1. SUPERCHARGING YOUR IMPACT

2. IT MAKES SENSE
You are mission driven. Communications often takes a back seat to program work.
Yet communication is what supercharges your mission.
It’s how you get people behind your cause, raise political awareness, stimulate giving and inspire donors, connect with partners, connect with your beneficiaries.

3. BE STRATEGIC
Focus on what you want …. and then what strategies get you the results you want

4. EARNED MEDIA
PLACED MEDIA
STORIES
WEBSITE
SOCIAL

5. EARNED MEDIA More reporters know about us More reporters call us
We are quoted in more stories and get our message out to more people
WA piece by Linda and Lisa Dixon on the role of families in the care plan that was picked up by 13 papers in 10 states, reaching 4.3 million people through papers like The Buffalo News, the Deseret News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
An op-ed we placed about Mental Health First Aid and suicide (What Would You Do? Your Role in Suicide Prevention) generated 2,104 articles featured in more than 230 community newspapers in 49 states with a total circulation of 244,560 and more than 26 million unique visitors.

6. MEDIA RELATIONS – THE BASICS
REACTIVE MEDIA:
Who is your media contact?
Can they be reached after hours?
Do they return calls and s? Are you willing to be “on the record”?
Be available, speak on the record
BE AVAILABLE AND FINDABLE

7. MEDIA RELATIONS – THE BASICS
Before you say something, you have to have something to say.
Form an opinion
Draft a statement
Say it
Thought leaders need thoughts
Thought Leaders need THOUGHTS
HAVE A PERSPECTIVE

8. MEDIA RELATIONS – THE BASICS
Educate reporters
Find who matters
Make a connection
”Feed the beast”
and social media
Desksides
Editorial boards
Journalism students
Be available, speak on the record
Proactively connect and educate – desksides, outreach, social media connections, editorial boards
EDUCATE

9. FIND EACH OTHER
40%
of journalists say social media networks are “very important” to their work
54%
of journalists regularly use Twitter to get information and report their stories

10. RELATIONSHIP VS. RELEASE

11. EARNED MEDIA
PLACED MEDIA
STORIES
WEBSITE
SOCIAL

12. BEYOND THE NEWSLETTER
PLACED MEDIA

13. TIPS FOR PLACING OPEDS Decide what you want to say & where to say it
Decide who will sign
Draft it – words, action focused, pegged to recent events
Submit it
If rejected submit to choice #2
Repeat
Don’t give up!
If printed, push out to your networks and on social

14. SPREAD IT YOURSELF
Self publish – prioritize bigger and more public venues over smaller and private (New York Times better than HuffPo better than LinkedIn better than personal blog)
Reinforce in newsletters, on social
REPURPOSE EVERYTHING!

15. EARNED MEDIA
PLACED MEDIA
STORIES
WEBSITE
SOCIAL

16. STORIES MAKE DATA MATTER
By telling success stories about collective triumph, you will prompt your audience to action rather than just sympathy.

17. Most people are not inspired to act based on reason alone.

18. VS.

19. YOUR STORIES ARE AN ASSET
Prioritize
Collect
Use
Articulate the stories you want your staff & ambassadors to capture.
Ask staff to regularly share.
Put a poster in high traffic areas so clients &families know you want to know their stories.

20. YOUR STORIES ARE AN ASSET
Prioritize
Collect
Use
The story
The person featured
Permission
Photo when possible
Contact information
Notes on the person’s willingness to speak

21. YOUR STORIES ARE AN ASSET
Prioritize
Collect
Use
With reporters
In newsletters
On your website
In blogs, opeds, speeches
On social media
In testimony
In appeal letters
In reporting

22. EARNED MEDIA
PLACED MEDIA
STORIES
WEBSITE
SOCIAL

23. IF YOU BUILD IT …
Not true. You have to go to them.

24. NOT IF THEY CAN’T FIND IT

25. YOUR WEBSITE The best homepage in the world will gather dust
Direct traffic … DOWN
Referral traffic … DOWN
Search traffic … UP

26. SEO – “search engine optimization”
Don’t be afraid!

27. PRIORITIZE BEING FOUND
Tips:
Do your own Google search and see if people can find you
substance use 35,900,000 results
substance abuse 79,300,000 results
addiction 225,000,000 results
Content matters

28. TIPS TO HELP PEOPLE FIND YOU
Lots of rich content– news articles, stories, white papers, blogs
When adding content, use relevant titles
Name your URLS well – keywords and hyphens (not underscore)
Use smart “anchor text” (not read more or here, but resources on childhood bipolar.)
Use social media to drive traffic to your site
Content matters

29. 2,000 sessions to our website each month

30. IF YOU ARE GOING TO SPEND $ ON DESIGN…
65%
of digital media time is now on mobile – the desktop is becoming a “secondary touchpoint” for an increasing number of users

31. EARNED MEDIA
PLACED MEDIA
STORIES
WEBSITE
SOCIAL

36. GET NOTICED MAKE IT SHORT USE PICTURES BE CLEAR PROOFREAD
SHORTEN LINKS (bit.ly)
ADD VALUE
GIVE CREDIT
USE HASHTAGS
PROOFREAD AGAIN
750,000 RTS - Second most tweeted – first was Ellen DeGeneres’ Oscar selfie at over 2 million RTs
Apparently a One Direction tweet just overtook this tweet for second place

37. Be smart. Be nice. Be yourself.
THE SECRET TO TWITTER …
Be smart. Be nice. Be yourself.

38. #BADCHOICE

39. #GIVINGUP

40. PRIORITIZE …. Website design High cost Press releases Website content
Social media
Story collection
Optimize SEO
Reporter education
Self publishing
Reporter relationships
Be available to reporters
Low cost
Low effort
High effort

41. MORE RESOURCES TO HELP

42. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: MEDIA
Finding the best local paper for pitching an oped or news story:
Tips on writing a good oped:

43. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: STORIES
Why leaders need to be great storytellers. something-to-say-heres-how-to-ensure-people-hear- you/#2271d05072a5 Why are patient stories important in healthcare? es/Hayward-PatientStoriesValuable.aspx How to build a storybank: content/uploads/2013/07/free_range_2012_06.pdf

44. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: TWITTER
Why tweet? how-to-do-it/