Free Publicity Tip: How to Hitch Your Star to Today's Headlines

Official engagement photograph of Prince William and Catherine Middleton by Mario Testino

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Now, an explanation for why Prince William is on the Amy Mac blog ...

Whether you’re a small business owner, a blogger, a photographer or a corporate professional with a dream of opening a lovely antique boutique, it is imperative to develop a publicity plan to keep your name top-of-mind with your target audience.

And while occasionally posting a snappy promo on your Facebook status is a great supplemental publicity tactic, you must take the time to develop other avenues of getting the word out about your business.

An easy way to do this is what I like to call Bandwagon Publicity. That’s right, go ahead and hitch your star to somebody else’s news wagon. Why? Because this makes an editor’s job really easy – you’ve created a new angle to a story that’s proven itself newsworthy.

Here’s a perfect example: I follow the website Flashlight Worthy Books, which publishes lists of books readers compile and vouch that the book is good enough to keep you up at night. When Prince William and Kate announced their engagement, I knew the media would be saturated with news about their impending nuptials. So I created the list “Enlightening Reads for Today's British Invasion" and submitted it to FLW for publication.

Not only is the list currently on their website (and driving traffic back to my blog), but this list has legs – FLW plans to pitch it to a media outlet where they have a contact, and I can pitch it to a few where I have contacts. 

Everybody wins.

So take a look at what your favorite news outlets (mine are listed under Daily News Reel on the blog panel) are reporting. How can you tie your product or service into today’s headlines? Think about it, and we’ll talk more about creating an effective pitch soon.

'Til Thursday --Amy Mac



3 comments:

Amy Mac said...

Posting for a friend who emailed!

OK but.seriously how did you have time to read all those books! Please tell me you read the book jacket only for some of them! Hahaha. I have a goal this year to read one book per month and i have read ONE so far....

Amy Mac said...

haha, well I did read them over a period of time … but I did indeed read them all!! But the Georgiana one I read a few years back, Churchill was last Christmas, Something Blue was last year sometime, Anne Boleyn was last year, Endurance a couple of years ago … you get the picture.

Distant Hours is the one I read most recently … but I read a book or two a week. I am a speedy reader tho :-)

Joanne@ Blessed... said...

Great tips! I plan on tweeting your post today.

Nice to meet you Amy. :O)