To Do Good, Communicate Well: Public Relations Tips for Non-Profits

non profit

By Molly Borchers, Senior Communications Strategist

One of the things I love most about my job is meeting great people doing great things for the San Diego community. I have the privilege of supporting the community relations department for one of my client partners, which means I help them spotlight the great work of compassionate organizations like Ocean Discovery Institute, Jacobs and Cushman San Diego Food Bank, Workshops for Warriors and many others.

Nonprofit-word-cloudAfter moving here from Ohio, I was struck by the beauty of San Diego’s beaches, bays, palm trees, rivers, canyons, mountains and deserts. With a little time, I was equally in awe of the people who are so deeply connected to their tight-knit communities, of all the passionate innovators who live here, of just how much people love this town.

As of 2014, there were 9,364 501(c)(3) non-profits in San Diego County. That’s a lot of people doing a lot of good. But a major problem for these organizations is that they often don’t have the time or the funding to toot their own horns.

It’s critical for non-profits to raise visibility in order to get funding and fulfill their missions. Here are five communications and public relations tips for non-profits who think they don’t have the bandwidth or budget to promote themselves:

  1. Map out a plan: At the beginning of each year, make it a priority to develop your non-profit’s communications road map. There may not be a lot of time or resources available, but try to carve out space for one promotional activity each month and set calendar alerts to stay accountable.

An example of what that could look like? Perhaps in January, you write and distribute a press release about a fundraising event you’re having. In February, send out a targeted media pitch on the topic you’re trying to generate awareness for. In March, apply for a major speaking opportunity. And so on. By making sure you have at least one activity a month, you sustain the communications momentum with the least time investment possible.

  1. Leverage strategic partnerships: I don’t have to wax poetic about the value of building your network. Once your network is in place, though, leverage the help of strategic partners to support your communications efforts.
    1. If your non-profit has received a corporate grant, ask that organization if they’d also be willing to support you with promotion.
    2. Try meeting people in the communications/PR field. You never know what counsel or advice they’d be willing to give.
    3. Collaborate with other non-profits with similar missions to see if you can pool resources.
  1. Don’t ignore free tools like blogs and social media: I’ve spoken with non-profit leaders who view social media as a low-priority, time-sucking task. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Organizations of all types have three communications channels: paid (advertising), earned (media coverage) and owned (websites, blogs, social media, newsletters). Only one of those is truly free.

Why eschew free platforms where you have the opportunity to both control the message and engage directly with potential donors and volunteers? My tip: find 1-2 hours to develop a strategic social media and blog plan. Then, hire an eager college intern to help execute. They can schedule most social media posts in advance via HootSuite or Buffer. Blogging brings excellent SEO benefits and can help elevate your website to the first page in Google. By using an intern to help, you’re helping them build their portfolio (doing yet another service to the community) without taxing your regular staff resources.

  1. PR measurementBe intentional with measurement: Often, communicators confuse output with outcome. For example, an output is “number of media mentions” or “speaking opportunities secured.” However, an outcome would measure the impact of that effort. Did your communications efforts increase volunteer inquiries or donations? That’s where the measurement gets juicy.

I recommend measuring a bit of both. Perhaps set a goal for number of media placements and then measure them on a graph against website visits, number of volunteer inquiries and donations, then see how the promotion efforts correlate with your desired outcomes.

  1. Ask for help: Don’t be afraid to ask the experts for a little help. There are several communications agencies who offer services priced to be very friendly to non-profit budgets. Sometimes there is even an opportunity to receive pro-bono work, depending on your relationship with the agency.

Work for or volunteer for a non-profit? If you think we can be of assistance, let’s connect. Email me at mborchers [at] wrightoncomm.com. Engaging in highly targeted, measurable social media, PR, multimedia programs can help you achieve your mission.

 

Check out our similar posts below:

5 Essential Elements of Every Community Outreach Plan

How Infographics Work and Why Your Brand Needs to Use Them More

 

Your Competitive Advantage is Being Human

Photo via Fast Company
Photo via Fast Company

By Chance Shay, Communications Strategist

IDSD Recap – Keynote Speaker, Brian Kramer

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t familiar with Bryan Kramer before I signed up for Interactive Day San Diego. I did a quick Google search and found out he speaks a lot about social content sharing and is the author of Human To Human and the soon-to-be-released Shareology. Walking into the Sapphire Ballroom at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront, I figured Bryan would have some good stuff to say, but when he walked out to The Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up,” I knew he was my type of people.

Now, I don’t know if he came up with the H2H, or Human to Human term, but Bryan was the first person I’ve witnessed provide context as to what is at the heart of brands who understand they need to communicate H2H.

