Earning Good Media Coverage

We all know that in public relations it is crucial to maintain mutually beneficial relationships between the organization and it's clients, but what about maintaining good relationships with reporters. To have a successful media strategy in this constantly changing industry of public relations, you must have good relationships with your media contacts.Though it make take several years for the relationship to evolve, once you obtain that connection, you have the ability to reach numerous media outlets. In order to find the appropriate reporter for the topic you are covering, be sure to read their previous articles so you know what interests them. This idea is especially useful for nonprofit organizations, since they are usually promoting a main cause, like Safe Harbor and domestic violence. Safe Harbor should maintain press lists that are up to date, as well as finding reporters who specialize in specific areas like, women health and issues.

To ensure that information is readily available to reporters, every nonprofit organization should have a Web site that includes a  press room section. I've noticed that on the contact page of Safe Harbor's website there are no links for visiting press or reporters. Safe Harbor would benefit by making a press room section, and adding the following:

• Contact information
• Press releases
• Fact sheets
• Photos, charts, graphs, and video clips

For example, I found this YouTube video on another domestic violence awareness website. This video allows the audience to become emotionally involved with the situation, and hopefully be memorable in the future when someone mentions domestic violence.

Another influential way the media can cover your story is by developing an interview. Whether the interview is on print or online, television or video, this is a great way to get a spokesperson involved and tell their story. The following video clip is an example of a domestic violence survivor sharing her story with the news program, "20/20":

Obviously, this interview probably had great results at getting the word out on domestic violence, but there are a few things you need to follow to ensure a successful interview. Be sure to participate in pre-interview briefing where you rehearse answers, review past stories, review message points, and brief reporter on organization goals.

I know in class we have talked about organizing a big event, such as the homecoming event, for Safe Harbor. First, we will need to produce the Safe Harbor event. If we were planning a huge event, it would be valuable to hire an event planning organization, but with our class has more than the knowledge and experience needed. After the producing is done, we need to use all the media options we have available, such as press conferences, interviews, and media briefings. Here is an example of a town press conference that was geared toward domestic violence:

We need to be able to have the appropriate amount of time to create a memorable event, as well. Everything needs to be planned out and given great effort in order to build a professional-quality event. Even though I have only mentioned a few options of media outlets, there are many more one could choose from. Just know that when choosing a media outlet, be sure that it will be advantageous to the organization, as well as their audience.

The Ever-Changing Industry

Keeping up with the latest media trends in a particular industry is crucial for success. Public relations is one of those fields that is always changing, so it is essential to be continuously updated on different ways you can get your message out to the public. There are many different media outlets a nonprofit organization can utilize, but knowing which ones will benefit them the most is key.

The impact of the internet and the new technology it provides means individuals have more control, as well as responsibility, in getting their message out. I believe the internet would be a great tool to take advantage of when promoting Safe Harbor and domestic violence awareness. Not only can the internet reach millions of people, it is also more affordable than many other media outlets out there. Since being a nonprofit means not a lot of extra cash to spend on marketing and promoting, the internet would be a great solution, especially the use of blogs. Bloggers, known sometimes as "citizen journalists", are changing the way news is being viewed and covered.

The chapter in the book mentions developing a good relationship with local wire services. I noticed that one of the wire services highlighted in the book was Women's eNews. This wire service would be beneficial to Safe Harbor, since they deal with stories of particular concern to women. Anything from religion to economics, to health and science, they offer a story on it. On the website, they offer a section devoted to domestic violence awareness. Safe Harbor could have an article published on the wire service, so not only would they be contributing to the cause, but they would earn recognition. Women's eNews also offers a YouTube channel, which I thought would be a strong and powerful way of sending the message to the audience. 

Another great media outlet I believe could benefit Safe Harbor, would be the use of magazines, especially articles found on their website. Many articles that are on a magazine's website are not found in print, and they tend to offer more opinion, commentary, and analysis. On Cosmopolitan's website, I found this article about domestic violence. Underneath the article, they offer a place where you can comment on the article and even email the editor asking questions. This is a great way to spread the word and see what other people are saying about a topic, as well.

