Cindy Ratzlaff

Bestselling author, award winning brand marketing and social media pro, Cindy Ratzlaff, creates sales driving campaigns for authors, books and publishers.

Facebook for Authors

By Cindy Ratzlaff

Facebook has emerged as a driving strategic tool for authors to use in marketing and promoting their own book or books. This platform is free in terms of initial investment, but very expensive in terms of time. An author, or any other business person for that matter, can make costly errors in setting up and using their Facebook presence IF they do not understand the nuances of Facebook. Here are my top recommendations for authors, speakers, solopreneurs and other business people to consider as they prepare to enter the social media fray.

Facebook is effectively, in addition to being a micro-blogging and communication platform, a search engine. One of the reasons an author needs to be on Facebook is to increase his or her visibility and therefore, help readers find his/her work. Facebook provides three different types of pages to choose from and each has rules, advantages and disadvantages.

Personal Profile
A personal profile is, by Facebook’s own terms of use, a page for people to list themselves by their real name and interact with friends of their choosing. People who connect to a personal profile are referred to as “Friends.” It is against Facebook’s rules to set up a personal profile for your business, your book, your dog or a dead saint. Facebook can, if it chooses, close fraudulent profiles and all the work you’ve done to create that page will be lost along with all of your friends. I recommend that you set up a personal profile, adhering to all of the rules before setting up a Facebook Fan Page (see below). Having a personal profile and setting up a Facebook page from that profile will allow authors to utilize more custom application on the Fan Page. A Fan Page can be created without first creating a personal profile, but doing so limits the customization options available. If the Facebook rules don’t convince you to do this properly, there’s another good reason. A personal profile can only accept 5,000 people as friends. At 5,001, new friends will start receiving a message from Facebook stating that you are over your friend limit and cannot accept any new friends. Trust me and set up your personal profile first.

Facebook Fan Page

Fan Pages are best option that Facebook provides for creating a branded social media presence for you the writer.

This is best option that Facebook provides for creating a branded social media presence for you the writer, for your book, and for your career. People who connect to a Facebook Fan Page must click the “Like” button in order to receive updates from the Page. Once they “Like” a page, they are still referred to by most people as Fans. Because you followed my advice and set up a personal profile first, you can now create custom tabs for your Facebook Fan Page such as “About the Book,” “More about the Author,” “Tour Schedule,” or whatever custom information you’d like to make available to fans. Facebook allows a Fan Page to have an unlimited number of Fans. This is good news for an author or speaker who is working to amass the largest possible list of followers and spread the word about a new book, appearance or project far and wide. Authors can even create an opt-in box and invite fans to subscribe to an e-newsletter, all from a Facebook Fan Page. Facebook Fan Pages are indexed by Google and therefore, they increase an author’s search engine ranking by putting out new, original content regularly.

Facebook Groups
People who join a Facebook Group are called Members. One advantage of Facebook Groups is that they can be made public or kept private. At this writing Facebook Groups are not indexed by Google and that is the single biggest reason for author’s to create a Fan Page over a Group. Unlike pages, groups allow to send out “bulk invites” so you can invite all your friends to join the group. With Pages, you’ll have to invite people individually. Groups are good for spreading a message or brand name through viral marketing, because any group member can also send bulk invites to his or her complete list of friends. But, and this is a big but, Groups are not indexed by search engines yet and that is my number one reason for recommending Pages over Groups to promote an author and his or her work.

I hope this look at Facebook options helps authors, speakers and entrepreneurs start right and maximize their promotional efforts on Facebook. I strongly recommend that all authors create profiles and pages for their work and look forward to answering any questions about the use of Facebook to promote books.

5 Overlooked Visibility Strategies to Improve Your Social Currency

By Cindy Ratzlaff

Some very simple visibility strategies are overlooked and forgotten but can go a long way to jump starting your social currency.  An important visibility strategy for your brand is to continually add reliable, actionable information to your website and social media sites so that body of writing published under your name attracts the kind of potential customers who are seeking exactly what you offer.

