Do-It-Yourself PR - Sell Yourself!

There is a newspaper cartoon that is making fun of the dilemma of naming a baby - because the parents want it to "google" well. Actually, my name googles quite well - as long as you don't think I am an absolute genius and the UCLA professor of obscure Native Americans is me, too...I am an actress and musician - so this is my life's blood. I have to be findable! So I put myself on all the free sites that come up on craigslist and elsewhere, as well as my main resume on nowcasting.com. I have to confess that for a long time I was the pure artiste, the sort that feels that if you "build a better mousetrap" they will come...ha! Nope. Here I was sitting with the mousetrap and no one knew I even had it. I did lovely performances that no one knew were there...I think you get the picture. Not being able to hire a publicist I set off to find out how to do some of that myself. It started with free seminars given by the Open Festival in L.A., as how to write releases and get the word out.

I learned the form of a release, not brain surgery. There's even a site www.ducttapemarketing.com that has a computer FORM you just have to fill in. (It's a great site for inexpensive marketing ideas.) My philosophy is that of "niche" marketing. Find how you get in touch with the people who want to see your stuff. When I had a 99 seat theatre I did that by collecting the mastheads of all the local throwaway papers in that part of the city. Then I could craft a mailing list that would target the proper outlets. For example, you could always count on getting into the events section of the L.A. Weekly - whereas other listings were iffier. When you are doing PR, it's bread upon the water. It's not like advertising, where you know you will get what you pay for. That's why it's better to target smaller, more specific publications. I am talking about the performing arts, but if you were selling widgets, you would look for your widget publications, you get the idea...The peculiar thing is that everything looks so much more REAL when it's in print. You could do exactly the same thing and not be mentioned, and lose the glory. I had an Austrian guy I knew who was having trouble with his visa. They wanted something in print about him, and they just don't DO that in Europe. So I suggested we PLANT an article along the lines of "Where is XXX Now?" in the Viennese trade papers. And do you know that the immigration folks in the Carolinas or wherever they were suddenly BELIEVED that he was a European master craftsman, which he had been all along.

I read recently that there have to be waves of this PR. Which means that you have to keep at it. They recommended in the article every 3 months going at it. And I try to send out things regularly when something nice happens, like a movie I am in is on TV. Just ordered some bargain postcards with my picture on them to send out to casting directors, because my movie Jolly Roger was on the Sci Fi channel. The great thing is that technology like computers and the internet are making it so much easier to get all this DONE. I can upload pix and order photo cards and postcards right from my computer. It used to be a major hassle running around town to printers and so on - And much more expensive.

You should always mine your contacts for your PR - like alumni publications, local papers, and so on. A unit publicist I heard speak once said that you have to make use of anything newsworthy - as when a grandchild of a Civil War general is IN a Civil War movie. And there is always "hometown kid makes good."
Look for a hook - because that will get your stuff out there - in print or whatever. And write the releases as best you can. Make them snappy and professional, so they don't have to re-write them. I have had my releases turn (uncredited) into whole articles in the local press! Have pictures available, too - which with digital photography is easy nowadays.

Yes, it's a pain - but I have even found a service on the net which will send out all those release for you for around $100! (www.send2press.com/PRservices) I keep on trying to convince a group I am working with to do that, as we lack volunteers, but have yet to try it. But that's very cheap. And I am sure that they have all the contacts set up and only have to press a button to get them out there electronically - whereas you have to laboriously create a list and send/fax/email them all out. But that can be an advantage if you know the local scene.

If you have an event you can also send out evites. They have nice graphics and you can send up to 750 on a personal site - and for a public event you can send more. Then ask the recipients to forward the evites further.

If you know Associated Content, you will also know that it is becoming easier and easier to link your material to all sorts of sites like de.licio.us and digg.
This will spread your content our further. And intercross the mentions of your content on your blogs, etc. They go into that in detail at associated content.

The point is to keep your face/name out there. I learned that from a Hollywood actress who was in a choir I was in. She was always doing charity events and the like - why? To keep her name/face out there. So if someone asks to interview you, say yes. Be on that local talk show. Voice your opinion. Write your blog.
(I have several - one on aol.com about my life as an actress and another at thriftyfun.com about pennypinching.) If nothing else, you will get practice for when it really counts. I have to say that I admire the actress Sally Kirkland and all the work she did around her Oscar nomination. I read that no one was promoting the film, so she went out and did it herself! Because it was more important to her than anyone else. I keep on doing my own stuff, because I am about as good as anyone I can afford to hire. But of course, the really professional PR person has the advantage of all the contacts and associations he/she has built up. They know whose ear to put the word into, as well as how.

I just was asked by Wes Laurie, who also writes for Associated Content - for an interview because I was in the horror movie Jolly Roger, which has shown on SciFi. So, off I went. And he promised to link it to me. Every little bit helps. For a while when you googled me you got a weird actor's site where I could list my latest accomplishments - until it disappeared. So you never know. Google yourself occasionally and go on the other search engines like ask.com and yahoo to see how you show up and where...Before you meet anyone nowadays you routinely google them, and I was frustrated by not being able to find anything on what turned out to be a very capable acting teacher who had been recommended to me. That's totally unnecessary in this day and age. Stop being Lake Woebegon
and self-effacing, even if you have to fake it till you make it.. It's said that in the end we all become salespeople, it's true, so get your name OUT there