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Almost two-thirds of the people who use Twitter don’t have a bio
or a link listed on their profile, the 160-character description
just under their avatar.

So what’s the big deal?

Does having a bio and website link in your Twitter profile really
make a difference in the number of followers you have?

Absolutely.

The Hubspot Internet Marketing Blog has crunched the numbers and
says that users with a bio have over eight times more followers,
on average, than users without a bio.  Users with a link have
over 7.5 times as many followers as users without.

I’m betting that the typical Twitter user who reads somebody
else’s bio and sees nothing remotely interesting is gone in a
flash without ever clicking “Follow.”

What a shame.  Another potential follower–maybe even a
customer– lost forever.  It doesn’t have to be that way.

Social networking expert Nancy Marmolejo says your bio should
communicate immediately what you do, who your target audience is,
and how you can help people.  Mix in some fun and people will
practically be begging to be part of your tribe. For an example
of a great bio I love, see Can Your Social Networking Bio Pass
the 10-Second Test?

Dying to pitch a certain journalist at a top-tier media outlet
but confused about how to make your pitch stand out among all the
others?

Keep reading for the inside secret.

I’ve never met Deborah Kotz, a woman’s health columnist for U.S.
News & World Report.

We’ve never emailed each other or talked on the phone.  I’ve
never pitched her.

Yet I know intimate details about her, including the type of
birth control she has used and whether her two sons are
circumcised.

You’ll never find those kinds of details in the pricey media
databases you’re buying.

But in some cases, you CAN find them buried within the blog posts
of journalists you want to pitch.  Most PR people, unfortunately,
are too busy or too lazy to search for them.

To make your job easier, I’ve explained in step-by-step detail
how to find out if a journalist blogs and how to navigate the
blog to find all the juicy tidbits you need to customize your
pitch. If you do this correctly, you’ll have more information
about the journalist than you need, right at your fingertips.

Read the blog post I wrote on how to use journalists’ blogs to
research them.

Hardly a day goes by when the mainstream media isn’t reporting on
Twitter.  It’s obvious many journalists and broadcasters are
still confused about the value of this site.

If you Twitter, particularly for business, and you’re seeing a
return on your investment, offer yourself as a source for this
story.  Explain what has happened to you since you started
Twittering, how many followers you have, how much time you spend,
how many valuable contacts you’ve made, and how many clients or
customers you’ve generated.

Consider pitching this story to your local business journal,
daily and weekly newspapers, TV stations and even your trade
journals. If the journalists whom you pitch aren’t quite
convinced, tell them you’ll even walk them through Twitter and
help them set an account. (They’ll love you for this!) Then
explain how they can use the search function to find sources for
stories.

How about offering a short list of three or four Twitter tools or
apps you use that save you time and help keep you organized?  I
blogged about the directory of Twitter apps and tools, separated
by category.

If you’re one of the many people who thinks Twitter is a waste of
time and you refuse to participate, please reconsider.

Rumors have been circulating that Google is interested in buying
Twitter, the micro-blogging site that lets users send messages of
no more than 140 characters to everyone who follows them.

For now, it’s nothing more than gossip.  But if there’s a nugget
of truth to the rumor, here’s how it could affect you.

Google, the granddaddy of search engines, already measures your
influence.

Let’s say you sell dog toys and somebody types “dog toys” into
the Google search box.  Google will rank your site on the left
side of the screen according to several factors such as whether
your site includes those keywords.

Another factor is how many other influential websites link to
yours.

It gives high ranking to videos, too.  When Google bought YouTube
for $1.65 billion in October 2006, that was the company’s way of
screaming “We think videos are important.”

Same with Twitter.

If Google buys Twitter, chances are good that one of the factors
it will use to measure your influence is your Twitter presence.
Hop aboard now, or lose out later. Read this article on how
businesses use Twitter.

Those newspaper and magazine journalists you’re pitching are
grumpier than ever.

You’d be grumpy, too, if you had an ax hanging over your head.

The 2009 PRWeek/PR Newswire Media Survey shows that half of the
2,174 journalists surveyed this year are considering careers
outside of journalism.

What this means to you:

- -Pay attention to a newspaper’s or magazine’s website, not only
the printed edition.  You might find many more opportunities for
publicity online than offline.

- -The emphasis on the Web means journalists are no longer “print
journalists” or “broadcast journalists.”  They are all “multi-
media journalists.”  So think “multi-media.” Offer  video to a
newspaper or TV station for their website.

- -If you’re obsessed with generating publicity in traditional
media, you need to have a presence on the social networking
sites, where many journalists hunt for stories.

