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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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!

Social Media - Marketing or PR?

Marketing and Public Relations seem to mingle more on social media.  Sometimes campaigns that companies devise will have elements of both in efforts to expand their customer base.  Here are five
 smart ways that social media helped to boost brand awareness using social media and interactive techniques.  Perhaps they will give you some ideas to more actively use social media in your PR planing.

I'm off on hiatus for the next week and a half.  When I get back, I'm going to be doing some consulting work for the brand new Portland Performing Arts Festival!

Future for Google+?

It was interesting to start a small conversation on Facebook yesterday about Google+.  While some of my more adventuresome friends are there, others who are very tech savvy are not.  This surprised me until I asked why.  The response was to wait until more people go there.  But if the tech savvy folks are waiting, then who will be there?

This is the dilemma for PR and Marketing folks as well.  Especially since there is no advertising on Google+ right now.  But just because there aren't any ads now, doesn't mean that will always be the case, so say the folks over at Mashable.


For PR purposes, I can see Google+ as being a place where you can post links to news releases that have made it on other websites.  I just did that with a small release I got out there for a group art show I'm in later this month.

Rewards

We all like to get rewards don't we?  Whether it's a coupon for something we buy on a regular basis or a discount or even sometimes just plain recognition as a human being!  Rewards can also be a big part of a PR campaign, especially to build awareness for new products and services.
I think this is especailly true on social media platforms like Facebook, and so do the folks over at American Express, as you can tell by reading this LINK.

While the first two tips are probably more appropriate for larger businesses, the other two seem like they would work for smaller organizations.  As a matter of fact, I'm going to test this out on the Ann Tracy Fine Art & Photography page on Facebook.  I'll report back in a few weeks.

Another View Point

I think this woman has something to say to those of us who work in PR.  What do you think?

Memory Lane

I interviewed Arnaud de Borchgrave while I worked for WQFM, when he was Newsweek's Chief Foreign Correspondent, after his novel "The Spike" was published.  He was very surprised that I had actually read the book, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  It was a dashing spy novel.  This simple thank you impressed me enough to keep it all these years.  Currently deBorchgrave  is Editor-at-Large of The Washington Times and United Press International, as well as Project Director for Transnational Threats (TNT) and Senior Advisor for The Center for Strategic and International Studies.^[4][5]

The other "best" interview I did while doing news and public affairs for WQFM was with Steven King.  He was a hoot and a half and even improvised some Maine Humor with me - Bert & I style.  He did autograph a copy of his novel "Fire Starter" for me.

Waxing Nostalgic

You must forgive the next few posts as I'm tripping down memory lane a bit.  The hubby and I are moving back to the clams of my childhood - specifically Portland Maine.  I'm been trying to clean out filing cabinets etc so we won't be moving a ton of junk. and I've come across some news clippings from the old days in media.

I didn't work at WOKY very long, in fact it was the only media job I was "laid off" from.  Part of the problem was the sexist attitude of the news director - let's just leave it at that, OK?

Social Media and Communications

Thanks to the folks over at Mashable, we have our new post here!  Although the article is geared towards people managing their social lives, it does have resonance for folks doing PR.  I must admit that I've not yet tried one of Facebook's newest additions - Groups.

But I am going to try it today to see if I get any more traffic for my December 5th Holiday Open House at my studio.  My plan is to NOT set up an event page on FB, but instead set up a group for all my local contacts here in Sacramento.    I set up an event page on FB for the Capitol Artists Studio Tour this past Sept and I didn't get much action from it.  I'll also set up an Evite list and see if that helps build the crowds for me.

The reason some of this works is that the biggest part of PR is merely communication.  Although PR can also take in marketing for some folks, it's really trying to find a way to get information to the individual.  We used to do it with newspapers but due to their dwindling editorial space and the fact that most folks under the age of 30 don't even subscribe anymore, social media is the other place we can post information, without even having to sell a reporter on a story idea!

Is it more effective?  Only time will tell or have you had great success in using social media to promote your clients and causes?

Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes

are about the only constant my friends.  It's amazing that I've been posting more to the PR blog than my art & life blog, Ann Tracy's Waiting for the Muse!  But I've stumbled upon some very interesting stuff that I did want to share with you.

Big thanks to my Twitter friend from Ireland - Saoire O' Brien for passing along this link to an article in Mashable about how Facebook is changing and morphing.  Granted they talk about it more in a marketing sense, but I think this is useful for PR as well.

Media Opportunities

It's always good to get on TV.  Now, thanks to my Irish Twitter friend saoireobrien, folks in the San Francisco Bay area and beyond have a new opportunity!

Only goes to show you that checking in on social media can offer you opportunities that you might not find elsewhere.  Unfortunately it doesn't look like they are too interested in fine art, unless it intersects with pop culture.

Social Media Deja Vu

If you're a reader of this blog, you know that I've been hammering away at social media since I started writing.  I'm doing this because I think we have to change the ways we think about PR and media presence.  I'm not the only one either.  More and more consultants and businesses are realizing that having an effective presence on line via social media is almost more important (unless you sell things) than a website!

Case is point is HERE- where one of my favorite hotel chains (Joie De Vivre) is a test case for improved marketing using social media.  Last week while at a photography workshop (need any editorial or product photography?  give me a call!) some of the participants who run portrait studios and the like started talking about the time that it takes to keep up on social media.  This is when I pipped up and told them that they could hire a consultant such as myself to take that off their hands.

It even makes financial sense when you consider that someone who is doing this a great deal will spend less time doing it than you would.