THINKing

Holiday For Charity Gains Traction

Our Holiday for Charity effort is gaining traction. Last week we mentioned it in our enewsletter, and we distributed a news release via PRWEB. If you visit our release, please feel free to share it through StumbleUpon or your other social networks.Additionally, I posted an article on social site, Gather.

The Publicity Hound featured us in its Help This Hound feature in both the newsletter and the blog.

A good story on charitable giving appeared on the highly trafficked Unclutterer blog and I posted a note there about the program.

Today, the Charlotte Business Journal mentioned our Holiday For Charity effort in its print and electronic editions. Other places we have found the story:

News.Bigg.Net

Newslife.us

If you like this holiday for charity idea, help spread the word. Use your social networks to  let others know. Use our embedded  social bookmarking feature beneath this posting, too. Thanks.

bookmark to:

Six Tips For Perfect Email Media Pitches

Your media pitches can go straight over the plate. With a little forethought, and a few tips, you can throw fewer balls and more media relations strikes.

Brevity is the soul of wit. Shakespeare could have been giving media relations tips when he penned this gem several hundred years ago. If you can’t get to the point in your subject line in 10 words or less, you need to work on your message. Keep the subject line short and to the point, and include the time frame if it is important to the pitch. For instance: “Entrepreneurs Storming NC General Assembly Tuesday”

Surprise! If you have a startling or interesting fact, use it as a hook. I am developing a story idea about local home prices. My initial thought for a subject line is: “Average Lake Norman Home Listing Price Spikes To $413,000.” Recently I used these subject lines to get coverage: “Interest Rates Hit Six Month Low” and “No Credit Score, No Problem”.

Humor Me. Humor is not for everyone. It is best to use it only if you know the reporter has a sense of humor or appreciates quirky items. Maria Stainer, assistant managing editor of the Washington Times, was quoted recently about an email pitch that got her attention and coverage. “Teach Your Dog To Meditate” was the line that hooked her on a story about a new book on animal behavior.

Don’t Get Too Attached. Don’t ever attach word documents or photos files to an email pitch. Did I mention that you should not send attachments? To get past email filters and to avoid hacking off your media contacts, wait until they ask for additional information before sending photos and documents. And, if you make them mad, your next pitch may be deleted before it is ever read.

Be Cool. You’re fired up to fire off that media pitch you have just written. Don’t. Let it cool off a bit first. Ask for input from others before you send the pitch to the media, particularly if you are trying to use humor or be quirky. You don’t want your pitch to fall flat.

Be Relevant. Friend David Mildenberg, formerly a reporter at the Charlotte Business Journal, has the best tip of all. “I think email pitches can be effective for all the obvious reasons: If they contain news relevant to the publication and its readers, if the pitches are concise and if the pitches are understandable,” he says.

Wind up and start pitching.

bookmark to:

Getting Social

Center for Media Research – Daily Brief

Following up on a recent Research Brief on the trust placed in word of mouth marketing, a timely release from Nielsen Online provides October’s top U.S. social networking sites and blogs, which shows that MySpace.com had 49.5 million unique visitors in October 2007, growing 19 percent over October 2006.

bookmark to:

Top 8 Media Relations Links

In case you missed it, here are 8 links to a series of my previous posts that instruct you on how to develop and implement a media relations program.

Media Relations 101

In The Beginning There Was News

What Is News? 

Media Relations Dos & Don’ts

Media Relations Tools

Know Your Media – TV

Know your Media – Newspapers

Know Your Media – Radio

bookmark to:

Cause Related Marketing

Tis the season and we’re wanting to give gifts with soul. According to a new Cone poll,

While Americans love to give gifts with soul, the Cone Holiday Trend Tracker finds that the rising cost of energy and housing is impacting this desire in a big way. The percentages of people who will donate or purchase from a retailer supporting a cause are way down from last year. Even the spirit of volunteerism took a hit, with just 25% planning to volunteer, down from 49% last year.

I don’t believe that making donations and volunteerism will take a hit, just like I don’t believe all the negative press about holiday spending. These predictions are never correct. So, get out there and save the holidays for the cause.

bookmark to:

Widgets Revisited

Widgets – like the one above – are a great way to spread your brand message. That is – of course – if your widget is worthwhile. My above widget is a personalized search engine on the topic of advertising. I made it at WidgetBox from code developed at Eurekster. Feel free to get the code and drop it into your blog. Just click on the link beneath the widget that says Get Widget.

Amanda Watlington has a nice piece at WilsonWeb on the subject today. She says,

According to data released by media measurement service comScore, in June 2007, 239 million widgets were used by Internet users in the U.S. This represents almost half of the online population, over 87 million people. How would you like to get a share of these individuals interacting with your brand? It isn’t hard; it costs almost nothing. Here’s the catch though: for your widget to gain users, it must provide the user a reason to download it.

bookmark to:

Know Your Media – Radio

There’s good news and there’s bad news where radio is concerned. Radio has the least lasting impact of the major media, but it conveys the news faster than the other two. And, unlike television or newspapers, once a story airs on the radio, it is apt to be reused several times during the day. For in-depth stories, radio stations often have talk shows that provide outstanding opportunities to present information.

