Wednesday: Sourcing for several quick-turnaround assignments + how to use Instagram better in PR/media relations.
Plus: Give yourself the gift of education this HGG season
Good morning!
Hope everyone is coping well (or as best they can) in our current dystopian reality.
Busy day today as I’m packing this morning — headed on a 48-hour trip to Chicago tomorrow (and yes, I hope deep dish happens in those 48 hours), where i’ll be attending an exciting new restaurant opening. But also much going on as far as content, as I am wrapping up a few gift guides in the next few days, and also sourcing experts for several new pending stories — I’m looking for everything from contractors to chefs to sleep experts and more for stories. If you have any of those, please scroll down to the pending assignments section and check out everything I’m currently working on as well as my sourcing needs!
As I mentioned previously, I'm on the featured panel of travel experts who creates the nominee lists for various categories in the Newsweek Reader's Choice awards...the latest one I had a hand in was rather fun: Best casino resorts with live entertainment outside of Las Vegas. Check it out, some of my very faves are on there! (And if your client is on the list, be sure to share this far and wide so they can get lots of votes from their followers!) Also new this week: for Travel & Leisure, This $7 Luggage Accessory Helps Me Feel Safe When Traveling — and I'll Never Have to Replace It, and for Forbes.com, Forbes.com: 11 Creative Dishes Inspired By The Flavors Of Thanksgiving and Food Network: Cult-Favorite Bonne Maman Gets Into the Pie Filling Business.
Are you using Instagram in your PR outreach?
Everyone has their favorite corner of the social media world. Once upon a time, mine was Twitter but now it’s decidedly an X. (See, what I did there?), and while I confess I feel like an old lady in a rocking chair every time I use TikTok, I’m still all about Instagram.
I use Instagram for everything from sharing updates on my life (from puppies to what I’m making for dinner) to sharing my new pieces. It’s a convergence of my life and work — it’s also where I send dozens of memes a night to my best friends, but that’s besides the point — but when we’re talking about PR and media relations, it’s actually pretty essential. If you aren’t using it already, you should be, and here’s why:
Of course, you can share your product (be it an actual physical product or a destination) in a video or photo. Visual depictions have way more weight than any old tweet. But it can also help to establish your identity - get people to really know you, interact you, and understand you.
You can go live! Use this for your product launches, or get to know you AMA type sessions with important faces and names at your brand or to amplify live events. I love for example when chefs do stuff like this. Also, since live streams and Instagram stories expire in a day, it makes everything feel a bit extra urgent and timely. For example, you know how Chipotle will sometimes give out free codes for burritos and such on their Twitter, them doing this led to me creating alerts for them on my phone (this says more about me than them, but anyway) - perhaps use this Instagram feature to share links to sales or deals or coupon codes good only as long as the story has not yet expired.
Engagement. This one is kind of obvious but in getting to know people and interact with you, people can share, ask questions, leave comments…it creates a sense of community. Of course, this can also help you tap into the influencer and micro-influencer community (granted, that one can be a mixed, more complicated bag!)
Announce new products and collaborate with other brands. It builds excitement and anticipation and makes social media sort of like a soft (or not so soft) launch pad.
But don’t use it to pitch. We’ve covered this a lot. It’s a platform for visibility and engagement but keep that pitching to email!
Give yourself the gift of education this HGG season
As we're in the throes of gift guide season right now, a lot of people are asking a lot of questions about affiliate marketing and how to implement it into their pitching and PR strategy. One fabulous option I've come across is Praize's Affiliate PR Masterclass.
This masterclass is full of value:
Turn Brand Awareness Into Trackable Revenue. Pitching is of course all about spreading brand awareness, and that's super important, but when you boil it down—is it actually resulting in sales? If your PR efforts are still leaving you wondering about ROI and struggling to justify the performance of the coverage you're securing, learning more about Affiliate PR might be a game changer.
Emma Grace Moon, founder of Praize, discovered a breakthrough approach in 2019 that removes the guesswork from traditional PR. It's a proven system for securing high-quality media coverage that actually drives revenue. She's helped DTC brands like Great Jones, Kinfield, Jones Road, and Dame transform their press coverage into a trackable revenue channel.
Her masterclass will unlock practices that can help you generate more revenue from PR coverage, increase the amount of high-quality press features you secure, and all the while build a profitable and scalable PR channel with clear ROI.
This masterclass goes beyond traditional PR, from understanding publication affiliate ecosystems to crafting compelling pitches and optimizing coverage for search. Get practical tools, including step-by-step guides, an Affiliate Marketing Dictionary, and real-world examples from successful DTC brands. Ready to transform your PR efforts? Click here to sign up for the masterclass that unlocks revenue-driving PR, and get first access when it launches on December 1.
*This has been an ad for Praize's Affiliate PR Masterclass. Interested in placing your own ad, email me. I have a policy of only advertising products and services I truly believe in and find value in for this community - so tell me more about what you are working on!
Give yourself the gift of great hair this holiday season
My besties at RPZL are offering a staggering 30% off sitewide as their pre-Black Friday sale. This is something that never happens and a great time to stock up on hair accessories (including pieces from my collection!).
Did you catch that I’m currently offering a 50% off deal on subscriptions — and you can lock in that price now…forever? Upgrade your subscription now!
Newly published or freshly updated
Since people are often asking about the status of stories from a while ago, and I only share stories in this newsletter that were published or updated in the current week, I have created a list of my author pages at various publications to which I contribute. Bookmark it and make your life a bit easier.
This list will live on my Substack URL and be updated as necessary. That way, you can see what I’m doing at any publication, at any time, from types of stories to general structure of stories to even volume and frequency of my content at that outlet.
