Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with publicity

What's Cooler Than Dancing in a Train Station?

Lipstick Thespian — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:55:52 -0800

What Are Some Creative Ways To Get People Interested In A Giving Campaign? I'd like to hear from the Metaverse from any marketers, non-profit superstars, or performers about how you have created interest in a campaign, performance or idea you want to get out to the public.

I'd like to hear responses that go beyond the flyers and flashmobs level, and hopefully get inspired by your answers as well.

I'm coordinating a campaign this year and am having difficulty rousing folks to the cause.

Finding the national artistic news spotlight?

lifeofthunder — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:12:15 -0800

Our non-profit arts organization has just earned the support (in the form of a very big grant) from an internationally renowned foundation. We've got a good system of press releases that we send out to local and regional contacts, but we're idealistically looking to see some national artistic attention as the result of getting this grant. Where/who should we attempt contact to really get noticed? For the record, we're not in one of the top fifteen major US cities that you would expect to see produce the kind of arts organization that we have, so perhaps the story is that we're coming from a location that isn't exactly known for eccentric arts practices?

How often should I post to maintain an audience?

gusandrews — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 13:13:08 -0800

I produce a YouTube show about media literacy/criticism. Right now we post weekly, on a schedule which is driving me insane. Does frequency of publishing new content matter (whether it's for a blog, a podcast, a comic, etc) so long as you publish regularly? Could I do it every other week or monthly without losing people's attention? And what do you suggest doing to help make up for less-frequent publishing? I produce a YouTube show about media literacy/criticism which is aimed roughly at high-school- and college-aged students. Right now we post weekly. I've been sticking to this schedule because I've always felt that blogs/webcomics/other online serials which post regularly tend to have a more devoted audience. (This also echoes advice I got when working for an organization which supported small-circulation magazines.)

However, posting weekly is kind of driving me crazy. Editing and shooting video is a hell of a lot more time-consuming than writing a blog post. I'd like to post less frequently, but I'm worried I'd lose audience. A lot of the people I speak to about the show don't seem to have a YouTube account, so using the "subscribe" button is out.

So I'm hoping to gather up the expertise of people who have been doing this for longer than I have. Does frequency of publishing new content matter (whether it's for a blog, a podcast, a comic, etc) so long as you publish regularly? Could I do it every other week or monthly without losing people's attention? And what do you suggest doing to help make up for less-frequent publishing?

How can I publish links to press coverage in a blog?

timwindsor — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:13:31 -0800

How do I (semi) automatically publish links to many different articles, sorted by date, to a blog? The university I work for gets lots of mentions in the news media every day. To keep track of this, they've been maintaining a daily email and (internal) web site linking to the coverage. Thus far, this has been created entirely manually.

In an effort to help streamline this, I suggested a few changes:

1. Track the clips in Delicious.com, annotate them and tag them by date (021709, for instance).

2. Either publish the Delicious RSS feed for that tag, by date, in a Wordpress blog (using a plugin) or

2a. Use Feedburner Buzzboost to accomplish the same. This is where we are at the moment.

This is working, somewhat. But as Delicious doesn't allow manual sorting of bookmarks within tags (right?), the order of the bookmarks is either by the order they were entered, or alphabetically. Because we'd like to sort the display by importance of clip, the only way I can see to do this is by prepending a number or letter (for the sort) to the headline.

So my question is this: Is there a better way? I'd prefer something we can cobble together, but if there's a product that does this, I'd look at that too.

Thanks for your help.

How Do I Submit an Event to Citysearch?

cscwallace — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 16:38:38 -0800

Does anyone know what the procedure is to submit events to Citysearch? I produce a few DJ shows and publicize them on several major city directory/event sites. I'd like to submit events to Citysearch. When I visit their Events page, I'm not able to find a link to provide event information. Anyone have experience w/ Citysearch and know how to do this? Thanks!

Help with Pitching a Book.

CollectiveMind — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 16:35:23 -0800

Something I've been involved in for several years has been getting a lot of publicity lately. And I've just been told that it is about to get some national publicity within the week. I've been working on the format for a non-fiction book on this subject for some time because I think it could be the formational guide for this growing genre. But I have no idea how to pitch the idea. Some experts say a checked and finished book proposal must be prepared and submitted to small presses, or agents or publishers. To not make it as polished as possible is risk the rookie slush pile. Others say a polished book proposal is much better since it's faster for the writer and the recipient. But because this topic has been getting so much publicity lately, and because the national exposure might prompt a wave of competitive ideas, I feel I need to send out a mass email to capture their attention first, even if the majority reject the query.

