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.

2010 Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards and the Story of A Cause Marketing Coup

It's baaaaack!  The 2010 Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards!  Nancy Schwartz of Nancy Schwartz and Company ingeniously hosts the Tagline Awards each year.  Nonprofits submit their taglines and Nancy invites the general public to vote for their favorites.  Which taglines are creative, convey the message and demand attention?  You decide.  And after the awards are through, Nancy compiles them into a report that is not to be missed.  You have until October 6th to vote and to spread the word. 

So many nonprofits have a difficult time thinking up a tagline that really sings.  But it's certainly worth spending some creative time with your board and volunteers coming up with ideas because a tagline can immediately engage your audience, help you grow membership and inspire donations.  Enjoy this blog and vote for your favorite tagline.  Bunnie

A Cause Marketing Coup

by Nancy Schwartz, President, Nancy Schwartz and Company

If you’re a Target shopper and/or a Ben & Jerry’s (B&J) fan you probably know about Volunteer Match‘s (VM) cause marketing coup.

Back in June, B&J launched its Berry Voluntary and Brownie Chew Gooder flavors at Target (a long-time VM supporter), aiming to encourage local volunteering via VM’s Scoop it Forward program. After registering for a volunteer activity and forwarding the opportunity to five friends, all six people received a coupon for a free pint of one of the new flavors, redeemable at Target.

Reinvigorated to Reach New Audiences

That’s a five-start cause marketing partnership but focus on even the most engaging promotion flags after a while. VolunteerMatch was determined to use this opportunity to engage additional audiences to build awareness of volunteering.

They devised a brilliant, funny strategy to do so — challenging Stephen Colbert (who has his own B&J flavor, Americone) to an ice cream taste off.

And what better (potentially viral) way to launch the challenge than this video: “I challenge Stephen Colbert – man to man and spoon to spoon – to see who has the ice cream flavor that people prefer,” joked Greg Baldwin, president of VolunteerMatch. “Anywhere. Anytime. Any tongue.”

After trying each flavor, Baldwin invites tasters to vote for the flavor they prefer, which is a great way to further engage those who hear about the taste off.

But the creative team at VM didn’t stop there. They generated major attention by storming the line of folks waiting to see the Colbert Report taping last week. VM distributed sample sizes of Berry Voluntary, proffered a written challenge to Colbert and the show’s producers, and launched the video big-time!

With Great Immediate Results

The long-term results will be how increased awareness from the taste-off generates more VolunteerMatch volunteers. But that won’t be clear for awhile.

What’s immediately apparent is that the spectacularly original and marvelously engaging approach has gotten big time attention. The story launched on Monday and was immediately covered by Fast Company and the Huffington Post, among other channels. That means that VM has already reached new audiences.

Next step, getting Baldwin on the Colbert Report! I’ll keep you posted on progress.

Powerful Inspiration — Use It to Spice Up Your Campaigns

There’s lots of inspiration here. My challenge to you is this: How can you take a great existing marketing or fundraising campaign, spice it up and roll it out to engage new audiences (or re-engage those who might have seen it the first time round)?

P.S. Vote now to build your messaging skills by selecting the best in class in the 2010 Taggies – the third annual Nonprofit Tagline Award Competition. It’s a fun project that will help nonprofits in all fields discover what works, and why.

Contact Nancy at Nancy Schwartz

Fundamentals for Nonprofit Communication

The following is a re-post from Bob Crawshaw's blog "Traffic on Maine." Bob is a public relations consultant in Australia. I thought this post dovetailed perfectly with Mary Lee Gannon's post on pursuing a "personal touch" when it comes to fundraising (see below). Bob and his colleagues emphasize that communication is an emotional art form. I really like the part about "listening" before you communicate. It is amazing what people will tell you and if you listen they will tell you all you need to know about how to successfully communicate with them. Bunnie

Fundamentals for Nonprofit Communication

Bob Crawshaw, Managing Director of Maine Street Marketing

We just finished the 2009 season for our free workshops for not for profit organisations. Now in its sixth year these sessions offer pro bono marketing advice to volunteers groups, charities and not for profits.

To finish up the 2009 program we asked colleagues in our international PR networks to name the top ten things not for profit organisations must get right when they set out to communicate to their communities. We got more than ten so here's the list.

• Craft a message that resonates and connects. Before embarking on a PR campaign, craft your message. Who you are and who do you help? Do your services overlap with other groups? How is your organization unique and what makes it stand out? People want to know before investing what area of the community you serve. Is it pets, homeless people, the elderly, disabled children, etc? They also want to know that the majority of funds go to the intended programs and recipients.

• Find out how to connect emotionally with your target audience. Put a face on the population you serve and tell their story. Describe their situation and how your services have helped them. If you must present a bleak picture be sure to provide a solution. People want to hear positive outcomes to things that affect them and their community so how do your services improve the community's quality of life.

