Hello.

First, a brief Holiday For Charity update. The Charlotte Observer's Faith & Values section published my letter to the editor about Holiday For Charity. I distributed a news release via PR Web announcing the program. A number of Think readers have signed up for various phases of the program. If you'd like to get involved: check out the Holiday for Charity section at the Hoover Ink website. There's also more Holiday For Charity news in the briefs section.

By popular demand, a chance for more cookies, many ways to get more media coverage, and links out the wazoo! What is a wazoo? Who cares?

Let's get started.

Cordially,

Harry Hoover
harry@hoover-ink.com

OK, here is another chance to win Charleston Cookies. Drop me an email containing your best low-cost holiday PR idea for promoting Charleston Cookies. I'll select the five best to receive the cookies.

Ink Briefs
A GE engineer mixed boric acid and silicone oil as he tried to make synthetic rubber during World War II. What he got was Silly Putty. Brand Channel does weekly profiles of famous brands. You can read all about Silly Putty here.


Are you as tired of hearing about blogs as I am? It seems everyone has jumped on the blog wagon. In the sea of mediocrity, there are a couple of good ones out there. The folks at MediaMap have their EXPERTPR blog that provides some excellent information about changes in the editorial offices of key media. It's worth visiting. Another good one is Technorati, a blog that tracks 650,000 other blogs. Use the search engine at Technorati to find blogs on your subjects of interest.



Thanks to friend Joe Grant for introducing me to the StartSpot Network. Here you will find a number of handy portals to help you get to the best of the web in a hurry. They actually use humans to sort through and evaluate the best online resources. That is so 20th century, but effective. Those of you in the job market will want to visit EmploymentSpot.



I have my website updated with a special section on the Holiday For Charity project.

I talked with eBay about participating in the program. eBay has developed GivingWorks, a charitable service that fits right into Holiday For Charity.

Friend Ken Teeter offers another good charitable suggestion for Holiday For Charity. "At InterCerve, we've adopted a Christmas Gift program of giving to charities in our customers' name rather than buying them gifts."

Finally, you may want to visit Just Give, as I have, to set up your wish list. Here you can set up a list of your favorite charities, as well as send an email to friends and family about your list. Finally, the website allows your friends and family to donate online instead of buying you a holiday gift.



Caution: shameless promotion coming. Is your brand focused? Are you communicating effectively with all of your audiences? Do you know what your customers really think of you? Hoover ink PR is here to help you answer those questions. Drop me a note.




About Hoover ink PR

Hoover ink PR helps position businesses that are serious about their success. Then, we craft and deliver bottom line messages that ensure it.

Who are we? We're a marketing communications firm with more than 25 years experience in providing services to financial, high tech, real estate, tourism and consumer products companies.

From employee relations and media relations to collateral material and e-newsletters, we develop the programs and communication tools that will differentiate you from your competitors. And that's the bottom line.
 
  Crank Up The Coverage

 This time out, I'd like to share some media relations best practices that have worked for me and that can help you improve your efforts.

First, let's talk about taking your message to journalists as well as directly to the consumer electronically for the paltry sum of $20.

Using PR Web, your releases will go to thousands of online and offline media points, as well as to thousands of consumers who visit the PR Web site daily, or other sites where PR Web syndicates its headlines. Also, your releases will be archived in an online, searchable database. So what? Go to Google and do a web search for "Hoover ink". You'll see that I have hundreds of mentions, many of them directly traceable to my PR Web releases. This makes me look bigger than I am.

Now, the best news about PR Web is that Google News, which has 3.4 million unique users per month, also picks up these releases and will archive them for about a month. That's excellent consumer reach, bypassing the media filter.

I also expand my reach by using PR Newswire and Business Wire for major news releases. They, too, reach thousands of online and offline media points. I probably shouldn't share this one, but it's the holidays and I'm feeling charitable. Here's a little known fact: if you are a bona fide advertising or PR firm and a member of PR Newswire, they run your new business news releases free of charge. Each Monday at 5:30 a.m., PR Newswire sends out its Agency Roster report to the entire network. A number of daily email newsletters pick up my releases from Agency Roster further extending my reach.

Going one-on-one with the media is my next strategy. The first tactic is guerrilla story pitching, a time consuming but effective way to build long-term relationships with the media. This involves identifying key journalists and watching their work to determine their beat and their personal tendencies. Then, you drop occasional emails suggesting story angles that may appeal to them. Give them ideas that don't necessarily tie in with your business. Remember, you are building a relationship, not just trying to get one-time coverage.

Next, think small. Reporters for regional publications or small circulation media must wear a lot of hats and often have a tougher time identifying and connecting with high-level sources of information. These reporters probably will move up to bigger media. So, make yourself available to them and you have made a media contact for life. Also, if you get enough coverage at this level, the big boys will begin to notice and your long-term efforts will be rewarded.

  Slow Day? Create News

Sometimes there seems to be no client news worthy of coverage. That's when the savvy PR pro digs deep into the old bag of tricks and pulls out one of these ideas to perk things up:

  • The List
  • The Index
  • The Hall of Fame.

Best of, worst of, most of, least of, top and bottom lists can be great ways to get coverage. Designer Mr. Blackwell made a career out of his Worst Dressed List. Country Music Television has turned this into an art form by not just developing the list but making a TV show out of it. Consider the recent 40 Best Drinking Songs.

You can use these lists to engage your own customers or readers. Do a survey and have them vote. I always like using odd numbers like 11 or seven instead of 10 for my lists. It seems to me they get better coverage. If you are going to develop one of these lists, don't be boring. Come up with something that has some controversy attached to it to ensure greater coverage.

The Consumer Confidence Index is one of the most well known of the indices. The CCI is an index that requires some heavy lifting to prepare, but you can develop one that is purely for publicity purposes. The National Association of Realtors developed the housing affordability index, an easy-to-compile index that shows how much income you need in order to afford a home of a certain purchase price.

My initial thought when I worked with Carolinas AGC to develop the Carolinas Construction Barometer was to come up with a publicity tool. However, when we enlisted UNCC to help us develop the methodology it quickly became a real tool that required a lot of work . So, be careful with this one or it can get away from you.

Finally, there is the Hall of Fame. You don't need bricks and mortar to have one. It can be virtual like Bill Stoller's PR Hall of Fame that exists online and in press releases but nowhere else.

So, the next time there is no news, do some media relations magic: create some out of thin air.