Seven Things a Media Spokesperson Should Be and the Media Are Hungry For Pictures

After a brief break, I thought I'd return with one of my favorite media experts, Bob Crawshaw, of Mainstreet Marketing Australia.  And it's not just one post but two that I thought went well together.  If you are choosing a media spokesperson you need to give thought to how that person  "presents."  And every organization should plan how to present their story in pictures, video and graphics.  I think Bob's bottom line advice is plan and prepare.  Most recently Bob has begun a blog talk radio show Traffic on Maine Street.  Tune in when you get a chance!  Bunnie

 

Bob Crawshaw, Mainstreet Marketing

 

Seven Things a Media Spokesperson Should Be

 

A key part in setting up a media relations program is selecting a spokesperson(s) to be the public face of your organisation when the media calls.  This is a very important job and most agencies, businesses or not for profits identify the CEO, Chairperson or person responsible for communications to fill this role.

Irrespective of the choice, your spokesperson(s) should:

• Know the topic you are presenting to the media.
• Be able to speak with authority about what your organization does and answer general as well as specific questions.
• Be well-groomed and dress suitably.
• Uses plain language and speak clearly and simply.
• Be continually contactable by mobile or cell phone.
• Be reasonably flexible about when and where to be interviewed.
• Be available by phone or email for any follow-up questions after the interview.

 Journalists do not expect not for profits or smaller businesses to have well trained media spokespersons, but they do expect them to be represent your organization, provide information and be able to tell a good story.   

Training in media interview skills is not really necessary unless your issue is controversial, you plan to talk to the media often or your spokespersons are not comfortable performing this important job.  If so consider investing in professional media training for your spokespersons because good media coverage is so important to the future health of your organisation.  

The Media Are Hungry for Pictures

 A picture is worth a thousand words

Today our lives are so busy and time poor we rely on images as short cuts to help us process information and make decisions.

Media organisations have a constant appetite for images for their screens, on-line pages and portals.  Even radio station websites cry out for pictures.  That means a not for profit, business or agency that can offer compelling video or digital imagery to communicate its cause increases the likelihood of getting its story told.

Think about the imagery associated with your story before even approaching journalists  You can supply your own photos and video to the media. This can work well with local papers and other small outlets with limited staff, however it rarely satisfies larger media organizations that need broadcast or print quality imagery.  The best approach with them is to set up deliberate opportunities at your event for their news photographers and TV crews to get good pictures.

Good imagery - whether video or photographs – graphically and emotionally depicts what your organisation does.  It might show a client using a service, staff helping someone or some picture-worthy aspect of your operation.  The more emotion an image sends, the more likely the media will use it and the more likely they will report your story.   

Imagery is so important you need to think through about what you can provide and then how you could describe your imagery over the phone to a TV producer or reporter. If you plan to send imagery to a local outlet regularly it is certainly a good investment in time and money to get a commercial photographer to help you or build up your own in-house skills.

Media Policy for Nonprofits

My favorite nonprofit marketing professional from Australia, Bob Crawshaw, raises an important point...how many of you have a "media policy"?  Probably not many.  And while I wouldn't want developing a policy turn into a cumbersome process (I hate when that happens) it is worth having a simple policy that outlines what your central messages are; who is authorized to speak to the press or give interviews; social media guidelines; and appropriate adverstising vehicles.  

Additionally, if you have chapters or associated organizations, it is important to conduct media training at least once per year.  Provide them with toolkits, talking points and basics of the interview, to include crisis management (as Bob suggests).  If you think you need help in this area, feel free to call or write me.  Or if you are in Australia...do contact Bob!  Bunnie

Media Policy for Nonprofits
by Bob Crawshaw, Maine Street Marketing

Recently I worked with a not for profit, with member clubs spread across two states, to develop a policy to help clubs and the Executive manage proactive and reactive media relations.


The policy featured:

•The objectives or why the organisation will engage the media in the coming 12 months.

•An encouragement for clubs to proactively engage their local media outlets as way of telling communities what they and the larger organisation is doing.

