Category: Promotion - Saseenos Communications

Free tool for writers - author branding and promotion template

4/2/2016

A writer's tools are important to the craft. You may need your favorite pen and notebook, a trusty laptop or a comfy chair to create your best work.

Here's a FREE tool to help in another important part of the writing process: branding and promoting yourself as an author.

As a writer you understand the value in investing time to create outlines and characters and craft the plot and setting. Developing a solid promotional plan is as valuable as creating an outline for a novel.

Branding yourself as an author helps you form a relationship with your audience. Readers often have deep emotional attachments to their favorite authors. The work is a big part of that and so is the author's brand. Think of approaching branding yourself in the same way you approach creating a character in one of your stories.

Download our free Author Branding and Promotion template for a step by step guide to create your own brand and promotional plan. It includes questions to help you define your brand and lead you through the steps to build messages, strategies and tactics with examples and scenarios that are relevant to your work as an author. There are additional resources for more reading too.

For more free tips and ideas on marketing and promotion follow Saseenos Communications on Facebook and @Saseenos on Twitter.

Workshops for Sooke region non-profits

4/12/2015

Need help with communications and promotion?

Saseenos Communications is partnering with the Sooke Region Volunteer Centre (SRVC) to present workshops for Sooke-area non-profit groups and small business on marketing, promotion and communications at no cost to SRVC member groups and $10 for non-members*.

Effective promotion and communications help build awareness of your organization or event to attract new members and attendees, it can help you raise revenue through donations or grants and it can keep you in touch with your members and customers.

To learn more, register for the Sooke Region Non-profit Marketing and Communications Workshops.

Here’s what you will get:

Saturday, May 9th, 9:30-noon:
-introduce your communications challenges.
-learn how marketing, promotion and communications can benefit your organization in today's rapidly changing communications environment.
-hands-on help in developing a marketing or communications strategy for your organization.

Saturday, May 16th, 9:30-noon:
-feedback and discussion.
-getting the message out to your key audience, proactive public relations, and news releases that get covered.
-media channels and social media.
-low-cost and no-cost techniques, and how to get best value when you need to buy advertising or services.

In addition to the hands-on workshop, you will take away resources including handouts, templates and further reading list. You can discuss your challenges and work on your own communications product and will be able to sign up for one-on-one structured feedback at a later date to polish your final product.

For more information and to register, contact sookeregionvolunteers@gmail.com or leave message at 250-642-6364 Ext. 235.

Bonus! All the templates provided for the workshops will be made available here for future use and for those who were unable to attend.

*The small admission of $10 for non-SRVC members will help cover the volunteer centre cover costs for materials and refreshments. Saseenos Communications receives no fee for providing this service.

The 10 most damaging things you can share on social media

10/26/2014

Social media is all about sharing. Sometimes we see shared information or images that we wished the sender had kept to his or herself.

You are you own personal brand and your reputation is based on what people perceive and believe of you. Here are 10 of the most damaging things that can leave a negative impression of you or your organization:

1. Comments about your job, especially complaints about the organization or boss.

2. Snarky remarks about your customers or clients.

3. Drunken photos showing poor judgement such as nudity, groping of friends, rude gestures and extreme drinking. What may seem hilarious and spur of the moment can re-surface at the worst of times and leave a lasting impression. Is it behaviour you would want an employer to see? The same goes for drunken status updates or posts.

4. Facebook updates and photos that show what a great time you are having after you have said you were sick or had an emergency and could not fulfill an obligation or make it into work.

5. Any kind of dramatic interaction between you and another person whether they are your friend, family or colleague.

6. Opinions that could label you as sexist, racist, intolerant or worse. Depending on your organization’s policies this could impact your employment. In September 2013, three Toronto firefighters were fired due to inappropriate tweets that the employer found to be degrading to women and not acceptable for city employees.

7. Personal information that could help out a criminal. Anything about your bank account, expensive new purchases, daily schedule, when you will be away and what your password may be.

8. Saying "I'm having a party! Share and bring all your friends". Things can get out of hand quickly.

9. Your daily minutiae. We don’t need to know that you woke up, had coffee, used the washroom and watched the Price is Right.

10. Updates from your Facebook linked games and media. Posts of Farmville requests and Candy Crush levels are downright annoying. It may be amusing to learn through Facebook that you have been catching up on Breaking Bad on Netflix, but you may not want everyone to know you’ve been on the couch all day.

Most of these are common sense but it's surprising how often you see updates that make you shake your head. What are some other things that should never be shared?

Five ways where it pays to bring in a professional

9/24/2014

You can figure out how to do a lot on your own these days if you have the time and the energy to learn about it.

