Guest Blog Post: Marian Bernard on "Feed the Media: How to Get Publicity for Your Business"

This guest post is contributed by Marian Bernard, of The Regency Group. She attended the "Feed the Media: How to Get Publicity for Your Resume Business" teleseminar I taught on Nov. 9. Here are her notes, for your enjoyment.

FEED THE MEDIA:
How to Get Publicity for Your Business
(notes from teleseminar delivered on November 9, 2011 and transcribed by Marian Bernard ... www.ResumeExpert.ca)

The difference between advertising and public relations

• Advertising (marketing) is what you pay for; by contrast, public relations / publicity (promotions) is free
• With advertising (as well as radio and TV) you have complete control of the message
• Resume writers complain that they don't have control over the final "publicity product"; it's virtually guaranteed that something unrelated to the interview may be asked

How to identify what is newsworthy and what will get you media attention

1. Is it interesting to the media's target audience? 
2. Is it timely? (e.g., the role of New Year's resolutions and the job search)
3. Have you established why YOU (as opposed to someone else) are the person to interview for that story? (e.g., could I be interviewed because a local layoff is taking place?) Will it benefit my business to be interviewed? 

Other "interview-relevant" topics: 

When people falsify information on their resumes / digital dirt / when I earn an award / when I host a free teleseminar (or webinar) on job search topics / when I partner with another business or organization / when I reveal industry and employment scams (e.g., Bernard Haldane) / I can make career industry predictions and comment on trends / offer feedback on LinkedIn (and Facebook) and how they impact the job search / when I speak at a conference or event / a news release that debunks job search or 1-page resume myths / sharing a tip sheet / every time unemployment numbers are released (either trending up or down) / every time a major employer in York Region closes down / conduct surveys and release results (e.g., contacting the local employment service and recruiting firms, and asking for their worst interview anecdotes)

· I can compile statistics and assemble a fact sheet. When such "hot topics" resurface, I can contact local reporters

How to build your media list and how to target effective contacts in the news media

• Journalists seek out industry and subject matter experts
• Journalists ask people they know for ideas or they call upon people they already know

Strategy to get noticed: 

I can connect with - and follow - journalists and primary contacts via Facebook and LinkedIn

• Conduct research to determine what publication(s) my target resume writers read; e.g., newspapers, free weekly newspapers, influential local blogs, trade publications, association newsletters. I can also do a Google search for radio and TV - Greater Toronto Area
• Identify which media outlets will be relevant for the stories I am pitching

For example:

o Newspaper: "Business" or Career" section
o Radio: Talk format ... contact the News Director, the actual Host of the program, or their Producer
o TV: Local news stations which feature consumer segments (e.g., how to help jobseekers avoid fraudulent opportunities) ... contact the Assignment Editor or a Consumer Reporter

· Create and update a media list (Marian has one!) every month or two

· Increase your visibility on line (e.g., through ezinearticles.com and easyarticles.com [or is it easy-articles.com?] ) to make yourself more "Google-able"

· Add a "Media / News / Press" tab on my web-site to store a media kit; I can also post media releases that I wrote

Media Training 101: Top things you need to know when working with the media

• When speaking to the media, you want to come across as confident, approachable, authoritative, and knowledgeable. You are the expert; that is why the media is interviewing you. The message is the key!
• The media plays an important role in reaching prospective clients. Three-quarters of a local audience is watching TV news; 54% listen to talk radio; and although local newspaper circulation is declining, it is still a viable option
• The only thing you have complete control over in an interview is YOU; i.e., what you say, what your message points are, and what you want to convey
• There is a way to bring the interview message back when the topic strays: "The person who is interviewing you directs the questions and topics, but the interviewee has 100% control over the answers" 
• Write out key points ahead of time; e.g., "Although the national numbers are bad, the local numbers are ..." Script your 2 / 3 / 4 key message points ahead of time so you can discuss them conversationally

Print interviews: Think in terms of sound bites because responses can be edited down:

