When you’re coming out with a new product, you need publicity. Before the product is finished, you should start creating a list of media and bloggers to pitch.

This works even if you don’t have a product but just want to be recognized as an expert on a particular topic.

Let’s say you’re writing a book or you have a product about Facebook marketing.

1. Set up Google alerts for the topic. In this case, “Facebook marketing” and related terms.

2. Every time you read an article from your Google alert, leave a comment. Share your opinion or further insight. Do it right away and you’ll be one of the first comments. I do this and always sign my comments with @Newspapergrl. This starts a relationship with the writer – it gets me on their radar.

3. Search Twitter for the terms too (to see who tweets about the topic). Add them to a Twitter list so you can track them all in one place. Add the people who tweet about Facebook marketing and have a strong following to your media list. Retweet and comment on their tweets.

This is one of my favorite methods for finding case studies and new articles too. Repeat step 2.

4. Use Google to see who writes about a topic on a particular media outlet you want to be published in. For example, you want to get in the New York Times. Type site:newyorktimes.com “Facebook” into Google to see who has written about Facebook.

5. Pin your favorite articles to Pinterest. This is why I added a graphic to this post – to make it pinnable. The reason to add your favorite articles to Pinterest is it makes it very easy to find and browse them plus it can help you rank for the topic in Google (further establishing you as an expert.) Summarize the main points in the description. Now I need to add a Pinterest button to my blog! Here’s my collection of resources for businesses on Pinterest.

Use these techniques to assemble a media list. Then when you’re ready to pitch a journalist of blogger, try this method to personalize your email. Hopefully they will recognize your name and you’ll already be seen as an expert on the topic – perfect for an interview or commentary.

Continue this process and you will build an expanding reach in the topic you’re following.

Do you have any online pr tips to share?

Related articles

• 92 Ways to Get (and Maximize) Press Coverage (seomoz.org)
• How to Take Your PR Pitches to the Next Level (mashable.com)
• 25 Tips from 25 PR Experts (ereleases.com)

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, here’s my story.

Since getting married I’ve had to switch my crushes from men to other things. Like ideas, bloggers, or web sites.

My biggest crush was first for WordPress, until they deleted my blog. Like most first loves it’s hard to recover from. I have never gotten over it, even though I still like Matt.

My next big crush was Twitter. It was so bad my friend Chris threatened to stop reading my blog if I didn’t stop writing about it.

Various crushes have come and gone but my new love is Pinterest. The visual search engine (sure that part needs some work but Pinterest is a baby). It’s not all gushy love though. There’s data to support my adoration. Pinterest is sending more traffic to web sites than YouTube, LinkedIn and Google Plus COMBINED.

Why do I love Pinterest?

I love Pinterest because it conveys emotion so quickly. And marketers know if you can get a person’s heart then they will likely buy from you. They are forever trying to get you to fall in love. Telling you beautiful stories and showing you gorgeous pictures.

Much like all social networks Pinterest has a personality, but the face you see is formed by who you choose to follow. Like the beginning of new social networks a lot of people don’t get the fascination. Until they see how it applies to them. Men will likely see it as a place for women. There is even a male version of Pinterest called Gentlemint (anyone who says men are more visual than women ought to compare the sites, it’s awful). This social network is fun and uncomplicated (like a summer fling).

Here’s what it’s like to rejected when you go to pin something on Pinterest – and really why you should make your blog posts and content pinnable. You’ll get this:

Pinterest is so easy. Even your mom who can’t figure out how to do Facebook is on it. All day. It’s going so mainstream that I overheard 2 twenty-something women at the gym talking about a swim suit they found on Pinterest (as they were sharing magazine photos). I clicked through and it’s sold out on Nordstrom.com.

Pinterest is both a marketer’s dream and a dreamer’s play land.

It’s so easy to get happily lost in it. Oh, and while you’re there, will you pin this blog post?

Related articles

• Pinterest’s Obvious Secret (forbes.com)
• Pinterest Tips for Web Marketers Infographic (webmarketingtherapy.com)
• The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Pinterest for Marketing (hubspot.com)

So you want to get some media coverage? Easy right?

Read on!

