

What’s your dream media opp – magazine, radio or TV?

Welcome! You flew in from twitter, right? I first put this guide together in March 2008, a few weeks after getting serious about setting up a twitter profile. Back then, there weren’t that many people on twitter, but today twitter’s becoming a must-participate communications tool for businesses, non-profits, entrepreneurs and well, almost anybody. In August 2009, Ragan asked me to present “twitter 101″ at their Social Media Bootcamp. Here’s my presentation. If you have questions about twitter, feel free to ...]]>

Welcome! You flew in from twitter, right? I first put this guide together in March 2008, a few weeks after getting serious about setting up a twitter profile. Back then, there weren’t that many people on twitter, but today twitter’s becoming a must-participate communications tool for businesses, non-profits, entrepreneurs and well, almost anybody. In August 2009, Ragan asked me to present “twitter 101″ at their Social Media Bootcamp. Here’s my presentation. If you have questions about twitter, feel free to leave a comment here or send a message via twitter to @wiredprworks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After meeting “The Demon Bride of Twitter,” who credits this mirco-blogging tool for her serendipitously vibrant life on all levels, I decided to twitter-ize, too. Follow me on Twitter When I asked her to share top tips, she advised me to follow at least 40 people, keep the stream onscreen at all times and search Google for how-tos.

I’ve spent the better part of today following the Demon Bride’s advice. Now, I’d like to share this list of resources with you.

Micro-blogging via Twitter

Twitter Newbies Guide Four Part Series + Screencast

Twitter Toobox Twittering from Google Talk

Twitter as a non-profit communuity builder

NPR : The World According to Twitter interview with Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter.com and Robert Scoble

Lifehack’s 5 Ways to Use Twitter for Good

How Reporters Use Twitter

Mediapost’s Twitter List

Problogger’s Twitter Tips for Bloggers

How to Use Twitter for Business

Twitter Background Design Guide

Twitter Packs – Add Yours or Find Friends

Top Twitterers

Twittermeter – graphs words in feeds

Teaching with Twitter

International Twitter Web Traffic

Update 0.09.08

Twitter for Churches from Church Marketing Sucks

How do you use Twitter?

When Liz Strauss asked me to write a guest post, I did. Being so grateful for the opportunity, I decided that to offer her readers value-added off the blog. So, I’m hosting a Lucky PR Teleseminar on St. Patrick’s Day. Have a question you’ve always wanted to ask? Here’s your chance! Email your question to connect AT corywestmedia DOT com and I’ll add you to the cue.

Then, mark your calendar to join us on March 17 at 11:00 am EST/10:00 ...]]> 03.10.08 Update

When Liz Strauss asked me to write a guest post, I did. Being so grateful for the opportunity, I decided that to offer her readers value-added off the blog. So, I’m hosting a Lucky PR Teleseminar on St. Patrick’s Day. Have a question you’ve always wanted to ask? Here’s your chance! Email your question to connect AT corywestmedia DOT com and I’ll add you to the cue.

Then, mark your calendar to join us on March 17 at 11:00 am EST/10:00 am CST – go to time.gov to convert to your time zone and call in: 

Dial-In Conference Number      1-712-432-3000
Conference Bridge Number:      302819 

Can’t make the call? No worries – email me or add Wired PR Works to your RSS reader for replay information.

Watch this post for details on how to ask me your biggest PR questions.
 

Watch this post for details on how to ask me your biggest PR questions.

Set to be released in a few weeks, a new book about online marketing heroes follows a simple, yet highly-successful format: gather a group of experts, talk to them and publish a book. To get an inside look, download Steve Rubel’s Online Marketing Heroes chapter.

Allowing Steve to promote the book on his blog, Micro Persuasion, with a giveaway chapter download is great publicity – that’s how I found out about it.

What I’m confused about is why people who aren’t in ...]]>

Set to be released in a few weeks, a new book about online marketing heroes follows a simple, yet highly-successful format: gather a group of experts, talk to them and publish a book. To get an inside look, download Steve Rubel’s Online Marketing Heroes chapter.

Allowing Steve to promote the book on his blog, Micro Persuasion, with a giveaway chapter download is great publicity – that’s how I found out about it.

