You know that publicity is important for spreading your organizations message to the world, but how exactly do you do it? The most important step in your communication plan should be start early, before the demands from your organization start pulling you in too many different directions. Here is a to-do-list that can make contacting the media about your projects less daunting:
Review your program and its goals. Go over your program’s focus points and problem areas to ensure that everyone is clear about the central mission of the organization. Be proactive and answer any questions that may not have been answered already.
Identify your audience and set your organization’s priorities. Brainstorm a list of people that can help you accomplish your organization’s goals. Spend most of your time with the people who can help spread your organization’s message and diversify your audience more.
Develop what you want to say. This step is very important because this is how you will get people to actually participate. These points should be developed for the audience you intend to reach. Your points can be adapted into different formats including fliers, brochures, press releases, and speeches. These points should be simple and logical, answering the following four questions:
- What issue is your community is facing?
- What needs to happen for change?
- Why does your organization work for this issue?
- What can your organization accomplish through its unique mission?
Plan and develop communication tools. Develop a few basic tools to keep yourself from getting overwhelmed. Focus your efforts on a few simple tasks at a time such as designing a brochure that can be used in more than one way. Understand your communication template to effectively use it and tailor it to the intended audience.
Work with the mass media. Take a breath… you do not need to be an expert to complete your final step. Begin your work by writing a plan about your course of action. This plan should include strategies for getting media attention, a to-do list, and deadlines. This plan will keep your project focused on the intended mission. This plan can be used as a reference to help your team stay on task.
Although getting media attention can be a daunting task, by staying organized the job can seem more manageable. The most important thing to remember is that your organization has an important mission to fulfill and with the help of media outlets that mission can be accomplished more quickly and efficiently.
1. Facebook
5. Twitter
8. Flickr
Have you had a chance to read Allison Fine and Beth Kanter’s new book yet?
Allison Fine, a Senior Fellow at Demos, is a writer and activist dedicated to understanding and enhancing efforts to use new, social media tools for social change. She has written several books and papers, including Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age, the winner of the Terry McAdams National Book Award. She also co-edited a collection of essays, Rebooting America, of transformative ways to reinvent 21st century democracy using new media tools. Fine hosts a monthly podcast for the Chronicle of Philanthropy called Social Good and writes on her own blog at A. Fine Blog. She is a senior advisor to the Personal Democracy Forum and CauseWired.
o now that I’ve signed up who should I fundraise for? Any suggestions?
