Mel Hopkins

9 hours ago, CDBurns said:

 Would I be wrong if I said you are leaving out vital info about your career in pitching stories? Who did you work for? Did you own your company that pitched stories? Or was it just a freelance job you had?

I meant to quote this one and it's most difficult to do on the phone!!  But the comment on the other one is still valid. 

Not really leaving anything out. My information is all over the net. What I speak of here Is a snapshot of my pitch/placement success and it is my own - no backers no infuencer; only me doing my consultant thing.

 I work as a marketing consultant and  have since the late 80s and my USP, my focus, is helping creatives, sometimes hightech entrepreneurs, soft sell through media. My niche is media.

 (Dam it feels weird to write that but it is the truth and that one skill set has taken me so many places)  What's missing is the fact, that sometimes I will take employment if the position interest me

And those employers hire me to use my communication ability...if I included my accomplishments when working with an employer you'd think I was telling a tale. But yes my resume is impressive. 

But I digress . Media placement is low cost way to sell. you don't buy ads you simply get folks to talk about you,.

I don't get so wrapped in stats when I look at my amazon associates or adsense report i look for one thing How Much did I earn! Did someone buy?  

I compare the cost of sale to the return on investment. In media placement the cost is time. Do you know how much a full page ad in Black Enterprise cost?  That is the stat you are concerned with when an editor decides to run a story on you. My "pitch" "bought" me space.  Someone is talking about me - not me talking about myself. 

Other stats you concern yourself with is how much time did you spend compared to how many people saw that article or broadcast -(impressions)  Then you determine if it's still available on-line. Can you leverage it?

After self-publishing my novel, In the first six months I sold about 1000 print books through soft sales. No handselling -some direct sales through  appearances and the rest through distributors -personal distributors and established distribution channels.  No hardsell. Now I average less than 1 sale a month but then again I'm in the process of restructuring my entire company.  

Also in an effort to make an accurate measurment you have to define the clients' goals. For example my clients  used the print and broadcast placement to advance their careers.. My young clients included their media clips in college applications.  My tech client was raising funds for his communications company.

His appearance broaden his market and invited more backers. I even pitched directly to potential backers on his behalf. ( Media, as you know is plural and has many channels. I use all on my clients'behalf. )  As he went on to get government (military) funding for one of his products - mainstream media coverage provided legitimacy -because there is a paper trail.  He used the ebony, black enterprise  spread as leverage for commercial appeal. This particular government grant ask that his product also appealed to the private sector.  

My film producer expanded her territory - or at the least she was able to speak with women directly in Chicago and that allowed for more DVD sales. Roland Martin is an excellent journalist so our half-hour was fun!  Imagine how much it cost to purchase 30 minutes of airtime on WVON in chicago! Her cost was only my fee - and i'm sure that was less than .1 % of the cost of 30 minutes airtime. 

As for stats to my website -melhopkins.com it is a static website   Last month I had 200 unique visitors and the only reason why that happened is because my new twitter handle is "melhopkins dot com" <something so simple lol> But the bottomline in my business is getting attention. I do that well!

17 hours ago, CDBurns said:

You will have to continuously produce content for social to keep the traffic and even when you do this based on my stats, the traffic doesn't stay very long when it arrives from social. Search produces visitors that will stay on the site longer than 1 minute.

Take a moment to read this post I wrote. Once again, I've been keeping these type of stats for a very long time and this one simply solidified the countless articles about how effective social media is for the regular person.

http://www.cbpublish.com/business-how-long-does-a-facebook-visitor-stay/

 

Quick tutorial on how to pitch get placed.and get clips..

1) start w/local media - identify your favorite broadcast station/ tv/radio / print daily, weekly, that also has an online presence and features local stories (all do -but distinguish between syndicated broadcast and local broadcast)  who are the decision makers?  

 2) listen /watch and determine why the news editor/producer  choose  the  local features ? What is the angle of the story?

3) what is the local temperature? What is going on in your area? You have to strike when you know you can capture the mental real estate -

mery streep made news and was trending topic  yesterday because a reporter used her words as clickbait for his headline (lack of diversity in hollywood is hot topic) ii user the opportunity to promote a book I'm reading.