• Be concise (do not ramble on)
• Stay on topic (have a focused message in mind)
• Use positive language and don't restate negatives
• Reroute off-topic banter back to the relevant topic
• For print interviews, it IS okay to say, "I don't know that, but I'd be happy to get back to you. What's your deadline?" 
• There is no such thing as "off the record"
• Ahead of time, prepare at least one quote that you hope will appear in print

Tips for TV (a very visual medium):

• Prepare how you look as well as what you say
• TV can suck the energy out of you; to counteract this, "dial up" your enthusiasm a notch or two
• Maintain at least a slight smile on your face; practice in front of a mirror
• Lean forward about 15 degrees to avert the prospect of appearing heavier than you are
• Get review and feedback from friends on your TV appearance
• What to wear (and not)? Don't wear shirts with busy patterns. Women should never wear tight-knit sweaters because it's difficult to hook up a mike to. Notice what the anchors are wearing the next time you tune into TV news

Interested in getting media attention for your resume writing business? Buy the "Feed the Media: How to Get Publicity For Your Business" teleseminar recording and transcript (just $5). (Bronze members of BeAResumeWriter.com -- you can get this recording/transcript for free as part of your membership. Check out the Expert Interviews Series section of the Paid Member Resources.)

Using HubPages to Build Visibility As a Resume Writer

How to Build a Successful HubPages Link 
HubPages are essentially hosted web pages. As a "Hubber" you write and publish pages. These pages are essentially articles or long pages of content on a specific topic. For example, you might write a page on how to cultivate your job search network.

HubPages are great tools for building your visibility as a resume writer -- they are well-indexed using Google -- and you can also make money from your content. (Signing up for HubPages is free.)

The key to success on HubPages is to write great content. How do you know if it is great content? Well, HubPages has measures in place. These measures include the ability for readers to:

* Tweet
* Like
* Vote up
* Vote down
* Share
* Print
* Follow

Many of these elements contribute to what's called "hub karma." You essentially earn points for quality content. As your points increase, so too does your linking power.

The HubPages Linking Tool
HubPages offers a very useful linking tool. This tool gives you suggestions to the best hubs to link to. Link to other hubs and you boost your hub karma. Additionally, this linking strategy can also motivate others to link back to you. Thus, linking can generate traffic and ultimately it can help boost your HubPages profits.

When choosing to link to other hubs, keep your readers and audience in mind. Only link to other hubs that are relevant and valuable. For example, if you have a hub page about interviewing, linking to a hub that talks about how to change your car's oil filter just doesn't make sense. It's not relevant or helpful to your reader. However, a link to a hub page about career assessments would be relevant and helpful.

What About Back Linking? 
Many people use HubPages to link to their existing businesses. They use it, or try to use it, as a promotional tool. HubPages has very strict rules about self-promotion and will penalize you if you're simply using your hub to promote another site.

However, you can use other sites to promote your hub page. For example, you can link to your hub page from your Facebook or Twitter account. You can also link to your hub from your blog or website content. Again, like any incoming links, the more relevant they are to the topic being discussed, the better. And search engines love relevant links. When a hub page has many incoming links from other sites, it ranks better on Google. That means more people see your hub page and you make more money.

In fact, social networking is an integral part of HubPages. Every reader has the opportunity to like your content on Facebook and tweet or share. You can build a community of followers on both social networking sites and HubPages, and generate positive linking karma for more traffic and more profits.

Making Money From Your Hubpages
There are four main ways to monetize ("make money from") your HubPages. The first is through Google AdSense. When readers click on the ads on your HubPage, your Google AdSense account is credited. Don't have an AdSense account? It's easy to sign up. (And you can place AdSense ads on your other content pages -- for example your website or blog. Just be mindful that if you don't change your AdSense settings, you're going to be advertising a lot of other resume writing services on your blog or HubPage!)

The second way to make money from visitors to your HubPage is through integrating Ebay and Amazon modules into your page. Because most careers industry professionals won't be promoting products on their HubPages (in the same way someone writing about collecting Star Wars toys would, for example), your best bet is the Amazon module. You can recommend relevant careers industry books, and when someone buys from your link, your Amazon Associates affiliate account will be credited. (Personally, the most I've ever earned in a month from Amazon was around $5, but my sites don't get a lot of general jobseeker traffic either.)