5 simple things everyone can do to create brand visibility and increase social currency.

Pretend that you are the customer and you’re looking for a vendor, speaker, author or someone who can create or implement something that serves your immediate needs.  Most likely you’ll head to Google or Bing or YouTube.  What words do you put into that search box to find what you’re look for–you and your company?  Those are the keywords that you’re going to want to include in the messages you are creating online.

Creating an active presence on line reinforces your status as a trusted thought leader in your area of expertise and increases the chances that customers will find you.  Because we all learn in different ways, it’s a good idea to put out your message in a variety of formats so as to engage the widest possible audience.

Let’s look at five great visibility strategies to improve your social currency, engage different consumers, help people find you and keep you on the cutting edge of marketing.

Video Marketing: Adding video to your website, Facebook page, YouTube Channel and even Twitter page is a great way to increase engagement with your fans, followers and potential customers.  These video messages do not have to be long, nor do they need to be professionally produced.  A Flip HD Mino video camera for under $200 can take short, high quality video and loading it to your social media sites is a snap.  Take the Brand New Brand You pledge and add one video to one of your social media sites this week.  Send us a link and we’ll take a look and share your message with our followers.

Audio Marketing: Change it up and make your sites interesting for your customers and clients.  Post a short audio message about some upcoming event or a quick tip.  You can do this right from your phone to your Facebook page with apps audioboo.fm.  Do you have a sale or a special? Share your enthusiasm in your own voice.  Doing this accomplishes two things.  First, it let’s your followers know you are a real person.  Second, it embues the information with urgency and importance.

Photos: Facebook is one of the largest photo sharing sites in the world.  People love to look at photos on line.  Do you have a particularly great looking store window, special display, or attractive entry to your office?  Share a photo and invite people in.

Guest Blog: Write an article in your area of expertise for other blogs to run.  Target blogs that speak to your desired customer base and offer to write and informative article that will be of interest to their fans and position you as an expert.  A recent guest blog I did about my new book on Oprah.com turned into a a 400% increase in website traffic and 1,800 new unique visitors.

Comment: This is an overlooked and underused strategy.  Follow and read blogs from industry leaders.  When you read something you enjoy, leave a comment along with your website link.  But don’t just leave a “great blog,” comment.  Add something to the conversation.  Reference a blog you’ve written that adds new insights.  Suggest additional resources to learn more on the topic.  In other words, be a thought leader by providing value to the conversation.  Do this regularly.  Become a regular reader and comment often.

These are just a few quick tips for building your platform as a thought leader in your industry and increasing your social currency.  What are you doing to create conversations about you?

Is Your Brand Message Clear? | *Twitter Lists* Know

By Cindy Ratzlaff

If you are struggling to nail down your keywords and floundering to solidify your core brand message, there is a free brand development tool available to you right now.  The tool polls millions of users and aggregates a succinct list of key words and phrases that reflect exactly how your potential client or customer sees you.  You can access the tool easily, at no cost to you and use the information to effectively shape future brand messages.

What is this amazing tool?  It’s Twitter.  Within a short time of being an active Twitter user, you’ll begin to see the word “Lists” in the upper right hand corner of your Twitter profile, right next to Followers and Following.  Lists is a clickable link.  Click on it and you’ll see how your Followers have categorized you.  You’ll see their Twitter name and what they named the list to which they added your Twitter name.

The bulk of the lists I’ve been added to seem to be Authors, Marketing, Social Media, Peeps to Follow.  I’m pleased that my brand message has been consistent and clear.  If the lists had been Rockstar, Pastry Chefs, travel agents; then I’d have had some work to do in focusing my brand message to attract the following I desire.

Once you check Twitter Lists to see how your followers perceive your brand, take some time to interact with those Twitter followers who took the time to put you on a list.  Go to the profiles of two or three each day.  Read a few of their most recent posts.  Comment, add value and interact.  The chances are good that if they’re following you, then their followers might also be interested in you and you in them.