What I’m confused about is why people who aren’t in the book are in the promos.

Online Marketing Heroes’ Amazon page lists these interviewees and links: Armand Morin, Brad Fallon, Brett Tabke, Carl Galletti, David Rosenblatt, and Derek Gehl. Yet, these online marketers don’t show up in the table of contents.

25 Online Marketing Heroes in the Book

Tamara Adlin of Aldin, Inc

Chris Baggott of Compendium Software

Ron Belanger of Yahoo!

Patrick Duparcq of Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

Liana Evans of KeyRelevance

David Fischer of Google

Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group

Jeffrey Glueck of Travelocity

Jordan Gold of Freedom

Greg Hartnett of Best of the Web, Hotel Hotline

Jacob Hawkins of Overstock.com

Joan Holman of Joan Holman Productions

Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR

Kevin Lee of Didit

Heather Lloyd-Martin of SuccessWorks

Brian Lusk of Southwest Airlines

Perry Marshall of Perry S. Marshall & Associates

Paul O’Brien of Zvents

Lee Odden of TopRank Online Marketing

Mark Oldani of Circuit City Direct

Steve Rubel of Edelman

Ed Shull of NetResults

Phil Terry of Creative Good

Eric Ward of Link Marketing Consultant

Jill Whalen of High Rankings

Who’s Missing From Your List?

Who decides who’s in and who’s out? What, in your opinion, does it take to be an online marketing hero? Money, book sales, list size, products, readership, influence?

Technorati Tags: Online Marketing,Book Publicity,Barbara Rozgonyi,Wired PR Works

It’s easy to tell when there’s a push to propel a book to a number one spot on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Your email in box floods with free offers from any marketer who’s participating.

To spike high rise sales, the formula calls for participation from dozens of marketers who agree to promote the book to their email list or blog audience on a certain day.

In order to be featured as one of the promotion partners each ...]]>

It’s easy to tell when there’s a push to propel a book to a number one spot on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Your email in box floods with free offers from any marketer who’s participating.

To spike high rise sales, the formula calls for participation from dozens of marketers who agree to promote the book to their email list or blog audience on a certain day.

In order to be featured as one of the promotion partners each marketer submits an image, a link to the product and a description. This in itself is a great way to get free visibility.

After you buy the book, you can collect all of the “freebies.” But, in exchange for the free item – usually a .pdf or mp3 download -  you often have to enter your name and email address. That puts you on the giver’s emailing marketing list. Seems fair, doesn’t it? An email for a report or how-to audio.

As a marketer, the prospect of being on a list that goes out to 2 million or more people is alluring. When I had the chance to participate in one of these book promos, I jumped on it. Dreaming about adding hundreds of names to a list overnight is heady.

But, it’s just that – a dream. Almost every “lead” that came in unsubscribed. Immediately. These people have no interest in a relationship, only collecting products. And that’s okay. Why send out emails to people who will never, ever open them?

Today I updated a page from one of these offers. Noticing that I’d “attracted” a few more grab and runners, I changed the offer page to redirect them to my site and my blog. Now, if they’re really interested they can still reach me and isn’t the prospect of 300 free articles better than one report? I think so.

What do you think?

Contact Barbara about advertising, a creative project or a speaking opportunity.

I asked for it . . .Yesterday I did a live question and answer session for public relations students. On the call I asked for questions that I could answer on my blog. Here’s one of them that came in today:

Psychologist’s Book Slammed on Amazon After Fox News Debacle: Might this bad publicity ultimately be GOOD for her book sales?

Here’s where the question came from . . .

On Fox TV this ...]]> Listen to an interview with a gamer . . .

I asked for it . . .Yesterday I did a live question and answer session for public relations students. On the call I asked for questions that I could answer on my blog. Here’s one of them that came in today:

Psychologist’s Book Slammed on Amazon After Fox News Debacle: Might this bad publicity ultimately be GOOD for her book sales?

Here’s where the question came from . . .

On Fox TV this week, author Cooper Lawrence commented on virtual nudity in video games in a story about Mass Effect, which set off a massive PR explosion.