• Make your message as personal as possible to the audience you are trying to reach. And the information you are giving them has to be kept simple on the front end. People aren't going to read, or listen to a lot at the outset. Once you get their interest then you can deliver more content. So you have to really target your audience carefully. Tossing out lots of content broadly hoping to catch a few is wasteful in this economy.

• Demonstrate the need, show you have a solution and then share your successes.

• Listen before you communicate. The good Lord gave us two ears and one mouth for a very good reason.

• The basic motivation factor of "putting something back in to the local community" is a good message. It leads to a sense of achievement and well being for volunteers and a sense of philanthropy for donors. Also promise donors publicity because people like to be seen to be doing good things.

• Communications must empathise transparency and accountability. Ensure you report on how the funds you raised are being used and that what you claimed you would do, you actually did.

• A lot of not for profits want to start with the tactics first and forget to spend a few minutes asking the questions to make their efforts smarter. So before you communicate, ask what is the purpose of my communications? What is the primary message I want to convey? Who is it designed to reach? What do I want people to do after they hear what I have to say? How will I know I have been successful?

• Have I got my logos, images, taglines and spokespersons ready to roll before I start talking.

• Understand the media likes conflict. Where there is no conflict or opposing views there is no story. So find a local hero and go for a feature story rather than a news story.
  
• What is your value to the community at large? How many people are using your services, how many are unable to get these services? Where would those folks get services if your organization didn't exist? What would happen to them? And what is your impact on the general community?

• Take advantage of third party endorsements in the form of testimonials from clients, favorable media placements, or even simply through the reputations of the people who serve on your board or who volunteer. But please choose them wisely. The best part of this strategy - it's virtually free.


• Show the value you provide - the value of your research, the fact you employ real people at all levels, spend your money in the local economy and that you are open to people asking questions and seeing what we do. Wrap those points up in good story telling and tell a story about people who do things. Storytelling is becoming a lost art but you can't lose if you can get a handle on it.

Bob Crawshaw says "... and my very special thanks to our contributors - Chips Henriss, Kristie Aylett, Karen Miller, Tim Entwisle, Janet Bosserman, Jeff Botti, Mike Spear, Rosanne Gain and Susanne Dupes."

How Does a Corporate Philanthropy Program Bring Its Stakeholders Together Instead of Driving Them Apart?

Many nonprofits are scrambling to find revenue and many corporate foundations are being swamped with requests. Corporate foundations have to weigh not only the "worthiness" of the request but also the public relations ramifications of their response to the request. Janet Nava Bandera tells how her corporate client changed the way they consider causes. Interesting (and perhaps more democratic) way to decide which worthwhile cause receives both money and attention. Bunnie

How Does a Corporate Philanthropy Program Bring Its Stakeholders Together Instead of Driving Them Apart?

by Janet Nava Bandera

Founder and President, Foundation Mentors

In the early years of the decade the economy was booming and people were generous in their charitable giving. Companies also started showing that they could be good citizens and give back to the communities that helped them thrive by starting a corporate philanthropy program. The programs took the form of foundations, giving programs and employee volunteer programs.
In addition to making executives feel good, it was good business.

A 1999 Cone/Roper Cause Trends Report found that:

76% of consumers indicate they would switch brands or retailers to one associated with a good cause, when price and quality are equal; and

87% of employees at companies with philanthropic programs feel a stronger sense of loyalty to their employer.

What companies did not realize was that along with such programs came the competing interests of their stakeholders. Suddenly, executives that funded the programs (directly or indirectly) wanted a say in how funds were distributed, employees wanted to know if programs sponsored by executives got preferential treatment and customers started asking how to request funds for their favorite charities.

Couple that with declining revenues and suddenly, for some companies, what started out as a way to do good turned into a PR quagmire.

When faced with this situation recently a corporate foundation client of mine decided to change the nature of its program. Ten years ago company executives founded a foundation and supported it through payroll deduction. As revenue increased so did gifts to the foundation. The foundation grew quickly, but so did the number of requests for funds from community organizations, employees and clients. The result, more grants denied than approved. With each turn down came the inevitable question: Why? It is touchy to explain to a good client that his favorite charity did not live up to the administrative to program expense ratio formula that the foundation required.

The solution: No longer accept grant requests. Sounds like overkill, but the internal result has been profound. Instead of accepting outside requests, the company now has a completely bottom up employee volunteer program (executives still count as employees). The program encourages and rewards employees through supporting gifts and matching funds from the foundation. Within weeks of adopting the change there were 4 “projects” in the works.

How does it work? An employee captain puts together a team of volunteers and the team then solicits support from the foundation. The board still uses the same criteria to evaluate the recipient charity, but in addition, the request is evaluated based upon how many employees have signed up to participate and how the project fits with the corporate culture.

For this financial services firm: The first project--- “JA in a Day”. For the upcoming event, twenty-five employees have signed up to teach for a day at a local elementary school. Other projects with pending requests include a team of 30 signed up for a walk supporting a local cancer support group and a group of 20 outfitted in jeans and hammers for the day.

Although still funded by executives, the foundation serves to bring together the stakeholders. Employees from every department and at every level work together to support a common cause. This team effort gives new meaning to the term “employee happy hour”.

Contact Janet at http://www.foundationmentors.com/ or 314-691-4386.

Effectively Involving Your Members in Your Organization's PR and Advocacy

Nonprofit Conversation is now being read in 27 countries! I have been concerned that our content is U.S. centric and have been doing some outreach to nonprofit/NGO leadership in other countries. It doesn't matter where you live, if you are engaged in nonprofit activities, the challenges are often quite the same. Below, Mark Buzan of Action Strategies (Canada) provides advice on effective public relations (PR) and advocacy. Mark is our first international contributor! Thanks Mark! Bunnie

Effectively Involving Your Members in Your Organization’s PR and Advocacy

by Mark Buzan, Principal, Action Strategies

The success of any nonprofit plan is hugely dependent on how it treats its public affairs. It comes in a variety of shapes and sizes, and has to get creative as sources for revenue are obviously different and harder to come by than traditional profit-making businesses. This said, knowing that your current and prospective members can help you get your message, mission, and needs out to the world at large, is absolutely crucial to the sustainability and future success of your nonprofit. So how do you go about treating your members and your key audiences so as to engage them in advancing your cause – particularly in public relations campaigns? This is important because the “holy grail” of grassroots campaigns occurs when other organizations and individuals become “evangelists” for the message you are promoting.

The same can be said of government relations campaigns and the benefit of utilizing tools that support grassroots campaigns that involve members and rally stakeholders to your cause. Increasingly, it is not enough to bring your issues to government. You have to demonstrate public support for your position. Your organization may be under public attack and need to publicly defend your practices and positions. You may want to shape the governments' policy agenda. To do that, supporters, members, employees, your industry’s customers and/or suppliers need to be mobilized!

More and more, the Internet can be used as a tool to rally support and advance your cause. In a networked society, organizations have no choice but to establish their positions in the online political marketplace. You go on-line to educate, motivate and organize citizens, opinion leaders and government decision-makers to take meaningful off line action. It's a new dimension for advocacy.

But, Internet advocacy and other outreach efforts are still a complement to traditional government relations activities. Communicating your views directly and personally to decision-makers should always be part of any on-going strategy. Below, is a list of some good ideas on how exactly to get your members involved in your nonprofit’s communications and advocacy.

1. Fundraising: One of the most basic and fundamental ways to get your members involved in public relations is creating interactive and mutually beneficial fundraising opportunities and programs. Host an informational walk for a cause. People undoubtedly invite their non-member friends to join them for company. It all starts with one or two more people knowing about your cause, and if the fundraising event is one that they enjoy, they tell others, and so on and so on.

2. Internet: Though this may seem an overused topic in pr these days, it is one of the most effective means of getting your name and cause out there, quicker and to more people than you could ever do with non-internet advertising or pr. Start with an interesting and interactive website and draw members and non-members alike to your site by all means you can think of. Start a blog, involve yourself in relate topic forums, write articles online, and get your current members to do the same.

3. Keep Contact and Hold Attention: By valuing the network you may already have with your current members and clients, you can maximize their individual networks to voice your goals, initiatives, and needs more loudly and far-reaching. Send your members e-newsletters, postcards, and invite them to special events to keep them abreast of all of the exciting things you are doing with your nonprofit. By doing this, you not only keep them constantly engaged with your nonprofit’s presence, but also put yourself at the front of their thoughts when it comes to their casual and professional efforts for the pr and marketing of your nonprofit.

4. Coordinate how you & your members make their presentation to MPs: Last week, I attended an interesting panel discussion held by the CSAE. Three MPs from the Conservatives, Liberals, and NDP were present offering input that I have long advised NGO executives. First, have a steady balance between emotion and logic. As I alluded to in a previous post, Tough Economic Times and the Federal Budget, often non-profits come to legislators with a healthy dose of an argument that comes from the heart. The trouble is that is often not enough. There needs to be a solid reason as to why a proposal makes sense and fits into the the agenda of the government.

Also, when considering how to involve members into an advocacy campaign, the options also include sending them to meet various MPs. When doing so, often under a "On the Hill" campaign, make sure they are well prepared with briefing papers that have first been sent to the MPs in advance. Ask the attending member(s) to also bring a copy. Finally and above all, don't assume what an MP knows or doesn't know. Acting as if you know more on a given subject than an MP that may have come from a professional background in that field will only put them off. Assuming they know a given subject when in fact they don't will only frustrate both parties - your volunteer representative and the legislator.

Mark Buzan is Principal of Action Strategies, a Public Relations and Canadian Government Relations Consultancy for non-profits. Subscribe now to his Lobbying and PR tips newsletters at www.actionstrategies.ca/Action_Strategies/Newsletter.html