Twitter Lists are a great way to filter the noise of Twitter and find engaged, interested people who want to hear what you have to say.  Those lists are creating conversations about you!

How to Create an RSS Feed for Any Twitter List

By Cindy Ratzlaff

Each individual post on Twitter has a unique URL. You can find it by mousing over the date and time stamp on the lower left hand corner of a tweet. These are Google indexed and therefore every tweet you post is read by Google as fresh, unique content and elevates your social currency and searchability. If no other Twitter uses intrigue you, this one should. Using Twitter helps make you and your brand more visible. The more visible your brand is, the more you are perceived as an authority in your field. Using Twitter to reinforce your brand messages and identity is an excellent mind share strategy.

Many business owners say they just don’t always know what to tweet about. I advise them to tweet about events they’re hosting, new products they’re launching, tips and strategies that will be useful to people in their industry and in general to talk to their customer on Twitter exactly the way they would in person. But even the most prolific among us can sometimes be at a loss for ideas. I’ve shared before that I subscribe to several great blogs and use some of those posts as tips to tweet out to my followers.

Another great idea comes from Mana Ionescu via Twitip. Because Tweets are short, they are often very similar to article headlines so an RSS feed may be the right solution for those who want to subscribe to tweets alongside their news and blogs in a reader such as Google Reader. Twitter has an RSS solution only for your Favorites, so here is a simple way to turn any Twitter list into an RSS feed for your favorite reader.

Follow these steps for a simple and quick solution:

  1. Create a list of people you want to follow closely; people who regularly put out quality content that you often share with your friends and followers. For example I follow the Forbes.com list of the Top 30 Women Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter. You can create your own custom list or access an existing list. If you haven’t created a list before, look in the right column of your Twitter account and click “New list.” You’ll be prompted to name the list and then add peeps to the list.
  2. Copy URL of list. Once you are viewing the list, copy the URL from your browser window.
  3. Go to this simple set up page aptly called Twitterlist2RSS and follow the easy two step process to generate an RSS feed URL.
  4. Copy the generated RSS URL from your browser window.
  5. Paste that RSS URL into your favorite reader to create a subscription.

You’ll be able to browse your own custom list of influential tweets along side your favorite blogs and news headlines and have an unlimited source of great information to share with your friends and followers. By passing along valuable tips and techniques, you become a trusted resource and create conversations about you.

Social Media Marketing and Brand Goals

By Cindy Ratzlaff

Social media marketing is the new shiny toy. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a really useful shiny new toy. It’s a rapidly evolving, fun newcomer that is grabbing all the headlines, adding bells and whistles every week…sometimes every day. So while every author, company, brand or entrepreneur needs to have a social media marketing strategy and be able to innovate and implement great new campaigns, it can’t pull focus from your primary goals. It’s a method to help you reach your goals, not the end goal itself.

Make sure that your social media marketing efforts serve your overall brand goals. As you set or review your brand goals, ask yourself:

  1. What unique product or service do I offer?
  2. What “need” does my service or product fulfill?
  3. Where would potential customers seek solutions for fulfilling that “need?”
  4. What 5-7 words describe the “why to buy” for my product or service?
  5. What is my complete marketing strategy for announcing and promoting this product?
  6. What are my expectations for income from this product?
  7. Does this product reflect all of my brand messages and core values?

After you’ve identified your unique offer and created your targeted, keyword rich messages, make social media outreach via your business Facebook page and Twiter account a regular but measured part of your everyday business tasks. Just 10-15 minutes in the morning and perhaps another 10-15 minutes at the end of the day or at midday can help you keep your brand message in front of potential customers.