There are free online universities, a wealth of training videos on YouTube and other sites and helpful tools and tips on most topics.

Learning a new skill and accomplishing something is rewarding and satisfying. Many of us grew up in a do-it-yourself culture where we tinkered with our cars and did our own household repairs and it’s natural to try to do most things on our own.

When our weed eater broke last spring the first thing we did was go to YouTube to learn how to fix it. My husband looked up user manuals and watched videos and, as painful as it was for him to admit he couldn’t do it, he realized that in this case he would need a professional. A few months later, our washing machine broke down. Not only could we not fix it ourselves but we learned we would be better off buying a brand new one.

It’s good to know that when we need help it’s there. In both of these cases, consulting a professional paid off in the long run. For a $30 investment the weedeater will last at least another year (if not longer). The new washing machine uses less water and less energy and the clothes are cleaner.

There are many free communication tools and channels available and you can learn a lot if you have the time and motivation. One of the main reasons for this site is to give you the tools for effective communications about your organization or business. With a few tips and tools, small organizations are able to do a decent job of basic day to day communications without the need to pay for the services of a professional.

Communications can be very complex and there are times when bringing in a professional will add value to your work, save you time and money and prevent or correct misunderstandings. We are in an information age where channels and media are continually evolving and changing rapidly. Expertise in communications is vital when information about your organization – both positive and negative – can go viral and beyond your control quickly.

Think of it like managing your day to day health on your own most of the time. When you need more information there are online sources like HealthLinkBC or WebMD but there are times when you need to see a doctor.

Here are five common experiences where a communications or marketing professional can help:

1. When your job involves doing communications off the side of your desk. You were hired because of your expertise in your field but a part of your job involves communications. You may have taken a few courses to learn effective ways to communicate, have a Twitter account and maybe even a blog. You recognize the value of communications and understand your need to keep pumping out messages. If things are working well that’s great. But if you ever find you need to spend time explaining yourself or working to correct misinformation about your organization, a communications professional would help. You most likely do not need a full-time communications staff person. Consider bringing in a consultant to do a communications audit of your organization and provide recommendations and a strategic plan. A good plan will map out where you need to go and how you can get there and a good consultant can do this in as little time as a few days, depending on the size and complexity of your organization.

2. When you are creating or updating a website. Many organizations recognize the need for a website to help promote their work and ensure the public receives information. A common first step in web creation is to seek out an IT professional. Consider what your website does – it is a channel for communicating just like a front counter, telephone, meeting or rack of brochures. Websites are strengthened by good content and IT professionals are not content experts. If you have launched a website and have heard comments about how good it looks yet how difficult it is to find information, your staff or volunteers may be spending extra time to help people find information or deal with complaints. You may need to go back and re-do some of it to ensure the information you need to communicate is there and easy to access. A good website should meet your organization’s communications and engagement objectives and a communications professional could be consulted to work with the IT team at the outset. But wait, your organization doesn’t have any communications or engagement objectives you say?

3. When you want to develop or meet communication and engagement objectives. If an important part of your organization’s function and mission involves getting information to the public or your market, a marketing and/or communications strategy is essential. A marketing strategy helps you learn about what your public needs to be aware of and how to best reach them. It can help you get the best value for your advertising and marketing budget, increase your market and create more effective and better relationships between your organization and your audience, partners and stakeholders. It can increase morale among your staff because they can be included in the communications and feel a stronger connection to the organization. It’s a vital investment that will pay off in huge dividends including time savings, more effective and efficient operations and even profit. Once you have developed a marketing strategy you can keep it fresh by checking in from time to time (about once a year or so is often enough) to ensure it continues to meet your objectives. Many organizations fear the cost of a marketing strategy imagining glitzy ad campaigns, yet often the best strategy need not cost a lot. There are economical ways to develop and implement an effective strategy for your organization’s budget.

4. When you have something new or different to communicate or announce. If your organization makes a change, has a new plan, service or product, or has important new information to communicate, consider a communications strategy as an important component of your new initiative. Many organizations invest in strategic planning or visioning, or in the development of a new product or service. If that investment does not include marketing or communications of your new initiative then the implementation will not be as effective. Ensure a portion of your development and implementation budget includes what you will need for marketing and communications.

5. When you need to hear from your audience. If your organization relies on input from your audience a marketing and communications professional can help ensure you are employing the most effective and economical engagement tactics. Engagement is more than communicating out. It’s about developing and maintaining a relationship with your audience or market to ensure your product or service continues to meet their needs.

