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A hairy Movember comes to a close. PR Works raises more than $900 for Movember fundraiser for prostate cancer research

Steve Dubin on Nov 30

When business owners say “it’s been a little hairy lately”, typically that’s a reference to workload or the frenetic pace of taking care of business. Things were a little hairy, but it had nothing to do with business as PR Works Principal Steve Dubin and Account Manager Joe D’Eramo grew mustaches and raise money as part of Movember, an international fundraiser for prostate cancer awareness. The duo raised $910 for the cause. 

Movember involves men growing a “mo” or mustache during the month of November as a rallying point for raising funds and awareness for prostate cancer health and other men’s cancer-related issues via Prostate Cancer Foundation and LIVESTRONG. In addition to collecting funds, we also spread the word about this worthy cause by posting regular updates on our blog and Facebook pages.

According to the Movember website:

  • One in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime.
  • A man is diagnosed with prostate cancer every 2.2 minutes.
  • One in two men will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.
  • 24 percent of men are less likely to go the doctor compared to women.

In 2010, Movember generated $80.7 million globally, $38.4 million in the US. Eighty three percent of the funds were allocated to programs supporting prostate cancer and other cancers affecting men. Seventy percent of that went to Movember’s men’s health partners, the Prostate Cancer Foundation (35%) and LIVESTRONG (35%) and 13% funded Movember’s awareness and education program. 

Joe D'Eramo on Nov 30

“It’s been a fun fundraiser and besides increasing my awareness of prostate cancer and other male-related cancers, it increased my awareness of the number of friends and colleagues who have had prostate cancer and beat it,” said D’Eramo.

In addition to Wendy Dubin and Karin D’Eramo, the significant others who had to tolerate the mustaches, we would like to thank everyone who donated to this very worthy cause, including: Jan Veyt and Els Goeman; Dr. Richard Wolfert, Domenic D’Eramo, Maria Russo, Gordon Whitten,  Phillip Henault, Greg Malerbi, Michael Roussos, Jon Richmond, Doug Adams, Joseph Cummings, Coralie Kraetzer, David Soper, Kevin Cully, Marilyn Gilchrist and Jerry Levine, Barbara Arena, Murray Vetstein, Pam and David Snell, Brad and Julie White, Jim Farrell and Irwin Abrams.

There’s still time to donate to Movember. You can find out more about the type of work you’d be helping to fund by visiting the Movember website: http://us.movember.com/about. Movember is a registered 501 (c)(3) charity; donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.

For a final look at the mustache efforts of PR Works, you can visit www.facebook.com/PRWorkZone.

A hairy Movember comes to a close. PR Works raises more than $900 for Movember fundraiser for prostate cancer researchRead More

PR Works joins a hair-raising fundraiser for prostate cancer research

Steve Dubin
A cleanly shaven Steve Dubin is ready for Movember

We’ve all heard the expression “put your money where your mouth is”. This November, now to be referred to as Movember, I’m hoping people will put money where my mouth is—or donate money to a very good cause for what’s above my mouth. That’s because as part of the Movember fundraiser for prostate cancer research, I’ll be growing a mustache for the entire month.

My colleague at PR Works, Joe D’Eramo, will be joining me in this effort. Those are our cleanly shaven mugs to the right. We have a friendly wager. Whoever raises the most donations for Movember has to keep his mustache for another month. It’s a wager neither of our spouses has signed off on, but we are both committed to raising funds for this very worthy cause.

Why are we so passionate about this particular men’s health issue? For starters:

  • One in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime.
  • A man is diagnosed with prostate cancer every 2.2 minutes.
  • One in two men will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.
  • 24 percent of men are less likely to go the doctor compared to women.
Joe D'Eramo
PR Works Account Manager Joe D'Eramo

Would you like to join our mustache growing fundraiser? The Mo the merrier. You can register by going to Movember’s website. And if you’d like to follow our progress, feel free to visit PR Works’ blog or Facebook page. To make a donation under my name, please click here. To donate to Joe, click here.

If you’d like to find out more about the type of work you’d be helping to fund by supporting Movember, take a look at the Programs We Fund section on the Movember website: http://us.movember.com/about. Movember is a Movember is a registered 501 (c)(3) charity; donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Thank you in advance for supporting our efforts to change the face of men’s health.

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What do you do with your wonderful new widget?

You’ve got a great new product, but you just don’t know who will adopt it first. “Where is the low hanging fruit?” as we say in PR/marketing.

For example, you’ve developed a solar powered radio and customers will never have to buy another battery or hunt for a power outlet.  Plus, your customers will be seen as “green”, forward-thinking, perhaps even thrifty.

But where do you start with marketing?

This may appeal to environmentalists, electronic enthusiasts, campers, the pool and patio crowd and outdoor workers such as landscapers, roofers, etc.

The solar powered radio might be a huge winner in high end catalogs like SkyMall, Brookstone’s, Frontgate, and Hammacher Schlemmer. (Yes, we have contacts who can arrange for this.)

