Dan Janal | Publicity and PR Leads Blog

I was going to go to the Thyssen Bornesmisaz museum for an hour, but it was so good, I stayed for four hours!

Travel writer Rick Steeves says it is a museum filled with major works by minor artists and minor works by major artists. There´s a lesson to be learned there. Think about it.

Reasons it was so good and ways to enhance your next vist to a museum:
1. Audio program. Never enter a museum without one. It really adds a lot of commentary you’d never know about that enriches the experience.
2. Rembrandt’s self portrait. First thing I saw. Major work. Major artist. Sorry, Rick. You got that one wrong.
3. I got exposed to German artists from the 1500s onward. They are very good!
4. Discovered Fauvism. Or at least liked it this time.
5. Discovered German Expressionism. It’s very good.
7. I wore out two audio programs. I guess most people don’t listen to too many commentaries.
8. Not too many tourists. They’re áll at the Prado. I’ll be there later this week. Steeves says that´s where the major art from major artists appear.

And the big reason:

9. The people in the portraits smiled and seemed joyous. Not all, but many. It dawned on me that in every other museum I´ve been in, nearly every portrait showed a person who was somber, reflective, contemplative or depressed. This realization alone made the trip to the museum worthwhile!

So far, so good!

Madrid is a very pretty city with lots of grand buildings adorned with decorative sculptures or intricate grillworks. There are lots of good pictures to be had here.

Everything is fairly close together and the subway stops are every where.  It is easy to get around.It is also very hot so walking under trees to get the shade is worth it.

My hotel is better than I expected. Thank goodness for reviews on Trip Advisor and Hotels.com. I got a great rate and a quiet room. If the only words I knew in Spanish were ¨no fumar¨then those were the right words to make sure I got a no smoking room. A little Spanish can go a long way.

Internet is odd. Without it, I feel disconnected. I have free WiFi ( pronounced WE-FE) in the hotel and can send and recieve email and web pages. But on my iPhone, all data and email are charged extra. Tough to get used to. I´ve heard of people raking up thousands of dollars in roaming charges in foreign countries, so I set my phone on airplane mode to be safe. 

Speaking of differences, here are a few:

1. People wait for lights to change. They don´t cross against the light.

2. No aggressive panhandling.

3. Coffee is small – even at Starbucks.

4. McDonalds has a fancy cappucino area (no, I didn´t eat there. )

5. Every restaurant serves paella. 

6. Lots of big cars, like any American city and traffic seems manageable, although Í´d never drive anywhere outside the US or Canada.

7.The keyboard is different. Forgive the typos. 

8. I saw a bullfight on TV. Absolutely disgusting. Sounds cool until you see a bull withering in pain, bleeding, dying. Too add insult to injury, they drag the dying bull out of the ring by attaching a rope to his horns and hitch it to a pick up truck. Yuch.

9. Surprisingly, I understood most of a 2-hour lecture geared for all levels of speakers. 10. Surprisingly, all the Spanish I studied before coming here is difficult to speak. Theres a big difference between book learning and actually using it.  Hopefully after a week, that will change. 

10.First thing I saw when emerging from the subway: Ginormous billboard for ¨¨Sex en Neueva York II¨ with Sara Jessica Parker. I wonder if it is better in Spanish.

More tomorrow.

Surveys are a great way for consultants and small businesses to get publicity.

Why?

Because reporters love numbers!

Numbers give a story an implied credibility. Reporters usually need to find a number to plug into a story to give the story an added level of respect. After all, if you have numbers, you have proof. If you don’t have numbers, you have an opinion.

There are several ways to get the numbers you need to create the statistics reportes love. You can create your own survey, or you can quote another group’s statistics.

How to create your own survey

1. Create your own survey. There are many free or very low-cost survey tools that you can use to create a survey. Just go to a search engine and type “survey tools” and you’ll find many that are very good and totally free.
2. Next, think of a topic that would interest the media. Just look at the headlines in your trade publications or professional journals for ideas.
3. Create the survey questions. Limit the number of questions to 3 or 4. If you ask too many questions, your survey respondents will get turned off and won’t answer the entire survey.
4. Send the survey to your mailing list or post it in a Linked In group, or place it on your website.
5. Compile the results.
6. Write a press release
7. Sent it to the media.

If you follow this tactic, you just might find you are quoted more often by reporters, rank higher in the search engines and have more new visitors coming o your website!

Dan Janal is a very successful entrepreneur, professional speaker and marketing coach who helps clients build their businesses by improving their strategy for using publicity, marketing, Internet marketing, e-commerce and sales. To see how you can improve your business, go to http://www.prleadsplus.com

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