The three main H2H pillars are:

  • Simplicity
  • Empathy
  • Imperfection

Thinking of simplistic brands, IDSD attendees threw out Apple, Starbucks, Nike and a few others. Not sure Nike fits there, but we’ll go with it. Empathetic brands make customers feel like the brand cares about them and their wellbeing. Brands like Charmin, Southwest Airlines, The Honest Company, Toms, Dove, Amazon and Nordstrom. What I found was consistent with all of these brands is that they make it seem like they are the same as the customer. That relatability is a consistent connection to empathy. I also noted brand imperfections – think those seen within Fox News, Exxon Mobile, etc. – can work in their favor.

Why?

Again, the relatability factor: being flawed is a hugely human characteristic. That humanity will appeal to customers. The more brands embrace their relative humanity, the more likely they’ll be trusted.

What Bryan pointed out was that no brand combines all three. Disagree? Leave a comment with a brand you think meets all three criteria (Google doesn’t count).

Other key pillars brands can embrace include:

  • Connection/Love
  • Significance
  • Variety/Uncertainty
  • Certainty/Consistency
  • Growth
  • Contribution

It’s been shown that applying three or more of these to a campaign increases the potential for positive impact.

There are also a few main tones people use to communicate, including:

  • Fear
  • Anger
  • Sadness
  • Disgust
  • Joy
  • Surprise

These make sense, right? Rarely do people share content that has a tone of boredom or basic satisfaction. Brands have to share in these emotional tones because that’s human, but also because when you share in these tones, most people will respond with the same tone. Sharing something with joy is met with engagement with the same tone. This doesn’t work with trolls, but that’s probably not your target audience.

Understanding we’re in a human to human economy and that human characteristics are key to effective communication leads us to one final question:

Why do we share?

Connection.

Why PR is Becoming a Visual Game (and How to Win)

Wonka meme

Remember when you were a little kid and your parents asked you to pick out a book to read? Did you gravitate toward the one that was a sea of black-and-white letters, or the cool one with lots of colorful, eye-catching photos?

In high school geometry, which was the better textbook? The one that wrote out how to determine the surface area of a trapezoid, or the one that showed you?

Even now, are you more engaged and likely to retain information with presentations that are strictly verbal, or ones that have graphics and charts?

It’s a fact: human beings are visual creatures. As a general rule, we remember 80% of what we see, compared to 20% of what we read and a small 10% of what we hear, a New York University psychological study found.

Applying this to PR, an industry in which the main objective is to communicate positive messages about a brand or person, Wharton School of Business researchers determined that presentations based on visuals were found more compelling and convincing than those that were only verbal.

Furthermore, 67% of the audience in the study said that merging visuals with verbal aids were all the more effective. So how can we, as PR professionals, leverage these findings to the advantage of our brands?

Get Social

With the popularity of visually-driven social media networks like Pinterest and Instagram, there’s no time like the present to socialize your PR strategy.

pinterestPinterest is especially great since a pin can link directly back to a website. If you pin a PDF of your fresh press release and put some compelling preview text in the description, your audience will not only want to read that particular release, they’ll be taken to your news room, blog, etc. and likely read many more. And check out your team. And explore your website.

In an industry like hospitality, make sure to load your website and e-menu up with lots of great photos showcasing your space, food and amenities. With one click, users will be on your site and one step away from making reservations.

instaInstagram isn’t to be forgotten, though. Although it lacks the referral power Pinterest has (at least for now), it’s a great vehicle for furthering community relations efforts or raising awareness of your brand offerings.

For example, nonprofits can benefit immensely from showcasing their volunteer efforts and positive impact in real time, while a fashion line can post sneak peeks of their new collection and the behind-the-scenes design process to get fans excited to buy.

With a few well-placed hashtags, even non-fans will be in on the action. Networks like Facebook and Twitter, as well as outlets like blogs, can also add to your visual storytelling power in their own unique way.

Create a Better Press Release

Notice I say “create” rather than “write.” That’s because although words still rule in PR, the changing face of the industry requires a little something extra for maximum connectivity and traction from both consumers and media.

As mentioned last year in our piece on putting together a great press release, adding just one photo to a release will increase views by 14%. Applying elements like more photos and video continues the upward trajectory, culminating in 77% higher consumption when visual education tools like infographics comepolaroids into play.

This all depends on the industry, too. B2C brands will do well with high-quality photos of their products or properties, while B2B people may be more receptive to charts and graphs.

As with any PR effort, think about your target audience when adding visual elements to collateral like press releases.

Get Ready for Your Close-Up

If you’re not sprinkling video into your PR plan at least occasionally, you should be.husky

ComScore found that in the US alone, people watch more than a billion online videos every day. Why?