•Tools to help clubs such as pre-packaged media backgrounders, fact sheets, templates, speaking points and standard paragraphs for media alerts and media releases.

•Advice on how to access localised media contact lists.

•Guidance on handling media relations in crisis and advocacy situations.

•A media release review process - for all levels - so key players in the organisation know what is to be presented to journalists and what might make news.

•Tips for recycling earned media coverage so that office holders, members and key supporters know what the press is reporting.

•Social media guidelines so what is presented online is consistent with what is presented to traditional media.

And because it is often so expensive, a media policy should spell out the why, when and where advertising will be undertaken and how it will be blended with media relations.
 
Contact Bob at http://www.blogger.com/profile/12058326512528241097

Do You Have a Media Marketing Plan?

by Bunnie Riedel, Host, Nonprofit Conversation

Whether it’s new media or old media, getting attention for your organization can be a challenge. Remember, there are millions of Nonprofits out there and your organization is in competition with every one of them and the competition gets hotter when you narrow it down to just “like-minded” organizations.

I’ve recently had calls from several start-up Nonprofits wanting basic advise on what they need to do, whether it’s board development or how to incorporate as a Nonprofit or what kinds of grants they might pursue. I have a tool that I’ve developed to help me get to know them better and frankly, to help them focus. I call it a “marketing questionnaire” but it goes beyond simply “marketing” to drilling down on the who, what, and why of the organization.

I’ve found that people who start Nonprofits do so because they have identified a need in their community. Sometimes that need is to help the disadvantaged or to highlight a problem or even to provide peer professional networking. By and large, folks who start Nonprofits are highly altruistic, but that altruism doesn’t necessarily translate into framing a vision that is practical or sustainable. The marketing questionnaire can be daunting because it asks questions that may not have been asked previously. One Nonprofit entrepreneur exclaimed “You’re forcing me to come up with a business plan!”

“Yes,” I said “That’s the idea of the questionnaire.”

Every Nonprofit needs to step back from time to time and ask “Why do we matter?” If you and/or your board doesn’t know why the Nonprofit matters how can you convince anyone else that you matter? Maybe that’s the perfect way to start your next board meeting, spend fifteen minutes answering the question “Why do we matter?” Why you matter leads to being able to pitch media stories that will be picked up, it leads to creating relationships with media that will last over time, it leads to getting noticed.

Answering “Why do we matter?” also leads to finding out what is unique about your Nonprofit. As I said earlier, you are in competition with millions of Nonprofits and you are in heated competition with other Nonprofits who have similar missions. In order to get the 3 M’s (money, membership, media) your Nonprofit has got to stand out in the crowd. Take the case of two fictitious animal shelters:

Shelter One is fairly traditional. It receives stray animals, provides initial medical care, places them up for adoption and if not adopted in 120 days, euthanizes the animals.

Shelter Two not only receives stray animals, provides initial medical care and places them up for adoption; but it has an active foster parent membership, behavior rehabilitation services, web-cam capabilities so prospective animal owners can see the animals live and in real time, hosts adoption fairs at the local pet store, provides spay and neuter clinics to the public for a nominal fee and doesn’t euthanize but has a 100% placement rate (even for those hard to place animals).

Shelter Two is a marketing dream. There are about six stories that can be pitched for Shelter Two. And part of the Shelter Two pitch is how much better Shelter Two is than Shelter One.

Another question I ask is “Who is your target audience?” You can call it audience, constituency, membership, it doesn’t matter, what matters is the need to identify who you are trying to reach. I’ve seen Nonprofits mistakenly identify the entire world as their audience and unless your Nonprofit is the International Space Station, the “world” is not your audience. In identifying your audience you really need to apply some tough love. You may want to serve everyone, but can you? Think of it as “niche marketing.” If you can’t determine who your target audience is, maybe it’s time to pull out that mission statement and give it serious consideration. Figuring this out helps you narrow your pitch and narrow the field where you pitch and helps you be more successful because you are focused.