Does anybody with experience in the book publishing or marketing have a compromise between pitching a fully formed book proposal with sample chapters and a media plan, and an email saying "this is what I'm thinking about, and are your interested in working with me?" For me, the issue isn't who to pitch to over a long period of time. Instead, I know who I have to pitch to, but how should I pitch them in a short period of time? And how are the small presses, agents and publishers I pitch likely to respond? Is slow and steady best?

1. Rare photo 2. ??? 3. Profit!

kimdog — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 06:55:33 -0800

Found a rare photo in an out-of-print edition of a book. How can we make the most of it? We've found a reprint of a daguerreotype of a famous incident in an out of print book. The image is long out of copyright and the original photo is thought to be lost. However, accepted knowledge of this subject (including scholars on the topic) state that there is only one know photo of the incident (and it's different than the one we've found). So basically, through some fluke, this second photo has been forgotten. How can we make some money off this situation? Once the photo is publicized, it's likely that other copies of the book will be found, and the photo will be reproduced by other people. We've considered setting up a website with ad revenue (because we think it could get a lot of hits in the short term), but what would be the easiest way to do this? Or is there something better we haven't thought of?

What are some good blogs written by Californians about humanitarian projects in the area?

cmyers — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 09:56:00 -0800

What are some good blogs written by Californians about humanitarian projects in the area? Doctors without Borders is planning a tour of its outdoor educational exhibit A Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and San Diego in October and November. A friend of mine is working for their public-relations department and is looking for California-area blogs to publicize the tour. Know of any?

Self Promotion for Artists 101

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:22:58 -0800

I need a crash course in Self Promotion for Artists 101. Help! I'm a writer working at trying to do fun, innovative stuff with online storytelling. I'm not out to make money with the work I'm doing right now -- my paid projects do OK by me. I'm just looking to explore the edges of narrative and maybe polish my reputation a little.

But... how do I find an audience for this work? The paid projects, well, there are press releases and big media interest because of their sponsors. But I've got no idea how to promote my own stuff, or at least not in a completely classless way, which would actively work against any good karma I'm trying to build up in the first place.

Help me, AskMe. Tell me how to make my work easy to find for the people who don't yet know how badly they want to see it.

(I'm posting anonymously because I don't want this question to seem like a bald attempt to grab attention for my work in an inappropriate venue. That would strike me as one of the way-bad-mojo ways of doing it.)

Elvis' Giant Cheque

meech — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:36:02 -0800

Was Elvis Presley ever presented with a giant cheque [check]? If he was, what were the circumstances?

to pitch or be pitched?

arielmeadow — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 11:36:15 -0800

Is it better publicity to write an article, or to be a quoted expert in someone else's article? I'm often caught between wanting to pitch magazines and newspapers with ideas inspired by projects I'm working on, and finding myself contacted by journalists who've pitched similar ideas want to interview me and write about my projects.

Most current example: I wrote a book about nontraditional weddings. I recently spoke to a journalist who wants to pitch a quirky wedding story to the NY Times, and wants to quote me in the article. "That is, unless YOU want to pitch your own story to them," she said, knowing that I'm a writer myself.

This got me to thinking about what's of better value to me as an author: being published in the NYTimes, or being written about in the NYTimes?

I've pitched stories about my projects in the past, and it's always felt weird to write a piece about some lifestyle trend ... that, um, I'm totally into and feel like I should disclose that I'm totally biased and can't be objective about.

So, fellow authors, journalists, PR folks, entrepreneurs, etc: what's better for business: to pitch or be pitched?

How to write one press release for many events?

bubukaba — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 09:58:37 -0800

How can I write a good press release for an entire calendar of events? (As opposed to just a single event) I've just become publicity chair of a film society, and I have very little publicity experience. I've never written a press release before.

We show one or two movies every night of each semester, with a couple of special events (director visits, sneak previews, and so on) thrown in. Each week night is devoted to a series (Hitchcock on Wednesdays, Sexploitation on Thursdays, etc.)

So, there's a lot to fit into a press release.