First, PR can cost. A lot. I love this quote:

“Executing on a PR push is time intensive, and demanding of finesse. It’s why PR firms demand upwards of $15,000/month, with no guarantee on output.” -SEOMoz

And just because you hire that big PR firm with a big name on the east coast doesn’t mean you’ll get great results. However, the exposure that can result from hiring the right PR firm for you can totally pay off, even if you do spend $15k a month.

They are not kidding about the time and finesse required. Finesse meaning creativity and thinking of angles and the right approach. But simply landing placement isn’t enough, it all depends on the type of business you have and your goals. You have to get the right fit. More businesses have wasted money on an expensive high-powered PR firm and gotten very little to show for it because they weren’t a good fit and their work got assigned to a junior staff member. Also, good PR is a partnership (in other words, even if you hire someone you have to be an active participant).

This weekend I was up until 3am to get a 5+ hour block of time to flesh out a 6-month PR plan.  That’s before landing the job or getting paid – that’s just to get the job. I loved the plan and so does the client, but I’m the work has just begun. So it goes that PR is one of the more stressful professions.

Unfortunately your best plans can go awry – you can’t control the media. Just like you can’t control a search engine. That’s why I steer towards online PR where there are not such hard deadlines, tight budgets and overworked/overstressed journalists. But I must admit it’s a bit more exciting to see your client on the front page of the newspaper or on TV than sitting at your computer typing!

If you really want to save money and in the beginning before you’re ready for the big guns, you’ll have to learn and do PR yourself. Some people are great at doing their own PR (I love this story) and they enjoy it. They are the exception.

Now to SEOMoz for 5 steps to bootstrapping your PR efforts. It’s a fun post with great advice even though I’m not used to reading about PR on SEOMoz. Thank you for writing it Andrew Dumont.

Related articles

• Never Hire a Bad Billionaire PR Client (theprcoach.com)
• Top 10 Myths about Publicity and Public Relations (redpenofdoom.com)

Kathy Dalton is my friend on Twitter and I’ve started getting to know her in real life too. She founded Little Stinker which makes natural skin care products for moms and babies.

Her blog is http://www.danishmama.com I asked her to share how she has gotten great PR results using HARO (helpareporter.com) and hiring a PR consultant.

You’ll see getting into the Associated Press got her a ton of additional coverage. I couldn’t find any press releases but she did post this one on her blog.

One tip I learned from her and that she always practices is to respond quickly to requests. She sent this the same day I asked. Hopefully we can get some review copies of her book and host my first giveaway on this blog!

Now for the interview:

Q: Do you have a specific method to finding relevant pitches on HARO?

A: I don’t have a specific method for finding relevant HARO posts. I just get the emails and read through them. I know some people set filters, but I haven’t done that. I actually like reading throughout them because more often than not I find something that can help out a friend.

Q: What kind of press coverage have you gotten for your business?

A: Associated Press: I announced we were expecting in an interview for the Babies documentary and was interviewed by the associated press.

It got picked up few more places:
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=10690048, http://wtop.com/?nid=114&sid=1960806

http://www.thestate.com/2010/05/19/1293890/parents-turning-babies-into-babys.html

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/05/19/2762270/parents-turning-babies-into-babys.html

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/19/1637322/parents-turning-babies-into-babys.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100519/ap_on_en_mo/us_fea_parenting_babies_movie_1

Parenting Magazine: Article on Sibling Rivalry http://www.parenting.com/article/dealing-sibling-rivalry

March Magazine: Page 22-23 http://marchmagazineonline.com/2011/05/01/mayjune-2011/

iVillage: http://www.ivillage.com/kids-favorite-stuffed-animals-toys-and-blankies/6-b-357535#357509

Parenting: April 2012

3. Who did you work with for your PR?
I hired Heather Allard for 6 months. She is an expert in the baby and toddler industry. She contacted all the major outlets and we got an editorial piece in American Baby Magazine (here’s a video of me opening magazine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMTAF3hBjZ4)

Q: What advice would you give small businesses?

A: Learn as much as you can. If you’re launching a business public relations can become your very best friend.

Q: What’s next?

A: I was just promoted to CEO for my hard work as CMO at Little Stinker USA. I’m in the process of writing a book “Word of Mom: How to get Moms Raving about your Brand” and consulting for Simply the Sweet Life Magazine.

