Publicity booking service Radio Guest List has expanded its services to enable experts and authors even greater access to media outlets looking for their expertise.

Each day, Radio Guest List’s subscribers receive an e-mail with expert interview opportunities from real radio, TV, and podcast show producers interested in featuring expert guests and authors to interview “on the air.” The daily emails detail exactly the guests that each radio show, TV producer or Internet radio podcast host is looking to interview – all subscribers need to do is reply by email to those that are seeking guest experts or authors for their shows.

To help radio producers, TV bookers, and podcast hosts worldwide find the best radio guests to interview — experts, marketers, and authors can now also advertise on RadioGuestList.com as Featured Guest Experts.

As a Featured Guest Expert, the expertise, books, bio, and new products from Featured Experts will be promoted on the website — in addition, the featured profiles will be e-mailed to Radio Guest List’s worldwide e-mail list of radio show hosts, TV bookers, and podcast hosts.

For only $75, becoming a Featured Guest Expert on RadioGuestList.com is a cost-effective new online public relations strategy that can help raise an expert’s media profile to get free radio, TV, and podcast publicity interviews.

For more information, visit http://www.RadioGuestList.com.

Traditional public relations and what is generally referred to as online PR are definitely different animals.

When placing stories in the media, you want to highlight your product or service, but in order to be successful, you also want to educate, to enlighten and, if possible, entertain. Effective PR is not about fluff and hype. It is about pitching the media a strong story that educates, entertains, enlightens and it gives the readers, viewers or listeners information on a particular topic or field that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to.

Perhaps the most important aspect that differentiates public relations from other forms of marketing is that the stories go through the same scrutiny as other articles or segments that are featured in the news. They are vetted. There is verification (or at least there should be). There are editors and segment producers that assign and review stories before they run. This gives stories that appear in the media the validation and credibility of being the news. That gives them a trust value that a commercial or print ad can’t deliver. Most anyone with the money to pay for an ad can buy it. The phrasing and the copy is that of the company. That’s fine. It’s an important marketing approach that works, but appearing in an ad is very different than being featured in an editorial story. The trust value that comes from being featured in the news is immense.

Whereas there are some online magazines and news sites that work in the same way that the traditional media works, what is generally referred to as online PR is more akin to marketing or advertising than it is to traditional public relations. Generally, there is not third party verification. There is not a vetting process where an editor or producer fact checks or reviews the article or segment that has been submitted. What is referred to as online PR generally has to do with blogging, posting information on social media sites, email marketing campaigns, and online press release distribution.

Pitching bloggers is a process unique to the Internet; it is not quite the same as a pitch to a traditional media outlet, since what bloggers are looking for varies quite a bit. Your best bet is to study the blogs you’re submitting to. Don’t pitch the same way you would a media outlet. Bloggers are not looking for PR releases and media oriented pitches. They are looking for what interests them and their readers. Make your contact personal and don’t make it a pitch.

Sending out press releases through such distribution sites as PRWeb and PR Newswire is another online PR approach. Again, this is different from a traditional media approach. Here you are not so much looking to land mainstream media via your releases (if you are, rethink your strategy); this is primarily a tool to help your online ranking and visibility. When using this approach often the more releases you send out the better, which is the opposite approach you want to use in a traditional PR campaign. Be sure to map keywords to the press releases. Use appropriate keywords in the title, sub title and in the body copy of the release. If you’re going the online press release route, use social bookmark services such as furl.net and del.icio.us to archive your releases.

Although online PR can influence the media, its main function is to communicate with others on the net using various online sites and blogs. The most powerful approach is to meld traditional PR with an online marketing approach. Using this approach, you can utilize the validation of traditional PR and the global reach of online PR to create a marketing program that is much greater than the sum of its parts.

About the Author:
Anthony Mora is the President and CEO of Anthony Mora Communications, Inc. and author of Spin to Win. He specializes in public relations, image development, media training and Transformational Marketing. Visit him online at http://anthonymora.com.

Occasionally, media relations can be reactive-responding to calls and requests from the media regarding a story about your business.