Traditionally we've sent out one press release at the beginning of the quarter announcing the entire calendar - a prewritten article sort of thing enthusing about the calendar and highlighting some of the interesting things we're showing, with our whole calendar tacked onto the end. I'm fairly sure that the main purpose of this release is to get our calendar into local events listings - as far as I know we've rarely gotten actual press coverage. Sometimes we've issued releases for special events, but not always.

My impulse is to do things a little differently, but I'm not sure whether to trust my impulses.

I think it might be better to make one release for each of the five series, one for each special event, and one announcing the calendar in more bare-bones form.

This new calendar release would, instead of a prewritten article thing, have several bullet-pointed calendar highlights, our location, admission prices, etc, followed by the calendar itself.

Is it okay to use bullet points, or do reporters really prefer to dig through a prewritten article? (I suppose that has the benefit of letting them crib from what's written.)

Is it okay/effective for one organization to send out six different press releases at one time (as I'd do if I followed my plan of one per series, one for the calendar)?

Ridiculous publicity stunts

913 — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:17:09 -0800

Give me a ridiculous publicity stunt. It's for a website that I'm promoting. I want something ridiculous. I'm looking for a, "woah, did that just happen" reaction.

I would like this stunt to take place physically in the city. Other than that, it's all game. I won't mention what kind of website it is because the stunt doesn't have to be related.

Note: I asked a similar question about a year ago. It's been a while, MeFi has grown, I thought I could ask again.

Thanks

Have chance to become rich, successful, and famous, need publicist and other help!

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 06:01:33 -0800

Have chance to become rich, successful, and famous, need publicist and other help! I need help not blowing this exciting opportunity, please. i do not know how to amass the team of people I need to make the most of my fame potential. (yes, I know this sounds ridiculous).

An upcoming event in my life is going to be splashed across the news nation and perhaps world wide.

Basically, two years ago I was given over six figures to create something fabulously useful but extraordinarily controversial and I successfully did.

Now, everything is about to come to fruition and the media is going to latch onto it for a moment at least, and I am terrified that this opportunity is going to slip by without me taking full advantage of it.

Twice before, the same thing happened: step 1) great thing happens or I do great thing; step 2) national media buzz for a week or two; step 3) i don't know what really to do and it all simmers down to nothing.

I would like step 3) to turn into a long-standing career and standing in the media nationwide. I recognize that I need a team (publicist, marketer, etc.) to do this. Have you brilliant askmefites any idea who or how to amass this?

Pluses - I have a few thousand to throw into this endeavor, and a great resume and wonderful, respected supporters both in business and as respected media individuals.

Minuses - twice before my spotlight has darkened, because I was too young, or too self-absorbed, or because I just didn't understand that my earning power in this field is fifteen times it is if I go back to my "normal" world.

Basically, I'm willing to put it all on the line to make this work. I doubt I'll get another chance like this. If it works, I can bank on making a bunch of money, being in the spotlight, doing what I love. If it doesn't, back to the grind for me!

Any help? Do you know specific companies, branding people, or publicists? Of course, I'm asking my cohorts and the people I work for/with, but I can't let them completely know that I'm the inner mediawhore that I really am, or I risk losing their support, you know?

Any help or ideas welcome - I'll check back here but you can privately message me at metafilterfan@gmail.com ! TIA!

Recommendations for press release distribution and writing?

Ookseer — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:17:46 -0800

I'm looking for recommendations for press release distribution and writing. I've got a new business (site) launch coming up, and "open for business" isn't the biggest of headline grabbers I would still like to send out a release.

I'm most interested in recommendations for distributors since I don't have the knowledge to separate the ones that reporters pay attention to from the ones they put in the circular file. If possible I'm looking for general national (US) distribution for $1K or less.

I could write the release myself, but if anyone has any good recommendations for this, I'd be glad to outsource this task to someone qualified.

Scheduling application for church publicity??

clh — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 15:30:39 -0800

I am looking for a scheduling app to help me keep track of what events get publicized when, and where. I work at a large-ish church, with lots going on. When someone has an event coming up, there are several avenues to publicize it. 1) a short blurb in our printed weekend bulletin, 2) bigger events may warrant a full-insert in the bulletin, 3) a verbal announcement during church, 4) a "slide" on the screens shown before church starts, 5) a manned table on the patio before and after church, 6) one of three highlight positions on our website, 7) a spot in our weekly email newsletter, oh yeah 8) a short video during church. All of this needs to be scheduled and kept track of. We need to have views of: what publicity is "Event A" getting / what is being advertised in each venue this week vs. next week.

