Every time I go to the NY State Fair I see superb publicity lessons in action.

Maybe the most powerful happened about halfway through the 12 days of the Fair.

I walked past one of the buildings at about 2 PM. I saw a huge line going down the outside of the building and past several other buildings. I couldn’t even estimate how many people were on line.

I went to the front of the line trying to find out what was going on. I saw a man sitting at a table signing autographs. I also saw a security guard there, so I asked him who the man signing autographs was, telling him I didn’t recognize him.

He told me he didn’t know who he was until he was told earlier that morning. Turns out he was Matt Hardy. Do you know who Matt Hardy is? Nope, neither do I. When I asked who Matt Hardy is, I was told that he is a “professional” wrestler.

An enormous line for the autograph of a professional wrestler that not one in 10,000 people would ever had heard of. But it gets better.

About an hour later, I saw another long line in front of another one of the buildings. Again, I went to the front of the line to see what was up. This time, I saw a large sign that told me that the man behind the desk signing autographs was… The weatherman from the local TV station. The freakin’ weatherman! From a little local TV station. And the line for his autograph was huge. What’s the publicity lesson here?

The lesson is the same one I’ve been talking about for the past 20 years – in my talks around the country. In this blog, in my ezine, in my hardcopy newsletters.

It’s an incredibly powerful lesson and one of the greatest benefits of getting publicity. The lesson is… When you get publicity on radio, TV, or in newspapers and magazine, you become an instant celebrity. Don’t smirk. Don’t shake your head. Don’t minimize that benefit – and that power. Publicity makes you a celebrity. People love associating with celebrities. They love being around celebrities. They love doing business with celebrities. Are you still skeptical? Do you doubt that publicity makes you a celebrity? OK, I’ll prove it. I’ve given you this example before, but it’s so powerful and makes my point so clear I’ll use it again. Let’s say you were on a local TV show on a Friday night.

On Saturday morning you open the front door of your home and walk out to your lawn to get the morning paper.

Your next door neighbor is mowing his lawn. He sees you, stops what he’s doing, points to you and excitedly says: “Hey, I saw you on TV last night. I didn’t know I was living next door to a… celebrity!” Ah, so being in the media does make you a celebrity, eh? Let me give you some solid proof of what that celebrity status can do for you. In fact, let me prove it twice.

I had a new roof put on my house. I called 14 roofers for estimates. Four of them actually showed up. One of them was a lunatic, so actually only three sane roofers showed up. They all gave me estimates within a few hundred dollars of each other. They were all going to do the same thing – take my old roof off and put a new one on. How do I decide which one to choose?

It wasn’t easy. It took a lot of contemplating and then a bit of downright guessing. But I eventually picked one.

But, if one of those roofers had given me even one article written about him – even if it was just in the local town newspaper – he would have instantly gotten the job.

I’m the #1 expert in the world on how anyone can get publicity for whatever they want and publicity would have worked on me. But none of them did that. Neither did the electricians I called. Or the plumbers, handymen and other contractors. They all did the same old song and dance. That’s a doggone hard way to do business, especially if you’re offering the same product or service that lots of other people are offering. Let me position this in a little different way to make my point rock solid.

Let’s say that you’re in a business or selling a product that many other people are selling. You may be a doctor, real estate agent, financial planner, auto mechanic, author or any of a thousand others categories.

Instead of going up against your competitors by doing more advertising, bigger advertising, cheaper prices, extra services and so on, you use publicity.

You write a press release, following my formula. You send it to your local newspaper. They publish a story all about you and your business or practice.

In that article is your phone number and a good reason for people to call you.

So people in your community are impressed that a story about you appears in the newspaper. None of your competitors have ever been written up in the newspaper.

Because of that article, people call you. When they do, they are intentionally put on hold. While they’re on hold, they don’t hear that goofy pre-recorded “hold music”. Instead, they hear you being interviewed on a radio talk show you know they listen to.

You come back on the phone and make an appointment to meet with them. Right now, they are potential clients or customers, but they are becoming more and more impressed.

First they saw a big story about you in the newspaper. Then they heard you on a radio talk show.

But it gets even better.

When you meet with them, if you have an office, you make them wait for 5 – 10 minutes before you come in. During that time they walk around your office. On the walls they see dozens of articles written about you in newspapers and magazines around the country. There’s USA Today, the LA Times, the Chicago Tribune.

And finally, in the corner of your office is a TV and DVD player. When your prospective customer looks at the TV he sees you being interviewed on a big TV talk show.

When you finally come in and introduce yourself, you are no longer just another chiropractor, accountant, lawyer, etc. You are a celebrity.

The media made you a celebrity.

That’s pure power.

When you know how to write a press release the right way, get it to the media, answer the quiz questions they’ll ask you before they book you for an interview and then do a good interview, you’ll be rewarded abundantly.

As I’ve said many times, if you think this is an instant miracle, a way to get rich by doing little or no work, I want you to go away. You’re dangerous.

But if you realize that like any other skill, you have to take the time to learn how to get publicity the way I teach you, your rewards can be great.

I’m very grateful to publicity for giving me everything I could want. But I also take the credit for putting in the time to learn what to do and how to do it the right way.

I love the media. I love reporters. I love publicity. And they love me.

What a great relationship.

Are you working on developing your own great relationship with the media?

Paul Hartunian is respected around the world as a leading expert on how business owners can get publicity both online and offline. His website – http://www.hartunian.com – is a resource center for reliable publicity advice. http://www.milliondollarpublicity.com

Paul Hartunian is respected around the world as a leading expert on how business owners can get publicity both online and offline. His website – http://www.hartunian.com – is a resource center for reliable publicity advice. http://www.milliondollarpublicity.com

Author Bio: Paul Hartunian is respected around the world as a leading expert on how business owners can get publicity both online and offline. His website – http://www.hartunian.com – is a resource center for reliable publicity advice. http://www.milliondollarpublicity.com

Category: Business
Keywords: what is a press release, how to write a press release, how to release a press release, online pr