According to Game Daily‘s post mentioned above, on Thursday negative reviews for Lawrence’s book, The Cult of Perfection, numbered 565, 502 [1-star] and 48 [2-stars]. Now that Amazon.com is reviewing and censoring negative ratings for The Cult of Perfection, the book’s amazon.com forum is buzzing with 45 discussions about the book and this practice.

I could stop here and answer, “No, this kind of bad publicity is NOT good for book sales.” But, the surrounding media attention is good for name recognition.

And, because one question always leads to another, I’ll add in: How far can you go with gamers -from a PR perspective?

First, let’s take a look at Cooper Lawrence.

With a radio show, The Love Doctor! – a dating and advice column – in CosmoGirl, mega media clips and several books, Lawrence appears to have mastered marketing.

From Cooper Lawrence’s site:

COOPER LAWRENCE is a relationship and psychology expert with a master’s degree in developmental psychology. She is currently finishing her doctorate in applied developmental psychology. She is the host of her own nationally syndicated radio show aptly named The Cooper Lawrence Show.

Key phrases from Lawrence’s book “Been There, Done That, Kept the Jewelry: Find True Love–Turn Your Tarnished Dating Past into a Brilliant Romantic Future” on Amazon.com suggest she’s a relationship or dating expert.

Back to question one: Might this bad publicity ultimately be GOOD for her book sales?

The biggest problem here is a mismatch. Lawrence’s new book is about overachieving; her column is about dating. Will commenting on virtual nudity in any video game sell more books about women’s self-esteem or dating? What does calling a video gaming expert “darling” on the air say about respect in a relationship? Do her readers date guys who play video games? What, exactly, is her niche?

I have to wonder why Ms. Lawrence was asked to step in to take this stand. With her level of media exposure and influence, it’s surprising that her publicist would agree to this assignment.

To be credible [and sell books], subject matter experts must match their interviews to their exact topic. And, they have to be sure there’s something to talk about before they take the interview. In this case, there was no real controversy to debate, only misinformation to contest afterwards.

Never mind the book sales, the publicity here is HUGE. So, who’s winning? Today’s New York Times reports Ms. Lawrence’s apology, but whose story is it? For one of the better takes on the reaction and a video from X-Play’s Adam Sessler, check out Joystiq’s coverage.

On to question two: How far can you go with gamers – from a PR perspective?

Take a look at how Mass Effect, the name of the game, also describes what happens when you take a misstep into the video game culture.

Gauging the Gamer Reaction to Cooper Lawrence

1995 Diggs as of this moment

http://digg.com/xbox/Gamers_Strike_Back_Against_Cooper_Lawrence_On_Amazon

2182 Diggs

http://www.digg.com/pc_games/Gamers_get_revenge_Quack_Gets_Amazon_Book_Rating_Spammed

A brief interview brought down book sales and opened up a new levels of criticism. Lawrence already apologized, but is that enough?

What do gamers think? I decided to find out. Going straight to the source, I interviewed a gamer about sex in video games, Mass Effect and whether or not gamers cared about what a psychologist has to say: listen to an audio interview with a gamer.

Gamers sound a lot like bloggers: frequently misunderstood, often perceived as misfits, passionate about our games/subjects, willing to communicate and create virtually, always ready to get to the next level, don’t mind spending hours or days in front of a screen and we enjoy meeting up with each other – both virtually and offline.

Studying the video game culture is smart marketing. Watch the launch campaigns, study the game sites, see how communities relate and check out the titles for ideas on how to attract an audience of raving fans. Playing the games will give you a feel for how to build up a challenge, develop characters and lay out storylines. From a PR perspective, know that gamers are ready to respond, react, defend and defeat en masse. So, be careful when you comment, especially when you haven’t played the game and you’re on national TV.

Helping out gamers can bring you good attention, though. I know from personal experience. In November 2007, I wrote about how we got the Nintendo Wii in eight minutes. But, wait a minute, this IS a PR blog – right? Well, yeah, but . . . after telling the story to everyone I knew, I just had to retell it here. So I did. At last count over 800 people have read it and hopefully our tips paid off for a few other families.

Parting Shots

Know what you’re talking about before your criticize – anything. Controversy polarizes audiences and can get you mega attention: both good and bad. Before you go there, consider how you’ll feel when the swarm against you stings all at once. When you make a mistake, apologize immediately. Be true to yourself and your audience. And if you want to sell more books? Make sure your publicity – good or bad – attracts attention from a supportive audience.