I was surprised to find out that radio has progressed even further than television over the years. With the latest technology of i Pods, MP3 players, and satellite radio, messages can be sent to numerous people through audio platforms. There has even been an expanding audiences, since radio shows will usually direct their audience to their website for more information. By finding a local radio station willing to work with us, we could produce messages about Safe Harbor and the events we have planned for them. This particular satellite radio station I found online is based around women topics, so it would be ideal to find a similar radio station offering the same kind of views for Safe Harbor.

Decisions, Decisions!

After reviewing the many creative and diverse ideas we came up with, I believe we have a great start to achieving our goals for Safe Harbor. All the ideas look great, but I could definitely see myself working on the purple drink night at a local bar, brand/social media guide, and the Chick-Fill-A fundraiser. Even though I could see myself working in any of these! I really love all the ideas, so I think it would be fun to work on any of them.

Being involved in my internship has taught me that event planning to promote a service or product is a significant step in the process. It takes time and organization to get everything under control. I love many aspects of event planning and I have great organization skills that could be utilized to get our planning underway. Also, I am involved and familiar with many social media sites, through my internship and my own personal use. I will not mind completing research for this project, as well. While researching, I can learn new strategies for social media sites, just like Safe Harbor can learn too!

Framing and Developing Messages

We all know that even by selecting a targeted audience, some of those people will probably ignore your message. This can get frustrating, but by framing messages appropriately, you can develop messages that fit their existing beliefs and values. When creating a value-based message, you need to understand an individual's primary values, as well as their secondary values. Primary values include things like, responsibility to care for one's family, personal liberty, and work. Secondary values encompass things like, responsibility to care for others, personal fulfillment, and respect for authority. This is a very important step when developing messages about a concept, organization, or campaign. When you start down the right path, you produce more support for your cause. There are three "levels of thinking" based on research when framing elements:

• Level One Audiences: attracted to broad concept, reflects own personal values, the public
• Level Two Audiences: more details, issue-oriented organizations, activists
• Level Three Audiences: people who are experts in their field

When planning how to communicate to a specific audience, you need to craft your messages and operate at their level of thinking. Since we will be raising money for Safe Harbor through mainly college students, we need to use the language and conversation that college students use. By implementing marketing plans with Facebook and Twitter, we can reach many college students who use these social media sites daily. Also, since we are college students ourselves, we present familiar faces. Our professors will provide trusted voices. Since we are all part of the Clemson circle, we can have great influence on our audience. Communications that come from familiar faces and personally trusted sources are usually more effective.

A simple way of developing messages is by using a chart called a message box. First, there is your core message that is a simple one-liner stating your overall goals. This core message is usually short and memorable. After this has been developed, you can move on to stating your values, problem, solution to the problem, and the action to be taken. This message box can help when you deliver your message by allowing you to move back and forth from each section throughout the conversation.

After reading the Chapter 4, I was better able to understand the case study explained at the end. I realized just how much of an impact using the right words could have on an audience. Since "day care" and "child care" seemed more like "babysitting" to the audience, advocates searched for other names like, " early learning" and "early childhood development." The education community began using these new words because it linked school readiness with better performance in the early grades. This is important information to know when developing messages, since this could also be used when dealing with search engine optimization. We use SEO numerous times at work when creating websites for clients. By choosing the right keywords for the specific audience, that client could produce more visitors to his website and ultimately an increased profit.

Research and Targeting Audiences

After the goals of a strategic communication plan are determined, it is time to conduct research and select the audience on which you hope to target. When choosing your target audience, you need to be sure on what you expect out of them. Anderson Adult Education, a client I have recently worked with, were looking for funding for their education programs. Since they were mostly looking for large donors, my team tried to market the cause to larger corporations or people, who had larger incomes and a history of donating in the past. You need to know your audience in order to obtain the best results. Another good strategy to follow is planning brainstorming sessions on the target audience to better understand their interests and group them into smaller groups. For example, Safe Harbor is trying to target many people, but especially high school students. Safe Harbor categorizes this group by education, age, and possibly even gender.