3) understand what you are selling. - you are NOT selling shoes anymore than nike sells sneakers and athletic wear.  Your shoes are the keys that loosed the shackles of the w-2 chains

You are not writing blogs or books...you are LEADING A MOVEMENT  to help others free themselves from 9 to 5 slavery. 

In this job market , I just read that eligible workers have given up looking for job - they are the longterm unemployed  these folks are your market!

Your media pitch? 

"A Memphis entrepreneur is lacing up his own designed running shoes and lesding others to find their own economic freedom.. CD Burns of (shoe business name) is .teaching young men to become their own boss...and if they become distributors of his product in the process that's just a win win - Burns says it is his way of helping others realize their dream...blah blah...

Note: yea I clean up "good" but when I pitch no one sees me - I don't know these folks. so I'm just words.  My folks get placed (in print or broadcast) because I fill time and inches. In short, I just help editors get their job done. 

You can help editors too once you start thinking like them. In the process, you'll get more clips to share with those you are helping to free themselves. 

10 hours ago, Troy said:

This was two years ago, so I'm sure these numbers have changed, but at the time I questioned whether avid readers would be very active on Twitter. I still question that.  

I think the founder of Medium.com who is also twitter co-founder probably thought the same.   When a twitter follower urged me to start writing at Medium  in 2013, I remember the sign up was through the twitter account.   All my twitter followers with Medium accounts became my Medium followers instantly. Now more of my twitter followers are on Medium.com so we are able to tweet stories from each other onto the twitter platform.  

I'm on twitter strictly because I'm a media junkie, and because Twitter breaks news first and globally.  

By the way, cool observation.  I betcha that's probably why Medium.com was 'born'  

2 hours ago, CDBurns said:

Now at the same time I do have a post that shows how effective a post or retweet on social media is when it's done by an influencer and this to me proves my point: 

http://www.cbpublish.com/business-the-power-of-a-tweet/

 

Below is the truth of SOCIAL MEDIA.  This is the crux of that billion word article...  (just teasing you)

"the Power of a Tweet only works when you’ve truly invested yourself into a community.~ @CDBurns

  

1 hour ago, CDBurns said:

What you are saying is a lot more difficult for those of us who don't have that connection to media that actually opens doors.

It is only difficult because of lack of experience in the media relations arena...

The on-air thing came as a result of my marketing gig...I was pitching stories to news before I started reporting it. The news director who hired me noticed I had an eye/ear for news. One gig led to another because I'm writer. 

So that's my only edge. No influencers; I know what stories  to pitch and I know what won't work.  

Still I pitch stories that editors consider and then kill.  I once pitched a story to Black Enterprise about this dude who put together a deal; a big deal for vodafone.  It was a great story all the parts where in place  and vodafone folks were ok with the publicity but the american contingent ,dude's boss, wouldn't let him take the credit publicly even though it was his deal... Story was dead on arrival.   

I pitched a story to essence about vasectomies and black men - I had the expert doctors lined up to go on record and everything. I even had young men willing to talk about the snip -the editor was game at first but then she quickly lost interest... The truth of vasectomies I think would be discouraging to her readers but it had a legs...

So see these people aren't my friends - they have a job to do and I know how to help them get their job done.  

When the BE editor picked up my story it was 2006 - no one was doing social selling... it was new and different. But I was actually pitching a story about my client a techie author (it don't get no boring than that lol ) when the editor noticed my HTML email signature promoting my book. It was no big deal to me.  I was just getting the word out about my book ...but he liked it did a full page feature on me  and my book!!!- and my client  got a 1/4 page on a chipset he co-created .  Still good though because I'd already placed my client in a full page-picture spread in Ebony.  

Here's how I pitched him - I told the editor do you know that commercial running about "fewer drop calls in your network"  Well Meet my friend, blah blah the black scientist, wireless LAN expert who holds 25 patents to make sure you stay connected..  It was true and verifiable but a scientist doesn't know that's a news story- but a media person does.  

If I were to look at your stories I'd probably could tell you in a minute who to pitch to and how. Plus there has to be a hook.  no one cares if you made a sneaker - no cares that you write articles but there is something about that folks will care about.  That's what I do I find that thing that people will want to read.  When you pitch a story it has to have  two of the three elements - New, Novel or a Change component or it has to be straight out effing shocking.    