Congrats to Kathy and thank you for taking the time to share your success story with us. Good luck on the new book!

I’ve always said that when it comes to marketing the internet is an open book – and it’s even searchable. Since it’s almost Christmas most retailers are running holiday campaigns with social media.

Learn from watching what others do and then modify their ideas to fit your needs. Note the landing pages, the rules, design, and apps they use. Look at how they titled the contest. Try out contests just to see how easy (or not) they are to enter and share with others.

Here a few ideas to get you started.

1. Run a Holiday Themed Facebook Photo Contest
This is a classic Facebook contest idea (see the article I wrote for American Express OPEN forum for more ideas). Gap has the “12 Days of Joy” c0ntest. Fans are asked to “Submit a photo of your most fun, cool, sweet, or in any way interesting holiday tradition.” They will pick 12 winners to will get $500 Gap gift cards. They use OfferPop to run their campaign.

2. Start a Movement with a Cause-Related Social Campaign
MoveOn is queen of cause-related email marketing. I love their new campaign for Christmas called, “Love Makes a Family.”  If you know me you know it doesn’t matter if you like the industry or agree with the politics – you can still learn from them.

4. Ask your Fans to Make a Christmas Wish List (with your products)
I like this campaign because it is sure to boost sales. If you’re going to the trouble of making a list of what you want to buy, you may as well go ahead and click “checkout.” Amazon should do something like this for their wish lists (mine is pretty long if you are wondering what to get me for Christmas this year!).

You could also make that wish list into a competition and you could win your wish list. L’Occitane en Provence: “Wish List Competition” http://on.fb.me/uSPQkB (OfferPop powered)

5. Start a Gift Guide or Recommendation List
You can go basic just by publishing a PDF file or web site full of gift ideas, or you can go fancy. The grandmama of them all is Etsy’s Gift Ideas for Facebook Friends.  It culls through your Facebook friends, looks at their profiles and makes recommendations of homemade gifts you could buy for them based on their tastes. Brilliant!

6. Twelve or 25 Days of Christmas Promotions
Talbots is doing a 12 Days of Christmas sweepstakes. Each day there’s a new product they are giving  away and you get extra entries for fans. Great way to subtly suggest products for their customers to buy with a nice picture of the day’s product on their Facebook landing page. They also use OfferPop’s referral app.

7. A B2B Christmas

It may seem easier to promote consumer products, but you can get into the holidays even if you’re B2B. Red Rock Media did a great job on this with their 12 tips of Christmas. Each day is a new tip on their blog. Anyone could do this. I could give 12 tips of a PR Christmas. If you are a design firm you could do 12 days of Christmas designs and showcase your past work (and promote people to order cards from you – this combined with SEO could really help you out every Christmas).

My Gift to You
Alright, your turn. Any ideas or examples you’ve seen of excellent holiday social media marketing? This is your chance to share (and promote your good work or business too). As my gift to you, if your example is good I’ll tweet it to over 9,000 people on Twitter. Just leave a prewriten tweet with a bit.ly in your comment that I can use or edit.

Poytner just posted a list of the top 20 news web sites by traffic.

Yahoo News is #1. Google News doesn’t make the top 20.  So if you want to post your news on a top site, use a news distribution service that reaches Yahoo News (a few free press release sites do, PRWeb does, the major newswires like PR Newswire and Business Wire do, etc).

Data from ComScore, mashed up by Poynter

If you can’t get onto one of these sites directly, see what blogs or web sites are included in Yahoo News and pitch them (guest post, etc).  Or pitch reporters writing for these publications.  I’m actually surprised to see Examiner in the top 20.

I love seeing innovative social media campaigns or just successful ones.  NIVEA held a Facebook contest to ring in the new year and promote their lip care products. Though they have a larger budget than most of us have (they are sponsoring the ball drop in New York for the 3rd time in a row), you can still be inspired.

I track social media campaigns so that I can use elements of them in my campaigns. The Internet is an open book (and I’m its student).

Before I get started, Happy New Year and thanks for reading! My resolution is to blog weekly for all 2011. Please send ideas, offers of guest posts, etc. to help!