It could be a big hit on QVC and other shopping channels. (We have some success stories for this as well.)

Or we might eventually go the Ginsu Knife screaming TV offer (Yes, we have a relationship with the original Ginsu Knife ad agency).

But first, we need a name that is either self-descriptive or, at the very least, positive and memorable.So we brainstorm for a great product name. Solar Sounds? Sunny Sounds? How about SunTunes?  Or Dawn of a New Decibel.  You get the idea.

Then, we build a WordPress based website that is well seen by search engines.

Then, we suggest a modest rollout.

Utilizing PR as a trial balloon in each potential market, we are able to TEST before investing heavily in that market.  A well crafted news release touting the wonders of the environmental impact (or lack of it) could be rolled out to green niche publications.  Similarly, the fun and trendiness of it would be emphasized for the pool and patio media.  And so on.

As coverage is garnered for each target audience, we will quickly know where early traction is so you can expand marketing efforts.

Have a new product or service?  Let us shed light on how you can quickly capitalize upon it.

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Do you Google good to great? Protecting your online reputation.

Flowers may say “I love you” but negative comments about your business or service on a blog or consumer Web site are forever. And if a Google search on your company contains just one of these sites on the first page, you’ve got a huge problem.

Is it hopeless? Yes and no.

Yes, because you’ll never eliminate the negative post on a comment page of a blog or Web site.

No, because you can push the negative site down on searches of your company name by consistently putting out positive information on your company via blogs, press releases, “how to” and bylined articles and even creating additional Web sites on your company’s products or services.

By creating new content about your company, particularly if it’s posted on another Web site that ranks highly in the search engines—like Prfree.com or other press release distribution sites—you can push the offending site or blog down the page of searches on your company.

Ideally, you want to push the offending page as many pages back in a Google search as possible. Unfortunately, that will take a great number of press releases, blog entries and other efforts. Your immediate goal should be to knock the negative site off the first page of a Google search.

One simple way to accomplish this is to plan a series of press releases, with a minimum of one per week over the course of a few months. Be sure to post your press release on at least 10 free press release submission sites. Within a few weeks, you should start to see these releases appearing on searches for your company name. As long as there are no additional posts on the negative sites, you have a pretty good shot of knocking the negative post off the first page of searches.

Most importantly, be patient and stick to the plan. It may take a month or two or even longer to knock the negative site off the first page. But it can be done if you keep putting out new, positive content on your company.

Get proactive, keep the momentum going and get good to great on Google.

Do you Google good to great? Protecting your online reputation.Read More

Repurposing your press releases

Joe D'Eramo
Joe D'Eramo

(Editor’s note – Thanks to Joe D’Eramo who gave us permission to REPURPOSE this article.)

So, you want to get some publicity for your company’s latest product, new hire, move, whatever the topic. You put out a press release with the ultimate goal of getting some type of coverage. And while that type of free media is great, there are a number of other uses for a press release.

For starters, besides sending the release to media outlets, there are any number of free press release submission sites out there. For example, prfree.com. Submitting your release on these sites with a link back to your Web site can improve your place in the search engine rankings.

Speaking of rankings, by all means your press releases should go on your Web site’s news room. If you don’t have a newsroom, you should have one. It’s a great place to store press releases and any coverage you might get.

One more thing about press releases on your own Web site. Since releases are generally on a topic for which you want your company to be known, it’s a great opportunity to load up on keywords. That means the press release you send out to the media doesn’t necessarily have to be verbatim from the one you post on your site. You can load that one up with extra keywords and keyword phrases to improve your search engine rankings.

If you’re writing your press releases in a tone and format where a newspaper could easily run it verbatim, it’s quite easy to repurpose the news release for some other use. For example, a bylined article. All it takes is changing the format slightly—take the “For Immediate Release” dateline and boiler plate and you have the making of a short article suitable for a company newsletter or e-zine.

For companies that have their own blogs, news releases can also quite easily be converted to blog material. There are also dozens of free submission sites for articles. Again, if you link the article back to your company Web site, you have another vehicle for boosting your search engine rankings.

Ironically, you don’t have to repurpose the news release altogether to give it even more power. A press release makes an invaluable collateral piece, particularly if it’s informative in nature. It’s often a nice leave-behind piece for your sales force. You can even use it as a quasi company newsletter for your employees and your clients.

In fact, sending press releases to clients and employees is one underutilized way to get the full benefit of a press release. Employees certainly appreciate being kept in the loop. You’d be surprised how few companies keep their employees abreast of breaking news.

As for clients, it’s a perfect way to stay in touch in between newsletters, if you have one of those. It can almost act as a substitute for one if you don’t. A press release can remind your client base of not only of what you’re doing, but new or other services you offer that they might not know about.

Ideally, a press release gets you in the press. Repurposing your press release for other media gives you the most bang for your press release buck.

Repurposing your press releasesRead More