6 hours ago, Troy said:

The real challenge is how does an unknown (non-celebrity) writer use social media to develop relationships which would ultimately lead to the potential to soft sell of a book?

I did it... and Black Enterprise did a story on me. (Click the black enterprise link) and I was about as unknown as anyone can be when I self-published my first novel .  What's worse is my novel dealt with the occult! Do you know how hard it is to sell the occult to a bunch a church going women LOL!

I networked with direct marketer who put me on stage; I got social (Xanga, MySpace, Facebook, blogtalkradio, ), Print (Ebony, Black Enterprise, Chicago citizen, ) broadcast (podcasts and radio) and live media exposure..and this was 2006 mind you. My book was even adopted by 2 chicago book clubs.    My nielsen bookscan rank was pretty decent in the first 6-months to a year after publishing - and I didn't even actively sell.  Soft selling came through my "relationships" and public "appearances".  

Is it time consuming? Heck yeah! But what else you have to do but sell your product you're an entrepreneur!  but to answer your question YOU PREPARE A COMMUNICATION PLAN and follow it!

Before I took my 8 year hiatus  I handled the media program for others...mostly for creatives and high tech folks though. One of my clients' work is now featured in the Library of Congress.  Yep he's immortalized   I mentioned for another client/partner , together we built a facebook fan page to 100,000 - and we even had Malcolm Jamar Warner chimed in on our page... 

But here's the key;  you have to know your product and once you do  you have to use that information in communication full-court press.

One cannot solely rely on one media channel. This is why I said social media is NOT a strategy - it is a tactic in a communication plan.  

As for twitter accounts, again remember social media has social in it - social = relationship... J.K.  recently went to twitter to defend casting a black woman has hermione .  She has about 3,000 tweets now. 

  I follow a lot of writers on my twitter account - and some prominent writers (screenwriters, songwriters, politicians) follow me - what I've learned about established writers, such as Hand of God's creator Ben Watkins @_benipedia_ , is they connect for relationships.  Ben gets that more of us that reviewed his show on Amazon the better his chances at a second.   

Thank you for sharing this ... Social Media Campaign is a misnomer.    Especially, since Social Media 'marketing'  is only one tactic in an overall communication plan. And make no mistake  social media is in the communication section of a marketing plan   Sadly, many new creative producers (musicians, authors, writers, etc) don't know how to market their product and that makes /her/him an easy mark.  

Marketing is not PR and PR is not Social Media... and none are SALES! 

As for authors not selling their books on social media - that's correct.   Social media is a communication channel where the author "sells" her expertise.  She doesn't say "buy my book." any more than United tweets  "buy my tickets" or Chase tweets "deposit your money" or Beyonce post on instagram anything but lifestyle and fashion. Remember her infamous "the link is in the bio" on Instagram?  The "BeyHive" is real.  But I digress. 

Social media is for building relationships.  Using Social media, an authors illustrates how her book can solve a problem, take a reader on an adventure, teach a lesson, etc.  Social media is for helping those in  your market achieve their goal.  One can do this with any book...fiction or nonfiction - every book has something to teach.  

My first novel "Sleeping with a D-Man", illustrates how a young woman can survive the ensuing apocalypse after conjuring up hell on earth just by dating a wanted man.  

The whole time I was  on Xanga, Myspace and a little on Facebook all I talked about were  "relationships". I even co-hosted a popular blogtalk radio show "relationship playbook" and grew our page to more than 100,000 followers.  I wasn't really a relationship expert - I helped people to see the unseen in their relationships and that's how I ended up soft-selling my novel. 

A good PR consultant would have advised this author of that one key tactic to reach her market and gain followers...help someone realize their dream and they will sell your product by their word of mouth.  That is what Social Media is Word of Mouth Marketing and it is taboo to talk about yourself - you let others do it for you.  

If a PR person is advising her client to "sell" anything on social media then her client isn't going to experience much success.  

Welp...a bbc reporter also noticed what I did about storytelling on a digital platform -His story "Is self-publishing coming of age in the digital world?" appeared today (note to self : more folks read AALBC.com forum than we know  dude took my angle and ran with it)  He featured white authors who also began their stories on blogs that became feature flicks...