As we move on to conducting research, we should use media trend analysis to enhance our communication plan. By examining press coverage that has been done before on a certain topic, you will more than likely be able to find a trend. Review past stories by looking at dates, placement, tone, length, reporter, blogger interest, key words and phrases used to describe issue, and names. By looking at past press coverage of Safe Harbor, we can figure out what things have been working for them, along with things that have not. Using this information, will help our team produce better results for the organization.

Since there are two types of research that can be done, you have to pick the right one to provide the data you need. Quantitative research would cover public opinion polls or surveys, while qualitative research would be more centered around focus groups and interviews. I believe the best research method to approach Safe Harbor would be the focus group (seeing how we already conducted the meeting.) During our meeting, we had a chance to see certain views and attitudes on the organization. Also, we were able to receive valuable feedback on many of our ideas. Of course, there is always lower-cost alternatives to research, such as online resources, internet -based public opinion research, and omnibus polls.

During my internship, we have to know our target audience in order to reach them effectively. Before every meeting, we would have to research the company and just get a feel for what kind of environment they work in. Since my internship was at a design firm, this research helped a lot when we had to brainstorm ideas for their newly purchased logo and website. Also, going into a meeting with a closer look at the company's trends and work ethic, we were able to communicate effectively and efficiently.

Elements of a Strategic Communications Plan

This chapter comes at such a great time! There are many things in Chapter 2 that will help us when working with our client, Safe Harbor. Everyone needs to know the elements of a strategic plan before they even begin to work on one. In order to have a successful strategic communication plan, you need to build on the foundation of the organization's goals and values, target the appropriate audience after abundant research, and plan day-to-day activities that will help you reach your end product.

The importance of understanding and identifying the organization's goals and vision is so big that it must come first before you plan your daily work activities. Once you have achieved this, your ready to move on to planning your daily plan. The following are a list of the critical elements of a communication plan:

• Identify target audience
• Conduct research
• Develop messages
• Produce materials
• Assess resources
• Write work plan

Throughout my summer internship at Locke Design, I have implemented a communication plan similar to the steps above. You need to know your target audience in order for your messages to be understood and recognized. There are many different media outlets, so it is important that you choose correct ones that have the same concern for what you are dealing with. Since, Locke Design is a graphic design/advertising, I had to research many media outlets that specialize in design, marketing, and small business. Another step I find to be very significant is the development of your messages. You need to know every aspect of the story you are covering, because you have a reputation to uphold with the public relations field. Stating your company's goals correctly and generating tag lines is essential. You need to "latch" a person onto your story quickly, while still being informative to the key publics. A work plan is also an important step in the process. The following are some of the functions you can complete for ongoing reach:

• Ensure positive media coverage
• Build media partnerships
• Develop a crisis control and backlash plan

I just names a few, but I believe these to be highly important. For my internship, it was essential that I developed media partnerships. Many of our press releases and events are located in newspapers across the state of South Carolina. This is also a great way to reach your targeted audience and enhance your organization's name recognition.

Bright Ideas

I think these are some of the best, creative ideas our class has mentioned:

• Purple drink night at a local bar/restaurant to raise awareness 
• Event on campus where we could have informative speakers and booths
• "Purple Out" during a sport event or even for a day on campus

I believe by participating in these activities, we could raise awareness campus-wide. There are so many different strategies we could utilize to benefit Safe Harbor, but these are definitely ones that are reasonable and will be effective. I especially like the idea of the purple drink night! Someone had said we could tell people to wear purple out at night in order to receive the discounted price on the drink. I know, as a class, we can pull of these events in order to provide significant results to our client, Safe Harbor.

Reactions to Safe Harbor

After visiting the organization, I felt Safe Harbor would be an excellent way for our class to provide our services and education, while making a difference in many people's lives. Before visiting, I assumed the shelter would just provide the minimal amenities a shelter usually provides, but I was definitely wrong! This shelter was like a home-actually it was a home! Clients were provided their own beds, a kitchen to make their own meals, and even a playground outside for children.I was so happy to see that this place not only provided women and children an escape from troubled lives, but also a comfy and warm atmosphere. Julie Meredith was very touching and knowledgeable with the information she presented our class. You can tell that she is very passionate with her work and Safe Harbor, which is exactly the type of person I was hoping to work for!