Here are five things I do every morning:

  1. Facebook Profile: Check in-box and respond as need, accept or decline invitations to events and pages, check my “key contacts” stream briefly for any interesting updates, news, innovations I want to share with my friends.
  2. Facebook Fan Page: Briefly check to see if any comments or questions need clarifying and post either a link to a news article or blog post that I want to share with my fans or post a tip, strategy or idea. That post goes out automatically to my Twitter as well.
  3. Twitter: Check @replies to see if anyone has questions. Thank folks who retweet or #FF me. Check DM’s and respond as necessary. Check one of my key lists and peruse the stream to see if any of these industry movers and shakers has something I’d like to retweet or read or share with my followers.
  4. Blog: Post to my blog, which will then auto post to my Facebook Fan Page and my Twitter account.

Periodically throughout the day, if I find something worth sharing I pop over to Hootsuite, which I keep open on a tab on my browser. I post the link, write a quick post and pre-schedule it to go to one or more accounts later that afternoon.

I spend no more than 10-15 minutes each day glancing through my Google reader which aggregates about 20 blogs I find most relevant to my business and I grab a link and schedule a post from one or more of those on Hootsuite.

Once a week, I spend a full day writing blog posts, making videos and planning additional marketing strategies for my business.

The rest of my time I spend on clients, writing, and creating new opportunities and outlets for my work. For every product, my social media marketing strategy is just one portion of my overall marketing plan. My marketing strategies including speaking engagements, webinars and teleseminars, e-newsletters, targeted advertising, guest blogging, in-person networking and media interviews.

What are your non-social media marketing plans? How will you create conversations about YOU this year?

Book Publicity | The Top Ten Things Book Publicists Want Authors to Know

By Cindy Ratzlaff

You’ve handed in your manuscript, completed all the edits and now your job is done. You’re thinking that now it’s up to your publisher’s publicity machine to make your book a success. Wrong.

In most houses that publicity machine has been downsized while the number of books needing publicity and promotion has stayed the same. What’s left is a hard-working group of thoughtful people who truly love books; who would spend all the time in the world to get the word out if it was humanly possible; and who need an author’s cooperation, participation and good-cheer now more than ever before. Remember that these overworked people want your book to succeed.

How does one get to be the author whose publicist tells others: “this author was great to work with,” “the author knew the right people and really helped me get the book into important hands” and I would walk through hot coals for my author?”

It’s essential that authors view themselves as a partner in the publishing process and that includes the marketing and publicity portions of the book publishing cycle. To that end, I’ve enlisted veteran book publicist John G. Ekizian to join me in creating this list of The Top Ten Things Book Publicists Want Authors to Know.

Before you turn over the responsibility for communicating your book’s message to the world, remember.

1. You are a brand.

2. Your book is your first product.

3. Your reputation is on the line and if your first product doesn’t succeed, launching new products or books will be much harder.

4. Therefore, you must be a full partner in promoting your book, finding and alerting potential readers and in general, creating conversations about YOU.

Here’s what can you do?

1. Mobilize your friends, family and fans. They really do want to help—but you have to tell them how they can be most helpful. Start with your immediate fan base, however small. Give them early copies of your book or galleys—or even a PDF of your manuscript. Ask them to read it and give you their feedback. Ask them to write a short review and to post it on Amazon.com, BN.com and Borders.com. Tell them not to gush, but to relate why the book moved or informed them. Ask them if you can post their review to your website. Ask them to give their opinion on your Facebook Fan Page, on Twitter and on LinkedIn. Start close to home and create buzz that can build.

2. Influence the influencers: Create a list of the top 25 people in your area of expertise or who write in the same field or genre as you do. Find, read and subscribe to their blogs. Comment whenever they write something that interests you. Become visible, let them know you’re a fan, offer them new content from you whenever appropriate, such as being a guest blogger. You should also consider finding and following them on Twitter and Facebook. Again, interact with them. Pass their blogs, tweets and posts on to others. In other words, hang out on line with people you admire and who you would love to have read your work. After establishing an online relationship, you may have an opportunity to offer them an early galley or ask them to give you a quote. But first you need to be a part of their community and genuinely engaged with them.