You can create Facebook or social media contests around holidays to publicize your business. I’ve broken down the steps of this one below.

NOTE: There is a lot of planning, programming, graphics and content to be created or to pay someone to create. Even if you pay someone to do the work, you have to carefully plan it to explain the pieces to outsource (in other words it’s not free unless you have a staff or know how). Expect to spend hours (like this post took me to write). I usually underestimate how much time this takes and how much coordination.

Name of Contest: Kiss the One you Love

Tip: come up with a name for your contest and a story.

Nivea tied into the tradition of kissing at midnight on New Year’s. To do that they focused on couples who live apart. They asked people to submit their stories about their long distance relationship. Two winning couples will be flown to New York City to watch the ball drop and kiss in the new year. They’ll want to have soft lips for the big kiss so Nivea is giving everyone tips and products to assist.

They chose the winners then asked fans to pick from the two for a crowd favorite. There were giveaways counting down to the new year from the 26th to the 31st. Prizes included autographed books (from the Rancic’s), CDs (from the performer) and tickets to a show taping in NYC.

They also have a coupon for $2 off a lip care product. This gave them a lot of play on coupon sites who not only posted about it but put it on Facebook (and probably tweeted about it too).

They chose a celebrity couple (Bill and Giuliana Rancic) to kick off and represent the campaign.

Contest launch
1. Facebook App
They have a custom Facebook app for the contest. It has the description, rules, pictures of the entries and voting. See http://www.facebook.com/NIVEAusa?v=app_167800556586606

Here’s the home page of the app:

There was a page with the contest details, rules and contact. Notice that every page has sharing features

They don’t seem to be active on Twitter except setting up a contest hashtag #niveakiss

So if you click on the share button it now says:

NIVEA’s Kiss the One You Love Contest winners have been named. Now it’s time to vote for your Fan Favorite! #niveakiss http://t.co/zVAKvYH

Here’s how it looks on Facebook (just a link to the contest app) and you fill in the details.

2. Promote the contest on  your home page.
Their home page has a rotating image of the celebrity couple, live streaming of the event and links to their product. http://www.niveausa.com

They updated their fans
A lot of clients ask for help on this step – what do we say and how often? I’d ask more questions and repost more but again, they have a huge network and brand recognition. Notice that their fans are doing most of the posts. That’s what you want. Don’t try to own the conversation on your page, but aim to start, build and then be a part of it.

December 2, 2010 they announced the contest and linked to the app to enter:

Then they updated fans 4 days later with a reminder:

4 days later this update:

then on December 14, 4 days after that another reminder (not going to post screenshot). On December 20 they reminded people it was the last day to enter and that the contest ended at 11:59PM Eastern time. That’s when entries stopped but voting continued until the 23rd.

Next day on December 21st they said:

Nivea Vote for your favorite couple on NIVEA’s Kiss the One You Love Contest. Help them ring in 2011 with an unforgettable midnight kiss in the middle of Times Square. Voting ends 12/23, so hurry!

December 26, they said

Nivea New Years Eve is almost here, and to help us count down we will be awarding prizes for each day of a sweepstakes! Starting tomorrow, we’ll be providing you with a link to register each day for a chance to win a different prize for every day as we count down to 2011.

Interestingly, they didn’t post about the winners or talk about the contest again. They switched to promoting giveaways.

Length of contest
Stories had to be submitted by December 20 at 11:59 pm ET
Voting Period ended December 23 at 11:59 pm ET.
Winners judged by an expert panel announced December 28
Fan voting once a day until December 31st
Fan vote winner announced January 1st

Contest press release
Don’t forget to let the media know by sending out a press release. Nivea sent out a press release on PRNewswire
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bill-and-giuliana-rancic-to-ring-in-new-years-eve-2011-with-nivea-112001954.html

Lessons Learned/Suggestions
Perhaps the biggest issue is that they did not reward their fans for voting. They already chose the winners who get no additional benefit from being named a favorite. The contest page says:

*No prizes will be awarded to the designated “Crowd Favorite” couple.

They could have participated more on Twitter but as far as I can tell they are not on Twitter. According to TweetReach their was only 1 tweet (though I’m not sure how accurate or long-term this measurement is).

