Expert Interview 2 – Joan Stewart  

             http://www.publicityhound.com 

What are the best ways to get the media to cover your special event?

Make the event fun and different. If you want the TV cameras there, you must have these three ingredients: people, color and motion. Please, no talking heads.  And no news conferences. The media HATE news conferences.

How can a Small Business create its own unique holiday?

 By going to Chase’s Calendar of Events:

  http://tinyurl.com/y224lm  

and submitting it.  

Is it affordable for a Small Business to have a TV show on a cable station community access channel?

 Not only is it affordable, it’s free! You will either pay a very small amount of money to rent the camera equipment, or they will shoot the program for you. Air time is always free. You can have one show or an entire series of shows. Another option is leased access cable, which lets you lease air time all over the country. You can have your own national TV show in, say, a dozen smaller markets, for less than $400 a month.

What are some of the best ways to publicize a Small Business?

  These are the best ways:

--Blog

--Send an email  “tip of the week” or email newsletters to your target audience, but only to people that have given you permission to email them. Absolutely no spamming. And do not waste money buying email lists.

--Write articles for online article directories, other people’s

newsletters and your local newspapers.

--Read my weekly ezine, “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week.” Its chock full of ideas each week.

--Write direct-to-consumer press releases and post them online.

Sign up for my free email tutorial at:

http://www.PublicityHound.com/pressreleasetips/art.htm  

How can a Small Business owner brand their business cheaply?

-Branding isn’t about cute names or logos or websites or fancy stationery. Branding is all about creating a feeling in the hearts and minds of people who do business with you so they return to you again and again. For me, that means delivering top-quality products and services, offering outstanding customer service, and always under promising and over delivering. 

How can donating products or services help Small Business get publicity?

--Your can write press releases about your own donations. Or better yet, if you’re donating to a nonprofit, for example, many of these organizations already have good relationships with the media and will help you generate publicity for your donation.

Be creative with your donation. If you donate, for example, one day of mentoring with a local high school student who wants to be an entrepreneur, you can pitch the story to your local newspaper and perhaps a reporter might want to sit in and listen to you giving advice to your protégé