Digital platforms are perfect for succinct storytelling and the immediate feedback allows the writer to know if they are reaching the masses.  Which of course, reaching the masses should be the goal of every writer!  

@Troy it is in my original post: You can find it on the sentence -   "the viral twitter story is here" click on the "here".  

I got the kindle version of "African Unconscious"  and as I'm reading it - I'm beginning to realize the "threatened return of the repressed" isn't limited to whites many direct descendants of Africa struggle with their own origin... I hear it our  "us versus them"  conversations.  it is exhibited in 
"I'm not like those kind of blacks" type mentality.    I hadn't thought of how some of us have our own internal struggle with being black...but once you hear/see it is hard not recognize it in your own.   

I heard 50 Shades of Grey also started as a blog.

Of course, sex sells there is no disputing that but this writer's success isn't about erotica or sex.   

This is a testament to "Zola"'s storytelling and her ability to use the platform to captivate an audience in 148 tweets .  She spun a tale filled with drama, suspense and brought attention to a social ill. 

Some writers work all their life to produce the great american novel and others, such as Aziah "Zola" King (Wells), tells her story in 148 tweets and now may get a movie deal.  

According to a news report in The Guardian, James Franco is reported to have signed on to direct a "potentially controversial true-life drama based on a wild and unsavoury stripper road trip to Florida that went viral on Twitter."   The viral twitter story is here but the one Franco is said to direct is based on the Rollingstone  interview with  Aziah "Zola" Wells.  

It is a fantastical tale about 4 on a road trip,  "Zola" and Jessica who work at hooters, work as part-time strippers and part-time sex workers, Jessica's violent Nigerian pimp  and her boyfriend who allegedly attempts suicide. The tale deals with sex trafficking, prostitution, attempted suicide and murder.    

"Zola" is now 6 months pregnant with her first child and goes by the name Mrs. King . When interviewed she appeared more like a struggling writer than "server-turned-stripper-sex-worker".  She said the first time she tweeted her "true" story no one paid attention. She said she removed it spiced it up and then posted again...

Her "confession" reminds me of that line in "Finding Forrester"..."No thinking - that comes later. You must write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite with your head"..

Seems like Zola's final edit was good enough to get her the  attention she sought even that  of Director Ava DuVernay

3 hours ago, CDBurns said:

(What's your Twitter handle?) I will retweet it and if we are linked on Facebook i will reshare it.

Good looking out!  I will do the same so please share. 
About.me/Mel_Hopkins

Twitter : @Mel_Hopkins_  
Twitter:  @The_Leadstory  
Google+ = +NickyJett  
Youtube: NickyJett

I deleted my facebook account.  

And thank you for heads up on @Troy new video! #Shared

27 minutes ago, Cynique said:

The most recent unprovoked shootings by a trigger happy rogue cop who on 12/27/15

 I didn't know about this one. It will probably be another year before information comes on this shooting.    I was referring to #BlackLivesMatter marching on Magnificent Mile before Christmas.

49 minutes ago, Sara said:

"threatened return of the repressed,"

I'm not sure if you're familiar with Dr. Edward Bruce Bynum so I'll write this as if I'm writing for anyone who doesn't know of him.  Dr. Bynum is clinical psychologist at the University of Massachusetts. 

He says we, as a species, engage in a battle with our "primitive impulses".  Psychologists/psychiatrists call this battle the threatened "return of the repressed".   I've dismissed this term simply because I thought they were referring to ape-like behavior. 

It wasn't until the other day, I heard Dr. Bynum  (for the first time) make the reference and spell it out  in his two-hour lecture "African Genesis" . He explains a lot of the subject matter from his book "African Unconscious" .  In short, Dr. Bynum says white culture has a difficult time reconciling African civilization was the first civilization to discover everything from writing to spirituality.  He says it was so difficult for Europeans to attribute the discovery of mathematics, astronomy, writing, measurement et al; they, through academics, began to identify the first civilization as white people from Egypt or they attributed the discoveries to Greeks and Romans.

Of course today we know that would be biologically impossible for white skin to exist in Africa but the idea still persist. He also clarifies Egypt was occupied by Africans from the west who had migrated there due to a change in landscape in the sub-Saharan region.   I learned about this migration through the National Geographic Genographic project - which clearly outlines the journey out of Africa ... 