Care to leave a constructive comment?

Technorati Tags: Book Publicity,Online PR,Amazon Book Reviews,Barbara Rozgonyi,Video Game PR,Media interview

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Instant Replay PR: Get Multiple Uses Out of One Release

by Barbara Rozgonyi, founder of CoryWest Media

To request permission to reproduce or republish this article, contact connect AT corywestmedia DOT com.

Why write one release when you can take the same story and re-release it over and ...]]> Here’s the latest Marketing Transformations Newtork News article . . .

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Instant Replay PR: Get Multiple Uses Out of One Release

by Barbara Rozgonyi, founder of CoryWest Media

To request permission to reproduce or republish this article, contact connect AT corywestmedia DOT com.

Why write one release when you can take the same story and re-release it over and over again?

Here’s how to take a standard evergreen release and repackage it multiple times for major impact. Using a basic PR pattern allows you to reinvent your news and keep it fresh.

Tell an Evergreen Story

Once you write out who, what, when, where, why for each audience, go back and highlight the most important feature for them. Look for timeless stories that can be easily tied into today’s news. Use this chart to get started.

Choose Categories

How do you categorize your message? Knowing where to put your news helps you be in the right place every time. It’s okay to be in more than one category, but probably not in the same release or article. Set up interchangeable components to personalize your message for each category.

Track Results

After testing out your system, you’ll be able to see which audience in which categories works best. Stick with these and keep going.

About the author . . .

An in-demand publicist, professional speaker and marketing communications consultant since 1990, Barbara Rozgonyi is grounded, edgy and prophetic. “Panoramic PR,” Barbara’s latest project, compresses everything she knows into an affordable, manageable course that teaches small business owners, entrepreneurs, authors, experts, coaches and anyone else who wants more free publicity how to get completely covered by being fully exposed. Claim a free report and get automatic articles like this one at http://www.powerprsecrets.com.

Craving PR inspiration?

Check into the Wired PR Works blog therapy suite.

All site content copyright Barbara Rozgonyi, CoryWest Media 2005-2007

Of course, I promptly return every message to ...]]> For the last few days I’ve been answering calls for a literary agent. Each time the caller left a message saying they found my listing in the Yellow Pages online. So, I checked it out and yes, indeed, CoryWest is listed in the Literary Agent category – along with Marketing Consultants, Marketing Programs & Services, Public Relations Counselors and Writers.  Hmm. . . how did we wind up with the literary agents? 

Of course, I promptly return every message to let the aspiring novelists know that although my company does many things, I am not a literary agent. And then I say, “I’m curious. What’s your book about?”At that point, the real story begins. Passion for their project radiates right through the phone.

Sometimes I have to set them straight. While writing for a living is certainly doable – I created a class called “Write from the Start: Running a Succesful Freelance Business” that empowered more than a few successful writers, selling one book won’t support your family or maybe even your cat.

Even so, there is omnipotent power in passion. Before we hang up, I give them this list of resources. Until I can figure out how to change my listing, I can tell them to check this post. I will miss the stories, though. Have a resource to add? Leave the link in the comment section or email connectATcorywestmediaDOTcom.

Resources for Ready to Publish Writers

Dan Poynter, The Book Guy’s site – stacked with tons of free resources

Dan Poynter’s Self-Publishing Manual, 16th Edition: How to Write, Print and Sell Your Own Book (Self Publishing Manual) (Paperback) a true insider’s industry guide with marketing tips that work for all types of publishing

I’m Rich Beyond My Wildest Dreams I am, I am I am: How to Get Everything You Want in Life , by Thomas Pauley and Penelope Pauley – all you need is a 79 cent notebook and a pen to figure out what you want, recommended to shift from scarcity to abundant mentality

Rick Frishman’s Author 101 Newsletter and Blog- this is the guy, he even gives away his resource list in exchange for your email address

Independent Writers of Chicago – go to a meeting if you live in the Chicago area – if not, check out the site to see what members write about

Adams Press- independent book publisher in Chicago

Morgan James – The Entrepreneurial Publisher™

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