To a large degree, coverage in the media is a powerful influence that provides a significant opportunity for exposure of your business. However, it is important that you have an effective plan of action in place to respond to any unsolicited media inquiries. Here are some tips to consider that can help to prepare you for this opportunity.

First and foremost, always be friendly and show interest in helping the media, whether you decide to be interviewed or not. Make sure you get the contact information of the reporter, and keep it in your records for future reference. Ask them if you may send them press releases in the future if they are relevant to their beat or publication.

Take good notes and get the basic facts about the request-name of reporter, name of media outlet, deadline, what the story is about, and if your company will be the only business featured. This will not only be valuable information to keep in your files, but you will also need this information when you add the interview or piece to your Media Room.

Resist the urge to process the request immediately. Prior to making a commitment, buy yourself some time, keeping the reporter’s deadline in mind. Tell the reporter that you will need to call back when you have more time to talk. This will allow you to appropriately assess the request and determine if it is a worthwhile opportunity.

If you decide to go ahead with the interview, take a moment and review your notes from the inquiry call so that you can organize your thoughts and practice what you want to communicate. Since the interview will be shared with a mass audience, it is important that you are well prepared. Be sure to provide the interviewer with several good “sound bytes” that reflect positively on you and your brand.

It is more preferable to have the reporter interview you at your place of business. As a result, your story will be more interesting when the reporter sees more visual effects. Be sure that the area in which you meet is tidy and organized, and that there is no sensitive information in plain view. Take special care to insure you will not be interrupted during your interview.

Give the reporter a quick tour of the business, briefly explaining any unique aspects of the company. Also, have a few of your employees ready in case the reporter wants to ask for their comments. Equally important, make sure that you have prepared your employees to speak beforehand.

During the interview process, conduct yourself in a friendly, relaxed and professional manner. Organize each answer in your mind before speaking and answer in brief, to-the-point statements. If there is a question you aren’t prepared to answer, simply tell the interviewer that you’ll need to do some further research into it, and that you will be happy to get back to them with an answer.

Finally, you may be misquoted, as this happens quite frequently. If the error is serious, write a letter to the newspaper’s editor-in-chief and to the reporter. Explain the error and offer clarification.

Effectively preparing for any media inquiries will ensure that the potential coverage will be well received and increase the exposure of your business.

About the Author:
Traci Hayner Vanover, aka The Promo Diva®, is a business consultant and publicity expert specializing in working with small businesses, authors and startups. Drawing on over twenty years experience in the fields of marketing and promotion, Traci’s blog, located at http://www.PromoDiva.com, blends helpful tips and resources with a healthy dose of humor. Traci is the founder and publisher of Everything Small Business Journal.

The most difficult thing about being a public relations professional is correcting a client’s perceptions about the field of PR itself.

PR people are depicted in the movies as “spin doctors,” stretching the truth or lying outright to present their clients in the best possible light.

That characterization couldn’t be further from the truth, and not because the portrayals are exaggerated and phony, but rather, because they proceed from the false assumption that a PR agent’s work is just about “selling” his client. The truth is, public relations is a marketing tool that is most effective when it isn’t trying to sell anything. At the heart and soul of any good PR effort is the desire to provide the news media with a story worth telling, plain and simple.

The hard truth that a PR agency has to help clients understand is that journalists and host don’t care about selling your book, your product, your story or your messages.

What they do care about is serving their viewers, listeners and readers with information and entertainment that keep them tuned in and paying attention. The more eyes and ears that are focused on their shows and publications means more advertising dollars for those organizations. And that is the “bottom line” in those industries.

Keeping that reality in mind, the best way to have successful interviews is to forget you’re selling something and work your marketing efforts around the goal of being the perfect radio guest. The key tactics to this strategy are:

Don’t position yourself as an author or executive. Instead, position yourself as an expert in your topic or your industry. Don’t try to sell anything other than your depth of knowledge and your ability to help answer key questions about some aspect of your topic that may have been in the news recently. For instance, a realtor can talk about escaping foreclosures. A stockbroker can talk about how to manage your own portfolio. Experts on just about any topic can look to the newspaper and find stories related to their expertise. Find that news story and shape your interview pitch around it, and include the fact that you have expertise in the field.