The third way to make money from your HubPage is through affiliate marketing services. You can sign up for affiliate programs (for interview training services or career assessments or other job search-related products) and you'll make a commission whenever someone purchases one of these products using your affiliate link. (If you want to learn more about this, visit the "Expert Interviews" section on BeAResumeWriter.com (available to Bronze members) and download the recording and transcript of my teleseminar, "Building Affiliate Relationships to Grow Your Resume Business." (In this 63 minute program, you'll learn the five things you need to make affiliate relationships work, how to find and establish affiliate relationships, what products and services NOT to sell, and how much you can realistically earn from affiliate relationships.)

The fourth way is to get readers to purchase your career industry services! Including your contact information on your HubPage is a great way to allow your HubPage reader to turn into a real business customer!

Opportunity To Stake Your Claim
There aren't too many resume writers using HubPages yet -- these are two I found:
Patty Inglish
Marye Audet

HubPages are another tool you can use to build your prospect's ability to "know, like, and trust" you. Give it a try!

Are You A Top Performer In Our Industry?

I was just listening to a teleseminar featuring Mike Brooks (which is my father-in-law's name, but this particular Mike Brooks is not my husband's dad) on the topic of "Selling Secrets of a Top 20% Producer." The audience for this teleseminar was financial services professionals, but I wanted to share a couple of tips with my audience on this blog, my fellow career services professionals.

The first tip that he gave is actually the one that inspired Resume Writers Digest back in 1999:
"Study what the top producers in your industry do -- and then do those things."

When I started the Resume Writers' Digest newsletter more than 10 years ago, it was because I had questions about how to manage my resume writing business -- and be more effective in the work I do with clients -- and I wanted to learn from the best in the business. Over the years, that has included information from the likes of Wendy Enelow, Louise Kursmark, Jan Melnik, Susan Whitcomb, Janice Worthington, Alesia Benedict, Jay Block, Don Orlando, and literally hundreds of other resume writers who have shared their best practices, ideas, and strategies in articles, blog posts, teleseminars, and at conferences.

Brooks' second tip is "Be prepared to work hard AND smart."
This is a given for those of us in the career services industry. There are definitely ways to work "smarter" in this industry -- like choosing a niche (so you're not constantly having to learn new industries as you serve more and more clients), developing worksheets and other information-gathering devices (that you can either have clients work with directly, or that you use to guide your information collection efforts), and tying back into principal number one, learning from others in our industry.

He also recommends you "know your numbers" -- that is, tracking your activity and progress each day. For resume writers, this can be tracking a couple of metrics:
1) Number of calls/inquiries/quotes each day
2) Number of new projects booked each day
3) Dollar volume of projects completed daily
4) Daily expenses related to the operation of your business
5) Amount of time it took you to write the daily projects

But it was this piece of advice that struck me as the most useful for resume writers:
"Leads never get better; they only get worse."

Many of us resume writers are "social workers at heart" -- meaning, we look at helping our clients as a service more than as a business (sometimes to our own detriment). So how many times have you answered the call from a prospective client who had a sob story to tell (recently unemployed with a wife and four kids to support, or has been out of work for six months and has run out of money, or just graduated from college with $35,000 in student loans and no job prospects) -- and they want us to help them for free, or a reduced price. I've had my share of these calls. And while you can certainly help these folks (and I've helped some myself), it's important to remember that people need to invest in themselves. If they don't, they won't value the advice you give them, or be as motivated to make it work.

Even if they're not a sob story, you'll find yourself struggling with some prospective clients initially ... but you won't trust your gut about whether or not they're a good fit for working with you. Top performers understand that it it in THEIR best interest -- and their CLIENT'S best interest -- to work with the clients they have the best chance of helping be successful. These are clients who need your service, can afford your fees, and will commit to making the most out of working with you.

In their desperation to get business, many resume writers (me included, at times!) will hope that any possible "red flags" they encounter when talking with a prospective client will miraculously "go away" once the prospect commits to working with them. But what bothers you about a client in the beginning will always become a problem in the end.