Julie explained many outcomes she would like from our work, and they all seemed reasonable and incredibly useful for the organization. One goal Julie had mentioned to our class was the re-branding of the Meghan project into the R.E.P. (Relationship Education Project.) She would love to have  R.E.P. be useful for teachers and schools when trying to teach students about domestic violence. I believe we could help Julie by enabling many social media outlets for teachers and students to log on to, and explore more in depth. We could also try to implement interactive stories on the website, that would allow students to identify when domestic violence is happening.

Another goal mentioned was an event on Clemson campus that would provide information on domestic violence. I think a great way to do this would be to partner with society's on campus with the same goals, and even fraternities and sororities. Also, many professors make it mandatory that students attend at least one seminar a semester outside the classroom. This would be a perfect seminar to attend, especially for the studies of psychology, sociology, health majors, and education majors.

One last goal-actually being my favorite idea- is to have an event during the month of October to raise awareness for domestic violence and possibly even donations for Safe Harbor. A classmate had mentioned having a night at one the the bars in Clemson where drinks are purple! I think this would attract so many students. They'll wonder why drinks are purple, then have to ask questions, leading them to learn about domestic violence. We could even decorate the bar with purple balloons and banners, with our team wearing purple. For another idea, we could promote a bake sale or candy sale on the library bridge, with all the goodies being ONLY purple! When they purchase one of the items, we could give them a pamphlet or handout on domestic violence.

I hope I have generated some unique, fun, and reasonable ideas we could use in order to promote and raise awareness for Safe Harbor!

Basics of Strategic Communications

Many nonprofit groups use a well planned communication strategy to expand coverage and raise awareness. But an effective strategy goes far beyond the basics of public relations. Organizations need to incorporate many other key points into their efforts, such as, an understanding of the targeted audience, being alert to news updates and examining how issues move through the media. Obviously though, there is an advantage for simply being a nonprofit organization, since stories that are pitched are usually meant to make the world a better place. For example, Safe Harbor is a nonprofit organization that plays a special and rewarding role in society. There stories, personal or not, benefit society as a whole, so journalist are more inclined to lean towards them. Working together in teams is an equally important aspect of nonprofits, especially with groups that share the same goals and culture. I believe this is a very significant part of  the organization's success, since you would not want conflicting idea when you are trying to produce a message for your audience. Bringing two organizations together, that have the same goals, can multiply the resources they can work with! And like the saying, two heads are better than one!

I think one of the worst things nonprofits can do, is ignore the communication tools that are readily available for them! Why would someone refuse to use such beneficial tools that can only progress the organization's goals? I understand that within the book they list numerous reasons why nonprofits resist these tools, such as, (1) believing investment in these tools would be a waste of time and money, (2) negative past experiences, (3) false assumptions that media will eventually come to them, and (4) inexperience with the new technology and dealing with reporters.I believe with the right mindset and cooperation from everyone in the organization, this negativity would be turned around. Imagine how much more efficient a nonprofit could run with these negative outlooks gone. I work for a small graphic design firm, Locke Design, located in Anderson, SC. The business is very small, having only about 10 full-time workers. Even within this small, yet booming business, we still have time and dedication to being media savvy. In fact, Locke Design has grown tremendously (profit, clients) over the past years, by incorporating more effective communication tools. Even though Locke Design is not a nonprofit organization, they are small and still know the tactics to achieving great media attention.

As the chapter moves on, it discusses how building a communication team is the first concrete-step in the process of "going strategic." This is almost very similar in how our class will be conducting projects for Safe Harbor. Instead of working in isolation, we will be in groups of intelligent and creative minds who will all share their experiences and ideas with each other. After organizing our groups, teams will layout what needs to be accomplished for the organization. For example, Safe Harbor would like to raise awareness in the month of October for domestic violence. Teams will base their work off of this mission statement. Next, teams will choose goals that will be effective in getting the word out and receiving recognition. Goals may include, fund-raising to donate to Safe Harbor, or calling influential people that may have the ability to help significantly. Also, groups will need to be proactive on reaching the media, have numerous brainstorming meetings, and be dedicated to their work. With all these tips and steps to follow, Safe Harbor will be very satisfied, as well as the class feeling accomplished and successful!