Marketing Expert – Dee Stewart

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I’ve met quite a few PR folks over the years online, but this young lady is the one who introduced a skeptical me to Twitter and Facebook. I consider her the premier expert on social media and I’m still trying to catch up with her. I so admire her and I believe after you read this interview, you will too! — Ty

Dee, tell us about yourself and your business.

Hi, I’m Dee Stewart. I own a entertainment pr boutique called DeeGospel PR. It is located in Atlanta, Georgia, but I represent clients nationwide. I specialize in literary publicity, music promotion, ministry and green business marketing and pr. Some of my clients are gospel recording artists Destiny Praise, author, playwright and conference founder Tiffany L. Warren, Christian Fiction authors Bonnie Hopkins and C. Kelly Robinson and events like: FSO Charlotte, Charlotte Literary Festival and the 2009 Faith and Fiction Retreat. DeeGospel PR also houses a speakers bureau that supports event planners, churches and conferences. I represent Reshonda Tate Billingsley, Dove Award winning Gospel Songwriter Kendall Hunter and NLP Ron Hudson.

What services do you offer?

I offer four types of services.:

1. I provide literary publicity and marketing support for authors, bookstores, publishers, and literary event planners. These services can include: book marketing planning, publicity plan creation, event planning, media outreach(pitching media and managing media requests,) giving planning, public relations, crisis management, social media marketing, online marketing & management, epk & press kit creation, independent publishing consulting and book printing services.

2. I also house a speaker’s bureau, whereby event planners come to me to procure speakers for their events, businesses or churches.

3. I provide pr support for entertainers: recording artists, actors, and dancers.

4. I provide group coaching services for: authors, publicists, churches and small presses.

What are your favorite social media platforms and why?

I have no favorite. I love them all. I use different forms of sms for various reasons all vital to the success of DGP.

Twitter: I have been a Twitter user since 2007 and am a heavy user of this SMS, because most of my media contacts and I speak in real time via this platform. They can tell me what they are looking for and I can tell them whether I can service that request in less than a minute.

MySpace: Because I also represent recording artist MySpace is my friend, because it’s cheaper than a website and great SEO placement is inside MySpace if the page is set up properly and the artist uses it as it’s online hub.

Facebook: I am still a contributing editor for some magazines. I use facebook to build my artist. I talk to a lot of clubs via Facebook.

Newsletters: The simple HTML came. I am a big fan of newsletters. I use them to communicate with my bookstore buddies. Have been doing that for about five years. This month I will introduce my clients to newsletters.

Utterz: I insist my public speakers use Utterz to help build a catalogue of themselves in mp3 format. There are so many ways to use this service.

Blogtalkradio: I host Media Candy there. I love the format.

Ustream TV and Viddler: I think this is the number 2 thing outside of Twitter everyone needs to have an account with.

LinkedIn: I use this service to communicate with my peers.

Ping.fm: I use ping.fm to house all my sms services and sync them all together to my Blackberry.

Google Talk and Skype: The #3 to get, if you don’t have one. It helps you take yourself offline, but still communicate with others online at the same time.

Plurk and FriendFeed: Group management

Last.fm and Blip.fm : for my music clients

I am beta testing some new ones that will be coming out. I will share those with you later.

At Tywebbin Creations, we work with authors to help them establish and nurture their online brand. Can you provide an online marketing tip?

Create the best product they can. My best marketing tip is realize that your book is your #1 marketing tool. If that book ain’t relevant, timely, a page turner, written well then it doesn’t matter how many book reviews I gather, book events you host if your book suck rocks word about your bad book will get more viral marketing than anything good you write. So write very well. I will be giving a mastermind marketing session with authors this Saturday sharing tools to creating your best book now.

Where can visitors find you online?

You can find me on:

Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/deegospel
Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=520726901&ref=profile
My Blog ‘ http://christianfiction.blogspot.com
DeeGospel PR Blog: http://www.deestewart.com

DeeGospel PR the site will be ready in July. Please come back then. I will have much free content, ebooks on book promotion as well as case studies of former projects we’ve worked on. I’m also starting a group coaching session for publicists or those wanting to be publicists with DGP. The site url: is www.deegospelpr.com.

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Comments

7 Responses to “Marketing Expert – Dee Stewart”

Brian Ganges on May 26th, 2009 6:20 am

Wow sis, you are very resourceful. Great info, thanks.
Jeanette Hill on May 26th, 2009 7:29 am

Dee, this is a great interview. Thank you (and you Ty!) for providing so much information. This is the first time I’ve heard of several of the social media platforms you’ve mentioned. I’m thinking of ways to use them for my plays!
LaShaunda Hoffman on May 26th, 2009 7:52 am

When Dee speaks, I know I listen. She talked a lot about twitter, I signed up and loved it.

Thanks Dee for all you share, I know I appreciate it.

I’ve been hearing a lot about this word Coaching. Can you share how does one become a coach or get into coaching?
Darlene Robinson on May 26th, 2009 8:00 am

I have set your website to my favorites. It seems you have a wealth of knowledge to share and I am willing to learn everything I can.
Dee Stewart on May 26th, 2009 2:56 pm

Brian, I agree. Ty is a great resource.

Jeanette Hill: Thank you. I forgot to add Youtube. I’m sure you are using it for Theatre. I also recommend Eventful and BrightKite for you, too.

LaShaunda: coaching is basically teaching. You can coach one on one or you can group coaching. I began taking group coaching classes, so that I can service clients faster and ensure they know how to use certain tools correctly. I suggest you take some classes under Wendy Y Bailey. She’s on twitter. Her handle is @wendyybailey.

Hi, Darlene. I hope to be of help. Stay in touch.
Sharon Ball on May 27th, 2009 12:55 pm

Dee, this is a great interview. You are a woman of many talents. How you manage to do so many things as well as you do blows me away. Great job Dee and Ty!
Dee on May 29th, 2009 7:12 am

Thanks, Sharon.

I credit my mom who always had at least 3 jobs while we were kids, attending Agnes Scott College where we had to read 2 books, then prepare to discuss within 2 days just for one class, and great friends like you, Ty, Rhonda, Sherri, Pam Perry, Marina Woods, Donna Kehoe, Claudia, and on and on and on who make it real easy and fun to do what we do.