Craigslist: A Powerful Publicity Tool
This guest post was written by Joan Stewart of The Publicity Hound.
So you thought Craigslist was only for finding an apartment, a job, a car or a date.
Did you know that the wildly popular web portal can be one of the most valuable tools in your PR campaign, particularly if you’re looking for grassroots publicity targeted at certain cities or countries?
Craigslist is a giant community bulleting board, an almost entirely free classified ad service where you can buy, sell or give away just about anything. Started in the late 1990s by Craig Newmark, it began as a list only for San Francisco. But it became so popular that it’s turned into 190 separate lists for people in all 50 states in the United States and 35 other countries. The more than 80 discussion forums are devoted to a wide variety of topics.
More than 10 million people use Craigslist each month, so you never know who might be reading. No one edits your posts, but you’ll be kicked off the list if your message is obscene. You can’t post identical messages to more than one city or category, but you can post a photo if you wish.
Most posts are live for only 30 days. Posts in the events and classes categories are live for only 14 days. Once a message expires, you can repost it again and again. That means that if you’re advertising an event in December, you can start posting it as early as September, then keep reposting it whenever it expires.
Here’s just a small sample of the types of things Publicity Hounds can post on Craigslist:
Meetings, fund-raisers and information about volunteers for every kind of community group imaginable. These can include poker clubs and knitting circles, self-help groups, fraternal groups and service clubs.
Classes, activities and demonstrations at schools, colleges, universities or government agencies
Anything dealing with artwork, whether you’re looking for models or giving away art you no longer want
Political meetings, rallies, volunteer opportunities, fund-raisers and ranting
Musicians who are cutting new CDs, searching for band members or looking for gigs
Free tips from hospitals, health care agencies and doctors on everything from cholesterol to bird flu
Employee awards, open houses, new products and services, promotions and other news at local companies
Speaking engagements, book signings and other events hosted by authors, speakers and experts
Questions and comments about where to find the best bar, supermarket or barber shop in a certain community
What you’re doing in your small business, such as products and service you’re offering, or free classes you’re giving
Anything dealing with child care, from where to find a babysitter to the best nannies
Every post is free except if you’re posting job listings at the New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles lists.
I’ve been posting my business events to Craigslist for a few months, and I found the site difficult to navigate at first.
The categories can also be confusing. So before you decide Continue reading
Do you have the idea that advertising is a low-life profession
I grew up long before caller-id existed and my mother was rarely madder than when “some SALESMAN called up and interrupted” her at home.
Sales people were irritating to my mother whether they called on the phone, knocked on the door or even hovered too closely in the store.
It’s hard growing up with this mindset, oh and of course haven’t we all heard plenty of jokes about the “used car salesman type of personality” which means someone with low moral standards — so it’s hard to grow up with this and then aspire to sell and sell a lot.
But we all have to sell, whether we are selling the idea that we’re the best candidate for the job or selling life insurance policies. If we have a negative association with sales and advertising, then we better consider how to get over it.
I recommend Continue reading
Getting Print Publicity teleseminar
I promised I’d let you know what I thought about the free teleseminar on getting print publicity. There was a fair amount of pushing for everyone to go to the upcoming $5000+ media publicity summit. It may very well be a great program, but I still felt it was given a ridiculous amount of the air time.
