How To Piss A Reporter Off

My apologies to Peter Shankman, who’s great resource “Help A Reporter Out” (HARO) has been helping public relations professionals connect with the media for years. I have come up with my own version called “Piss A Reporter Off” (PARO) as I have heard so many nightmarish tales from journalist friends over the years.

Without further ado, here are the top 13 ways to piss a reporter off:

1. Pitch them on a topic that they do not cover.
2. Call them five times a day.
3. Try to sell them on how fabulous your product or service is.
4. Address them in an overly friendly and casual manner – especially if you’ve never met or worked with them before.
5. Send an attachment with your email pitch. Even better, send a 21 megabyte attachment.
6. Pitch them, plus two other people at the same media outlet without letting them know.
7. Don’t do your homework beforehand and read/watch the media outlet to understand what they cover.
8. Call to yell at them when they don’t feature you or your business in a story.
9. Call them a week after a story has run and ask them when the story is going to run.
10. Take up their time on the phone by telling them (without stopping to take a breath) your entire history.
11. Continue to pitch them on a topic/story they have already declined.
12. When pitching the NY Times, for instance, make sure your refer to them as the LA Times (or better yet, USWeekly).
13. Lie.

©Liz Dennery Sanders 2009

Read more

Tweet This Post

I’m A Goddess, You’re A Goddess Too!

Celebrity Event Planner Extraordinaire, Marley Majcher called me out on her highly entertaining blog, “The Goddess Speaks”, as the Goddess of the Week. You can check it out right here at http://www.thepartygoddess.com/blog.

You, too, can become a Goddess of the Week – just download the application on Marley’s blog and send it back to her asap (scans preferred). Hold on to your rabbit’s foot and start counting four leaf clovers, because you may just be chosen as the very next Goddess.

©Liz Dennery Sanders 2009

Tweet This Post

Take The First Steps To Build A Powerful Personal Brand

Are you ready to stand out in today’s overcrowded marketplace? With the millions of messages we are bombarded with on a weekly basis, it’s more imperative than ever to brand your unique brilliance in order to get noticed and gain visibility. Successful brands reflect the unique authenticity of their creators. They exude their creators’ essence in every way.

In a nutshell, your personal brand is your promise of value. It is your own unique combination of strengths, skills, values and passions – and it is what you alone offer the world. These attributes, coupled with your vision for your life, reveal the core around which you have built your brand.

Here are the first steps to discovering your brand brilliance:
1. Uncover Your Descriptors – these are adjectives or attributes that best describe you. These are not only the most visible part of your brand, but also what make it memorable. Take some time to come up with 10 adjectives that really resonate with you. Then ask at least 10 friends, family members, co-workers etc. to do the same. The external feedback from other people who know you is important as the key to branding is ultimately what is perceived by others. Make a note of those adjectives that are most frequently repeated. These are the attributes that you’re expressing most consistently and are pivotal to your personal brand.
2. Identify Your Values – these are your guiding principles, the rudder of your ship and the North Star on your compass. One way to determine if something is a value is to see how you feel if someone were to violate it. For example, as an entrepreneur, one of my greatest values is Freedom. I enjoy setting my own course, being in charge and not answering to anyone in authority. If I were to take a heavily micromanaged corporate position, I would be utterly miserable. Another way to identify a value is to think about what makes you angry. When a value is violated, we often feel angry, resentful or disappointed.
3. Know Your Target Audience – Who do you want to help? Who would you most like to work with? These are the questions you need to be asking yourself before you begin communicating your brand benefits. It’s important to know the WHO before you can talk about the WHY. You certainly can’t be everything to everybody (nor would you want to as you would be completely exhausted!), so it’s crucial to identify your ideal clients. Start by considering who are your favorite clients right now. What do they have in common? What are their key needs in life?
4. Identify Your Passions – What is it that gets you out of bed in the morning? What topics could you talk about joyfully for hours on end or activities do you most enjoy participating in? Your passions provide the juice for your brand – the steam that keeps your engine moving, long after you’re ready to give up.
5. Define Your Vision For Your Life – Not just where you want to be a year from now, or even five years from now, but who do you want to BE in this lifetime. Imagine that you are a ghost at your funeral and everyone there is talking effusively about your wonderful life – a total celebration of you. What are they saying about you? What contributions did you make?

While these are just the first steps to building a powerful personal brand, they are the most important, so it’s worth taking some time with them. In order to make an emotional connection with your target market, it is imperative that your brand brilliance – your unique authenticity – shines through in everything you do. These steps are the foundation of your brand house. Without them, you are merely a house of cards.

©Liz Dennery Sanders 2009

Tweet This Post

Welcome to the shebuzzblog!

Check back here often for tips, tools and resources to build your buzz, position yourself as an expert in your industry, charge what you’re worth and attract more clients with greater ease.

©Liz Dennery Sanders 2009

Tweet This Post