Make the host your friend. Talk candidly and openly about your topic in relationship to the current events surrounding it, and engage the host. In a recent interview, Lee Habeeb, co-creator of The Laura Ingraham Show and media coach to many of today’s top talk radio hosts, said, “The most important audience is the host. If you can engage the host, you will have engaged his audience. For example, the only reason most people gather around “The Savage Nation” is because they’re interested in what Michael Savage has to say and what he is interested in. So by proxy, you don’t have to worry about entertaining Michael’s audience; you simply have to engage and entertain Michael.”

Don’t sell. Stay on topic during the interview, and when appropriate, mention the free material on your web site that could benefit the host’s listeners. If you engage the host, give a great interview and offer helpful information, you don’t have to worry about selling anything. The host will do it for you. He’ll make sure his audience knows you’re an expert, he’ll give out your web site, he’ll mention the name of your book or he’ll talk about the value of your product. He’ll do the promotion for you.

Have a web site that does more than sell your product. If you are an author, provide free “tips articles” that explain your topic or your viewpoint in an informational manner. If you’re selling a product, create free reports or articles for your site that lay out the problem your product solves, again, in an educational tone.

How does this help you promote your book or your products?

Simple – one of the primary points of sale for almost every industry today is the Internet. Your web site is your virtual storefront or sales team, and companies pay big money for search engine marketing ads that are designed to drive traffic to your site. With your free report, you can drive radio listeners to your site in a non-commercial way that doesn’t lead them to believe you are selling anything. All it does is make you look smart. The host, tired of people using their shows to promote themselves, appreciates you not sounding like an infomercial and even urges his loyal audience to visit your site. If you’re really good, the host may even ask you back another time.

And you achieved all this simply by resisting the instinct to “sell,” and instead re-focusing your efforts toward helping the radio host offer listeners a good show!

About the Author:

Marsha Friedman is a 20-year veteran of the public relations industry. She is the CEO of EMSI Public Relations http://www.emsincorporated.com, a national firm that provides PR strategy and publicity services to corporations, entertainers, authors and professional firms. She also hosts a national weekly radio talk show, The Family Round Table, and is author of the book, Celebritize Yourself

It’s one thing to talk about becoming a celebrity in your field. It’s quite another to actually begin the process. To make celebrity an authentic goal, we must first desensitize ourselves to the very word “celebrity.”

The best place to start is to refocus away from Hollywood or the Big Apple and turn it inward, toward yourself, your company, product, service, or expertise, and your industry. Celebritizing yourself from the ground up brings to mind two of my favorite domestic goddesses turned celebrities: Julia Child and Erma Bombeck. I point to these two iconoclastic women because we’re talking about specific industries, and these two virtually created their own.

Julia Child loved two things: French cooking and her husband, Paul (and, I suspect, sometimes in that order). Although Julia’s background was in publicity and advertising, she single-handedly pursued her passion for French cooking with such expertise and zeal that no one around her could ignore. Julia became one of the first celebrity chefs, and also one of the most recognizable women of the last century. Such celebrity chefs as today’s Emeril Lagasse and Rachel Ray owe their television careers to the pioneering efforts of Julia Child.

Truly, Julia is a poster child for how to first become a celebrity in your own field, and then for the world at large. So was Erma Bombeck. Dayton, Ohio born, Bombeck graduated from the University of Dayton in 1949 with a degree in English. She started her career that same year as a reporter for the Ohio Journal Herald, but after marrying school administrator Bill Bombeck, a college friend, she left the job to raise three children.

As her children grew, she wrote “At Wit’s End,” a self-deprecating tale about the life of a housewife. Seen first in the Kettering-Oakwood Times in 1964, Erma was paid a miserly $3 per column. The popularity of “At Wit’s End” brought national syndication in 1965, and eventually it ran twice a week in more than 700 newspapers. The column was collected in many bestselling books, and her fame was such that a television sitcom was based on Erma’s life. A humble $3-a-column gig for the local paper graduated Erma to full celebrity status.