They’re dynamic, typically easy to consume and people equate them with entertainment. Video makes it simple and fun to showcase brand philosophy, spread the word on updates and give a glimpse at the human side of a company, which consumers love.

If you’re trying to rebrand a respected, but traditionally conservative corporation, try a regular feature showcasing employees doing volunteer work or shadowing them for a day on the job. If you’re a tech-savvy company, dabble in mixing up your written press releases with video ones.

Video is also a great tool for media relations. At (W)right On, we’ve had great success creating client b-roll and sending on to news stations for high-quality, late-breaking event coverage – plus, it allows you to pick and choose the footage you want to show off. And, video is a fast way to introduce people to who you are as a company, piquing the interest of potential customers, media influencers and even investors.

What other ways have you found visuals instrumental in a successful PR program? Tell us in the comments or find us on Twitter.

In Communications, the Only Constant is Change – Part 2

communcations

communcationsby Grant Wright @grant_wright

If you read my last post, you know that I like to partake in my version of crystal ball reading. In part one of this two-part post, I floated predictions of Facebook and Youtube’s dampening, social media specialists displacing all-knowing gurus and a positive trend of increasing two-way brand communications but through paid channels. In this second part, I branch past social media to communication change applications in society with three more predictions for the near future:

Social Media in the Election Process

obamaWith the increasingly obscene amount of money flowing into the election process, candidates in the 2016 race will use social media unlike any campaign we’ve seen. In 2008, President Obama began a new era of integrating social media into the political process. Some argue that his comprehensive and strategic social media campaign won him the election. He gained the support of American youth by reaching them where they are most active, and this engagement continued in the 2012 election cycle.

With recent news of the Koch brothers alone committing to spend nearly $900 million during the 2016 campaign cycle, I think the Republican Party will be readying to deploy social media to an entirely new level. Although a record setting $5.6 billion was spent by the parties combined in the 2012 election, we ain’t seen nothing yet.

As expenditures are expected to top a staggering $8 billion in the next election, it boggles the mind what this will do for the social media landscape. Oh, to go back to the simpler days of the 80s and 90s when a mere $20 million waged a Presidential campaign.

Wearable Tech

While the social media run-up will start this year to a crescendo in the next, something that will truly become mainstream this year is wearable technology. Whether it’s the Apple Watch or Fitbit, we’ll all be wearing some sort of tech device soon, even if it’s just a self-adjusting belt.

apple-watch-6_1The Apple Watch’s release date is scheduled in April and I foresee 2015 being the first year we see technology incorporated rightinto clothing fabric like Vivir apparel. There are smart socks, replacement soles and an array of “e-textiles” to come. Textiles expert Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman says, “what makes smart fabrics revolutionary is that they have the ability to do many things that traditional fabrics cannot, including communicate, transform, conduct energy and even grow.” Future high technology will literally be worn on our backs.

 Interactive Video

As Internet bandwidth continues to increase, data storage costs decrease. Smartphones and simple editing software put a movie studio in everyone’s hand. Platforms now enable free and easy video hosting. All of this will lead to the continued shift from 2D content (like this post you’re reading) to visual content, particularly video and multimedia (like the new Vlog series we’re developing at (W)right On – stay tuned!)

In the next stage, video will move from the passive state it’s in today to an interactive state through embedded code technology. amazon_droneSay you’re watching a music video and see a shirt worn by your favorite artist. Hit pause, touch the screen to order, wave your smartphone by your Apple Pay enabled TV receiver, and voilà! An Amazon drone will arrive soon thereafter bearing said shirt. With this technology in combination with others like 3-D printing, the age of access will only accelerate.

While these are just seven visions swirling in the ball, in some form or another they may already on their way to reality. Separately and combined I think they’re all positive, for where there’s change there’s opportunity, and opportunity is a constant that feeds our soul.

What do you think? Enablers of the Age of Abundance? Harbingers of humanity’s doom? Comments are always welcome!

In Communications, the Constant is Change

Extreme_Crystal_Ball

by Grant Wright @grant_wright

At (W)right On, among our Values is to ‘embrace and lead change’. We keep current with and help define new best practices in communications. For example, in 2012 I wrote of smartphones surpassing PC sales for the first time and the rise of the Virtual Web. With consumption occurring from smaller and smaller screens, this has important bearing on how we might design a Client Partners’ website, for example. Jump to the present, and as I just tweeted about Apple selling 34,000 iPhones an hour, 24 hours/day for every day of the most recent quarter, we’re well on the way to a smaller-device world.