There’s more that needs to be explored but I’ll leave it for another time. If your Nonprofit doesn’t have a media marketing plan, now is the time to develop one. The competition for attention won’t get easier as time goes by it will only get tougher, especially in light of new media. This is an area that is woefully lacking for most Nonprofits and many simply do not include it as part of their regular programming activities and rarely give it a line item in their budgets. Your Nonprofit can stand out in the crowd if you include media marketing as an important component of your business plan.

Contact Bunnie at info at riedelcommunications dot com

It's Not (just) the Economy Stupid

Eeek! It's tough to shine the spotlight back on your organization and ask the tough questions about why your donations or membership numbers have declined. Brian Reich says it's not just the economy, there are many factors that affect fundraising and involvement and some of those factors have to do more with ourselves than with a slumping economy. Good read. Bunnie

It's Not (just) The Economy, Stupid
by Brian Reich, Managing Director of little m media

Donations to nearly every type of charity are down, in some cases fundraising has hit lows we haven't seen in a half-century. People argue that the economy is the reason people aren't giving -- that philanthropy is a luxury (e.g. you pay your bills first and then start making charitable gifts). And while the economy is a big part of the story, there are other important reasons why people are giving less money to support their favorite organizations and the causes they care most about.

1) Choice Paralysis

There are more than a million registered nonprofit organizations in the United States, and tens of thousands of new nonprofits are created every year. All those groups are communicating about their different activities, adding to the crush of marketing messages that people receive each day. They are also competing for the same dollars from the audience, making it challenging for donors provide the kind of support that will have a real impact. And they are all claiming success, while audiences have trouble seeing the outcomes in terms they can relate to and understand. In short, the audience is overwhelmed. There are too many nonprofits, too many messages, too many options and not enough success. The audience wants to understand what nonprofit organization or cause to support, but they feel paralyzed. When they can't make a decision, they don't make contributions -- especially in challenging economic times -- because they aren't confident they are making the right choice.

2) Nonprofits and charities are not doing enough to earn their donations

People make contributions to nonprofit organizations and charities for many reasons -- and whatever the motivation, every person has their own expectations of what the organizations they support will do, and what value they will get out of the relationship. Unfortunately, many nonprofits are now focusing more of their energy on growing and sustaining their organizations and not as much on improving the way they do business or deliver services. Organizations send millions of emails but settle for ridiculously low open rates, failing to talk about issues that resonate with their audience. People sign petitions online every day, with one click of a mouse, but audiences are beginning to realize those petitions rarely (if ever) change minds or impact the outcome of a vote. Put another way, organizations are serving their causes instead of solving their causes - and we are letting them get away with it. Or we have, until now. The audience knows and they increasingly feel as if their support is not appreciated, and that is reflected in less giving.

3) People believe they can do more to support an organization than donate money

The internet has empowered audiences in new and powerful ways. Technology gives each of us direct control over our information and the choices about how we spend our time and focus our energy. And we can use these tools to help organizations and address causes in ways that go well beyond donating. But most nonprofit organizations haven't embraced these new and different ways to engage and mobilize their audiences. Nonprofits invest much of their focus and energy on directing action behind a single, centralized agenda, instead of expanding their reach and looking for the best way to tap into the community (online and offline) to help address issues. Nonprofits seek short-term fundraising gains, often at the expense of developing deep relationships with their audience and providing the necessary education and support to keep them engaged. And audiences simply aren't interested in helping groups to sustain organizations in that kind of focus when they know individual efforts can have results as well.

Make no mistake about it, there are lots of incredible nonprofit organizations, focused on serving a particular community in need or addressing an important cause, and doing so efficiently and/or with an innovative approach that drives real, meaningful, measurable impact. But there are just as many, if not more, that operate inefficiently, that are duplicating efforts of other groups, or that are prioritizing talking about action over actually having an impact. In the past, the audience couldn't easily tell the difference. Today, with more information available, its easier -- and the audience is paying closer attention. The economic slowdown may have attracted new attention to the struggles that nonprofit organizations are facing in terms of fundraising, but it should not be assigned all the responsibility for the problem. The challenges that nonprofits have had in convincing people that they are worthy of support, and sustaining that support, have been brewing for a while. Addressing those issues will be even more important as the nation emerges from its economic downturn and audiences are even more determined not to make the same wasteful mistakes they did in the past.

