Connecting with media– ch. 5 and 7

I read through Chapter 5, and it was a good overview of how the media climate has changed in today’s world. I think this is pretty obvious to us, as we are all tweeting, blogging, etc. What I gleaned from the chapter is, though other media are still relevant, the internet is king, and as strategic communicators we need to learn to utilize it effectively.

Chapter 7 is pretty extensive set of practical knowledge for connecting with media that is overall informative and more relevant to our proceeding with our projects in this class. As we begin working on our projects and needing promotion, pitching something to our campus media (for the on campus event people) or local media (for the REP people) will be important. For example, the chapter stressed the importance of relationships with journalists. I’m sure several of us know people who work on either the Tiger or CTV and can use those relationships to leverage coverage for our programs.

The chapter goes into how to approach pitching something to a variety of media sources—television, radio, magazines, and the tried and true newspaper. One part that seemed interesting to me was about the Op-Ed section of the newspaper because I just read an article about non-profits utilizing an Op-Ed in a newspaper or online news. From working at two newspapers, I think the editorial/ opinion section still has a strong presence in the publication, though it can be polarizing: some people hate it, some people really love it. The main thing is you can have a little more fire and passion, though still within control, and more personal perspective, than the coverage that an article written by a reporter may give you. When you think about it though, the people who read op-eds usually have a vested interest in political and social issues and it could be a good way for a non-profit to promote both itself and its cause. Anyway, the Op-Ed is not as relevant to us necessarily, but it stood out to me as something of interest.

National programs addressing violence prevention on college campuses

So through the planning we’ve been doing for the campus speaker group, I met the Director of Health Promotion here at Clemson who forwarded me some information about national campaigns involving college dating violence awareness. The White House and Vice President Biden have a campaign for dating and sexual violence prevention, particularly for young women, called “1 is 2 Many“. Here’s a link to the site: http://www.whitehouse.gov/1is2many . On the site the Vice President has recently asked for the public to share ideas on how to make college campuses safer.

Also here is a video of the VP speaking at University of New Hampshire. The only video I found is the entire speech, which is really long, but it is interesting to skim through and watch a little bit. He talks about concern for this issue as a “collective national value” which I thought was interesting in light of our discussion of the text last week about value-based messages.

Another program I was informed about is The Date Safe Project, found at http://www.datesafeproject.org/. This program addresses its audience on its home page as k-12 schools, universities, parents, and also military, which is pretty interesting. I had never thought of sexual violence in terms of the military, so that was interesting to read about.

They have a youtube channel as well with several videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/DateSafeProject 

I had never heard of these initiatives before, but I thought it was interesting that they are targeting college students in the same way that we would want to through a campus speaker.

research, the target audience, and the value-based message

Reflections on Ch. 3 and 4 in Strategic Communication for Nonprofits

Chapter 3 begins by discussing a task that I’ve learned is one of the most important parts of public relations: research. This seems to be incredibly important for strategic communication, because one can’t have the understanding to create a strategy without the backround research of not only who is the target audience, but what is important to them.

The importance of opinion polling was reinforced to me by reading the high costs associated with conducting this kind of research. It seems like something to benefit a small non-profit would be using the existing polls instead of highering a pollster, though it may not create the personalized results one might get from interviews or focus groups. For example, just googling I found plenty of existing data on public opinion on domestic violence. Here is a link to one poll by the National Center for Public Opinion Polling http://stopvaw.org/uploads/Public_opinion_on_domestic_violence_2.pdf. Some of the results include whether people think it is a public or private issue, the role of police versus NGOs, and the role of the social worker, among other opinions.

Another part of chapter 3 I thought would relate to our projects is the media trend analysis. If we can know who’s covering Safe Harbor, the tone of the coverage, and what kind of messages Safe Harbor is communicating, it will help determine if we’re reaching the target audience. Briefly searching through Google news, Safe Harbor was referenced in local media coverage of negative changes in domestic violence increasing in the area. For example, Safe Harbor executive director Becky Callaham spoke for Safe Harbor in an Anderson newspaper article about increased domestic violence in Oconee County about its increased shelter numbers. In addition, the article talks about the options for victims and provides Safe Harbor’s emergency line. The organization was also referenced in a WYFF report about SC ranking 7th in the nation in domestic violence homicides. In this case, Callaham’s message is about how to recognize signs of domestic violence.  A further media analysis might provide more insight about how the organization can reach its target audience.

