Summary: Barbara Cave Henricks is the author of Mastering the New Media Landscape: Embrace the Micromedia Mindset. She has worked as a publicist in the publishing industry for more than two decades, and now runs her own publicity firm that’s been very successful called Cave Henricks Communications.<br> She started her career as a stringer for NBC news. After working for them for about six months she moved to Washington DC and produced several things including the Larry King radio show.<br> As a producer of the Larry King show, Barbara went through hundreds of books a week trying to find guests for the program. Going through these books Barbara saw the vast majority of them shouldn’t have been submitted by their PR firms for consideration, because they so clearly weren’t right for Larry’s show. That’s when she decided she wanted to work the other side of the equation. She got a job at Workman Publishing and eventually decided to strike out on her own.<br> This podcast is filled with tons of insight into the mindset of PR firms as well as how to make the best use of social media.<br> One thing Barbara kept coming back to in the interview is the three types of media channels that exist today and how they all fit each other.<br> Three Types of Media Channels<br> 1. Earned Media — any media that has a gatekeeper, including traditional media and podcasts.<br> 2. Rented Media — social media channels such as Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. These are referred to as “rented media” because if the website goes away then your community on that website goes away with it.<br> 3. Owned Media — any media channel you own and control yourself, including your own website and email list.<br> Here are some of the takeaways:<br> <br> * There are three types of media channels and they all feed one another.<br> * Authors now have the ability to communicate directly with their audience. We no longer have to rely on gatekeepers to give us access.<br> * PR firms today help you access traditional media channels. They can also train authors on how to use social media, personal websites, and blogs to reach an audience.<br> * Traditional media is more valuable today because there are fewer traditional media channels than there were before.<br> * PR firms can be content creators for your website.<br> * Everyone is a layman journalist.<br> * PR firms help you come up with a strategy to promote your book on all fronts.<br> * It’s important to focus on multiple media channels and not rely on just one. The more channels you’re a part of, the greater your reach and the larger your audience.<br> * While it’s important to have multiple media channels, it’s equally important to have a strategy in place. Consistent posts to your social media platforms is a must. Don’t sign up for a social media account if you’re not going to update the account regularly.<br> * Make sure to update your social media bios to reflect the book that you are currently promoting.<br> * You can’t create a twitter account, or any social media account is 100% self-promotional.<br> * The best way to use twitter to promote your book: find bloggers, reporters, and reviewers who work in your genre. Follow 20 – 100 of them. Listen in on their conversations and respond when it seems appropriate. Twitter is like a big cocktail party.<br> * If you ignore social media today you’re missing an opportunity.<br> * Social media is one way you can get past the gatekeepers.<br> * Social media is a place where you can be in control of the message.<br> * Social media provides societal proof that things are trending. Traditional media likes to cover trends.<br> * Growing an audience in owned media is very valuable. If you only rely on social media and those channels shut down you’ve lost the connection to your audience.
