Give Buzz, Get Buzz: Announcing the Virtual Interview Series Contest for "Smart Networking"

This Friday marks the official release of my book Smart Networking, which has already landed at online bookstores and is now making its way to brick and mortar ones (and to Amazon's international subsidiaries too!). 

Working with bloggers has always been part of my book marketing plan, and I'd like to build on the innovative idea pioneered by Rohit Bhargava, digital strategist at Ogilvy 360, publisher of the Influential Marketing Blog and author of Personality Not Included (also a McGraw-Hill book).

To market PNI, he launched a blog contest where any blogger could email him five questions which he would answer for a virtual interview. He linked to all the posted interviews (55 of them in all!) from his blog and let readers vote for their favorite one. The winner got a gift certificate from Amazon, and all participants got tons of exposure. I thought it was absolutely brilliant.

I was alerted to this by one of my Twitter friends, Linda Sherman who writes an international women's blog called It's Different For Girls. Her interview with Rohit made it into the Top 12. I was deep into the writing of my own book at the time, but knew Rohit was a role model I wanted to follow. A couple of weeks ago, I contacted him about doing this and he gave me his blessing and wished me luck.

But here's my twist...I'll be holding three mini-contests over the next three weeks, with one winner chosen each week from the previous week's interviews. Yup, three rounds, with three winners (see dates for each round below).

Here's how to play: If you have a blog, send me five questions you have about networking or the book. For questions that I receive between Monday and Thursday, I'll have answers back to you that Friday. Readers will begin voting the following Monday, hopefully giving you enough time to post the interview to your blog, and send me the link so I can post it to mine and include you on the list of eligible blogs for that week. 

The writer of the Best Interview of the week, as determined by readers votes, will get a $25 gift certificate to Amazon, Starbucks, or iTunes (winner's choice) and a signed copy of my book. But the best part is we'll all be helping cross-promote each other's blogs.

Like Rohit, I'll be answering interview questions in the order that I receive them (but unlike Rohit, I'll probably write a lot slower, so I need that extra day!). Choose the round you'd like to participate in and email questions to thelizlynch [at] gmail [dot] com within the respective timeframe.

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