3. Find your natural audience: The biggest marketing mistake most people make in book promotion is to assume that everyone will be interested in their book. Books that sell usually begin selling to people who are really interested in the topic. Want to sell a cookbook? Go after the person who has a shelf full of them. Who really cares about your topic? Think about it this way. You were attracted enough to this topic to write a book. Where would you go to learn about you? Would you find the kind of information in your book on CNN? Then that’s your natural audience and you and your publicist should target CNN. Are you writing about romance and mystery? Then maybe CNN may not for you. Every author we’ve ever worked with believes their book is right for Oprah. Not all books are right for Oprah. Watch the shows, see what kinds of guests they book and then make sure your publicist knows which shows most often present the subject matter most similar to your book.

4. Facebook Fan Page: Please create a Facebook Fan Page for yourself. Every author needs one. Name it for yourself, the author. You might call it John G. Ekizian | Author, Speaker. Use your name, then the upward slash and a two to three word qualifier. Those keywords will be useful in identifying you to potential friends and fans and will be Google searchable. Then create a tab with the name of your book. You can add video interviews or author chats that you create yourself. You can use the Events application to invite fans to your personal appearances. You can post news and information about reviews as they come in. This is a wonderfully rich and free tool. Please don’t overlook it.

5. Advertising versus publicizing: Every author wishes that their publisher would place full page ads in the New York Times Book Review for their book. Realistically the more that $75,000 (conservatively) that these types of ads cost isn’t a good investment for your publisher in terms of return on investment. In other words, they’re not recoup $75,000 in books sales from that ad. Publicity is a better investment of marketing dollars because a television appearance, a national publication, a radio tour or other major media can reach far more people than a one-time advertisement in one publication.

6. Webinars and teleseminars: These are the new virtual author tour and can help you reach hundreds and perhaps thousands of potential readers without ever leaving home. A webinar allows participants to view your computer screen and hear you talk as you show either a slide presentation or demonstrate something online. Many webinar hosts also allow for the audience to see you at times during the presentation. Teleseminars are via phone and are audio only but listeners can ask questions via a type-in pod. Both can be very interactive and allow people who might otherwise have not been able to “meet” you, come and hear you talk about your book.

7. Your 30 second pitch: When your publicist meets with national television producers and editors at major publications, he or she has 30 seconds to sell you and your book as a potential story or segment. Help your publicist hone your message down to a short, potent sound byte. Does your book “save lives through new research that proves sound waves are harming children,” or does your book show us “a brand new way to lose weight while you sleep.” These are silly but you get the idea. Think in headlines.

8. Op-Eds: Writing original opinion page articles can be a very effective way to increase an author’s visibility and by association help promote your book. The piece cannot be about your book but must be an opinion about some current affairs topic in which you might be considered a thought leader. For example, if you’ve written a book on World War II, you might write an opinion page article on the lessons learned or overlooked from World War II as we escalate troops in Afghanistan. You’re by-line would include Author of, the title your book. You may not mention your book in the article but positioning yourself as an expert will help you publicist book more media for you. You are sharing your ideas and information because you’re an expert. This part of a visibility strategy.

9. Create Your A List: Pick 10 media targets that you feel are right for your book and learn everything you can about them. Watch the shows, read the magazines and newspapers. Write down the name of the reporter or host who most often seems to be reporting on topics that are similar to your book topic. Share this list with your publicist who rarely has time to watch this much TV. He or she can really use your research skills. This is an excellent way for you to partner with your publicist.

10. Radio: Please don’t forget radio. Both broadcast and internet radio are great ways to reach people who might like your book. Blog Talk Radio and other internet radio platforms are reaching large numbers of people, are archived and accessible on demand and live forever on the internet. Please do not turn down internet radio interview opportunities because you don’t think they are worthy of your time. In fact, while your publicist is working hard on connecting with traditional media, why not reach out via Twitter and Facebook and put together your own Blog Talk Radio tour. Just start talking about your book, offering yourself for interviews, searching and following anyone with a Blog Talk Radio show and engaging with them on your topic.