Everyone with an event would like to have all eight advertising options, but they can't. Some of the options are more limited than others (i.e. only two verbal announcements per week). People usually don't know what advertising they are getting until it happens (or does not happen.) And, we struggle to keep track of it all and not let anything fall through the cracks.

A web-based app would be great. Different people handle different venues, and people could see what they are getting. We haven't found anything so far. MS Project looks more complicated than we need. Something must exist that can help us!!!

How can I promote my site in an interesting way while still keeping Mr. Wallet happy?

913 — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:40:44 -0800

Help me think of a publicity stunt for my website. About three months ago I launched a site aimed towards the college crowd (it's in the profile) and I've been tinkering with ideas on how to get the word out. Of course, being a student I'm not too high up there in the funding department and seeing as I'm not interested in making monetary gain off the site, I can't persuade myself to spend much money on advertising it. So naturally, I'm a huge fan of guerrilla marketing and publicity stunts and have had a moderate success with them in the past.

Within the first month of the launch, I convinced a friend to put on an over sized chicken suit and walk around downtown holding a sign with the site's address. The response from everyone in the city was great (it was on Boxing Day) and brought the media out and the site had a one min. spot on the local news as well as a mention on a local radio station.

The chicken suit got some attention but it was far from original. I'm thinking about doing another stunt (possibly aimed more towards the college crowd) and would love some ideas to get the ball rolling. I'm a huge fan of the unconventional but any ideas will suffice.

Thanks MeFi :)

This is not a movie review.

bingo — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 18:28:32 -0800

I've seen many movie review sites that host, or link to, images from the movies. Assuming the site didn't get permission, is this legal? What if you're selling ads on the review site, or charging users a premium to view it? Or is there some way of definitively identifying a photo as a publicity still, meant to be used by anyone who isn't diluting the brand? Obviously, this extends beyond movies, to books and other products.

PR gurus, please hope me!

mwhybark — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 09:30:55 -0800

Press release distribution services! About six years ago, I coordinated the development and delivery of weekly press releases for my then-employer. I recall looking at and evaluating a variety of online distribution services before eventually settling on a service that was either free or very inexpensive. [+] I had good luck with the service, scoring national media guest shots for my boss on a couple of occasions. Sadly, I can't recall for the life of me what I used. Poking around online it looks as if the rise of SEO has made it really hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. However, it looks like businesswire.com and prnewswire.com are the services with the greatest reach and credibility. Alas, they do not publish their rates. PRNewsire also appears to have gone on a consolidation binge; additionally, it is commonly offerred via third-party sites as a distribution channel, as seen at PR Web Soooo....

A) Is there a decent free or low-cost release distribution service with both credibility and reach?

B) What are the unpublished rates for the services cited above?

How do I help someone achieve justice after he was attacked at gunpoint by the Sheriff's buddy?

univac — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 19:38:43 -0800

A close relative was attacked, beaten and threatened at gunpoint, and the Sheriff and DA are protecting the attacker. How do we use litigation and/or publicity to force accountability? A close relative was attacked, beaten and threatened at gunpoint in a very rural area. Help was sought from passersby, one of whom turned out to be the attacker's wife (so much for witnesses). When the Sheriff was summoned, he stated that he had known the attacker for ages, and that it was lucky he didn't shoot. The attacker was not arrested. I don't want to give too much detail here, but trust me when I say the attack was unprovoked. Now, the DA refuses to prosecute and Sheriff's department is not inclined to discipline the Sheriff.

I have confirmed that the victim wishes to pursue this, and not let it drop. My family is at a loss as to what to do. There was a meeting with a civil attorney, but he was not interested in the case.

I'd like to know how to make sure that the attacker is prosecuted and that the Sheriff is held accountable. I am interested in pursuing recourse through the legal process, but I am also interested in bringing public attention to the situation in order to pressure the relevant agencies to do the right thing.