However, the celebrities like Taio Cruz with over 190,000 followers pushing the event itself on Twitter:

Encouraged and rewarded check-ins at the event on Foursquare.

Hopefully they will post many pictures from the event on Facebook and/or on Flickr or new threat Instagram

Done more to promote the winning couples on their Facebook Wall and thanked fans for voting and spreading the word. Sometimes you have so much going on that it’s tough to keep on top of it all. For example, some fans were angry about emails that came after a giveaway was over. It happens.

They could’ve gotten some serious SEO value with some tweaking.

Results

I wish I knew how this impacted sales or other figures but they got 30,000 responses, millions of people were reached through Twitter, and several articles were written about their efforts including:
Mashable http://mashable.com/2010/12/28/nivea-promotion/
ClickZ: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/1930122/nivea-facebook-facilitate-kisses
Promo Magazine: http://promomagazine.com/news/nivea-facebook-contest-1207/

There you have it, a walk through of a successful social media campaign.

This list was inspired by Peter Shankman’s life and business ventures. You’ll need some guts, some geek, and some spirit if you’re the skydiver type.

Channel Peter’s spirit of spontaneity and adventure with these 10 gifts that will get you out of your comfort zone.

1. Thrill Ride at Fighter Combat, www.FighterCombat.com

If you’re like Peter, you don’t need much more stuff, you want experiences (adventure gifts as I’d call it). Anyone that might decide to compete in an Ironman Triathlon just might be unhinged enough for the Fighter Combat adventures provided by Fighter Combat in Phoenix. With a former military pilot in the cockpit, you step into the Extra 300L, the highest certified aerobatic plane in the world. As if flying in this setting isn’t enough, you get to experience the thrills of loop the loops, inverted flying, tail slides, and serious speed.

A truly unforgettable experience. But you won’t have to rely on memory alone to recapture your flight. All missions are recorded (to share on Facebook of course). Perhaps you could have one of those parachute guys drop the gift certificate on Christmas morning.

2. Delorean 500 GB USB Flash Drive

If you have a child of the 80s on your list, geeky is cool. So is this USB flash drive modeled after the car in Back to the Future. It’s a Delorean stainless steel model with movable parts. The door and the hood open. Show them how you roll online. Just $250 (and if these gifts are above your budget, keep reading).

3. A copy of Peter’s book: Can We Do That!? Outrageous PR Stunts That Work–And Why Your Company Needs Them

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. This book takes a hilarious look at the fascinating history of PR stunts on the fringe. Some of them work, some of them don’t. Shankman tells you why, and how your company can know exactly how to implement strategies that are a little more…Out There.

4. Peter’s soon-to-be-released book (the day after Christmas) Customer Service: New Rules for a Social Media World

This book is all about making sure you’re covered when you jump into the social web – either by choice or by necessity. It tells you how to use social and viral technologies to supercharge customer service – and avoid disasters along the way. Because no one should jump without a chute.

5. Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.? Stopping the Roller Coaster When Someone You Love Has Attention Deficit Disorder

For those of us with adult ADD we see the world in our own way. Others may need some coaching. These books come highly recommended by people with ADD and who have made a career out of it. However, with a long title like this book’s, I’m not sure your ADD friend will actually get through it. So you read it and then bring up your findings in small chunks of information.

See also: You Mean I’m Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?!: The Classic Self-Help Book for Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder

6. The Ceepo Viper Bike

Thinking of competing in a triathlon? You’ll need to bike, swim, and run. For the biking leg, The Ceepo Viper ($4,800) provides a great mix of aerodynamics, comfort, and speed. This bike is built to develop leg strength and turn the biking leg of the triathlon into your strongest event.

7. Freestyle: Made Easy Swimming DVD

In the water you’ll be glad you picked up a copy of the Freestyle: Made Easy swimming DVD built for competitive swimmers in pools and open water, you’ll learn to coach yourself in the various strokes, breathing techniques, and greater efficiency. The only swimming DVD we know of that actually has raving fans!

8. Triathlon-Inspired Music

You need music as a soundtrack for your life: for your trips, your dives and your runs. This post has Peter’s list of triathlon inspiration music with a link to a spreadsheet of each song (how organized!). You’ll notice there’s a theme: jump! Yes, you don’t need perfection, you don’t need permission, you just have to go for it. If you’ve read Peter’s blog you’ll feel the triumph of that idea.