Celebrity for these two icons grew not out of ambition or greed – though both women clearly had business savvy and realized the far greater audience fame could bring to them. What they became famous for was what they loved. Their passion turned into celebrity which, in turn, added celebrity to their passion.

There is a strong lesson in here for all of us. What is it? Simply this: celebrities are made, not born. What’s more, they share four similar qualities that you may already possess:

Passion: Julia Child never wavered in her passion for cooking while Erma Bombeck came to her passion for writing only once she discovered the confidence that came from writing – and writing well.

Persistence: Both women faced challenges and road blocks on their way to success. In this time of female presidential candidates, CEOs, talk show hosts and cable magnates, it is easy to forget that both Erma and Julia were products of the 50s and 60s, where men were the celebrities and women cared for the home and their children. Julia’s persistence to cook even when no one was watching or Erma’s to write while the kids were sleeping forged expertise in both their industries.

Pride: Julia and Erma never came off as egotistical or brash, not even when fame overtook them and created household names of normal women. Still, it was clear – especially in later years – that both women were not only proud of what they’d accomplished but what they stood for and the inspiration they gave other women.

Persuasion: Finally, both women used their respective art to persuade; Julia to persuade an entire generation (and even later generations) to discover the joy of cooking and Erma to persuade family members to celebrate their family bonds.

The idea that celebrity is only for movie stars should have withered on the vine by now; here we have two shining examples of homegrown women who started where they felt the most passionate and built a career from the inside out.

Neither Julia nor Erma became a household word overnight. They each had their unique path to fame – but they both had this in common. Both actually put their foot on the path, and took that first step…and then another, and so on. It is a process; it does not occur in one fell swoop. As Julia and Erma knew instinctively, to “celebritize yourself” is not about fame and fortune. It’s about sharing your life experience and hard-won wisdom with others, who may need what you have to offer. And without a doubt you must take stock of your assets and the resources at your disposal, and use them! I wrote my book, Celebritize Yourself, to be a roadmap down that path, and it is my passion to help you find the path.

About the Author:

Marsha Friedman is a 20-year veteran of the public relations industry. She is the CEO of EMSI Public Relations http://www.emsincorporated.com, a national firm that provides PR strategy and publicity services to corporations, entertainers, authors and professional firms. She also hosts a national weekly radio talk show, The Family Round Table, and is author of the book, Celebritize Yourself
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Oprah is indeed the gold standard, and her show carries weight not only because of Oprah’s massive viewership, but also because they’re loyal. She brings with her tens of millions of loyal viewers who trust her so implicitly, that they buy practically any book she recommends, any product she endorses and follow her advice on just about every topic from politics and parenting to bowling and basket weaving.

When most PR agencies are faced with that request, they smile and nod and tell their clients they’ll do their best, but we all know what it really takes to get on Oprah.

You have to understand a few basic premises:

Oprah is NOT a Product Peddler – The Oprah Winfrey Show does not exist to provide coverage for your product, company or book. Her mission is to inform and entertain her viewers so that they keep tuning in, and her company can sell advertising at top dollar. The more engaged and sizeable her viewership, the more revenue she takes in.

Her show is a true “No Spin Zone” – You can’t spin yourself into a guest spot on her show, because her staff scrutinizes her guests more severely than the press dissect political candidates. You can’t disguise any element of your past, and you can’t use PR techniques to make yourself look more credible or noteworthy than you actually are. Her people are media pros and will see through it.

They don’t see their roles as bookers or producers – they see themselves as caretakers of a multibillion-dollar brand name and a television personality whose name is synonymous with credibility and trust. Protecting her show and her name is tantamount to protecting themselves and their roles in shaping a media juggernaut. You can’t fool them – either you’ve got the goods, or you don’t.