This can also help you to target pitching a bit better. That makes your job easier, and mine too!
Newsweek Readers Choice: Best Casinos with Live Music (outside Vegas), Best U.S. Wellness Resort, Best Packing Cube, Best Vodka, Best Gourmet Subscription Box, Best Mattress, and Best Outdoor Grill - more categories coming very soon!
Travel & Leisure: This $7 Luggage Accessory Helps Me Feel Safe When Traveling — and I'll Never Have to Replace It
Forbes.com: 11 Creative Dishes Inspired By The Flavors Of Thanksgiving
Food Network: Cult-Favorite Bonne Maman Gets Into the Pie Filling Business
Forbes.com: Holland America And Sur La Table Create Cooking Classes Inspired By Global Ports
Southern Living: My recipe for air fryer pumpkin seeds!
Forbes.com: New Vegan Spot Brings Basque Fare To New York City
Forbes.com: Holiday Gift Guide 2024: The Best Gifts For The Starter Kitchen
Forbes: Holiday Gift Guide 2024: Beefy Texas-Inspired Gifts For The Southwestern Carnivore
Food Network: Trader Joe’s Finally Has a White Queso Dip and It Was Well Worth the Wait
If you or your client are featured in any of these stories, I super appreciate any social media shares! Please remember to tag @alywalansky and the outlet.
Here’s what I’m working on:
Be sure to read the below list carefully. Many are stories I posted about yesterday, but some of yesterday's stories are no longer listed and a few new ones have been added since yesterday. This (below) is everything that is still a currently open opportunity as of today.
Please remember when pitching me: Email me at alywalansky@gmail.com - do NOT just hit reply on this newsletter, or there’s a good shot your email will be lost in the heap. Give your email a subject line that makes it clear which story you are pitching me for — it’ll help you in the long run.
Please consult my industry insights guides on submitting expert commentary, sending emails that will catch a journalist’s attention, how to craft pitches journalists will say ‘yes’ to, and the right and wrong way to submit photos, if you need any extra guidance before sending your pitches.
Apartment Therapy
Chefs Share Their One Essential Cleaning Tip for Holiday Hosting that Keeps Them Organized - I’d love if you can reach out and share it!
Unsafe Kitchen Design Trends Contractors Wish You'd Stop Doing: For this, I’d love to speak to a few contractors about kitchen trends they deem "unsafe" — either because they create problems down the road or because they are things that actually no one should be DIYing. This can be a mix of DIY trends (from TikTok, Instagram, etc) and standard trends that contractors deem unsafe because of possible problems down the road or that they're just too dangerous to DIY.
Yahoo Life
I’m rounding up the best pedometers for counting your steps. This will likely include a smartwatch and fitness tracker, but would primarily be basic-style pedometers that you can clip to your waist or wear on a lanyard, etc.. this will be a tested roundup like the stories I did on cooling fans and sleep trackers, so I’ll need to be calling in a bunch to try over the next few weeks…if you have one, please email me with more info now to get a beat on the rush. I’ll be testing each one for factors such as reliable, accurate, and easy to use, but once I have all the details of this assignment pegged out, I’ll also be seeking some expert sources to ask some requests regarding pedometers and what to look for - I imagine this will likely include personal trainers, coaches, fitness experts, exercise physiologists, and so forth.
Saatva Sleep Enlightened blog
It may seem so far off right now, but I’m going to be working on a story on how to sleep better when Daylight Saving Time BEGINS in March — will need sleep experts to weigh in. I’m looking to cover Daylight Saving Time (DST) begins on Sunday, March 9 when we "spring ahead." Although many people get excited about the extra hour of daylight in the evenings, most health experts agree DST is actually worse for your sleep and health than standard time, and I’d love some experts to speak to that, as well as strategies for coping with the upcoming time change so you can keep your sleep schedule on track.
Forbes.com
Gift guide time!
I’m seeking the best gifts for the martini lover. This could be obvious martini ingredients, such as vodka or gin, great olives, and so forth - but also glassware, bar tools, and fun martini-themed other items that don’t even have to be edible in any way but along the concept of …fun for martini fans!.
If you want to pitch me for these gift guides, please be sure to include:
Name of product
A few sentences about why you think I should consider it for this particular guide
a few links to online retail for this product (MUST be available online and currently in stock)
A LINK to an image of the product
Price
Note: I’m ONLY interested in being pitched products for these guides. Please don’t send me your influencer or chef’s picks as their favorites - this is not an expert commentary piece. Thanks!
Also for Forbes, I’m rounding up the most exciting restaurant/bar openings happening in Vegas later this year/early next. I have some great ones on my radar already, but trying to round it out a bit more.
Also: Do you know of an airport lounge that has an especially interesting F&B offering/feature? I want to hear about it!
For Forbes, for National Espresso Day, i’m looking for fun espresso based cocktails - not necessarily just the traditional espresso martini but other riffs. These must exist on bar/restaurant menus. Please include mame of rest/bar, where it’s located, link to their website, description of the cocktail, and a quote from a bartender/mixologist/chef about cocktail/dish as well as a good-quality photo and appropriate photo credits.
Plate Magazine
I’m putting out bites/drinks of the week feelers, which is sort of a drink/dish spotlight piece. (Some examples are this Peruvian-inspired sweet potato in Savannah and a molecular banana daiquiri in Chicago.) Basically if you are pitching me something for this, think along the lines of: Is this dish/bite something new? What interesting techniques are used to make it come together? If the technique is simple, what’s the hook? An interesting ingredient? Something being made in house or in an interesting way? What’s the story behind the dish? What inspired it? Is there a cultural/family story behind the dish? An ingredient the chef got their hands on? Love to hear what you might have for me!
<3
aly