Publicity Queen

Well another absolute pearler of a snippet (I know, two in two days!)…

I went to a great event last night, it was a Networx event, organised by the fabulously vivacious Kimberley Palmer and it was all about how to ‘Maximise the Media‘.

One of the the four panelists was Raquel Stevens, the Senior Producer for ‘9am with David & Kim‘ which airs on Channel Ten on weekdays at 9am (surprise, surprise).

Here is one of the best publicity snips I’ve ever heard…

Racquel said to: “Aim your stories at one of the three H’s – heart, hip-pocket or health“.

She says that these are the three themes that they cover regularly on the show. And if you think about it, lots of media coverage in all its formats give extensive coverage to these topics.

So, have you got a story that appeals to the heart, hip-pocket or is about health? It’s time to take a leap of faith and see if you can get yourself some publicity…

I’ve got more good goss from the session, so keep watching this space.

Yours in publicity snips!

I love a good snippet of information – and here’s a great one for all you publicity seekers..

This is an edited excerpt from one of my great internet loves Wikipedia. While it’s Wikipedia’s definition for ‘newsworthiness’ you can use it as a fabulous little checklist to see if your story idea has got what it takes to be considered as ‘news’.

To be considered newsworthy, an event usually must have broad interest in one or more ‘hard news’ values:

• Effect (how many people were, are or will be affected?)
• Timeliness (did the event occur very recently?)
• Revelation (is there significant new information, previously unknown?)
• Proximity (was the event nearby geographically?)

In recent years increasing weight has also been given to the following ‘soft news’ values:

• Entertainment (does it make for a fun story?)
• Oddity (was the event highly unusual?)
• Celebrity (was anyone famous involved?)

Now, isn’t that a handy snippet! So next time you’re thinking about getting publicity, see if your idea meets any of the above news values.

  Yours in publicity

Well I have some very inspiring news for all you small business owners…

Here’s how it goes – make a personalised approach to a magazine and get a three-page spread, then from that, get picked-up by another magazine and if that isn’t enough, get picked-up by prime time TV! That’s exactly what happened to one of my clients!

Catherine Lockhart and Gillian Cornwell of Busy Mothers are not only busy mothers, but also busy publicists!

Catherine and Gillian became mentees of mine after they successfully got great coverage in the fabulous Notebook magazine. They became addicted to publicity and wanted more, more, more – so they called me (bless them!).

Well through their own doing, they are now going to be on Channel 7’s Today Tonight program. I’m soooo excited for them.

And here’s some of the advice I gave to them for their tv debut…

• Pick three key messages about your business and continually refer to these points
• Highlight any interesting statistics from your business (eg. in a survey they recently conducted, 20% of women’s major priority is to become more organised)
• When talking about your product, speak about its benefits as well as its features
• Personal presentation is paramount – check if TT is going to do your hair and make-up and if not, then hire a stylist (first impressions count – particularly on national television!)
• Think of some great visuals for the reporter (the reporter will really appreciate this)
• Be proud and confident about your business to help overcome your nerves
• Keep body movement to a minimum – absolutely, under no circumstances do we want to see waving around of hands!

So keep watching Today Tonight and let these two amazing women inspire you – not only to get a little bit organised, but also to get out there and get some publicity!

Hello. I’m back from my beachside sojourn – had a fabulous time but now it’s back into publicity, publicity, publicity!

As we all know it’s Valentine’s Day next week so I thought we should have some fun (and try to get some publicity in the process!)

Let’s have a competition… see how we can link your businesses into Valentine’s Day and get some media coverage. We all get a bit ‘over’ the mundane V Day, so let’s spice it up a bit with some inventive small business stories.

As an example, I have a publicity business so what’s an imaginative, newsy, attention-grabbing link that will get the journalists intrigued?

I’ll do some ad-libbing of some possible headlines here…
Valentine’s Day – A Big Publicity Stunt
Queen Suggests: Expose Yourself To Get Noticed On Valentine’s Day

OK, so there’s just a couple – how can you link your business to Valentine’s Day and make it attractive to the media?

If you want some help, simply post a comment and perhaps all of us can help you out – BUT YOU BETTER BE QUICK because V Day is next Wednesday and the timing is tight. And just remember, we’re thinking radio, tv and newspapers here so our angles have to have some bite.

    Yours in publicity (and Valentine’s Day)