Everything about how we communicate, get and share information, engage each other -- online and offline -- has changed because of the role that technology and the internet play in our lives. Information moves faster, people are more closely connected, and the expectations we all have for where we will donate, who will we trust, and what kind of relationship and support we want from an organization is changing. That means how organizations operate, educate, engage, and look at directing supporters and donors to take action must change as well.

We can use the tools that are now widely available online to conduct campaigns, and send notices, raise awareness of issues or solicit funds, and do so more efficiently and cost effectively than ever before. But, that doesn't mean that work should take priority over developing relationships and providing value to our audiences. We have prioritized telling a quick story that suggests progress over investing in long-term impact that both changes the world and drives people towards deeper commitments to organizations. We have become too accustomed to measuring success based on the size or popularity of an organization and not the value that the audience, who we rely on for support and donations, places on the work that groups are doing. As long as groups continue to focus on these wrong efforts, or blame the economy for its larger issues, nonprofits will continue to struggle.

Brian is the Managing Director of little m media. He provides strategic guidance and other support to organizations around the use of the internet and technology for communications, engagement, education, and mobilization. Brian is also the author of Media Rules!: Mastering Today's Technology to Connect With and Keep Your Audience (Wiley 2007).
He is also the Director of Community and Partnerships for iFOCOS, the media think tank and futures lab that organizes the We Media community, conferences and awards and Managing Editor of WeMedia.com. Contact Brian at brian@littlemmedia.com

Let Michael Phelps Help Your Organization

Whew! It's a good thing I decided to make this a collaborative blog! I have been running like a crazy woman this week and couldn't possibly have written all this great content. Besides, it would uber boring if it were just me talking.

For instance, Sandy Rees, is a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE), author of Fundraising Buffet and co-author of 7 Essential Steps to Raising Money By mail. She has contributed articles to Advancing Philanthropy, Inside Fundraising Success, and Mal Warwick's newsletter. She is the author of the blog Get Fully Funded and and contributes to Step-By-Step Fundraising. Below she gives sage advice about maintaining a good reputation because your donor dollars depend on it. Bunnie

Let Michael Phelps Help Your Organization

How can Michael Phelps help your nonprofit organization? He may not be able to visit your organization and draw in support, but there’s a good lesson you can learn from his recent negative publicity.

In case you missed it, Michael got in some trouble over a picture of him at a party, having perhaps too good of a time. Whether he’s guilty or not, lots of people have formed opinions and it has certainly tarnished his image and credibility.

I’ve preached for years that a nonprofit has its reputation and not much else. When you depend on donations from the community to support your good work, it only takes a little negative publicity to slow down the donations. Who can afford that in today’s economy? Whether it’s bad word-of-mouth from poor customer service or a full-blown media story that shows your organization in a negative light, it’s PR you don’t need and don’t want! And unfortunately, the public tends to listen to the media and believe the stories without seeking to verify the information or hear the other side.

So take a lesson from Michael: keep your nose clean! Make sure everything your organization does is above board and beyond reproach. Be transparent: be willing to share any information with the public. After all, you should have nothing to hide and lots of your organization’s information is public record anyway. The more willing you are to share information, the more trust you will build with donors and the community.

When you’re making a decision you aren’t sure about, use what I call the ‘Front Page Test.’ If the results of your decision were on the front page of the paper tomorrow, how would people react? What would your donors think? What would your Mother think? The answers to these questions should guide you toward making the right decision.

I remember a story several years ago about a food bank that had a rodent problem. Word got out and the media picked it up. It was not good for their reputation in the community! They had to do a good bit of damage control to do to rebuild trust. Seems like we hear stories regularly (unfortunately) of incidents at day care centers, and the way the media tends to focus on news like this there’s a good chance it will get picked up. Don’t think it won’t ever happen to you!

So, what would be the worst thing that could happen at your organization? Is there something that can be put in place to prevent it from happening? Have you thought through how to handle communications with the public in times of crisis? It’s really worth the time and effort to think through these questions.

Contact Sandy at sandy@sandyrees.com