Large organizations employ full time communications and marketing staff for a good reason. In a smaller organization you can manage well by consulting a marketing or communications professional from time to time.

News releases that get noticed and covered in six easy steps

8/16/2014

There are a lot of options for communicating information. If you are responsible for promoting your local organization you may be sharing information through social media, emails to members and customers, a website and paid advertising.

Not long ago the traditional media of newspaper, television and radio were our key sources of information. With the advent of the Internet and social media people now have much more choice and control over where, how and when they consume information.

With so many options, deciding how to communicate is tricky. Many people in small organizations simply don’t have the time to effectively share information in as many ways as possible. As well, some of the channels have a cost and budgets are limited. Social media are a great option when you have little time and want to reach a lot of people, however there are limits on how many characters you can include in your post.

For announcements that require more content than a typical Twitter feed or Facebook post, a news release is an effective way to provide information to encourage reporters to tell your story.

Use a news release when you want to capture a reporter's attention and have them publish your story. Craft your news release so it contains all the facts, background, colourful tidbits and stats to make it easy for reporters and editors to get all the details they need for their story or post.

We have developed a news release template that provides a step-by-step guide to writing a news release that will get noticed and covered (see link below). It includes a sample news release of a fictional annual event in our local Sooke region community. These are often the most challenging kind of releases to write because you need to find something new to say about the same thing that happens year after year.

Reporters receive dozens (if not hundreds) of news releases, Twitter feeds and emails every day. Your announcement will be competing with all the other information they receive. To get your story covered, it needs to stand out and be worthy of sharing. Here are six tips to help:

1. Start with a headline that grabs a reporter's attention in a few words. This will be the first thing a reporter sees so it needs to sound important or interesting.

2. Craft an opening paragraph that explains why they should care about your event or information and include the key facts: who, what, why, where and how.

3. Include a quote from a person of authority to bring your announcement to life and show how it makes an impact.

4. Fill in helpful context and valuable details in a concise background.

5. Include contact information for your spokesperson and your organization (web address, email, phone number, social media accounts).

6. Send it to the right person. Ensure you have the correct email contact for the person you want to publish your story. In daily media that may be a city editor, producer, beat reporter, columnist or talk show host. In community media it may be the editor or reporter. If it's an arts story, send it to someone who writes about arts; for sports stories, send to the sports editor or reporter.

Once you have written and shared your news release with a reporter, you can also post it on your website and share the link through your social media accounts or through email to your customers, members and followers. Your goal is to ensure that as many people in your target audience as possible hear, understand and act on your information, so don't be shy to tell your own story.

When a story is published in the media, go to their site and share the link on your social media accounts. This helps build followers for the reporters and media and they appreciate your reciprocal action.

Go to this link for the free news release template: http://www.saseenos.com/free-guides-and-templates.html

What's the difference between marketing, public relations and promotion?

8/1/2014

A young man and woman are on a date having dinner. He talks about how wonderful he is, how intelligent he is and how he has been so successful recently by his many accomplishments. That's promotion.

A friend of his drops by the table and tells the woman how wonderful the man is, how intelligent he finds him and how impressed he has been with the man's recent accomplishments. That's public relations.

If the young many asks the woman about her opinions and interests, shows how interested he is in her conversation, and says how intelligent he finds her and how impressed he has been with her recent accomplishments, that's marketing.

Marketing is a process that identifies, anticipates and satisfies your customers needs and desires so your business profits. It involves planning and implementing the idea, pricing, promotion and distribution of goods and services. It includes an exchange that satisfies customer and organizational goals. A marketing strategy is driven by customer desires and is directed to the customer. Marketers ask: Who are our customers? What do they think, believe and want? What has value to them, and how do we deliver that value? The goal of marketing is to respond to the customer and meet their needs.

Public relations is a function that helps an organization manage its reputation. The public relations function provides strategic advice on how an organization should communicate. It may develop, or simply approve, anything that goes out to the public in order to ensure consistency and compliance with the overall corporate objectives. They don’t develop the polices or services, but they help ensure that customers understand what the organization has to offer and what it does for the community. It not only puts out fires, it provides counsel to help an organization avoid those fires. A public relations strategy is driven by organizational desires and is directed at a number of publics, often through the media. PR practitioners want to know: How does the public feel about us? How do we look and what do they think of us? How do we want them to see us? The goal of public relations is to promote a positive image about an organization.

Promotion is getting the word out about your product or service. It may involve any number of channels (such as web, email, word of mouth, or social media). The goal of promotion is to raise awareness.

Often, particularly in smaller organizations, all of these functions are the responsibility of one person, and that person may have other responsibilities as well.

