I know you’re excited about your business, your product and your services. You want publicity. But is it appropriate to give a reporter a sample, a gift or even a straight up bribe to get them to feature you in a news story? Yes and no. There’s actually a fine line to walk there.

On the one hand, you want to win the reporter over. And who doesn’t like things for free? Here’s the rub. Most reporters, credible reporters that is, will feel uncomfortable if given a gift or sample that seems extravagant. As far as gifts go most reporters have a dollar limit on what they will except. Most reporters I know will only accept something if the value is less than $20. In some cases, less than that even. Let me give you some examples.

Someone sent a very expensive bottle of wine to a reporter in the newsroom. The reporter let it sit on their desk for a few years, because they didn’t feel right drinking it, were to afraid to offend the person to give it back and so there it sat on the desk across from me, taunting me with it’s ruby red glow under that tightly wrapped cork … I digress. Another time, a reporter received a box of high-end chocolates, she ended up sharing them with the office because the only other option in her mind was to return them and reporters are a hungry bunch and convinced her to spread the wealth so she wouldn’t feel like she was accepting the gift. The point is, in both cases there was no story written. It got too weird.

On the other hand, say you are pitching a magazine which you know does extravagant layouts and features, then you may want to offer them something in order to get the feel for what they are writing about. Let me give you an example. I was writing for an upscale magazine. My editor sent me to profile a fancy, schmanzy inn and restaurant. This obviously was something that came with lots of pictures and really justified having a free meal, massage and stay at the inn to give readers an idea of how blissful it is to stay there. If I was writing a business story on the place I probably wouldn’t have needed that kind of pampering.

So you really have to know the market you are pitching. If you are a winery and pitching a story about your wines, you may want to offer tastings of your best wines, maybe during the interview send a bottle home with the reporter to try out. But if you make toys it is inappropriate to send a great box of chocolates or restaurant certificate along with your press release hoping to get coverage. That’s straight up a bribe.

In short, if your product is something that needs to be experienced in order for the reporter to tell the story that’s one thing, if it is a small token gift after the fact, that’s OK too, but stay away from adding a little sumthin’ sumthin’ with your press release to increase your chances of getting published.

It’s here! Looking for a step by step guide to starting a business account on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube? I’ve compiled a guide for small businesses wanted to get their accounts going on their own. It’s called Twitter Success and you can buy it here www.booklocker.com/books/4147.html

This guide will walk you through setting up your small business account in Twitter, Facebook and YouTube and how to integrate those three media so that you can update all three instantly. You’ll also learn how to build up a fan or follower base, what to post and when and basic navigational skill

I grappled with the content  in this book and  decided to make target this specifically to the beginner so there’s no confusion, just a clear cut path to getting started. For those of you who’ve nailed the basics, watch out for my next series that covers the advanced stuff.

For now check out Twitter Success at BookLocker.com www.booklocker.com/books/4147.html

Much Success!

Businesses are jumping on the wings of Twitter because its shown to be enormously useful for attracting the attention of customers and for building your brand. But can Twitter work for Realtors?

Unequivocally, yes. When you start a relationship with your clients you should ask how much they rely on emails and whether they are on Twitter or Facebook. Tell your clients that you like to be able to get them data on a prospective house ASAP and that you use these tools to help you do that.

Here’s how you put Twitter to work: You are a busy real estate agent on caravan and you are previewing the perfect house for one of your buyers. You are excited, and you know your buyer will be elated. But you are on caravan and won’t be back to the office for another hour.

You can grab a picture of the front of the house on your phone and include the photo link in a Tweet highlighting why the house is a winner. For example: “123 Main St. This one has a lap pool!” Include the picture link and send it. Not only will your client see the house if they have Twitter but so will any other clients.

In standard email you would have to send out a mass email to all of your contacts, which can make your client feel like just one of many. But on Twitter you can broadcast the same message and everyone keeps their egos in tact.

Beach Betty PR can help your real estate agents get started on setting up Twitter and Facebook accounts. We have team members with both real estate broker and journalism experience. Contact us at beachbettypr@verizon.net or call Shelly at (805) 757-7772.

Many businesses believe that the only type of print media attention comes in the form of a news reporter doing a fabulous story on their business or product. There are lots of tiny little ways to get attention that no one ever thinks about. They are called briefs and they are in almost every section of a newspaper or magazine. There are arts briefs, news briefs, business briefs, get the picture? These are known in the industry as space fillers because they are small newsy bites that can be shortened or eliminated depending on space requirements for news and advertising.

Reporters are always looking for fodder for their briefs sections. The easiest way to break into a newspaper is via their business briefs section. What qualifies here? If you hire a new employee write up a quick bio and send, along with a headshot to the newspaper’s business editor. It’s a good idea to check out the business section first and see what this area is called, because it’s not always called “Briefs.” Sometimes they have a clever name for it like “Movers and Shakers” or something. You can do this when someone gets promoted or you open a second store or office.

This is not the place to advertise sales, however. On the other hand say you are partnering with a nonprofit and for every XYZ product you sell through the next 60 days you will donate 50 percent to the nonprofit with the goal of raising $XXXX for their new gym/shelter/scholarship program. Then that would be something to publish.

When in doubt just send it in. The worst that can happen is you won’t get published. Then again you may just save some time crunched editor’s day and get a nice little mention of your name at the same time.

If you haven’t heard by now, where have you been? With a crackdown on information dissemination in Iran people have used Twitter to spread information to the world. What was initially a tool for people to chat and be social has shown it can have serious power. Can Twitter work for you?

By the way, welcome to our new diggs. Drop us a line.