Avoidance of eye contact implies fear and subservience. Combine that with a weak handshake and a disheveled demeanor and you have someone that you should not trust. In fact, you have a person whom you should not allow anywhere near you.

Some good rules to follow for "eyeball etiquette" are listed below. Be able to look people in eye or face as they are speaking, but don't get into a staring contest. Occasionally looking around at other people, say in a meeting, helps maintain a good sense of balance in conversation.

Keep your face friendly as you speak. If you have a hostile appearance and you are looking people in eye, then you are implicitly challenging them. Unless you are leader of a gang, this is probably something that you want to avoid.

Men, it's bad manners to glance at a lady's chest (or other sexual body parts) as you converse. Don't think women notice? They do, and it lowers their opinion of you. Treat any women in your office as you would like to be treated - with respect.

In meetings, keep your attention on speaker. You are in meeting to gain and give information or direction. Keeping your eyes on person who is speaking implies that you are paying attention. It's also a good idea to occasionally look down at your pad of paper (you should always bring pen and paper to meetings) and write a few notes. This screams out, "you just said something important so I am writing it down". It's also an opportunity to avoid implicit challenge that could arise from a constant, fixed stare.

In meetings, you should also occasionally look around. There are other people in a meeting (usually), and if so you should be sure to look at them once in a while to get their reactions, and to also invite comment and discussion. At very least, it's a way to shake yourself awake if speaker is boring or monotonous.

When your boss is speaking, keep focused on him or her. Your boss is telling you something, man, look at him! This person has authority over you and presumably has power over your raises, reviews and progress up corporate ladder. Listen to him, and show you are listening by looking at him.

There is nothing interesting on floor. Have you ever noticed that as most people walk they are looking at ground? What in heck is so interesting about floor or pavement that it commands all of their attention? Sometimes I just have to glance down and see if perhaps some artist came by and painting something wonderful on floor while I was out! People, there is an entire world out there - look around and see what's there.

HOW MANY HOURS: A large number of hours will be spent planning and shaping your publicity campaign for media market. The preparation of media market research and polishing of media release may seem painstaking, but when done right, they are well worth effort. After initial launch of campaign, be prepared to spend at least an hour or two each day maintaining it: conducting numerous media follow-ups and making new media pitches, (emails, faxes, mailings and phone calls); fulfilling media requests (forwarding product photos, media kits/product samples, arranging interviews) and tracking/clipping articles and features.

Here's a brief rundown on number of hours that may be involved in a typical campaign: (These hours are averaged estimates. Many PR specialists might be able to get work done more efficiently for you.)

CAMPAIGN LAUNCH Media Release Writing/Editing: 5 hours Media Market Research: 15 hours Media Distribution: 10 hours ------------------------------------------------------------------ TOTAL LAUNCH HOURS: 30 hours

CAMPAIGN MAINTENANCE: 30+ hours /month (3-Month Campaign) (90 hours) ------------------------------------------------------------------- TOTAL CAMPAIGN HOURS -120+ work hours

If you have time, staff and expertise to launch your own campaign, then take advantage of media and get your message to them. But if your expertise lies in another area, and you or your staff lack publicity generating skills (or have little or no experience in dealing with media) it might be best to hand it off to someone who can make sure its done right - first time. Ask yourself these questions when deciding whether you can handle your own publicity campaign:

· Do I have expertise and time to get it done effectively without hampering my current workload or that of my staff? · Do I have writing capabilities to put together a media release or feature pitch to which editors, reporters and producers will respond? · Do I have resources to conduct media research and distribute my release to those media outlets?

If you answered "yes" to all, not just some of these questions, then perhaps you can benefit from launching your own publicity campaign. Best of luck!