Sarah Palin's BOGO Book Tour

No matter how you feel about Sarah Palin, you have to admit that the book tour schedule for her Going Rogue: An American Life is pretty darn clever.

Palin's publisher is skipping big cities like Seattle, San Francisco, Philadephia, and Los Angeles. Shucks. The durn liberals in those places can't properly appreciate a gal like Mrs. Palin. She's reaching out to "just folks" like me in the smaller cities of Middle America: Noblesville, Ind. Washington, Pa., Grand Rapids, Mich. Even my town, Rochester, N.Y., is on the schedule. Excited locals will greet the former candidate at a Borders on the less upscale side of the city on November 21. (You can bet that selecting that Borders over a Barnes & Noble and another Borders in the county's two most upscale suburbs was a strategic move.)

Her appearance here is guaranteed to generate a media frenzy -- and isn't that what you want at a book signing? Really, it's sheer genius. The TV stations will be hyping it for a few days before the appearance -- "A national celebrity visits Rochester tomorrow! We'll tell you who tonight at 11." -- and the newspaper will turn to politicians and pundits who will comment on whether this book signing campaign is a hint of what's to come in the next presidential election. Or maybe the daily will send a photog to snap pictures of members of Moose for a Safe America picketing outside Borders during Palin's appearance.

It will be a big whoop-dee-doo event here in conservative Western New York and it will not only sell books, it will help Palin connect with the Americans she hopes will elect her to national office -- a politician's equivalent of a BOGO (buy one, get one free).

I admire what her marketing team is doing here. This tour strategy guarantees far more media exposure for both Palin's politics and her book than her team could have generated among the jaded media outlets in big cities. It will be topped off by lots of national media news coverage because her appearances in these lesser-known and harder-to-reach markets is newsworthy for the big dogs, too.

It looks like this time, at least, Sarah Palin is listening to her advisors.

Rhetoric Has an Impact

The way the rhetoric is flying around the health care debate, you'd think we were still in the middle of a presidential election.

Politicians know better than anybody that rhetoric has an impact -- just ask Sarah Palin. Her op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal, "Obama and the Bureaucratization of Health Care," uses that nasty, nasty phrase "death panel" when referring to the Obama plan.

She knows there was never a plan for a "death panel" just like she knows it's inflammatory language. And, she knows that people hear what they want to hear and believe what they want to believe, regardless of the facts, so she uses phrases like this to create support among those who (a) have no common sense and (b) don't do any research or fact-checking of their own.

Now how smart is that? Politicians -- not just Palin -- do an amazingly good job of leveraging peoples' fears and ignorance. Their goal isn't to inform. It's just to convince the population that the opponent's stance is unacceptable -- "Vote for me! I won't (insert awful thing here)!"

It's not a communications tactic that I use or like in my own business, but it's effective. And it's one you can use when working to sway public opinion or to sell products or services. But be careful if you do. You might be mistaken for a politician. Make sure that fits with your business goals.

What Does Sarah Palin's Nomination Mean to Your Publicity Plan?

Who can leverage Sarah Palin's nomination -- and the weekend announcement about her daughter's pregnancy -- to bring attention to their business, book or cause? There are exciting possibilities here for a wide range of nonprofits, authors and business owners who are willing to be opportunistic and act quickly with their local, specialized or national media.

I'd love to see my "Book Publicity 101: How to Build Book Buzz" student Meagan Francis, who wrote Table for Eight: Raising a Large Family in a Small Family World, run with this.

For starters, Meagan can send Palin an autographed copy of her book and her cell phone number so Palin can call her at any time for help or advice. Meagan should, of course, then send out a press release to her local media announcing that she has pushed aside her own political beliefs and stepped up to help a high-profile mom in need. It's a great local angle on a national news story.

Then I'd like to see Meagan send out a tip sheet (a type of news release that offers advice or tips in a numbered or bulleted format) that gives Palin advice for traveling with that large family on the campaign trail. Meagan can provide solid, helpful bits of advice while having a little fun with it. Using an online media release service such as PRWeb will let Meagan send her advice to daily newspapers and parenting pubs coast-to-coast quickly while also getting it into the inbox of parenting and family bloggers.

Meagan needs to be sharing advice with Palin on her blog, too -- and offering it on the blogs of others, as well. She can become the rallying point for mothers of large families nationwide.

Meagan's not the only one who can capitalize on the buzz created by Palin's candidacy or the latest expanding family revelation, either. If you're finding yourself spouting off about something related to his development, think about how you can get a microphone in front of your mouth when you're doing it -- and watch the impact the media exposure has on your business goals.