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PR Diva Wows 'Em on the Web
Innovative Promotions and Web-Savvy Style Gives P.R. Firm's Clients 'Loud' Internet Buzz
PRDiva.com is a book publicity firm with a specialty in online book PR. Getting started as a company on January 1st, 1999, PRDiva has been surfing and promoting ever since. President and Boss Diva Gwendolynn Gawlick spent ten years in the world of traditional advertising agencies before joining the Internet Wave in 1996. Knowing the rigors of the Ad Game came in handy when Gwen made the switch to PR. Skills like proofing, editing, art direction, and design are all a part of the PR business, and strength in these areas add professionalism to their projects."I decided to take advantage of the power of the internet to work almost anywhere where I could dial up efficiently, and chose Vancouver, BC on what we call the 'wet' coast," says Gawlick. "We're just north of Seattle, and enjoy the same six months of rain they do. It's not a bad climate for people who spend ten hours a day in front of a computer screen."
The team at PRDiva (rounded out by Roy Gawlick, Web Master; Jodi MacQuarrie, Literary Diva; and Colleen Coplick, Publicist) provides traditional "terra firma" PR services, as well as full Internet PR Services. They have worked for larger publishers such as Wiley, Harper Collins, Random House, Osborne, and Penguin, as well as small and independent presses like Red Rock Press, Rocky Mountain Press, Red Deer Press, and numerous independent authors promoting their work.
"PR is one of the best ways I know to have fun getting the word out to the world about what you're doing. Make it fun, keep it interesting, and people will turn to look. For example, we wanted to promote the fact that a wonderful summer resort in Wyoming was going to have its first season open for winter. Rather than just send out a press release, we decided to have a contest to win a few nights at the resort. From there, we decided that out there in horse and snow country, a man's best friend is a good roll of duct tape, and it seems that everyone has a good duct tape story. From holding your evening dress to your chest so you don't show too much skin, to taping your little sister to the ceiling -- duct tape is a part of our culture."
"We found 'The Duct Tape Guys', who are a scream, and run around the world lecturing (humorously) about duct tape. We contacted the biggest Duct tape manufacturer in the US, and discovereed that there is such thing as "Extreme Duct Tape,' 'Camoflage Duct Tape,' and numerous other innovations to the classic silver roll. We asked people to send in their favorite duct tape stories to post on the site, and the best one would win a weekend for two at the lodge. It was a great vehicle to get the word out about a great place to go in the big snow!"
When we interviewed Galick she was in New Orleans, doing some work for Lycos.com and the Orpheus Krewe for the upcoming Mardi Gras celebration. "We love a challenge at PRDiva, and sometimes it's good to shake things up a little. February tends to be a pretty dull month for book releases, so we're working with Lycos.com on a big Mardi Gras Internet community with editorial, video, interviews, and photos for most of February." Gwen Gawlick, Boss Diva at PRDiva
"We have been online for over five years, and have watched the Internet trends arise, develop and in many cases, erode," says Gawlick. "We know who the players are -- and online, that's a challenge! Internet Editorial-types have a habit of moving every three months. We have strong relationships with online portals and niche sites, as well as a broad understanding of Internet Marketing theory and practice."
PRDiva breaks their typical Book Launch Campaign into two main components: the Email News Release, which goes out to the online media, and the Internet Posting, which goes to the public.
The News Release is formatted specifically for distribution by e-mail to online media. Publishers who already have a press kit can have it tweaked to conform to online media standards. The media list is constantly updated, and includes editors of online magazines, content specific websites, reviewers, general book sites, genre book sites, and specialty sites.
An Internet posting is built and then submitted to public forums, discussion groups, mailing lists, newsgroups and similar gathering places online. It goes to America Online and Compuserve, as well as to Listservs that distribute the post, usually offering a complimentary excerpt from the book on request. Each audience receives the information in the format they prefer.
PRDiva also conducts virtual book tours, taking authors on a multi-city, virtual book tour in an evening -- and the author doesn't even have to leave home. The virtual author tour is a great way to raise awareness of a book on the Web, especially when visits are made to websites with a good fit, and events such as live chats take place. Prdiva.com takes care of the technical aspects of the chat event, and since they're familiar with the chat protocol and have all the software required, the author needs only to be on the phone for the chat, and they do the rest.
"The biggest advantage to the virtual author tour, aside from the fact that authors can do it in their jammies, is the cost," says Gawlick. "For the price of a very small terra firma author tour, PRDiva.com can mount an entire publicity campaign and stage three live events. We work with some of the biggest websites online and through them, have access to their visibility and their audiences."
PRDiva puts a large amount of behind-the-scenes work into each Virtual Author Tour, including acting as liaison for the author and the chat site hosts, creating or obtaining media for the event, and monitoring promotion done for the campaign. All online events are pre-arranged, with author bios, chat topics, and sample questions sent in advance to each site, and an active online chat calendar is maintained. Each of these components works in tandem with the other elements of the campaign to create a louder buzz about the book.
"We have created campaigns that rely on traditional techniques applied to the Internet and also on unusual techniques created specifically for the Internet. Every book we work on is a custom project, and from a booklover's perspective, each book has a different taste and feel. Books are our passion here. That's why we do what we do. We love the people and we love the pages."