You don’t call her, she calls you – This is the one thing no publicist ever tells a client they hope to sign.  Why?  Simply because they are afraid it will make their agency or service irrelevant to the client who can sign the big check.  Ninety-five percent of Oprah’s guests are invited, and are rarely booked because a publicist made a phone call and pitched a client. It’s rare that any of her staff even make themselves available to hear pitches from publicists.

Seeing a guest similar to yourself on her show does not move you to the top of the list.  If anything, seeing a competitor or guest similar to yourself on her show actually makes her less interested in you.

With that being said, a publicity campaign is absolutely critical if your eventual goal is to get on Oprah’s show.  Contradictory?  Not really. Here are some critical tips to give you the best shot at getting on her staff’s radar screen:

Start locally – Earlier, I mentioned that 95 percent of her guests are invited without a pitch from a publicist, but that doesn’t mean publicity wasn’t involved. Her bookers and producers find out about unique guests by reading the news. They scour the Internet and local newspaper sites, looking for unique individuals and stories from all over the country. All those national headlines you read every day about the guy whose 8-year-old saved his life by giving him CPR, or the woman whose dog dialed 911, didn’t happen in Anywhere, USA. They happened somewhere, and in that somewhere was a local TV or print reporter who found out about it and wrote about it. The foundation of any campaign to get in the national media is to prove you were at least interesting enough to make your hometown papers or TV newscasts.

Stand for Something – The mistake a lot of people make when hitting the media is to be all things to all people, to appeal to the broadest sector of the population, to cast a wide net. However, most of the people you’ll see on Oprah are not good for all time zones – they are passionate, opinionated people who hold strong views and may pick a position that can upset some element of the viewing audience. Controversy and conflict is what drives most talk shows. Imagine how interesting Crossfire would be to watch if everyone agreed, and you’ll see my point.

Have an Impact – Just because you write a book that exposes hidden injustice in some area of society, it’s not enough to just stand behind the book. You have to be an activist, a clarion voice of passion who actively campaigns to right the wrongs you’ve exposed. Having an impact on people’s lives, and earning the news coverage in your local community, is the highest-percentage way to get on the radar screen of Oprah’s staff, if not Oprah herself.

At the end of the day, there is no magic potion you can take, no staffer or producer you can pay off, and no stunt you can pull that will get you on Oprah. But if you are truly unique, have an impact on people’s lives and have the support of your local media, you’ve got as good a shot of being featured on Oprah’s show as any of the people she’s already put on the air.

About the Author:
Marsha Friedman is a 20-year veteran of the public relations industry. She is the CEO of EMSI Public Relations http://www.emsincorporated.com, a national firm that has provided PR strategy and publicity services to over a thousand clients including corporations, entertainers, authors and professional firms. She also hosts a national weekly radio talk show, The Family Round Table, and is author of the book, Celebritize Yourself.

Bradley Communications Corp. has launched ReporterConnection.com, a free service which allows journalists to announce source needs via email to up to 51,000 experts in the company’s database.

For example, suppose a reporter is writing a story on “Tips for Sticking to New Year’s Resolutions.” They would announce a need for experts to quote about that topic and receive responses from authors, psychologists, self-improvement experts, university professors as well as public relations firms representing similar experts.

“Many journalists told us they hate receiving off-base replies through other services, so we created a system which almost ensures the potential source actually answers the reporter’s questions,” says Steve Harrison, co-founder of ReporterConnection.com.

Harrison is no stranger to the publicity game. Bradley Communications Corp. has been connecting journalists and sources for over 24 years. The company provides a variety of publications, services and training events for authors, experts, entrepreneurs, non-profit organizations, public relations professionals and others to help them score more media coverage.

First, unlike other services ReporterConnection.com does not need to publish the journalist’s email address to potential sources because all initial replies goes through the company’s website.

Second, to ensure journalists receive on-target replies to their queries, ReporterConnection.com has created a unique “Media Reply Form” in which the journalists may list up to six specific questions they want experts to answer.

