Posted by Cameron
on March 08, 2010
Free PR,
Marketing /
52 Comments
I’d love to say that I was chilling out at Whistler and I came up with this brilliant idea to let you promote your blog here, but I cannot take credit.
I learned about this idea from a great friend Gini Dietrich of The Fight Against Destructive Spin.
Turns out she learned about it a couple of weeks ago, from Toronto HAPPO champion, Danny Brown, invited his blog readers to pimp their blogs in the comments of his blog. You should go check it out – An Invite to Pimp Your Blog
So, you can do the same here. Let’s see what kinds of blogs you have and let’s see if we can find you some new readers.
Please include the following:
1. The blog’s name and link
2. A one sentence description about why someone should read your blog.
3. Your full name
4. Your Twitter handle (if you have one)
As an alternative, if you don’t have a blog, give us one blog post you’d like me to write about in the comments.
Go ahead! Promote your blog here…
Tags: Blog, Free PR, Free Publicity, Marketing, Promote
Posted by Cameron
on February 12, 2010
Culture /
2 Comments
This slide is at Google’s Zurich office.
Nothing kills creativity like boring photos on the walls or using super-traditional board and conference rooms when you’re running a new and exciting business venture. Boring rooms, mean boring employees, mean customers go elsewhere.
Go a little crazy and use the physical space as a blank canvas to elevate the mood of the team. For example, at 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, one of our boardrooms was called the Blue Sky Room. We had a huge wall with a blue sky and clouds.
ReThink Marketing in Vancouver has a Lego room, a drum set, globes hanging from the ceiling, a ping pong ball board room table and Astro turf for carpet.
Don’t be confined to some old school vision of the workplace. You’re not an old school company. Plus you’ll get Free Publicity from building an awesome company culture.
Tags: 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, Culture, Free Publicity, ReThink
Posted by Cameron
on January 27, 2010
Free PR /
3 Comments
Tyler Wright PR Guru
Step 3. Pick Up The Phone
My most successful pitches with the media have come from using the good old telephone, not by sending them an email! Step 3 in landing Free PR is from picking up the phone.
Every writer wakes up every day, goes to their office, sits down at their desk, stares at their computer and thinks, “What the hell am I going to write about today?”.
They’re not looking at their email. They’re sitting trying to get inspired to write about something.
When the phone rings, they’ll answer it.
Now, when editors go to their offices, they sit in front of a heaping stack of press releases. The releases came in over the newswire, over email, and over fax, and guess what the editor does for the first two hours every day? He or she rejects almost all of those press releases.
Given a choice, would you call the editor who says “no” all day, or the writer who is just waiting for inspiration? You call the writer, of course!
That’s why I’ve always treated PR like a sales role–it involves picking up the phone and selling the writer to your story.
Everyone else in PR is busy pitching to a grouchy editor with a penchant for saying “no,” while you’re going right to the content producer—the writer.
So switch your focus to the writers and:
· Know your angle
· Know your target
· Pick up the phone
Tags: Free PR, Free Publicity, PR, Publicity
Posted by Cameron
on November 19, 2009
Free PR /
No Comments
There is a popular misconception that PR should be considered a part of the marketing department. Believing that story is a big mistake. Public relations, in the way that I’ve been doing it for 22 years, is a sales role and you need to treat it accordingly. Typically, marketing & communications people are not wired the same way as sales people…and it takes the mindset of a salesperson to excel at PR.
If PR is a part of sales, then the good ideas that you give to the content producers are freebies (a popular sales tool). People may love free stuff, but nobody likes a gift with a really long instruction manual; which is why writers don’t like receiving press releases or being assigned to a story. Rather, they love to be inspired and write about something they relate to.
With my system, you can have the media on your side, happily furthering your campaign. Remember: writers, photographers and other media professionals are always looking for the next great “cover” shot. Give them one and they’ll be thanking you.
Over the next three posts I will explain how to find the ideal angle for your story, select the right publications, and start a dialogue with the right people.
Tags: Free PR, Free Press, Free Publicity, Media, Public Relations
