Anthony Mora

If launched correctly, an effective public relations campaign for your grand opening can pay off in a big way.

If you're a sculptor, painter, photographer, craftsperson, musician, author, cartoonist and/or performance artist, creating your art is step one when it comes to launching a successful career. From my perspective, once you've given your time and care, blood, sweat and tears to your artwork, you owe it to your art to get it seen and experienced. Have fun with it. Don't just keep your creativity for your art; use it in your marketing. You owe it to yourself, your work and the public. The following

A Big Mac along with a glass of chardonnay? Who knows? That could be on the way. Starbucks is heading in that direction. The chain will soon be selling beer and wine in select locations. Four to six stores in the Southern California area will offer alcoholic beverages by the end of this year, as will some stores in Atlanta and Chicago.

When I began in the public relations world over twenty years ago (that's daunting), I quickly realized that landing an interview or a story for a client was only a part of the process. After having producers and editors give me some tough but needed feedback about clients who were either boring or were too pushy, I realized that in order to achieve real PR success, media training was needed. That's when I brought on Ann Convery.

When it comes to PR and medical-oriented media relations, remember, your best stories are patient success stories. Yes, as the physician you're the expert and the educator, but it's your patient stories that in turn will tell your story. Utilizing medical-oriented public relations can serve several purposes, it can build your practice and educate and inform the public. By getting this information to the public through the media you can improve and, in some cases, save lives.

There are times you can reach the traditional media using some nontraditional means. Blogging, social media and online wire services can offer unique approaches to garnering coverage in print, TV and radio. All of these are different ways to get your message and pitch in front of your target media. Using trial and error, find the methods that work best for you and then stick with them.

There are several reasons why physicians, more than those in other professions, can benefit from an effective media relations campaign. The traditional media is how most consumers and potential patients learn about the latest medical breakthroughs, news, or studies. Those physicians that are featured in the media are seen as trusted experts. They are the physicians that the consumers and potential patients are going to seek out.

If you're looking to promote your business company or product and you're not in one of the major markets such as Los Angeles or New York, PR should be high on your marketing to do list. The upside is that a public relations campaign offers you an affordable option to take your message directly to your target market. If you're in a smaller media market, and you professionally present your story to the local media your chances of landing a story are maximized.

You see your job as director or producer (or both) but not as marketer. Well, if you want to maximize your chances of getting your film out there, it's time to get comfortable with this new role. As a filmmaker, this is an exciting time. Now more than ever you can take steps that can help ensure the success of your projects and your careers. Be bold. Go for it.

Let's say you do get your film into a festival, are showing it online, have clips up on YouTube, or have a dynamite website up describing your film. That's simply step one, now you need to work it!