PR Planning for Nonprofits

Nonprofit organizations (and some arts-oriented businesses) are always lacking the funds to really  put together effective marketing plans.  It takes bucks to buy ads no matter what the media.  This is why PR is so very important to most nonprofits.  Yeah, it's a crap shoot but with proper planning sometimes you can get killer results.  Although this article is focused on British charities, David Hamilton has some very good ideas for nonprofits here in the US.

and here is your unrelated photo from 2013

Hear those Birdies?

NO?  Then you must not be on Twitter, one of the most interesting social media sites.  Twitter can be a useful tool in the PR practitioners kit bag, but it's also good to get an overview on what it can do for you first.  Here at Running with Scissors, where I have my art studio, they recently had someone come in to give a low-cost class in it. Unfortunately it didn't work out with my schedule so I wasn't able to attend.  I'm always interested in seeing what other folks have to say about the intersection of Twitter and PR. 

But the big issues with any kind of marketing (more than PR) is how to measure results.  In PR, it's rather loosey-goosey as it can take years of solid work to create an image in the public's eye, especially when you're just using that and not spending money on advertising.  So I thought it was interesting when this arrived in my email.  I'll save you the spam that you'll get if you sign up for it with your own email address.

Then I stumbled across this article on Forbes.  Best takeaways for me were:

• Join a Directory: There are dozens of directories of Twitter users online, including Twiends, WeFollow, and Twellow. Add yourself to as many directories as you can find under the proper categories, and you will begin to see some users following you from these sites.
• Guest blogging or blogging about your twitter account.  “This strategy works very well if you can give readers an incentive to follow you.”

Follow me @anntracy..... and now for the unrelated photo of the day

 Shot during a performance by Collective Motion, a new modern dance company here in Southern Maine.  Shooting by the seat of one's pants is always exciting and even more so when the photos turn out!  If you'd like to follow my photography blog, here it is.

Point of View

Is so very important whether you're writing a novel, play, screenplay or news release.  I hadn't thought about it in context of marketing and general sales, but my friend David Ligon just made a very good post about points of reference on his blog and I thought it would be good to share it with you here.  It's also true about artists in valuing their work. 

And here is your random photo of the day - Venice from 2010 as a painting.

Be a PR Star

But of course you know that fame is fleeting and you're only as good as your next "hit".    And of course it makes a difference in the community in which you work.  If you're doing PR for some large company in a large city, it's almost twice as difficult as it is if you're in a small city where the newspapers (whatever's left of them) are looking for stories and don't have that many reporters so they depend upon PR professionals for interesting stories at times.

There are 15 very good points in this article that first appeared in DaveFleets.com and they ask for one more point - which I would say is:

#16 - go volunteer to do PR for a nonprofit social service agency and / or arts group so you'll see how the other half without resources live.  It will make you more creative!

Some Good Advice

Nothing like starting off the New Year with some good advice about who to pitch a story to in various media.  Or how to start a media list with the emails of those who might be interested in your story or concept.  The Social Media Today site has a good article on that subject written by Carrie Morgan.  As a former member of the 4th Estate, I think she's right on in finding out who to target where.  As your release hits the desks of these people, just pray there isn't a 5 alarm fire or high profile crime story that can knock you out of the running for inclusion. 

Even with the best of advice and best practices, PR has been and looks like it always will be a crap shoot.  But those who succeed in developing good relations with media, there will be a pay off on a slow news day.

Home for the Holidaze

If you read my other blog, you'll know that this has been a busy summer for me as an artist and photographer.  I apologize for not posting anything here since June, which seems like it was years ago as I gaze at the snow here in Portland Maine.  But I ran across this very good article about using social media for your brand.  It's a hard thing to do, not to toot your own horn these days, but in dealing with social media, I think it's good advice.

Wishing you all a very Happy Holiday and a Bright, Prosperous New Year - with a cherry on top!

What One Thing do Baseball and PR Have in Common?

Today a first for me - writing a headline that is a question and almost sounds like a joke!  But it's not when you think of PR as pitching - which is quite important in baseball as well.  Except when it comes to pitchers duels, those really bore the crap out of me.  But enough of me, what about you when it comes to pitching?  If you're like me, the news release headline is probably the biggest of the pitches I'll use.  But Sarah Skerik begs to differ with us and I think she's got some good points in her article here.  And she is specific as to the WHY being the biggest W in terms of pitching, especially when it comes to social media.

Wave of the Future?

