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BEST PRACTICES IN PUBLIC RELATIONSJuly 10, 2017Thanks to contributions from the PR Best Practices Discussion Group on , Rotary Leader, and individual Rotarians just sharing ideas. Small clubs take notice of bold.New additions are in Italics.TABLE OF CONTENTSPart IWear Your Rotary Pin!2How Do You Start?2PR Strategies2Partner4Resources4Part IIBrochures5ClubRunner5Facebook/Social Media5Newsletters6Photos6Press Releases7Signage7Speeches8Video8Websites9#1 - WEAR YOUR ROTARY PIN!!!Part IHow Do You Start?Figure out what your top goal is, e.g. Find new members, or Engage current members. After you refine your goal, it becomes much easier to figure out which mechanisms and messages will have the most value!Make a point of posting “everything” you do to ClubRunner, Facebook, and Twitter feeds, especially the events you hold and the work you do in public. Ensure that the fun side of your club and Rotary is highlighted. Contact your District Public Image/Public Relations chair for advice.Create a committee of folks who are willing to help you, e.g. taking photos at events, posting information to Facebook, drafting a paragraph recap of an event. PR StrategiesStart with family and friends.Hold training sessions for all club members to get them comfortable with their ClubRunner accounts and MyRotary.If your club members are educated and inspired about Rotary, they will serve as Ambassadors for your club and help spread the word for you. So see how you can integrate more Rotary education into club meetings and club communication tools (e.g., newsletter): not just about club projects and activities, but also about what Rotary International is doing worldwide.Some of your success depends on who you know in the media world, but most is based on giving the news outlets what they want to hear when they want to hear it (and knowing who to send it to).Don't know a soul at your local newspaper? Invite the Publisher/Editor/or main City Reporter to be a speaker at your club meeting! Same for a TV or Radio personality. They make interesting speakers and then you have a chance to have a one-on-one conversation with that person to get your foot in the door for future coverage: they may be willing to pass along whatever news you have to their editor(s).When you reach out to the media, you should ask yourself "why should the public care?" "What's the interesting story here?" The more unique the story, the more likely the news media will cover munity Calendars/Public Service Announcements: Call up your local paper/station and talk with the Public Affairs department to find out what they offer and the requirements for submitting information. You can submit calendar information (the who, what, where, when, why of an upcoming event) to a variety of online social calendars for free.Invite local media to join the club (free or subsidized fees).Wear your Rotary pin!!! Encourage members to wear their pin (at least) the day of the meeting. Pick a member at random to see if they are wearing it. Give an incentive if they have worn it; a fine if they have not. Wear the smallest Rotary pin you can find. Wear the most beautiful Rotary pin you can find. People will ask about it. And then you will have 30 seconds to wow them about Rotary.Be persistent.? Here's the thing about hunting for free press: you are going to get ignored, and you are going to get rejected but don’t give up.Make a list of media contacts and develop a plan how to access them for your public image projects.13. Newspapers, etc. are unlikely to repeatedly publish stories about the activities of a single Rotary club. Instead of focusing on your club, you can publish stories about your partners in the community, especially nonprofits doing great service work, and mention how you work with them. This approach seems to be worthwhile to get your club better known and, more importantly, to give visibility to nonprofits serving those in need. It builds goodwill. Your nonprofit partners will be grateful when you write about them. 14. Have a publicity plan for every service project. Think of it this way. A service project isn’t a service project unless it has a publicity plan as part of it.15. Tie your promotion to special days on the calendar even if you don’t know much about them, e.g. “National Small Town Day.”PartnerPartner with your local online media and promote your club through new online and social media features that they are looking to promote. Your activities may end up being promoted consistently. Also, the online media channels may begin to follow your posts and tweets which end up reaching far more people.?Look for someone or something to align with e.g. community-based non-profits, Chamber of Commerce, school system, major community annual events, co-sponsoring, etc. Partner with larger clubs. Have them bring some of their activities to your area and that perhaps you can host with them. Ask the larger club to bring some media/PR people and do a great article about the event, including your small town. Invite more collaboration from the capital city, forge sister clubs and invite outsider to speak about something your community needs to know. Get your local government to also participate, engage all the community into action, something that everyone can help no matter how small. Have the government spread the word.ResourcesThere are great tools available at Brand Central, , on the Rotary website. Sign into and look for brand central. Once there you can find resources and templates, along with a voice and visual guide that can help even?a novice understand how to do something creative for your