To touch on the value-based message in chapter 4, the book has a nice point in saying “if a problem seems too overwhelming for them to solve, their [the audience] eyes glaze over” (50). According to figure 4.2, violence is consider an important issue, so for an organization dealing with issues of violence, such as Safe Harbor, it would seem important to make sure the message aligns with audience values, but is understandable and something people can relate to, and not overwhelmed with statistics or the complexity of the issue.

my project interests for Safe Harbor

I think all of our project ideas have great potential and would feel confident contributing to any of them, but in determining which I would focus on, my thoughts go back to Julie’s original needs from us for Safe Harbor at this time. Two of the important goals she mentioned that she thought we could contribute to were organizing an event in Pickens County, since Safe Harbor may not have the recognition there as it does in Greenville and Anderson, and helping the newly-renamed REP program brand itself and gain recognition with not only area teenagers, but parents and educators as well.

Our Pickens County event, we determined, would be most likely a Clemson event, either a  drink night, or a dinner event that woud be more family oriented. We discussed that our contribution to REP would be working with social media and possibly working with the folks at Safe Harbor to improve the website and pitch ideas for greater teen involvement.

I would be comfortable working on either of these projects, but since I have more experience in social media and communication design than event planning, I am probably most interested in working with REP. I think it will be a great way to gain further hands-on experience with a non-profit, while also contributing ideas that may be helpful in targeting REP’s teenage audience.

evaluating ideas

In going through everyone’s blog posts, there were some great ideas for ways to promote Safe Harbor, Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and the Relationship Education Program.

• The ideas I thought would be most effective for DV Awareness were those involving promotion of the color purple. Sara mentioned having purple ribbons possibly on the library bridge or other locations on campus (maybe a few less hectic than the library bridge as well) and along with those ribbons some info on domestic violence and on upcoming events, particularly if we do a special college dating violence awareness campaign at Clemson.  I also like the idea of possibly partnering with an organization on campus to sponsor speaker/speakers on dating violence for domestic violence awareness month.

 

• Many people also suggested using local media to help promote some of the local events which is a great idea as well. Julie has a great list of events set up for October, and the more attendance and awareness we can create about the events, the more funding and name recognition Safe Harbor gain attain. I think it would be best if Julie or someone directly involved with Safe Harbor could be incorporated with the media pitch because it would make it more personal and connected to the organization than from another spokesperson.

Reflections on Chapter 1

I already discussed some of the first chapter of our book, Strategic Communications for Nonprofits by Bonk, Tynes, Griggs and Sparks, in my last post, but I’ll go into more depth about what stood out to me about the basics of strategic communication. One basic idea is that as a non-profit, you have a built-in advantage in dealing with the media and the public. As the text says, “what you are pitching to a reporter is meant to make a better world” (2). From my experience as a reporting intern, I had several assignemnts about local non-profits and would agree with the book’s statement. This also relates to another basic the book mentions: building media skills. The authors mention the importance of increased training for those working with non-profits about strategic communications. Another important basic idea is to make sure everything one does in a public relations program fits in line with the overall goals of the non-profit organization. This is important to keep in mind in terms of the sustainability of the organization and keeping the focus on their needs.

It was interesting to read about the inhibitors that often keep non-profits from effective public relations tools. One reason the book mentions is that they may take for granted that they will get media attention and interest because the general public will be interested in their efforts, thus they don’t need to actively seek out the media. The authors say “journalists are unlikely to seek out silent groups” when there is competition for media space (6). Also when working with a nonprofit, we should keep in mind that they may have had negative experiences with strategic communications before. According to the book, if an organization had a previous crisis situation in which they were actually avoiding the media, it may be difficult for them to get in the mindset of seeking out the media (6). Another hindrance to nonprofits is the belief that they just can’t afford effective communication, but the book emphasizes that “no group is too small or too strapped financially to be media savvy” (6). I think that’s really important to keep in mind as we go into the world as PR professionals. There are always ways to use one’s resources effectively.