The listening audience of a specific radio station is easily identified by its demographics — young people, those over 40, etc. When you are talking with a radio station about a talk show appearance, ask your contact to define the station’s primary audience. This way, you will know what subjects may be more appropriate to that audience and what their needs may be.

In working with a radio station, you should:

• direct your contact to the news department for a news story or to the public affairs director for a talk show idea; occasionally, talk shows are produced as a function of the news department and are hosted by one of the station’s reporters. You will need to approach the news department about being a guest on their shows.

• avoid calling your contacts on the hour or the half-hour, since that is frequently when newscasts air and the news department’s attention is focused there.

• avoid disc jockeys when your story is of a serious nature unless they also serve as news reporters or hosts of phone-in talk shows. However, DJ’s may provide an excellent means to promote upcoming special events and promotions.

• the most desirable time to have a news story on the radio is “drive time,” the time of day when most people are in their cars on the way to and from work. Morning drive is from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and evening drive is from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Many radio stations, especially noncommercial public radio stations, feature lengthier news reports during these times. Public radio stations are often affiliated with a college or university. Don’t overlook them. They produce talk shows and need reliable sources of information just as much as the commercial stations do. Public radio stations and FM radio stations generally have higher-income , more upscale audiences.

bookmark to:

Know Your Media – Newspapers

Print media placements are good because they give permanence to the exposure we receive.  You can clip and save the newspaper story, photocopy it and send it to elected and appointed officials.  The pass-along readership of a newspaper is generally estimated at 2.5 times its base circulation.  So if a newspaper has a circulation of 100,000 you may actually be reaching 250,000 readers.

Newspapers have a high reliability factor.  According to industry studies, a newspaper article is much more likely to be believed than an advertisement run in the same newspaper.  Newspapers can also tell your story in more depth, with greater clarity and detail than do other media.

The cardinal rule of newspapers and magazines is that the news and advertising departments are separate.  Just because we advertise in a newspaper doesn’t mean that we merit news coverage for something that is not — on its merits — news.

When you have asked yourself the basic questions to decide whether your story is newsworthy, you are ready to approach the reporter or editor.
First, make sure you know the proper person to contact. 

Again, pick up the phone and call your local newspaper(s) and ask the name of the business editors.  Remember that stories about your area of expertise may be of interest to other sections of the paper, such as features, lifestyles and local news.  You or a member of your staff might want to get the names of those editors and any direct telephone numbers as well.

Newspaper columnists are always looking for material.  If you have an interesting anecdote, call the columnist and chat.

From time to time — usually at least once a year — newspapers publish special sections about finance.  Introduce yourself to the special sections editor (one person usually bears responsibility for all the sections) either by phone or in a letter and make yourself available as a source.  You can write an article or offer to be interviewed by a special sections writer for an article in the section.  Either way, it’s a grand opportunity to get your name before the public, and your only investment is time.

A Word About Deadlines

When working with the media, it is important to understand their time constraints and deadlines.  Reporters for morning newspapers usually work from around 10 a.m. until about 6 p.m.  Their newspaper is prepared in the evening and printed around midnight.  Reporters for afternoon newspapers are available from about 6 a.m. until about 4 p.m., because their newspaper is prepared in the morning and printed in the early afternoon.

Deadlines are important and all hinge on when the paper is printed (or “goes to bed”).  Call ahead and arrange an appointment with reporters.  And when you do call, be sure to ask whether the reporter is on deadline.  If he is, return the call at a more convenient time.  Also, when he asks you for information, ask when his deadline is so that you can be sure to provide it in plenty of time for him to use in the story he is working on.

Above all, when a reporter calls you for information and you are unable to speak with him immediately, return the call PROMPTLY.  You can hurt your credibility and your chances of getting future calls by neglecting this very important rule.  Reporters will turn to someone else as their source; rarely, if ever, would you get a second chance.

bookmark to:

Vote For Us

THINKing, once again, has been nominated for Best Marketing Blog in the 2008 bloggers choice awards.

And, we have been nominated for best business blog, too.

Please vote for us.

bookmark to:

Top 5 Thanksgiving Links

If you just happen to be in front of the computer today (Thanksgiving), you shouldn’t be. But if you are, here are a few items you may want to read. But my advice is go spend some time with family and friends. You can read these tomorrow.

Could TinyURLs Go Away?

The Social Media Manual

Is Social Media Worth The Time?

Yahoo! Adds 17 Newspapers As Publishing Partners

Firefox 3 Coming Soon

bookmark to: