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Please also refer to the official Rotary Website for more PR and Marketing Materials (click here)

Digital Public Relations

The Major Social Media Channels

Below are the major channels in social media.  They are all great tools for promoting your club or event. But there is additional value when you integrate them with a comprehensive website. The website gives a broad overview of all the functions which your club performs and it is a source of up to the minute information (such as event calendars and current events).  The social media channels are efficient at reaching out and engaging people and peaking their interest as well as performing limited interaction.  You don’t need to use them all as they take time to keep up and maintain but using a few of them will definitely broaden your pool of Rotary candidates and help people find and understand Rotary.   

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Facebook – Of all the social media channels Facebook has the broadest potential audience with 1.2 billion users, over five times more that the next largest channel, Twitter and it can be used to tell a good story about the club. You communicate by “posting” a status line.  Once you set up a group page for the club in Facebook, begin populating it with posts about your club and what you do. You will be the administrator of that page.  In Facebook people are connected to each other as “Friends” and people are connected to organizations by “liking” the organization’s group page.  In short, people using Facebook must “like" your Facebook group page before posts from that group will automatically appear in their news stream.  The posted stories that you make on the group page, are presented in chronological order on the group’s  page.  So the most recent things posted normally appear first.  Facebook will allow posting multimedia as both pictures and video and is a great channel for capturing attention. For the most part, your network of friends and those liking your group page will be exposed to your club news.  The strength of Facebook is getting your post in front of your friends by posting a status in their news stream. You can also advertise on Facebook to boost the likelihood of your post being seen. In the early days of Facebook, all of your friends saw all your posts.  Then Facebook made changes to restrict the number of friends who see your posts unless you pay to advertise. Facebook uses a secret algorithm to decide who sees what. They claim it is to help you cut down on stream traffic so you only see what is important. Studies have claimed that often less than 20% of your friends may see your posts but no one really knows their algorithm and they won’t discuss it.

• Facebook Tip: Plan to give administrative powers to several club members in the group, at least temporarily.  The reason for this is that Facebook will allow the administrator to see a list of his or her friends and invite them to “like" the group page so that they will see all of the club news in their news stream. With several administrators (even if temporarily), you can broaden the number of people you can invite to "Like" the group page.  Once they are invited, you could reduce the authorized administrative staff if necessary.

 

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Twitter - Getting noticed on Twitter is a matter of building your followers list.  You communicate by “tweeting”.  The only legitimate way to get followers is to follow someone else and hope they will follow you back.  Twitter is perfect for shooting out that announcement of an upcoming event or congratulating recent student award recipients.  You only have 140 characters to say everything you need to say on Twitter.  So why not “tweet" the headline of a club story and include a link back to the full web blog story on your website?  Once on the web blog, you have as much room as you need to tell the story. AND once you have them on your homepage, on the website, you have the opportunity to promote Rotary. The power of Twitter is that you can pretty much follow anyone without permission (unless they block you). And you can build lists to group tweets from the people who follow you into categories. And the posted information is close to real time (e.g. the people on Twitter knew that airliner crashed into the Hudson River, 20 minutes before the news agencies knew.) The value of the information you receive is related to the quality and quantity of the people you are following. However, you may find that most of your use is outbound communication.

• Twitter Tip:  Do a search of your town name and find important people in your town to follow. Or search for Twitter users around you geographically.  Once you follow them, they will most often follow you back and as a bonus, if your tweets appeal to them, they might even retweet your tweets to their followers getting even further exposer. 

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LinkedIn - LinkedIn is the Facebook of the business community.  It is LinkedIn where you will likely find the most prominent people in your town.  You communicate on your LinkedIn page by starting a “discussion”.  Where Facebook is fun, jokes and friendship, LinkedIn is strictly business and business relationships.  You find and connect to other LinkedIn users through their network of friends.  Once you connect to your new friends, you can see to whom they are connected and even to whom their friends are connected (2 levels).  You can invite anyone to connect but it is ultimately up to them to confirm.  Many LinkedIn users are pretty liberal about connecting in that there is no expectation that you are necessarily implied friends.  They are not even called friends, they are called “connections". LinkedIn (like Facebook) allows you to post stories in reverse chronological order.  Much like Facebook if you post a story and include a link back to your web blog, you will drive LinkedIn users to your website when they click the link or “click-through". The strength of LinkedIn is its ability to recommend new connections based on whom you likely know and whom they know.

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Instagram - Instagram is a picture oriented social blog.  It allows you to post a status message along with the picture(s) and even comment on pictures.  It includes hashtags for trending.  Like Twitter you have followers.  It’s a good way to build a media photo collection of your club. 

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Google Plus (aka. Google+) -  Google plus is similar to Facebook, ironically, without quite as much privacy. To connect with people, you add people to your 'Circle of Friends’ (similar to Facebook Lists).  Each circle you create, links common people together in your view and allows you to share information with people in that circle.  Circles are nothing more than lists. But the individual friend has no idea which circles they are in or who you associated with them. One of the unique features of Google + is the ability to organize a “Hangout”.  This is a free videoconference for up to 10 (Google+) friends who want to connect and hold a conference on camera.  Again there is no charge and this has great potential for small meetings. 

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Use of Hashtags (#) - Hashtags are those little keywords embedded in or following a message, preceded by a pound sign (e.g. #Rotary or #EndPolio).  Messages can have more than one. They are used for grouping similar topics within the channel.  You can search a social channel by hash tag and find related messages or you can even trend by hashtags and see what topics are hot and what people are talking about in mass.  Hashtags originated in Twitter and the other channels saw the power of linking similar topics.  If you want a message to 'go viral' (gain enormous exposure rapidly), include hashtags for all of the relevant topics you included in your message.  Note they are available in Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and Instagram. LinkedIn has recently removed them, supposedly to be replaced by their own promotion mechanism. 

There are other channels but these are the major ones.  All of these channels are very good at getting the word out and directing those who see your message and click the link, back to your website (via 'click through').  This is important because websites are passive in nature and normally aren’t seen unless someone is looking for them, either performing a web search for Rotary, or referred to the web page by 'click through' on one of the other social channels.

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The Club Website  - Why is the website so important?  You club website home page (landing page) is the digital crown jewels of your club, it is important because it is your club’s primary face to the public. You have complete control over what data is presented, how much data historically, and in what order. All of it is structured via hyperlinks so that it is easy to research your club very efficiently and find any piece of information one might ask.  The website can also request data from the web visitor to accomplish things like, allow them to subscribe to your newsletter by providing an email address or register for an event or request additional information or contact your officers via protected email. The website is the complete compendium of knowledge about your club and you have complete control over how it is presented.  In your case, it will be everything there is to know about your club and Rotary.  The good news is, there are already many great club websites from which you can get ideas.

The strength of using a website to present information comes from structure and organization. Where it is a little frustrating or difficult to find information posted over a year ago on Facebook or Twitter (short of mulling through an entire year of messages), it takes seconds when those things are on the website and are organized properly and hyperlinked. 

In order to accomplish site organization, often website topics are segmented by separate pages or simply by page section, reachable by clicking a hyperlink usually found in the navigation bar on the left side of page.

There is some debate whether a vertical ‘navigation bar' or a menu “across the home page top with drop down links’ is better.  If you use web composition tools, often it is which of these, the tools support. The important thing is that the navigation controls be on the same place on every page. The website needs a consistent menu or navigation bar system to direct the reader to find the topic in which they are interested quickly.  Because of this navigation bar, the reader is able to scan the table of contents for the entire website and select the topic they desire rather than scanning through every topic chronologically. Your homepage or landing page is the first thing a web visitor will see, so keep it well organized.  

Most successful club websites have several basic elements in common.  

Essential Elements of a Good Club Website

|Club Name Title Banner |The Club’s name must be in the banner. Always use the official Rotary logo and |

| |branding per R/Is agreement. |

|Contact Information Box |A box on how to reach the club, phone, email address, postal address and |

| |physical address (map or directions). |

|Membership Promotion |An area designed to attract people to Rotary. Appeal to their emotions, |

| |encourage them to giveback. |

|Upcoming Programs |Tell people about the great speakers you are bringing in. |

|A Welcome Message |a message or video from your club president. |

|Club Calendar / Bulletin Board |List your planned meetings and special events. |

|Donation Information |How can people donate money to your club or the Rotary Foundation? |

|Rotary Stories About the Club |A running blog (typically at the bottom of your homepage) including pictures of |

| |your club serving the community. |

|Members Only Section |A section where members can log in to access member information, blank forms, |

| |club updates, board information, club and committee administration. |

|R/I President’s Theme   |Annual R/I President’s Rotary Theme |

|Web Analytics |Metrics (not posted) to help you optimize the site and monitor your |

| |site’s traffic. |

The homepage of your site has 3 basic viewing areas, the first section presents current news about the club as well as important facts such as meeting time and location.  The second part is for marketing Rotary and bringing in members.   It is here you want to leverage the free Rotary web assets , which R/I makes available such as graphics, pictures and videos.  And finally the last section is your web blog.  Your blog are your stories about your club and what you do. And it is these stories that attract and appeal to those who want to give back or help others.  

Photographing people 

Don’t forget to get permission where needed. Normally, if the photo is taken in a public place, you need not obtain permission however, it is courteous to mention why you are photographing if asked.  Schools and businesses are not considered public places and require specific permission. This is especially important when photographing minors. The school may or may not have a parental photo permission form on file.  Some parents have been specifically denied permission for their child to be photographed (don’t take that risk).  If you are not sure, you could blur faces so that they are not recognizable but it is best to get written permission (not only to photograph but to use their name).  See Picture Forms example at the end of this section.

• Photo Tip: As already suggested by R/I, try to keep your pictures as candid action shots.  Avoid posing passive group photos.  Go for large close up pictures of people in action helping others.  You want to look like doers, not check writers. 

Whether you use the web development facilities within Club Runner or you host your own site, all good websites pretty much have all these elements in common. 

• Website Tip - Good web analytics are free as offered by Google.  You can get great customized dashboard reports , which show all web traffic to your site by web page, number of unique visitors and their city etc.  You must go to the Google Web Masters Tools page and register and then verify that you own the domain and are the Webmaster with site access.  You do this by requesting a token file containing a text string with a key from Google and uploading it to your site so that Google can confirm its presence.

Grow Membership by Integrating Channels

What is channel integration? Some of the channels like Twitter offer built in channel integration where if you post on one channel (Twitter), it will echo on the others saving you the trouble of posting in two or more places. Or you could try specialized websites like Hootsuite, which do the same thing.

However, our reason for integrating, is to draw channel visitors back to the web site via click-through. If you put your detailed information up on your website first, you can point to it in the other social channels. The following is an illustration of how you page might leverage the blog area of your website to tell the Rotary story and how visitors on the other social channels could discover it via click-through.

Homepage integration example

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NOTE: Rotary has made a huge effort to provide your club with free Rotary graphics and promotional material. Use them !! 

Whether you use the web facilities within Club Runner or you host your own site, all good websites pretty much have all these elements in common.  It is important to use the new genuine Rotary branding (new in August 2013) for the site and to follow the proper use guidelines . 

How to make your site findable

Most web visitors will find your site through Google Search.  Once you publish your page, wait a day or so for it to re-index and then search for your club through Google and make sure it is found and placed somewhere near the top of the search results list.  Google frowns on Search Engine Optimization (or using an SEO service to try to tweak your site to get it near the top of a Google search list). In fact if Google discovers you are manipulating to try to bypass their results placement algorithm, they will punish you and push you down in the results list. You don’t want to be in that situation. Google is the largest search engine by far but don’t overlook the others.

• Web Presence Tip: - Many search engines crawl the web regularly and index what they find, but to insure you have web presence, submit your site to other major search engines and internet directories by going to their websites and locate their instructions.  Here are a few Google™, Google Places™, Google Mobile™, Bing™, Yahoo®, CitySearch®, Foursquare™, , MerchantCircle®. You site hosting company may provide a service to do this.      

Classic rules about websites

Keep your content dynamic and fresh or current.  This is critical or site visitors will only visit twice, once to see the content and once more to see that it hasn’t changed and then never again.  Since it is not possible, nor desirable to completely change all homepage content, make sure the dynamic content which is changing most often, is placed near the top of the landing page so it is the first thing the reader sees. Content should be refreshed weekly or at least monthly. The key to maintaining website interest is dynamic content.

Keep your content organized.  Use columns and divider bars to line up content. Use horizontal lines for vertical separation. Make use of ample white space to avoid looking cluttered.  Try to line up horizontal rows of objects through white space insertion.

Dead links are website killers.  If links are broken when clicked, it will undermine your attempt to present a well-organized club.  There is nothing that will turn off a web visitor faster than a dead link that doesn’t work or a missing picture with a question mark displayed. 

Use web safe colors and keep fonts to a minimum. Select colors, which complement the standard, Rotary colors.  Stick to standard page widths for pages visible by the general public, not wider than 1024 pixels.  Assume the lowest common denominator page size for public areas.

Try to stay away from too much action on the screen at any one time. Avoid scrolling text or special effects not specially invoked by the user. And NEVER automatically play music when clicking a link and landing on the home page.

Always ask for content rights permission.  Very few people will refuse a Rotary club permission to post content to which they own the rights. But you must ask first and give credit below the posting.  

Pictures DO tell 10,000 words.  Use graphics to make it interesting. Pictures should be action shots not posed groups. Use of embedding YouTube videos capture interest and leverage the resources of R/I..

Know your visitors.  Use web analytics to monitor your web traffic and determine what appeals to your audience (anonymously).

No religion and no politics.  That is not what Rotary is about and it has no place on your club website.  Keep it about Rotary or at least the community.

Keep it positive.  Don’t post anything that might embarrass the club. Maintain Rotary’s integrity. This cartoon was circulated on Facebook a year ago. The comment “Rotary Club” was made by a famous personality and lots of people subsequently shared it with others.  It is funny, meant in jest, possibly deserved and there is no harm done, but the message here illustrates the perception of Rotary.  One that we don’t want to proliferate if Rotary is to remain relevant.

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Other local channels for getting the word out

Don’t forget there are digital newspapers and local directories on the web in addition to their conventional printed newspaper counterparts.  Even though a few are national directories, they organize their publication by locality.  Most deliver their news via their respective website, an RSS feed or through integration with the social channels such as Twitter, Facebook etc.  Most of these newspapers and directory services focus on local news and they almost always offer the ability to register with them so people find your organization and meeting time and location and list your community events on their website and most have a Facebook page which advertises your event.  

Here are a few examples of local digital newspapers and directories:

• American Towns  -

• - Patch publishes local new by community  -

• Penn Live  -

• The Alternative Press  -  

Perhaps your local municipality website would endorse Rotary? Your city of township website may already display similar logos on their site.  Are you connected to the individual running the local school media department.  Most schools have video PR groups run by the students.

How well does social media find Rotarians?

Rotarians have several tools in their toolbox for growing Rotary.  

The best proven tools are (in order)

1 - The Rotary Pin - People will cross a room and ask.

2 - A Friendly Smile - Most people enter a room with a neutral face, put on a smile first and watch the magic when you enter.

3 - A Warm Handshake - Prospective Rotarians sense a firm handshake as someone confident and sure of their decisions, like joining Rotary.

4 - Social Media - There are people who have heard of Rotary but don’t know what or where it is.  That is the job of social media.

While social media comes in 4th in this list, it is still very important for that percentage of the population who are interested but you may never meet otherwise. And it offers many methods to engage people looking for Rotary.  

• Web Engagement Tip - If you create a simple electronic form page on your website for interested parties to fill in a couple informational blanks, you can collect names, phone number, address, vocation, interest etc.  It is important to follow up and return their phone call once a form is submitted to invite them to a meeting.  This page is not a membership application, merely an information form.  This will bring a stream of frequent inquiries of people who just might come out to visit a meeting.

Picture Forms

Consider implementing a Photograph Parental Permission process as soon as possible if you do not already have one. The legal risk while may be low in probability, carries  consequences too high if a parent has issues with their child being photographed or someone misuses a photograph.  There are all kinds of reasons why a parent might NOT want their child photographed for the safety of their child, everyone’s situation is different.  Make sure adults are okay with publishing their picture also, normally speakers expect to be  publicized.  You could display a sign, stating that photographs taken at the meeting or event may be used in social media.

Sample Parental Permission Form

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Rotary Club of  XXXXXX

Photograph Parental Permission Form

 

It is common practice for the Rotary Club of XXXXXX to photograph club events and activities.

 

As parent or legal guardian, I hereby give permission for my child,

 

_________________________________________  ( please print child’s name ),

 

to be photographed or video recorded by a representative of The Rotary Club of XXXXXXX for news publication or club promotional purposes .  I understand that the photographs may be submitted to area newspapers for publication.   I realize that though many photos of the club’s events do appear in newspapers, it is not guaranteed that the photo of my child will be published.  The final decision to include a photo is made by the editors of each publication.

 

I also agree that the club, at its discretion, may post these photographs or video recordings on the club’s website, and in the club newsletter and online club social media accounts.

 

Names of the children will not be included or submitted with the picture, unless you specifically permit including it by initialing the correct option below.  This is usually required if your child is receiving an award or recognition such as an Achievement Award.  

 

Please initial one of the following options and also sign below

Select one and initial

 

_________I permit use of my child’s picture/video recording along with his/her name

 

________  I permit use of my child’s picture/video recording only (no name included)

 

_________ No, I do not permit use of my child’s photograph or video recording

 

If you would like to include your email address here, we will notify you where the pictures are posted so that you may download them.   

 

Email    __________________________________________________________________ 

 

Parent’s Signature (please sign below)

 

_________________________________________       Date:_______________________ 

Non-Digital Public Relations

                 

The Importance of a Verbal Communications Channel

Does your club have a phone number?

A percentage of people would rather talk to someone about the Rotary questions they have rather than email.  It is good to have a dedicated phone number that people can call and at least leave a message, so that someone can call them back.  This can be a challenge as it is not a good practice to give someone’s personal number as the club number for obvious reasons from security to club officer turn over.  

• Voicemail Tip:  The free Google Voice service offers a fairly complete MVX service absolutely free. You must have a free Google account. Once you register for Google Voice, you pick a local phone number from a number pool, which the club will use as the club number.  Once it is registered a number of services are available, all free.

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1. Call forwarding, you can link that number to a phone or group of phones so that incoming calls are forwarded directly

2. Call screening, you can let Google Voice answer and request the caller to state their name, then GV will call your phone and when you pick up it will say call from …… press 1 to accept and connect. or it will go to voice mail.

3. Call blocking - any number

4. Voicemail, self explanatory 

5. Call message transcription - if the caller leaves a voicemail, it will transcribe it into an email and email it to whomever you choose. the transcription will include a link to play the actual audio call in the voicemail. It is logical to send this email to the Webmaster and club secretary both.

Even if this weren’t free someday, it is a great service.

Road signs

There is debate on how much value road signs provide for an automobile flying by at 40+mph. That said, there is one truth, Rotary is an old organization.    

Worn out signs belong to worn out clubs. Your club signs should be  inventoried and documented, both location and condition. Bent, old, worn out, rusty, faded road signs do more harm than good.  It is important to maintain road signs.  The meeting time and location must still be accurate. If you cannot keep the signs fresh and decent looking, then you are probably better off without signs.  How many of your clubs have worn out signs with cracked faded paint, bent signs and rusty standard poles needing attention? This sign below is all of those.  Worn or bent signs should be replaced, rusty poles (and hardware) should be painted and replaced. While you are at it, evaluate whether this sign still gets the same traffic volume it used to when it was erected, maybe it should be moved? 

(Incidentally, this club is in the middle of a sign replacement project)

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Sign Tip:  Don’t run out and erect your club sign without first getting permission from the local municipality. They may require permits, have building codes, and if it is a state highway there may be standards that must be followed. Municipalities may want to offer you a spot on their local signboard along with 4 or 5 other local civic-minded clubs. That certainly won’t make Rotary stand out among the others. If that is their requirement, you may have to search out private property to display the sign.

Brochures

Brochures are a scaled down form of an off line website.  It provides basic information, which someone can take away and read later.  Your brochure should contain the usual information defining Rotary, information about meeting time and location.  But it also should contain information about Rotary International’s projects as well as a complete list of your local club projects, and the initiatives which you support in the community.  

You don’t have to create your brochure design from scratch. The new Rotary website provides a powerful brochure generator for producing club brochures. Go to My Rotary > Manage > Materials > Create Your Own and select Rotary Club Brochure on the R/I website. You fill in item specific information about your club, then press the button and bingo. It produces a beautiful downloadable brochure in three different formats (PDF, PNG of JPG). (Use PDF for printing) And it includes an editor to make touch up changes. The result is a three-fold container professional brochure.

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• Brochure Tip: Provide a Lexan rack for the brochures (~$4) and ask the library to place it in their public area.

Business cards

The value of business cards is underrated.  All club members should be asked to carry cards on their person.  They are necessary for unplanned elevator speeches as you never know when you need one. They contain everything someone needs to know to come to a meeting. Just like brochures, the new Rotary website provides a Rotary Logo generator for your use. Go to My Rotary > Manage > Materials > Create Your Own and select Club Logo Template and provide your club’s name. It produces an official downloadable logo for your club in three different formats (PDF, PNG of JPG). (Use PDF for printing). You can get your cards printed at a local printer or online at a service like Vistaprint.

Also business card campaigns should be run to distribute and leave cards (or brochures) at local eateries and business establishments who allow business card exchange areas or bulletin boards.

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You could include a physical address, but if the location is not well know nearly everyone will consult your website and there you can provide a map.

• Business Card Tip:   If you club has sufficient budget and wants to provide a guest complementary meal, you could print that on the reverse side.  Just be careful if you use those same cards to drop at local businesses (as advertising) or you could have more free meal guests than you planned.   

Rotarian Magazine

Budget and plan to buy a couple extra subscriptions to Rotarian Magazine.  Provide these to your local lib ray and your local school library.  They will attract interest in Rotary.

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• Promotion Tip: - When you visit your doctor and dentist.  Take along your old copy of Rotarian, place your club business card in it as a bookmark and leave it behind in the waiting area after you leave.

* All references to Google refer to Google, Inc.®

Printed Newspapers

Please refer to the RI publication for communicating with and through Newspapers:

GOOGLE

Effective public relations a guide for Rotary Clubs

You will be linked to an excellence document for Club PR

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Written by Mark Call & PDG Frank Romano

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In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

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