The chapter goes on to outline specific communications goals a nonprofit should have, such as enhancing visibility and name recognition, increasing fundraising, reaching influentials, recruiting more members and volunteers and turning around negative media coverage. One part that stood out to me came from the “increasing fundraising section” in which the book claims “messages, symbols, and spokespeople” are all critical to a PR program. Sometimes we think about one or two of these, but it is important to consider how all three can help acheive one’s goals. Even something as simple as a symbol can be very effective in creating a certain attitude and generating attention, such as the pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness.

Overall, I thought the reading was a good background on PR basics for a nonprofit, and it certainly helped me develop ideas for Safe Harbor since I have little PR experience myself!

goals and ideas for Safe Harbor

As a way to review both what I learned from our visit from Safe Harbor and what I’ve learned from the text so far, I’m going to link what we discussed with Julie at SH with what the text describes as some of the goals and elements of a PR program.  The first goal the text mentions is “Enhancing visibility and name recognition” which is going to be an important goal for Safe Harbor this fall, particularly involving the newly renamed Relationship Education Project, formerly the Megan Project. This program focuses on teen dating violence education and awareness, particularly through direct interaction with area high schools. The new name and acronym REP need to be promoted and made more recognizable since many still know the program as the Megan Project. The purpose for the name change was to convey that the target audience is teen boys and girls, whereas the Megan Project might create the misconception of being focused on females only. Julie said the website repsc.org would ideally be geared toward teens but also appealing to parents and adults.

Another issue with enhancing visibility that Julie discussed is that Safe Harbor has a large coverage area and it is often a challenge to gain visibility in all the counties. For example, she mentioned possibly doing more in the Easley/ Pickens area to bring more awareness to Pickens County. One way to expand into those areas that are maybe less informed is to utilize their local media. If we do put on a fundraiser in Easley, inform the Pickens County Newspaper.

An additional goal the text describes is “improving and increasing service delivery and awareness of public concerns.” Relating to Safe Harbor, Julie discussed hoping to open another shelter in the future in Oconee County, which would provide increased space and services for victims in the Upstate. This, of course, takes funding and support, which comes from increased awareness. Domestic violence is a public concern, and October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, represented by the color purple. Julie mentioned that it is often hard to increase awareness during October because it is also Breast Cancer Awareness month, but we also discussed several ways, including many on the Clemson campus because purple is one of our school colors, in which we could promote purple, accompanied by info on domestic violence.

Julie also discussed also identifiying a college-aged audience by possibly having an event on Clemson’s campus for educators to come speak about college dating violence, which might also focus on seeing the signs of abuse in a friend’s relationship and how to help a friend.  Also, I think that we can keep in mind that though we are Clemson students and it will be easier for us to plan something at Clemson, we could also potentially help Julie get the wheels in motion for an event at another local university as well, since there are several in the area.

Here are a couple of ideas about promotion of REP and Domestic Violence Awareness Month:

One idea for making REP more visible in the high schools is to contact the schools about having a logo link on their websites to the REP website so the name/project continues to be visible within the schools beyond just a classroom presentation. Also, REP could set up at a high school sporting event, probably football game, and just have some information and materials, possibly some giveaways, that way they could be drawing in and informing both students and parents about the program and what they will talk about in the classroom. As far as materials go, an eye-catching brochure that is simple and not too wordy and will be appealing to teens.

Another idea for promoting Domestic Violence Awareness Month could be to use local media. I looked into if any of the local networks had a daytime/ morning show, because typically on those sorts of shows they bring in guests to talk about community events, etc. News 7 has a mid-morning show called Your Carolina, and though I haven’t watched it, it seems like a good platform for guests. One idea would be to have Julie go on and talk about some background on domestic violence, and then the events that have been planned for October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month. There are many events, but if she highlighted a few, like the golf tournament, the display in the mall, and the charity dinner night, and then referred viewers to the website for a full list of events and more information, and then if Your Carolina also put a link of their website it would help more people be informed about all the events.