• The client who asks for a discount will be the ones that take the most time. Or if they don't take the most time, they materialize as a "Pain In the A$$" (PIA) client in another way -- requesting endless revisions, or second-guessing your work by showing it to everyone and anyone they know in the hopes of getting the magical feedback that will make the resume "work" for them. (Never mind what you've already told them -- if Aunt Susan says the resume needs an objective, then they want an objective on there!)  These are the folks who don't invest in themselves (in their professional development or their job search) and consequently, they second-guess everything, and because they don't believe in themselves, they often don't believe others, either.

• The wife who calls for the husband because he's "too busy" but she promises you'll get to talk to him once you start on the project, that he'll "make time" ... but that never happens. I've had this happen to me a couple of times, and I've developed a personal rule that I will only work with clients who call me directly -- not spouses or parents. It's fine if the parent or spouse wants to pay, but I'm not going through a third party to figure out the job objective or write the resume.

• The client who doesn't know "what they want to be when they grow up" -- this often materializes as a phone conversation that goes something like this. Me: "So, what kind of position are you targeting?" Prospect: "I don't really have a particular job in mind. I just need a resume." Me: "Okay, but in order for your resume to be effective, you have to help the prospective employer understand how you will perform in that specific job." Prospect: "If they hire me, I'll show them I'll do a great job." Me: (silently) Ugh. 

Don't ignore the red flags! As Mike Brooks says, "Do what the top 20% do. As soon as you hear something that triggers your intuition or that gives you that sick feeling in your gut, stop and ask the tough qualifying questions."

Taking the advice in this blog post will help lead you closer to being one of the top performers in the career services industry.

"Getting Started With LinkedIn In Your Job Search"

For the past month, a good deal of my time was consumed developing the November Pass-Along Materials content pack -- a special report on "Getting Started with LinkedIn In Your Job Search." This 41-page guide enables resume writers and career coaches to brand (put their name on) a step-by-step user guide for clients to help them set up their LinkedIn profile.

LinkedIn currently has more than 120 million members, and they are adding new members at the rate of two new profiles per second. That's amazing.

You may be asked this question by job seekers: "Why do I need a LinkedIn account in addition to a Facebook profile?" As LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner put it in an Oct. 4 interview with Charlie Rose, "Why do you need an office when you have a house? Or why do you need a suit when you have sweat clothes?"

LinkedIn's purpose is "Connecting talent with opportunity on a massive scale," said company co-founder Reid Hoffman in the Rose interview. What else is a job search except "connecting talent" (your client) with opportunity (the ideal job)?



As resume writers, we know our clients should be on LinkedIn. But we also know that the majority of them don't know how to get on there -- or what to do once they are! (Have you read Jason Alba's excellent book, "I'm On LinkedIn, Now What?" If not, you should!)

Having a step-by-step guide for clients to help them develop and enhance their LinkedIn profile can be a valuable resource. You can provide it as an incentive to sign up for your mailing list. (I just recently uploaded a bonus -- 35 tweets you can use to promote your free LinkedIn report.) You can edit it to remove the very basic sign-up information and leave the information about importing contacts, joining Groups, participating in Answers, and following Companies and give it to clients who have purchased your LinkedIn profile development or enhancement services. You can use the report as a script and handout for a LinkedIn workshop, teleseminar, or webinar -- it's a great "getting started" guide. Or you can break it apart and use it on your blog in a series of articles on how to build your network on LinkedIn.

The "Getting Started With LinkedIn In Your Job Search" guide will only be available until Dec. 5 in the BeAResumeWriter.com Paid Member Resources section. After that date, I'll make it available for sale on Resume Writers' Digest's Store, but the cost will be substantially more than the $10 you'll pay to get it now on BeAResumeWriter.com. (Plus, your $10 also gets you access to "Resume Writer's Online Marketing Guidebook: A 21-Step Guide to Taking Your Resume Business Offline to Online," which retails for $14 itself on the Resume Writers' Digest store. You'll also get access to the complete back issue archive of Resume Writers' Digest, Expert Interview recordings and transcripts, and much more.)