There's nothing like trying to predict the future to catch someone's interest.  I think that's why astrology is still featured in the local fish wraps and right here on the internet.  But what about the evolution of the internet and how we interact with each other?  I'll bet that probably half the folks reading this blog were not on the internet as much five years ago as they are now.  Although the topic isn't strictly PR oriented it does have some bearing on how we get our messages noticed in our brave new world now and five years into the future.  We can thank Josh Miller over at Medium.com for his insights.

More Social Media Rules

Like those magazines that headline 5 Ways to Fill in the Blank or 8 Things You Should Know, we've now got another list of 10 Rules for Attaining Success in Social Media - click here.

However, this time the advice is coming from a worthy source - Guy Kawasaki.  After surviving two stints working for Steve Jobs at Apple, Kawasaki has become a go-to guy about all things Silicon Valley and start ups.  His advise in the article is spot on IMHO.

The only "What???" moment I had was that he tweets the same stuff all day because of the way people jump on and off Twitter.  We used to do that in radio news as well.  We figured the average listener was in the car for a max of 90 minutes, so the first 90 minutes at work was writing all new newscasts.  After that, we would rotate the stories every 90 minutes.  You also find that in TV on CNN - although I think that they rotate every hour....

Special thanks to Joe Nalven at the Digital Art Guild for turning me on to this story!

Centerfold

My Viva Cuba show made the cut for the centerfold for the Portland Press Herald today.  I had a story with legs (not many Mainers have been to Cuba apparently) and submitted the information in the right format and met their deadline for a photo.  And most of all, I was lucky!  PR is such a crap shoot. I don't mind giving Imogen Binnie and Space Gallery a little extra coverage either!

I know I'm kinda cheating here with just re-posting what I had up for my Waiting for the Muse blog, but it shows that perseverance and luck will eventually win out!

Blogs vs. Social Media

If someone were to walk up to you and ask you if social media had more of an influence on you than blogs when it comes to buying something, what would you say?  Off the top of my head, I'd guess that it would be social media.  Mostly because many of my friends hang out in Fakebook. It takes Technorati and the Social Media Examiner blog to prove me WRONG.

Apparently when folks are not hanging out on FB, they are reading and researching blogs!  Go figure.  Of course blogs are in third place as retail sites and brand sites are the top two when it comes to influencing a purchase.  But this does show how important it is to continue (or start) a blog presence in addition to making your company or services known on FB and other social media.

Steal Your Face

OK... that headline only works if you're hip to the Grateful Dead... but at least it got your attention and today's post is about stealing or appropriation as we say in the art world.  Sometimes small businesses should look to the Bigger Ones, especially when it comes to how they are using social media.  While the article here is mostly about marketing since it deals with image building, it's also PR related.  But I think they do make some good points in terms of using social media in a strategic way.

Maybe you've wondered what's been going on in my life as it's been over a month since my last post?  Even if you didn't wonder, I'm going to tell you.  I traveled to Cuba as part of a cultural exchange with other photographers from the Santa Fe Photographic Workshop, led by Elizabeth Opalenik.  If you'd like to know about life in Havana (mostly), click here and then scroll back to the beginning of February. 

Where Does the Time Go

Many apologies gentle readers, what with the holidays and travel, I've got egg all over my face when I see that last post I made here was in the beginning of November.  Hope ya'll had great holidays and that your PR tasks are not too terrible this time of year.  For me, this means gearing up for the Portland Performing Arts Festival - gotta get those magazine news releases out - as well as my on-going consulting for Constellation Gallery in Portland.

I also raised money on US Artists for my next photography project which will shoot in February after I get back from a much anticipated trip to Havanna!  I'll be going on a cultural exchange with the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops led by Elizabeth Opalenik.

Fakebook?

With traditional media outlets putting the squeeze on editorial or just plain disappearing, I have been a big fan of social media taking it's place.  Facebook seemed like the perfect site for letting people know what you're doing either via a fan page or as an individual.  Remember how your FB friends howled when they changed the timeline?  Did you notice that you weren't seeing as many of your friends posts as before?  Changes coming down the pike again according to the folks at Dangerous Minds, and it will cost you an arm and a leg.

Learning to Like Facebook

I help out with PR at Constellation Gallery here in Portland Maine.  We're trying to get the word out about our shows and gain a reputation with local media so that when we do have a "big" news story, we might get some ink.  But one of the other things we need to do is to keep up the work in social media. 