- -Position yourself as a helpful source who’s willing to go the
extra distance.  Many journalists are still confused about how to
use sites like Facebook and Twitter.  If you can help them by
showing them, in step-by-step detail, how to do something like
search Twitter by topic, you could score points.

Why is it that when you leave a comment at someone’s blog, your
photo doesn’t show up next to your comment, but photos of the
other Publicity Hounds who comment are everywhere?

Could be you don’t have a gravatar.

A gravatar is a globally recognized avatar, an image that follows
you from site to site and appears beside your name when you
participate.  It’s a powerful tool because your smiling face
might be the first thing that catches a reader’s attention.
To create your own gravatar in a few minutes, go to Gravatar.com.

Once you’ve done that, it’s time to set up gravatars on your blog
or forum.  Plug-ins are available for leading blog software and
content management systems.  Watch the tutorials at the link
above for more information.

Publicity Hound David Leonhardt wrote a great blog post on “10
Ways to Make Your Gravatar Sell” at and included my gravatar and
several others as examples of those he loves.

I prefer a gravatar of someone smiling rather than a cartoon-
character depiction, or a company logo, or an inane illustration
that has nothing to do with the person behind the curtain.

Social media is all about transparency and forming relationships
with people.

Speakers, if you’re spending hours searching for events where you
can speak for a fee, or no fee, here’s a handy tool that will
make your job easier.

SpeakerLeads.com is a wiki that lets meeting planners everywhere
provide information on events that need speakers.  It includes
other helpful details like the deadline for speakers to apply,
the major market in case you want to search by city, and the
website where you can find more information about the event.
You can search the database, the wiki or you can opt-in and they
will send you updates–all free.

Already, the wiki has more than 1,000 events, as far as three
years away, that need all types of speakers for keynotes, panels
and break-out sessions.  In some cases, meeting planners want
only speakers who are already planning to attend the event.  But
that’s OK.  Speakers who need experience on the circuit will
gladly take these gigs.

Meeting planners, add this website to the list of places where
you can promote your event.

It’s brought to you by the Yearbook of Experts, the service that
provides expert sources and contact information for journalists,
as well as press release distribution services for experts.

One of the biggest misconceptions of social networking is that
you must produce mountains of content–and still keep your day
job.

Yes, you need content galore for your blog, articles, Facebook
page, press releases, Squidoo lenses, HubPages and video-sharing
sites.

But here’s a little secret.

You don’t have to produce all of it yourself, or even most of it.
Outsource, outsource, outsource.

Thousands of competent people, many of them unemployed, would
love to work with you right now, at prices you can afford.
And smart Publicity Hounds who realize that a bad economy is the
very best time to outsource are casting their nets for the best
writers, photographers and video producers.  Those include a glut
of newspaper journalists who have joined the already crowded
market for freelance writers.

Here are three tips to get started:

–Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter can help you
find freelancers fairly quickly.  Just let people know what
you’re looking for and they’ll spread the word.

–Hire fast, and fire faster.  Never let freelancers learn on
your nickel.

–Reward outstanding work.

You can find more tips in Joan’s article on how to outsource
freelance jobs.

If you work for someone else, you’re probably more vulnerable
than ever to losing your job.

If you work for yourself, simply treading water during this
recession isn’t good enough. You need every tactic possible to
outsmart your competitors.

In both cases, a long list of glowing recommendations on your
profile at LinkedIn.com can be a valuable trump card–the
difference between landing another position in a glutted job
market, or not. Or getting a big client whose project will carry
you through
the next six months, or not.

LinkedIn recommendations carry a LOT of weight. Hiring managers
are reading them closely to make absolutely sure they hire the
best candidates. So are decision-makers who are in a position to
give you business.

Here are eight circumstances when it’s entirely appropriate for
you to ask for one on LinkedIn:

–Someone calls or emails you to compliment you on your blog,
newsletter, an article you’ve written, a story about you that
they read in the newspaper, or any other facet of your work.

–A past or current client or customer comments about how much
they enjoy working with you.

–You make contact with a former co-worker who you haven’t seen
in awhile. If you like and trust each other, ask!

–You offer free professional advice for someone who comes to you
with a problem and they reply, “How can I return the favor?”

–You offer professional advice via email to someone you don’t
know, and you notice the same person has come to you several
times.

–You write a LinkedIn recommendation for someone who you know
and who knows you, and you’re confident the person will
reciprocate.

Often, a short list of glowing recommendations is much more
impressive than a long list of contacts.

If you’re angling to get onto TV, your pitch had better be a perfect match with the content and tone of the show, its hosts and its interviewers. (more…)