BONUS TIP: All placements are not equal. You need to get your idea across or the placement is pointless. Working with a talented publicist can help you hone your marketing message into several succinct sound bytes that will be picked up and repeated both online and off to increase your outreach and brand visibility.

Publicity creates conversations about YOU. Be a full partner in making that happen to give your book the best possible opportunity to reach an enthusiastic reading audience.

How to add a “Follow Me on Twitter” Button to your Facebook Profile and Fan Page

By Cindy Ratzlaff

Note:  Since the publication of this article in January of 2009, Facebook has discontinued their support of FBML.  Facebook no longer allows you to add an FBML box to the left hand side of your Fan Page.

Take your Social Media Image Seriously

Your Facebook® profile and your Facebook® Fan Page are two key social media touch-points for connecting with potential clients. Creating your on-line funnels in a variety of social mediums helps people find you and clearly understand the service you provide. Now, the yellow pages will do the same thing but social mediums let customers engage with you first and then decide, based on your attitude, the comments they read from your friends and followers and the value you provide in your various postings, whether or not they want to take the next step and become your customer. They can literally shadow you while deciding. That’s why it’s so critical for you to take your social media image seriously.

The Key Ingredients to your Social Media Strategy

Because your potential customer might be exploring numerous social media sites, you’ll want to be on at least Twitter, Facebook, Linked In and I highly recommend that you have a blog. If you already have your own website that becomes your home base. If you don’t, you’re blog can serve that purpose.

Now the number one rule of any great marketing campaign is to make sure that every consumer touch-point is integrated with every other one. All of your social media sites should link to each other, carry a similar look and message all while speaking to the consumer in the voice most appropriate for that medium. For example, you’ll communicate in short 120 character* bits on Twitter, longer more detailed thoughts will be incorporated into your blog and your Facebook profile and fan pages might be more personal and intimate. Yet an integrated marketing strategy means that the core values and the key message points will be the same, albeit communicated differently.

Helping Customers Find, Follow and Friend You

If you were the owner of a Deli, you wouldn’t hide the checkout counter. You’d make it very easy to find. Shoppers would never have to guess where to find you, talk with you and pay you. It’s the same with social media sites. Be user friendly. Make it easy for someone who finds and follows you on one site to find and friend you on another.

I recently installed a “Follow me on Twitter” button on my Facebook Profile and my Facebook Fan Pages. This is a nice visual addition to your profile or page and there are a lot of designers and programmers out there offering free buttons. I happen to love http://twitbuttons.com for it’s user-friendly interface. You simply enter your Twitter name in the URL box at the top of the page and all the HTML code in every Twitter Button box is changed, automatically, to customize the button for your twitter page.

So here are the instructions for adding a “Follow me on Twitter” button to your Facebook Page.

  1. Log onto your Facebook Page and go to the applications link on the bottom left hand side of your screen.
  2. Click “Browse applications and the find ” “Extended info” application. Add that to your profile. Then click the edit settings link to the right of the app in the list of apps you’ve downloaded. Where it says “Tab” click “add.”
  3. Then go to http://twitbuttons.com and pick out your favorite button. Be sure to enter your twitter name in the black space above the buttons. This will automatically enter your correct twitter name link to the code under each twitter button image.
  4. Copy the code of the button you like and go back to Facebook to the Applications list (link on bottom left of page).
  5. Open the Extended info application by clicking directly on that link. A window will pop up for you to paste your code.
  6. Paste the code and click the “Add to Profile” button on the upper right of that page.
  7. Then click the Save changes button below the code and return to your page. You can change the look of your button at anytime by returning to these instructions and choosing a new button from the website I mentioned or another you may find. You can design your own if you’re skilled with HTML too.