Today I met with another member artist (we're a collective or cooperative that runs the gallery) who is going to help by posting our information on local websites and the like.  He's old school and came up through the ranks as a graphic designer and then a journalist in Europe.  He is skeptical about Facebook.  But he also sees how editorial inches and the papers themselves are shrinking.

I think it's that he doesn't like the idea of it.  But it certainly is a way to get information out there.   But there are effective and ineffective ways to go about it.  Just about the whole industry is in a learning curve. 

That's why it's good to listen to all voices out there even if  they're talking specifically about marketing rather than just PR, like the folks at Synapse Marketing are in this article.  

Hear the Little Birdies?

A couple of years ago when I was still living in Sacramento, I joined the PR Association there and went to their annual luncheon.  The food was meh, as usual for that kind of event, but the speaker,  Shane Rhyne of Ackerman PR, was very interesting and talked about social media - Twitter in particular.  Follow this LINK for a very basic tutorial about Twitter and how it can help your PR efforts.  I do agree with Rhyne that I'm more of a editor on Twitter, sharing information among my followers.  Of course there's always the link to the funny cat story, but everyone needs a laugh, right?

PR 101

Every once in a while, it's always good to be reminded of the basics.  One of the most basic things in PR is the event and news release.  Notice the distinction there?  An event release is to inform the media of an event that is happening and that is the news worthy angle.  A news release on the other hand has more "newsworthy" information in it that might entice a reporter to interview the client.  This article (originally posted by Arthur Fink on Facebook) is a gentle reminder that we need to realize how bombarded the media is these days and not to try to make PR mountains out of molehills.

Just July?

Although I try to post more than once a month, it seems as though that's my current posting schedule.  Of course I was very busy this spring and early summer consulting for the Portland Performing Arts Festival and now I'm helping with the PR for Constellation Gallery in Portland. No more excuses.

I have an old (actually I think he's younger than I am) friend in Sacramento who has been doing marketing consulting for many years.  Yes, I'm talking about YOU Michael Boyd!  I first meet Micheal when he ran a small desktop publishing business in midtown Sacramento.  This was back in the day when the archival color printers were still too expensive for mere mortals like me to own.

Today Micheal posted a very good article about the best times to post on social media sites.  Of course I'm not posting this blog at a very good time according to the article.  As a writer I need to write when the spirit moves me however, which is a little different than posting for PR's sake.

I've also almost finished the final rewrite for my PR booklet - Public Relations for Artists, Photographers And other Creatives.  Many thanks to consultant Bob Walters and write Kate Maney for their feedback.  I'm thinking that I will go the Amazon route, but will post more info on that when I sort it all out.

Jumping, Jiving June

It really has been in my little corner of the world.  I can't believe we're almost at the end of June and the Portland Performing Arts Festival (PPAF) starts on Thursday, June28th!  The reason the  month has flown for me is that I've been working with PPAF on the PR end of things.  The Executive Director sent me an email with the following:

I have a phone interview this morning ... (newspaper)
I have a live interview slot on public radio monday morning (radio)
sunday's paper would have an overall festival preview (newspaper)
the (other paper)  expects to have a sizable article on Tuesday (newspaper)
we are the cover story in thursdays go section next week (newspaper)
I'm booked on the morning show next Tuesday (TV)
fritz and steven (the eepys) are doing 207 as well next week (TV)
musician live on the show friday next week (radio)
taping musician concert for later broadcast (public TV)

Needless to say we've already had hits in other media but I'm very proud of the work that we've done on getting this much PR for a brand-new festival here.  I had hoped that we'd get a visit from the dance critic from either the New Yorker or the New York Times because of Alison Chase's new company premiering a new show here, but alas not this year.  If you're not familiar with Modern Dance, Chase is one of the co-founders of Pilobolus and one of the greats in the dance world.  It will be interesting to see what all the press amounts to audience-wise.

Make May Marvelous

How did April get past me?  Perhaps I've been busier than I expected doing PR consulting work for Portland Performing Arts Festival, as well as planning to direct a one-act for the Port Fringe theatre festival which happens at the same time as well as a few visual art projects I'm involved with along with finishing up some work on my book - "PR for Artists, Photographers and Other Creatives".   Yes, that was why April flew by.

But here we are in the merry month with our friends at Mashable serving up interesting as always information for you and your business.  With our continued focus on new media, check out their list HERE.  The article I think is the most valuable  in PR terms is this one.

Up here in Portland Maine, the tulips are just about gone.  It's springy in that chilly, rainy way and I'll just bet we get thrust into summer by Memorial Day!