Experts may enroll free at http://www.ReporterConnection.com to receive free email alerts each business day. When they spot a listing from a reporter seeking their type of expertise, they’ll reply directly through the ReporterConnection.com website.

Journalists who’d like to submit listings of their current source needs may do so at http://www.ReporterConnection.com/press/.

The media is amazingly powerful.  A well placed story can reach hundreds, thousands, even millions of people in a matter of minutes.

And now with the internet and social media you can take a traditional media story and magnify it online.  The trouble is that most business owners and entrepreneurs have a very narrow short-sighted view of how public relations actually works.  Because of this, very few businesses effectively utilize their media.  Most companies hire a public relations firm, press releases go out, follow-up calls are made, media coverage is generated and then everyone waits to see what happens.

Well, that’s one approach.  You certainly do want your media placements to generate calls, create a buzz, and help establish you as an expert in your field, but don’t let a magazine article or a TV segment to be the end of the PR trail.  You want to utilize your media as it comes.  First and foremost you want to use the press coverage you receive to gain more press coverage.  Leverage your articles or TV and radio interviews to land more media coverage.  You also want to utilize your media in any other form of marketing you do.  If you use traditional advertising, or direct mail marketing, make sure to include the media you’ve been featured in, in your ads or marketing material.  If you send out email blasts, again, be sure and highlight your media coverage in those emails.

You definitely want to magnify all of your media coverage online.  Build a media page on your website.  Whenever you receive coverage magnify that exposure via your blog, on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other appropriate social media sites.  Post appropriate information on other blogs.  What can maximizing your media exposure do for you and your business?  It can generate more exposure for your company, create more interest, bring in more clients, and sell more products.  In a nutshell it can make you more money.  Work your media and you’ll be amazed how your media will work for you

About the Author:
Anthony Mora is the President and CEO of Anthony Mora Communications, Inc. and author of Spin to Win. He specializes in public relations, image development, media training and Transformational Marketing. Visit him online at http://anthonymora.com.

Publicity is not rocket science. Any business owner can do publicity if they have access to the right tools, tactics and advice.

Small business owners and entrepreneurs who are looking for ways to get more positive media exposure can find many new services and tactics from publicity thought leader Dan Janal when they visit his new site, located at http://freepublicitytools.com.

The site features news of new websites that offer free publicity and marketing tools for small business and entrepreneurs, as well as reviews of new services that can help business owners get more publicity for their products, their companies and their books.

“There are a lot of free services on the Internet that can help business owners get the publicity they need to get new clients, grow their businesses and become thought leaders in their fields,” said Dan Janal, the leading authority how to turn publicity into profits.

Among the first set of sites reviewed are:

• Press Release Grader, a free service that shows how to improve press releases
• HootSuite – a tool to sent messages via Twitter and organize searches on Twitter
• Compete.com – a website that shows how much traffic your site and competing sites receives over several time periods

Business people can join an update service to receive notifications of new products and services reviewed on the website. Website owners can also receive an RSS feed of the content to post on their websites or LinkedIn Groups for free.

“I see this site as a way of serving the community and giving back to the community,” said Janal, who founded PRLEADS.com, one of the original sites that helped small business people get leads from reporters who were writing stories and needed to find sources to quote.

About Dan Janal
The Los Angeles Times called Dan Janal an “internet marketing expert.” He’s written six books on publicity and marketing for John Wiley. An in-demand keynote speaker, Dan Janal has spoken everywhere from Beijing to Budapest. He has taught at Stanford and Berkeley. He is an award-winning daily newspaper reporter and business editor and was on the PR team that launched AOL. Other clients include the National Football League, IBM and The Reader’s Digest.

For more than ten years, PRWeb has built a reputation for introducing new, disruptive features for news distribution and for supporting a broad range of customers – from local businesses to global corporations.

The enhanced news release management tool helps customers of all sizes leverage the opportunities provided in the new multimedia and social-media enabled landscape.

“By providing a new tool that makes it easier to create and distribute multimedia news releases, PRWeb is helping PR professionals bridge the gap between interest and action.”