 Anyway, here's an excerpt from his book "African Unconscious" 

"Recall that prior to 25,000 to 30,000 years ago all Homo Sapiens were Black and that racial diversification as we think of it today, had not yet begun.  The present day implication of this, of course, is that beneath the wealth of contents in our shared or multicultural unconscious the primordial essence and genetic roots of our African dynamism dwells.  (Carl Gustav) Jung felt  this deeper racial memory as his bedrock memory and it unfolded within him a great peace and sense of unity between all peoples of this planet.   Many people have had similar experiences and insights.  

This repression of the primordial African Unconscious is an act of represssion not only in Europe but also Eurocentric science.  It might be thought of as the collective  "threatened  return of the repressed." 

27 minutes ago, Troy said:

She identifies as a member of Socialist Alternative, an anti-capitalist, democratic-socialist party.  Which is #occupy did not invent.

Maybe Kshama Sawant does now..but I was in Seattle when I first heard of her and during her campaign and she identified as an Occupy activist. In the link, Democracy Now which covers Occupy extensively she speaks directly about  the Occupy movement as well.  Another part of her platform and her work is with protecting those in the transsexuals.    She's not the only #Occupy activists that has run for office either. Some of us may lose interest but I find a lot of these folks in the movement -are dedicated.   If you have time, keep an eye out for them and you'll see what I mean. 

Oh this isn't just a referral service - if I were to hire you; I pay Amazon for your service package.  Amazon pays you. No haggling. No schedule conflicts. 

Ok Alfred Edmonds, Jr is not incompetent but he was getting paid.  and he has a website ...too! He ain't slick! 

1 hour ago, Troy said:

Without realizing the underlying causes of the high crime and poverty, people welcomed the very policing tactics that #blacklivesmatters want to eliminate.  But his is a much bigger conversation.

A few years ago #occupy was the movement dujour, today it may be #blacklivesmatter, tomorrow given our fickle nature, it will be something else...  

I'm right there with you. I believe Policing definitely has its role. Law Enforcement dances that fine line with criminals; it's the nature of the beast.   But during the Dinkins/Giulani years  there was no racial profiling.  Police had their hands full with Jamaican/Colombian drug trafficking cartel. Law Enforcement targeted the correct individuals back then.   We lost a lot of police officers during that time because they went up against armed individuals - my dad included (Koch years).

Prior to 9-11, Law Enforcement was better in the neighborhoods because Department of Justice poured a lot of money into community policing... After 9/11- all the money allocated to community policing was moved to the Patriot Act activities and Department of Homeland Security.  Shortly thereafter militarize policing began.  

#Blacklivesmatter is demanding Law Enforcement return to the pre-9/11 community policing protocol. 

Today, with local Law Enforcement  having to "fund" itself. They just park in poor neighborhoods and harass poor black people. Here in Georgia we call it the Law Enforcement Tax - but in the inner cities, it is taxing, harassment and finally displacement in an effort to gentrify the neighborhood.  Yes, some neighborhoods are high crime/gang/drug trafficking neighborhoods but when was the last time a police shot a known gang-banger?   There's all type of organized crime in Chicago - but police don't even mess with Mexican cartels.  It is well known and even the judge my daughter clerked for here told her about the gang drug activity in Illinois.  There's Chinese drug cartel operating in San Fran/Oakland - but who do police target?  I haven't heard of a chinese "Oscar Grant" and I probably won't.  

 #BlackLivesMatter - may be a small voice but they have a lot of followers who amass in every city when called upon. See what they did at Christmas time in the major cities.  I betcha the latest rogue police officer in Chicago was indicted.  These young people are tap dancing on a lot of #Whiteestablishment nerves.  I applaud them. Reminds me of us when marched on the Board of Education to "save of sports."  Betcha we didn't get any sports budget cuts that year ! LOL! 

As for #Occupy - did you hear about the $15 minimum wage increase in Seattle?  Do you know how it happened? An OccupyWallStreeter made it all the way to city council and fought for it.... Movements don't fade away, its members run for government offices and some even get elected.   ;-)

1 hour ago, Troy said:

the products I sell are intangible (advertising and services) and not available for purchase via Amazon,

Have you checked out Amazon Professional Services?  Heh heh heh...;)  Actually if you chose for your services to be available Amazon has a deal for you right here...