A year ago, Molly Borchers predicted six trends headed our way: pay-for-play social media, branded journalism, wearable technology and the Internet of Things, collaborative economy, anticipatory computing and super fan marketers. I’d argue she’s six for six.

So with 2015 well underway, in this first of a two-part post here are my crystal ball thoughts on how things might unfold in 2015.

Facebook ‘Dampening’

FB thumbI almost said ‘decline’ and maybe I should. As I talked about last March, with Facebook’s algorithm now rendering organic views to about 5% of the potential audience, it’s become harder for businesses to find their way onto people’s newsfeeds. For businesses that have, say, 8,000 followers yet only 300 of them interact, it’s much less worthwhile than before to invest the needed resources for good content absent a comprehensive communication strategy. A Facebook spokesperson said, “We’re getting to a place where because more people are sharing more things, the best way to get your stuff seen if you’re a business is to pay for it.” However, I think businesses will pay-for-play of Facebook posts less and less.

This leaves non-business Facebook use, and while Facebook is a behemoth, the next generation seems less enthused about it. In his social media analysis paper, a University of Texas student sums it this way, “Facebook is something we all got into in middle school because it was cool. But now it’s seen as an awkward family dinner party we can’t really leave.”

While it may currently be the most used platform, people aren’t interacting on Facebook at the rate of other social networks. While my evidence borders on spidey sense, I think Facebook may well become a MySpace to an alternative, any alternative.

YouTube ‘Dampening’

With the proliferation of video across other platforms like Facebook that no longer require content to be hosted on Youtube, I believe the site could take a serious hit this year.

As Business Insider notes, “In November, Facebook’s share of video posts uploaded directly to Facebook Facebook-Video-Hand-Pressing-Playovertook YouTube’s videos on Facebook for the first time.” The upside of this is that Facebook video views drive more engagement than Youtube, but then more of something that could be on its way to a nothing (as we know it today) for a new generation still gives me pause.

“Social Media Expert” Goes Dodo

My third premonition is that the title, “social media expert” will disappear as the proliferation of platforms makes it increasingly difficult to be an across the board expert. Instead, we’ll begin to see specialist experts as platform use continues to fragment and businesses become even choosier as to which platforms they expend energy. Relating to this, we may also see a resurgence of businesses strengthening their owned online presence including websites and blogs as this remains the only way to truly own one’s audience.

Increased Conversations

As 2015 progresses, brands will continue to move from thinking of social media as one-way flow toward a two-conversationway flow and relationship building opportunity. And for reasons touched on earlier, the framework for this interaction will increasingly necessarily be through paid visibility. I hope when this happens that we see a more organic conversation between brands and their audience. This is beneficial for both parties, although it takes more commitment on the side of the brand to maintain a conversation.

Facebook and YouTube dampening, specialist experts and increased conversations via paid infrastructure are among the things I see in the year to unfold. Stay tuned next week for Part Two of this post in which I see three more potential trends swirling in my ball.

(W)right On Communications Adds Two Strategic Hires

To support the success of the firm’s growing client partner roster, (W)right OnSGeary---bkgrnd Communications welcomes Shae Geary as Senior Communications Strategist and Keely Smith as Design & Multimedia Specialist. With 17 years experience in the industry, Shae will direct and execute communication and public relations efforts for the agency’s client partners, with focus on the hospitality and lifestyle industries. Keely will be supporting the design and multimedia needs of all agency client partners in the hospitality, healthcare, energy, technology, development, public agency and non-profit industries.

The addition of Keely to the (W)right On team is part of our commitment to keep our graphic design and multimedia capabilities leading edge. And with (W)right On’s continued growth of our various practice areas and especially hospitality, we’re excited to add Shae’s years of experience and program leadership for our client partners’ benefit.

Previously the PR Director with Four Seasons Resorts and a consultant for a variety of world-class resorts across California, Hawaii and Mexico, Shae’s expertise in communications and hospitality includes a broad range of niche markets – spa, golf, recreation, weddings, dining, luxury, family and green travel. Shae holds a Bachelor degree from Arizona State University and Master in Mass Communications degree (with PR emphasis) from UC Santa Barbara.

Headshot_KeelyA San Diego native, Keely brings an eye for design to the (W)right On team. Her experience extends across web, print and other media utilizing various mediums such as graphic design, sculpture and illustration in traditional and software environments. Keely holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with an emphasis in Graphic Design from San Diego State University.

Shae and Keely bring a sense of enthusiasm and passion to the team that doesn’t go unnoticed. Their expertise open the door to exciting opportunities in the future. Inspired by their areas of focus, they hope to build relationships among client partners and assist with the growth of the firm. Leave us a comment on Facebook or shoot us a tweet to say hello to Shae and Keely.