9. Waterproof MP3 Player

Now that you have the soundtrack, you have to make sure you protect your investment. While you’re in the water or in case you jump in bad weather, you might want to listen to your Mp3s on Peter’s preferred underwater player: Waterproof Music.

10. Giving back – Step outside your comfort zone

Peter is a success in large part because he is also a giver. His best gift is the gift of confidence that he inspires in other entrepreneurs. This Christmas, if you get a chance to give someone else a boost in confidence that helps them take a belated step towards a dream, please do it. If it takes the form of an outrageous PR stunt, all the better!

As you might know, I’m planning an event to bring Peter to speak in Utah in January (see below). To entertain everyone and for the press release, I’ve had to do some research about his life. This list comes out of that research and my fondness for Christmas-themed marketing.

Please help build the list of Peter Shankman-approved gifts in the comments section.

Related articles

• Peter Shankman is Coming to Town! (newspapergrl.com)

7-Eleven could be like any other convenience store — boring and predictable.  But they’re not. They are relevant, creative and fun. It all comes down to their PR. When I was researching companies for my book I was drawn to how 7-Eleven follows my PR philosophies. While mine are online, they translate well to both traditional and social media.

They create their own news, tie into current events and look for opportunities to “grease the wheels” when what they do captures national attention. I know 7-Eleven isn’t a sexy choice to love. I don’t see them as examples of social media success at all the conferences but I’m a big fan of their PR (along with Sharpie).

I wrote about how they predict election results by how many people bought their Slurpees in red cups compared to how many bought blue cups. They run their own campaign during every election and they can predict the outcomes with surprising certainty based on sales numbers.

At a press conference the day after the elections, President Obama made a funny crack about how he might hold a “Slurpee Summit” with the new Republican leadership. That set off a lot of free buzz and the company tried to make it a reality. Instead they gave free Slurpees at a DC location near the capitol and went on tour.

Note how much fun they had with this besides getting a story about it in USAToday (link above). I like this idea from the article:

“Strategy guru Mark Coopersmith says Slurpee should quickly go big in social media, nudging folks to have Slurpee Summits to solve problems.”

- USA Today: Obama’s ‘Slurpee Summit’ joke makes icy drink hot

My Thanksgiving had some ridiculous fighting about who was bringing what food and other trivial matters. I should’ve suggested we hold a Slurpee Summit and bought a round for everyone to try to lighten the mood (it all turned out well).

This is what I’d put in my book if I wrote it today – think of how you can start conversations and engage your community before, during and after a PR campaign.

Here’s how 7-Eleven did it. They ask a funny question:

Then they declared their own version of Black Friday: Purple Friday. They created a hashtag around it and got people into their store with a promise of free Slurpees. Some suggest it’s too cold and they should’ve offered free coffee in purple cups instead (you do lose a lot of sleep if you’re hitting all the sales).

You can create your own version of any holiday or current event too.

On Facebook they turned their profile picture purple:

7-Eleven (who is one of the few companies who might be better with a hypen in their Twitter name) got a TON of free coverage from both of these ideas. NPR, CBS News and lots of blogs picked up the story. Their stock even went up.

Let these campaigns from 7-Eleven inspire your creativity. What can you learn from these examples to promote your small business?

Related articles

• Slurpee Summit: 4 social media lessons (holykaw.alltop.com)
• GOOD RETURNS: 7-Eleven stock rises (politico.com)
• Black Friday Is Free Slurpee Day At 7-Eleven! (popcrunch.com)

What better way to see a movie about Facebook than with a few hundred of your Facebook friends?

This very fast social media campaign started with a question from my friend Sarah: want to go see The Social Network with me this weekend?  Then we decided to invite some of our other friends to join us.  This was the start of a successful PR and social media plan.

Here are the steps we took:

1. I Tweeted my idea.

We decided we should try to rent out a theater. Since theaters were posting their show times already so this had to happen fast. Megaplextheatres in Sandy, Utah saw my tweet and got me in touch with the right people, which is key because it’s tough to get through the showtime recordings.

