Creating an Online Communications Plan that works with your organization’s overall Communications Plan is essential when considering to create or revamp a new website, reach out to current or prospective constituents via email, and broadcasting organizational content over the web via multi-media social websites or through syndicated articles (RSS). You should keep in mind that there should always be goals set that can measure the impact of your online communication.

There are Four Basic goals of a website and often, these goals are combined to create greater impact. These goals are; 1.) To Persuade or Sell, 2.) To Inform, 3.) To Educate, 4.) To Entertain Read the rest of this entry »

A Report of the Benton Foundation for the Federal Communications Commission Media Ownership Hearing
Thursday, September 20, 2007 • Chicago, IL
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Executive Summary
Chicago has a rich media history, having been the center of the emerging broadcast industry in the early 1920’s, home to the first radio station to broadcast the World Series, the “Chicago School of Television,” and the city that pioneered the daytime-talk show format. Chicago has been an innovator and provider of high-quality content when new capacity demands new content. The question now is: As media migrate toward digital technology – in radio and television broadcasting, in cable and satellite, and on the Internet – is Chicago media situated to be an innovative leader again? Read the rest of this entry »

More Tools for Advanced Communications Work
For those with more time than money, most of the resources described here can be replaced or created with work on your own, for example by visiting the Web sites of publications you wish to pitch. But the outlay of time is often prohibitive. These resources help public relations professionals to:

determine whom to target and how to reach them;
distribute news releases;
monitor and evaluate results of communications campaigns, including getting print and broadcast ‘clippings,’ and
keep current on developments in the field or learn new tips and ideas.

It’s worth noting that as these firms have diversified, most offer more than one of these four services. Please feel free to contact gordon@newstips.org with suggestions additional resources for this page.

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by Elsa Wenzel

More than 70 million blogs clamor for attention on the Internet, and it can be easy for yours to get lost in the noise. Some elite blogs attract more readers than the New York Times. But as blogging has become more popular, even the best-crafted blog post may be about as effective as shouting beneath a helicopter.

Blogging is the cheapest form of publishing in human history, and it’s only beginning to change the world. A blog can build your brand and social network, getting the attention of reporters on the prowl for sources.

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by Mike Doyle

The days of waiting for New Media to mature are over. In 2006, the Pew Research Center showed that 31 percent of Americans turn to the Internet as a regular source for news, with more people turning to the Web than watching the network evening news (source: http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=282), and bloggers are a key part of the mix.

But pitching a blogger is a different animal than pitching a print or broadcast reporter. On the blogosphere you can’t leverage your verbal agility to establish a working relationship before sending along your press release. And you certainly can’t spam bloggers with the same, mass email—not if you want to make it past their spam filters.
On the Internet more than anywhere, reputations are built around endorsements from others, especially from opinion-leader bloggers. If your blogger pitches hit the mark, a buzz of third-party vouching can develop, where bloggers and their readers begin to debate your message among each other, with little additional effort needed by you. When that happens, you can even start pointing print and broadcast reporters to the Internet hubbub surrounding your message, if they haven’t found it already.

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To get a story in the media, you can’t rely solely on the written word; you can’t merely send a fax or a press release. You also must “pitch” your stories through phone calls to selected editors and reporters.

As difficult as it may seem, “pitching” your stories in this way is necessary to getting media coverage. Phone calls humanize and personalize your stories, so if you have a newsworthy story you believe in, get on the phone and tell the media about it.

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Each spring Community Media Workshop convenes nearly 100 journalists and experts in the field of nonprofit communications to discuss the latest developments and provide tips and tricks on the best ways to reach out, in particular, to reporters and editors at area news outlets. Here are a few of the best suggestions and insights that came out of the conference last year.

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1.Get the 2008 Getting On The Air, Online & Into Print Media Guide
Personalize this directory to make it work for you. We hear from nonprofit communicators all the time, and the most successful always tell us how much they have scribbled in the margins. Not just because media personnel and their beats change, but because they are making notes about who covers their organization or their issue, notes about who they like and who they fear, and so forth. Keep track of this information—that’s why we leave the margins wide!

2. Know What News Is
Just because it’s worthy, does not mean it’s newsworthy. News must be new, unusual or important, and it must affect a lot of people outside your organization. This may seem obvious, but some publicists forget this. Events that may be vitally important to your organization may not be news. These include benefits, annual board meetings, board member elections and successful funding requests.

News often depends on controversy and conflict. If your organization is not ready for controversy, or is not ready to join a battle over public policy issues, you may not make the news much. Your aim, then, should be to get feature stories or public-interest reports about your organization’s work.

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