Transparency is Currency in Social Media

I recommend adding your “Follow Me” button or link to all of your social media sites and using the custom options on your Twitter background to provide the URL’s for your Facebook, Linked In and Blog to your Twitter followers. You get the picture. The name of the game is to be visible. For some inspiring examples of people who are doing this well, check out these social media pros. Each one of these people are helping potential clients find them and utilizing a slightly different style. Take a look and make a plan to help yourself stand out in the crowd.

If You Liked What You Read Here, Please Join Me

*Always try to keep your tweets to 120 characters so that people can Re-tweet your post. When they re-tweet, some of the character spaces are taken up with their Twitter name. At 120 characters you’ll be re-tweet-friendly.

Marketing 101: 7 Low-Cost Publicity Ideas For Small Business

By Cindy Ratzlaff

You don’t need to break the bank to garner good publicity for your business. If you’re willing to commit a little time and ingenuity, you can promote your company effectively and build your reputation as a business leader.

  1. Write an advice article. This is a great way to promote your expertise and your business, while providing added value for local newspapers. A car dealer could write a feature titled “5 Ways to Conserve Gas even if You Don’t Own a Hybrid.” A flooring storeowner might educate readers about new, renewable options such as bamboo. The owner of a closet organizing company could discuss the growing trend in home wine cellars. Real Estate people could write “8 Essential Home Repairs to do Before You list your Home.” Remember that your knowledge is valuable to others. Share it and gain visability.
  2. Run contests or sweepstakes. Here’s a way to bring in new customers, and the prizes don’t need to be expensive. Doctors might provide free cholesterol screenings during heart health month. A floral shop owner might consider a June Bridal Bouquet sweepstakes or giveaway. A personal consultation from a life coach or a resume coach is sure to attract attention now. A bakery might give away a dozen cookes a month for a year. You don’t have to give away a free meal on Oprah to create buzz for your business in your community. People hear about your business and sample your product through contests and giveaways. Winners can become your best brand evangelists, telling countless others about you.
  3. Create a sale or promotion with a twist: The Ben & Jerry’s in Gainesville won a national award, and free publicity in local newspapers, for it’s “BJs in Your PJs” promotion: Every Sunday night for four hours they offered discounted ice cream sundaes and shakes to anyone who came in wearing pajamas. All those people standing outside their store in their PJs was a great attention-getter.
  4. Sponsor events: Let a local charity use your business location for an event or offer your products or services as fund-raising prizes. Sponsor or host a walk, a race, a bake sale, a food and wine tasting, a lecture by a well-known speaker–all of these could garner press attention. Having your company name and logo front and center in community events will build awareness and engender positive feelings about you and your business.
  5. Speak Out: Organizations ranging from the Rotary Club to local businesses, colleges, charities and professional men and women’s groups are looking for interesting speakers. Volunteer a few times and soon you could develop a reputation as the “go-to” person for entertaining talks on subjects such as “five things we can do right now to protect our environment,” (a great way to promote a lawn service company’s chemical-free care package) or “how to stage a house for a quick sale” (Realtors, you know these tips by heart) or “using social media to connect with customers” (on trend and invaluable to any customer-centric business).
  6. Serve as an expert: The media is always looking for people who can speak knowledgably on issues. If you’re an expert in your field, let the radio stations and newspapers know. Write an opinion page (Op Ed) feature on a topic that can educate people and submit it to your local paper, magazine or website. Write letters to the editors when you have something to add to a conversation in the news. Tax preparers can talk about the tax benefits of installing solar equipment. A doctor can interpret the latest scientific study for the lay person. Make yourself known. Become a thought leader in your community.
  7. Be prolific. The key to inexpensive publicity is to engage with your community. You can promote yourself and your business by being caring, knowledgeable and accessible. By sharing your expertise, you’ll develop a passionate base of customers who will refer you to their friends. After all, word-of-mouth is really the Holy Grail of publicity and promotion.

*I originally published the majority of this essay in The North Central Florida Business Report. Thanks to Kevin Ireland for permission to reissue here.

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