I know people say Twitter doesn’t pay. The ROI of that tweet for that theater? About $2k.

2. Find a sponsor.

We needed a sponsor and pay for the theater. My first choice was OrangeSoda where I’m the social media specialist. They got exposure and good pr value with the local social media community. We got a theater.

3. Send out a press release.

We wrote and distributed a press release to local Utah media through Sarah’s web site Utah News Source. It focused on the story first – how we wanted to see this movie about Facebook with the social media community. Our friends. Then it talked about OrangeSoda the sponsor. Of course the company would like to see it be the other way around, but unfortunately it wasn’t a story about them or internet marketing. If you try to inject that story too much into the main one it will likely get edited out anyway. This caused some friction I later learned.

4. Social promote the event.

We tweeted about the movie and invited people to RSVP on Evite. We posted it as an event on Facebook. We emailed, blogged and otherwise got the word out. I DMed or @ messaged people on Twitter with local influence.

Note: Don’t use Evite again. No downloading of our list possible and one admin only.

4. Contact sponsors.

We got amazing support from sponsors like Megaplex and area businessses who donated gift cards, popcorn, gift certificates and more.  I donated some tshirts, books and CDs. OrangeSoda gave away a bike.

Spaghetti Mamas a restaurant right across the street from the theater hosted an after-show dinner. Note: They have a gluten-free portion of their menu and the chocolate brownie that is on that menu was the best part of the meal.

5. Put together a team and plan details.

The marketing team at OrangeSoda came through to help run the invite list and pre-show activities. We showed live tweets from the audience on the big screen with VisibleTweets and played a social media trivia game. Names for prizes were drawn from the tweets and by answering the questions. I missed this part entirely.

6. Assign someone to talk to the media.

We got great media coverage for this event. However, with some planning it could’ve been better. We could’ve had someone assigned to talk to the media and mapped out the key messages. However, you can’t control what the media asks, writes or shows.

Sarah owns Big Star Public Relations - so as the pro she spoke with the media beforehand and got me involved (a bit reluctantly) at the event itself. Fox 13 News in Salt Lake City covered the event on both live and taped TV.  Unfortunately the taped version which was best is not online. The recorded segment was on the 9 o’clock news and again the next morning.

We also got mentioned on KSL’s radio show and in a blog post by the Salt Lake Tribune’s film critic Sean Means the day before. The post had links to OrangeSoda’s web site and blog post about the showing.

I had a bad experience being on KSL (local TV show) and wanted to avoid being on TV again. Looking back I thought someone else would take over but no one did so I was on. I would’ve coached everyone to please say, “Local internet marketing company OrangeSoda” so that it wasn’t just “OrangeSoda” which to a new audience could be mistaken for a bottling company.

It’s also a good idea to have someone take pictures and someone to take video – that’s their only job. The pictures can then be put on Flickr and shared on the blog and other social sites. Video on YouTube. All this around a very hot topic (optimized with keywords). As far as I know this did not happen.

7. Have fun, evaluate results.

We had dozens of tweets (mentions) including from the president of the area Chamber of Commerce and Sean Means at the Tribune. OrangeSoda was mentioned several times in the media and got to reach new people in the local social media community. Not to mention the blog post, TV and radio visibility.

I compiled a report of the results which I believe were far greater than the spend. But I learned this is subjective based on what you wanted to get out of the event.

You cannot control what happens and you don’t even know to plan for some of it. Contrary to popular belief I’m not a PR person or even a media person. I’m an author, blogger and online marketer. I’m still learning what I write about when it comes to the PR part. Even though there is overlap, it’s not the same. I’m a student.

Most of all the campaign was fun, for me and for the people who came (though I didn’t get much sleep). And for the record, to me the most brilliant scenes of the movie was the story of Napster co-founder Sean Parker. With a glance at the screen he saw Facebook as a billion dollar idea. Then he inserted himself into the company as president and left with 7% of the company.

There’s the infamous words of Harvard president Larry Summers (head of the Dept. of Treasury under Clinton) who mocks the idea of Facebook making any money at all.

The worst is how the film made me hate Mark Zuckerberg and what a horrible friend he was who ultimately had no true friends. It was so detached and in his own head that he seemed like practically psychopathic.

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