Building buzz cannot be unilateral anymore. Giant corporations can afford to spend millions of dollars influencing their target audience; entrepreneurs and small businesses can’t.

 

So… how do you go about building buzz for your product, service, or cause?

 

Strategically.

 

Read it again:

 

Strategically.

 

You can’t just throw a bunch of stuff up in cyberspace and hope some of it sticks.

 

You need a campaign–one that has been well-thought out, one that is measurable, one that knows your Ideal Client as well as you know yourself.

 

Right now I have a campaign going that doesn’t cross all the t’s or dot all the i’s (it’s still a work in progress), but it’s creating buzz in exactly the right circles. The timing is right. The anticipation is building. My ideal clients (fellow #DeForest Kelley / #StarTrek fans) are gathered in lots of places online, and I’ve been engaging with a few of those places for quite some time because they’re fun, friendly, and fanatical in  wholesome, engaging ways.

 

This particular campaign isn’t about landing more copy writing gigs–although that could happen if the fans who engage love the book and get a huge kick out of the way I write–although the book wasn’t written by “a copywriter”. (I wasn’t a copywriter when I wrote the book  from January to March 2000 not long after De passed away. I was a freelance features writer, which was a perfect fit for the enormous task that lay before me then.) DeForest Kelley Up Close and Personal, A Harvest of Memories from the Fan Who Knew Him Best is all about engaging readers at the funny bone and heartstrings levels and walking them through my decades-long association and friendship with Carolyn and DeForest Kelley. It’s about engaging with people who feel the way I do about the iconic actor whose enduring legacy will be celebrated in 2016 during the 50th anniversary of the series in which he first came to huge prominence and became “an overnight success” (after twenty long years of hundreds of piecemeal/patchwork portrayals in the motion picture and television industry).

 

This “campaign” feels more like a visit with good friends, new and old.   And guess what?  That’s the hint. YOURS SHOULD FEEL EXACTLY THE SAME WAY!  If it doesn’t, you don’t “get” your target audience well enough to be able to convert them from browsers into buyers. If you aren’t approachable, amenable to interaction, and deeply in touch with your Ideal Client, they’ll find someone who is and go there!

 

Your campaign should be a cross between a love fest and an informal, helpful “road trip” that leads the people you interact with to wherever you want them to end up.  It shouldn’t feel forced, artificial, or in any way coercive.  Today’s “selling” is all about compelling your target audience to do what they already want to do anyway. They came to your site or picked up your brochure for a reason.  Make sure you don’t send them screaming for the exits by treating them as anything other than the treasures they are.

 

So…back to some tips for building buzz…

 

What I’ve done (and will be doing) during the pre-launch book campaign phase…

 

1. writing informational articles about DeForest Kelley that people can read and share with their fellow De/Trek fans. These articles include little-known things about De. You’ll find some of them right here in this blog.
2. sharing the URLs to the above-mentioned articles with DeForest Kelley and Star Trek Facebook pages, media outlets and other high-profile “Influencers”.
3. I’ve written a Tuesday Teaser #DeForestKelley Question that asks fun, interest-piquing questions that fans will know the answers to only as a result of having read my upcoming book.
4. I’ll be posting an excerpt from my book about De’s December 18th, 1991 star ceremony on the Hollywood of Fame (with a link to an actual YouTube video that shows the ceremony) tomorrow (the 24th anniversary of the event)
5. I’ll be launching the book on January 8th, 2016 (eight months to the day before Star Trek’s 50th anniversary) or on January 20, 2016 (what would have been De’s 95th birthday)  I still haven’t decided which launch date yet for sure.  I’m antsy and know De’s fans are, too, so I’m probably gonna cave (providing the book is 100% perfect and ready to roll out then, and it looks like it will be!) and stick with the January 8 roll-out date.
6. I’ll be having some kind of contest during the launch date weekend. Haven’t decided yet what it will look like, but it will be great, or we won’t do it.

 

The campaign won’t end after the book launches. Next I’ll kick into high gear and start looking for ways to get the word out to the general public–radio shows, local television, national and international media via Skype or Google Hangouts. I’ll be available for interviews, presentations, and conventions.

 

There’s a lot to think about and to do when it comes to publicizing whatever it is you offer.  If there isn’t any particular buzz about your product, service, or cause, it will be up to  you or the person (copywriter, social media guru) you hire to create it for you, but you will still need to know your Ideal Client as well as I know mine. You have to ache where they ache, laugh where they laugh, develop a “fond bond” that nothing can break, even if you break stride now and then and stick your foot in your mouth or fail to exceed expectations in some other way.  (People who love you will forgive you for not walking on water…and they’ll stick with you through thick and thin.)

 

Which gives me the perfect opportunity to thank publicly, and once again, my amazing power partner, Lisa Twining Taylor, social media maven and website developer, who has been working non-stop to get the new edition looking as great as it can. She has scaled mountains, swum oceans and ricocheted around the sun to make this all happen on time.  I may have written the manuscript with all my heart, but without Lisa (and her whole heart) no one would ever be allowed to read it because the manuscript formatting was so badly mangled, manipulated and man-handled (edits that made no sense, stories dropped that needed to stay in, etc.) by the person who had it before we retrieved it that I was in despair of ever redeeming it.  Not Lisa! Lisa redeemed it and I am beyond grateful for her diligence and determination so that readers will hold soon hold in their hands the best masterpiece possible. Amen and amen!