Publicity Help For a New Holiday

andoatnp — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 13:10:28 -0800

How do I get absurd amount of ethical, reasonably cheap publicity for a new holiday (and by extension) the website that publicizes said holiday? Does anyone have any creative ideas? Internet based is a plus. [more inside] So me and some friends are starting a holiday. Think of it like Secretary's Day, but less gimmicky and less commercial. There are around 17 million people that are the target population that are celebrated by this holiday, and we're hoping that their family (tens of millions of people) will get them presents and send them cards, etc.

So for the 17 million people who get a new holiday and presents and what not, they all seem very happy about the idea,we just need to get the word out to all of them. [By the way, this happen to be a population where I would guess 95% plus have easy, reliable internet access.]

So are there any good stunts/gimmicks etc. to spread the word about this? Any suggestions must be legal and not bound to get us a ton of bad publicity. Cheap (500 or less) or free is a big plus, although ideas can take a lot of time or work. There don't seem to be any good resources that explain how to create a holiday, but getting publicity seems to be the only important step, and we've love some advice on how to do that.

How do I get names/emails of media contacts?

jbickers — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 07:42:11 -0800

What is a good way for a grassroots organization to build a mailing list of media contacts? I serve on the board of directors of a non-profit agency, and I'm trying to steer us toward our first effort at reaching out to media. At my day job, I'm on the receiving end of publicity emails/calls, so I know that there are lists out there of newspaper/magazine reporters, radio hosts, TV interviewers, etc.

But we're a non-profit, and don't have the money to buy such a list. Is anyone aware of any free lists of media contacts? Just looking for names and email addresses, so that we can start issuing press releases, without having to pay for a service like PR Newswire (which is prohibitively expensive).

Pitchers! Purdy pitchers! Get yer pitchers here!

polyglot — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:51:11 -0800

How do I get my photographs into galleries and/or sell prints? I'm a landscape photographer who, after prodding from impressed friends (perhaps not the most impartial people), has decided to go somewhat commercial and sell prints of some of my better photos. I've given and sold a number of prints at cost to friends & colleagues but never something to a member of the public for profit.

I put together a website (dig through my profile, I ain't posting it here for the self-link police to jump on) for the purpose of selling prints and printed up a batch of 6x4" flyers that I've been handing out to likely businesses. Problem is - no one seems particularly interested in parting with cash. I realise I'm never going to make a living from this, but I'd like to sell maybe a handful of prints a year for the purpose of funding new photographic toys. I know it can be done and there are oodles of people who apparently manage to sell prints over the internet.

So: how do I get exposure? How do I get in front of corporate types who'd like to put a 2.5 metre print on their foyer wall? How do I get something in a gallery? As background, I'm an engineer rather than your prototypical artsy type so I have no idea how galleries really operate wrt selection of material, sales, commission, wallspace rental, whatever. I don't even seem to be able to find a decent photographic gallery in my city of 10⁶ people that would contain the sort of images I have.

(If the answer is "your photos suck", that's OK: if it's true, I need to hear it. Likewise if you think I'm asking too much but keep in mind that they're large, high resolution and take a reasonable amount of time and skill to create).

Is it ethical or acceptable to email writers and request to be written about?

Izzmeister — Mon, 29 May 2006 22:17:31 -0800

Other then releasing press releases, how would I get my business/myself interviewed or written about? Other then releasing press releases, how would I get my business/myself interviewed or written about?

Is it considered unnacceptable or against company standards to email a writer from a publication, or a freelance writer, and Ask to be written about?

I know that issuing press releases can translate into the company being written about in relevant articles. my question is, what alternate methods are used and acceptable?

Looking for publicity opportunities for my companies

Zinger — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 08:24:42 -0800

I'm looking for quality business awards or publicity opportunities - things I can apply for that might bring some more recognition to some of the businesses that I'm involved in. I'm looking for things like awards, chances for being featured in a magazine, busisness rankings, web site awards, etc., that I can enter to bring more publicity to my company.

I'm looking for *quality* opportunities here, so things like
http://www.webbyawards.com/ and not 'Bob Rates This A Five Star Website!' :)

Other examples of what types of things/quality I'm looking for:

http://www.profitguide.com/profit100/
http://www.fastcompany.com/fast50_06/

Opportunities do not necessarily have to be Internet related, although most of the stuff I'm involved with is web related.

Oh, and one other thing - I'm based in Canada, so probably can't apply for things that are exclusively American opportunities. I'll leave it at that for details... someone here might come up with an idea I hadn't thought of...