Social media doesn't build brands and  never has! An effective communication program builds a brand. 

A good communication plan includes using many channels to send a message  not just one to achieve the goal.   

Further, social media websites are part of what communication practitioners, such as me, call New Media.

New Media is one channel you use to communicate to and with your audience.  There are as many websites in this media channel as there are people. Therefore, to use one website in the channel to reach your market gives you the same odds as playing and winning the powerball jackpot.  Dude on the panel that shut you down @Troy was either on payroll or he's incompetent. 

Even if a billion people visit one website, such as Facebook; the first rule of Marketing 101 indicates everyone in that billion is NOT in your market.  Save for impulse buying of teeshirts on facebook through page set up like storefronts (See: Threadless Tees) most people come to facebook to be seen. [Update: I just went to Threadless Tees facebook page and the store is gone!] 

McDonald serves a billion customers - and they use every channel available to reach them including premium promotional  imprint channel. 
HEADS UP for our resident children book authors/illustrators

Sellers are always looking for short cuts and there's always a shill willing to sell it to them. 

While It is true people buy from people they know; producers have to remember SOCIAL media is for developing and maintaining relationships. In fact, @CDBurns said as much in another thread. He offered access to him here on AALBC.

Social = relationships! bots not included.

As for marketing and sales, a competent marketing strategist knows it's better to first determine who is in the market for her product. She then determines how best to reach them (communication) and then she employs her media strategy (communication plan) to take her sales message to them.  

Note: While a producer may have a brand in mind for his/her product, it is the CONSUMERS , in the market, who define the brand for that product.

For example, United executives want to brand themselves "flyer friendly" but until recently the market said the airline was anything but friendly. 

~ Signed a longtime Marketing/Communication strategist who began her career marketing books for BIg 8 publishing houses (now Big 5)who was fortunate enough to work in Broadcast news both in front of the television camera and behind the mic in Radio. 

8 hours ago, Cynique said:

OK.  

BTW, what is UIUC?  University of Illinois at Chicago?(UIC)   If so, this is the Chicago extension of the state university and many of its students are commuters. The "flagship" university of Illinois is a Big10 school known as the U.  of I,  and this is where I attended.  it is located in the semi-rural area of central Illinois in  Champaign-Urbana which is about a 3-hour drive from Chicago. In the tradition of all big 10 schools, it has been around since the 1860s. (Its sport teams are nicknamed The Fighting Illini.)   There's a world of difference between the 2 campuses. 

UiUC=University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign .  

We lived in Naperville while my daughter was in attendance.  I'm all too familiar with that 3 -hour drive -(one way).

Btw,  I'm familiar with UIC too! My oldest daughter worked in the engineering school there while she was in undergrad.  

U of I degree  is definitely a great value. My daughter was awarded her degree (psychology/statistics) and found enployment at the salary she wanted within 1-month of beginning her job search. 

43 minutes ago, Troy said:

And yes there are more ways to commit suicide that putting the business end of a shotgun in your mouth ala your typical white boy.  

I agree. I remember when I was a cigarette smoker, I thought, this is "suicide by cigarettes"... Then when I don't eat properly I think "suicide by sweets".  Yet, slow-suicide isn't quantifiable.  African-American Suicide by (fill in the blank)  is prevalent in our community.   If we add  "suicide-by- (blank) atop the current suicide-rates for all groups ... white males still come out on top.  I know it is a reach but I find Dr. Bynum's theory intriguing.  Now I  just have figure out how, what he calls, the "threatened "return of the repressed" affects African-Americans.  Surely, we don't fear our own origin.  

1 hour ago, Cynique said:

May the ol girl rest in peace. Me, I’ll opt to snooze in contentment.

This line... it really tickled me!  

This is a great story - one that you'd see play out in an irreverent type tv comedy.  Grace & Frankie (Netflix) comes to mind with Jane Fonda & Lily Tomlin...

Btw, My middle daughter graduated from UIUC in 2015 ... She says she loved every moment! 

... OMG!!!  that last line! Oh No you didn't!!!   

Life's absurd twist and turns...