A marketing strategy will include elements of public relations and promotion. It is crucial to successful and sustained delivery of your product or service.

Sources: JimMintz.ca; American Marketing Association; Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Links: http://www.jimmintz.ca/2008/06/05/marketing-versus-communications/

Seven ways to reach your members

8/1/2014

When local volunteer boards do their work, there is always important information to communicate to members and the public.

How does your board get information out?

Common ways to communicate include meetings, emails, paid advertisements, news releases or posts on your organization’s website.

When you make the effort to communicate, have you ever found there were some people who don’t receive the information? They may say they didn’t hear about it, or even worse, they may have heard about it, but not in the way your group intended.

This requires board members to spend more time with explanations for those who weren’t aware or who received misinformation.

You felt you did your part by sending out the information. But how can you guarantee your members will hear what you want to communicate?

Here are seven ways to get your message noticed and read:

Keep messages short and simple. Don't send long, rambling emails or post notices that try to explain every nuance. Start with a few points that capture your message and refer readers to further details (a longer document for example) where they can learn more. The shorter and simpler the message, the better the chance it will be read.
Have a heading that summarizes your most important message. Don’t use a generic heading like “Policy Change” when you can attract attention about the change. This goes for the Subject line in an email, or heading on your web post or bulletin board notice.
Use multiple channels. Send a broadcast email with website link, post on the website, and communicate at your meetings. Social media can really help here for your members who are on Facebook or Twitter.
Combine electronic information channels with face-to-face communications. Whether it’s during a meeting, staffing a table at an event, or talking to people you meet as you go about your business in the community – face to face communications are often the most effective.
Be consistent with your message channels. If your members are used to getting a Tweet, Facebook notice, or email to receive information, use the channels they know.
Use influencers. Who are your members who always have an opinion or comment and like to share what they know? Focus on ensuring they understand, and ask for their help in getting the word out.
For substantial changes or other important new information consider developing a communications strategy that includes using your local media and a social media strategy. A news article in your local community media provides something for people to talk about, while social media provide a platform for the conversation to help spread your message. Consider all the angles, however – including ways your message may be interpreted. That’s where a communications strategy will help.

Trying some or all of these tricks will help in getting your message out and ensuring it is understood.

Tips for school reporters

8/1/2014

In 2013 the local elementary schools began sending student reports to the Sooke News Mirror. It's a great way for students to practice writing and reporting and the community benefits by learning about school activities.

Writing news stories is a little different than writing essays or other compositions learned at school. Reporting Tips was originally developed to help students at Ecole Poirier Elementary with their first news submission and it has been recently updated with examples from all schools including Sooke Elementary, Saseenos Elementary and John Muir Elementary.

It includes tips on getting ideas about what to cover, background on how news stories are structured and how to write them, and what kind of information to note and include.

Every writer has their own style and students are encouraged to write in the style they are comfortable with, while including the facts to make a great report.

It also includes a few suggestions about newspaper style to help busy editors.

Hearing about school activities from the students helps promote many positive ways local youth are involved.

The local newspaper is one outlet for stories and you may have others such as your school's website or blog.

Good luck and have fun with school reporting!

To download Reporting Tips, see Free Guides and Templates on this site: http://www.saseenos.com/free-guides-and-templates.html.

Covering your local sports team

8/1/2014

There is always so much going on in local minor sports. Often, local media don't have the capacity to report on every game for your sports team or organization.

Most local media outlets have few staff and they are not able to get out and cover every event in town. Some media are willing to accept submissions if they can't be there in person, so why not do it yourself?

Sending in stories about games from local soccer, fastball, football or hockey teams helps promote your sport and local players. Players get to feel like the stars they are as their best plays are reported, and you create a positive association for your organization (which can help with memberships and fundraising too).

For tips, check out Team Reporting 101. This was first created for all team managers and reporters of Sooke Minor Hockey and shared with Sooke Soccer Club. It has since been adapted to apply to all local team sports with examples from football, fastball, hockey, soccer and highschool basketball.

An important first step before starting team reporting is to check that your local newspaper accepts submitted content. It doesn't hurt to talk to the editor at the start of each season. Ask about their deadlines and who the main contact should be, then promote to team managers so they can recruit a team reporter.

If you can’t publish in the local newspaper, try your organization’s website or social media group to publish stories and images from the games.

Respecting privacy

Ensure your organization has a policy that allows publication and players (or their parents if they are minors) have consented to publication. Most local organizations have that policy, but if you are new to an organization, always check.

For more information, download or share Team Reporting 101 from the Free Guides and Templates section of this site: http://www.saseenos.com/free-guides-and-templates.html