club.?Use the Zone 25/26 Public Image Center:? your District P.R. Chair.Sign up for the PR Discussion Group on .Part IIBrochuresThe Club Brochure Template is in the Brand Center. Club members can upload their own photos or select from the image options provided, edit the text to include information relevant to their club, such as their club’s key projects, list dates of their club’s annual events, and share testimonials from their members. ClubRunnerClubRunner can be used for club-internal communications so you don't have to rely on separate mailing lists and such.Facebook/Social Media1. Many clubs use Facebook as their primary "website." The only drawback is you have to live within Facebook's rules and limitations.2. Post on your social media pages every week. Talk about your guest speaker, visiting Rotarians, and events. Post the same information on the District social media. Create a great hash tag. Highlight upcoming club service projects, and how to join information.3. Social media will grow you club's image in your community as well as friends of your members. Periodically ask your club members to share your club's posts onto their own social media pages. This attracts friends of friends and gets Rotary's image out there.4. Don't sign-up for a bunch of social media accounts for the sake of having them. Start with one (or two) and just try post fresh content to those accounts 1-2 times a week. If you master that over a few months, try adding another account. 5. Use social media dashboards, like Hootsuite, to help you manage, and publish to, multiple accounts at one time. 6. Have your club president mention social media at meetings. 7. Appoint a historian so that you don't struggle to find the information from social media posts that are long gone.8. Tag your members in Facebook pages. All of their Friends will see it, and many will “Like” the photos and your site.9. Broadcast your meetings live and show the world how much fun it is to be a Rotarian.?newslettersUse the club’s Facebook posts and feature them in a regular article in the club newsletter titled "We Saw You on Facebook." As members see others featured, they are more interested in being proactive about supplying info. Your Club newsletter/bulletin is a place where you can put forward a complete?story. It should be widely circulated. It should reach every influential person in the town.PhotosAt every club event, encourage members to use their smart phones and take photos at meetings, socials, Pictures of hands-on projects, and other gatherings. Send post-event photos to editors or reporters who could not attend an event. Add a detailed caption.3. Use action photos, not grip and grin.Press Releases.Write press releases for anything you want covered. You will always be asked for it.Have photos to go along with any press release even if the event has yet to happen. Be creative. Use visuals from R.I. (World Polio Day, TRF Award, TRF Centennial, International Convention, etc.), the R.I. website, newsletters, the District newsletter, website, etc.Develop a media list for press releases and keep it current.Send out event-related press releases at least one month in advance.Make sure the first sentences of a press release have the most important information: who, what, when, where, and why, and most importantly, why a reader should care.Email each press contact individually.End each press release with the ### symbol, which means the end of your document.Include a description or “boilerplate” at the end of your press releases to describe your club and Rotary International.Add quotes to your press releases for color and additional information about your project or news.Add your full contact information if you submit a press release by email.SignageMake sure anything you do in community includes lots of prominent branding/signage.Consider using billboards.?There are two components of Public Relations that are needed: message and visibility. ?In a rural situation where you have little or no media, you could consider going the sign route. Banners are fairly inexpensive and promoting placement through club members and other community members could get you more than a good location. By having your one PR person reaching out to non-Rotarian?businesses and land owners while asking for permission to place a banner, you might wind up with a new member or two as well.Entrance to town signageSpeeches1. Describe a transformation that took place or describe challenges that you overcame through Rotary to achieve a goal.2. Include personal anecdotes, real-life examples, and stories that touch our emotions and grab our attention.3. Strengthen a Rotary story by showing clear, compelling examples or demonstrations of Rotary’s impact on your community.4. Tailor your story to your audience. Know whether you are addressing people who are familiar with our organization or who know little about it.5. Avoid Rotary jargon or acronyms.6. Keep it short enough to hold your audience’s attention.VideoCreate a series of pre-recorded webinars on the topics everyone here has been talking about, 10 minute blasts that Rotarians can access at their leisure.Record your programs and put them on your webpage.Create an annual club video. ?Show it during "Bring a Friend to Rotary Day." Put it on your website and Facebook. ?Here is an example:?youtube/Xjf Tuxedo Guy.Advertise your club, projects, and events on local cable and public access TV.WebsitesThe website is the main way people find out that some clubs exists, and what clubs do.? Do frequent updates.Use lots of pictures of hands-on activities. ................
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