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Getting Started with Promotions

The projects you undertake will have a natural news hook because they directly impact the communities you serve.
Here are a few things to think about as you get started with your promotion efforts.
Define Your Message


  • What do you want reporters (and ultimately members of your community) to know? Do you want to call community members to action? Do you want to bring attention to the entire list of events, or start slow with a general description of the campaign?
  • Use your own experience to create your message. When you talk about the project to friends and colleagues, what part of the project excites you and them most?
  • Are there natural hooks for your project? Take advantage of them:
    In Barrington, RI, WRNI and its partner, the Rhode Island Foundation, have created a project around access to health care. Given the recent closure of several Rhode Island HMOs, this project seems especially timely, and important. Rhode Island's press could see this as a prime example of community action on this issue.
    In Snohomish County, WA, KSER and the Snohomish Health District will increase teen understanding of the role advertising plays in the use of tobacco. They are partnering with the Everett AquaSox (a minor league baseball team) to raise awareness. The team has its own anti-tobacco policies. There's a natural angle for press around the fact that baseball players, usually associated with chewing tobacco and dipping snuff, will play an important role in discouraging teens from the use of tobacco at all.
Define Your Audiences

  • Take time to be targeted in your approach.
  • Who do you want to reach? Are there specific groups that need to know more about your projects than others do?
  • What audience will be most receptive? A young audience will not care much about the health care needs of the aging, but baby-boomers with parents probably will.
  • Reach out to audiences that don't normally hear your signal. Consider using alternative media to reach them. Pursue placements in foreign language newspapers, purchase billboard space in neighborhoods and on buses, distribute brochures and leaflets in community centers, hospitals—wherever people with an interest in your topic are prone to gather.
  • Look for E-mail listserves that commonly discuss project-related issues. Post your Web site, project achievements, and upcoming events to the listserves you find.

Establish Strategies Between Partners and Stations

  • Determine responsibilities. Have a clear plan for who will handle specific parts of the campaign.
  • Share press lists and contacts.
  • Draft press releases together.
  • Look for common audiences.
  • Determine who is best suited to reach out to specific audiences:
    For instance, in Murray, KY, WKMS and the Murray State University Department of Nursing are partnering around end-of-life issues. The Department of Nursing will have natural connections in the medical community, and should be the one to promote the project to that audience. WKMS can concentrate on reaching other community groups.

Use the Resources Provided to Create Your Own Press Materials

  • Customize the press release template and fact sheet in your handbook.
  • When doing so, think about the parts of your projects that will attract the most attention right off the bat:
    In Chicago, WRTE/Radio Arte will launch a 12-month series of educational programs on substance abuse. In promoting their project, they will want to stress the fact that their station is the only bilingual, youth-operated community station in the nation. That is a great hook for press coverage and should be reflected in the materials they produce.

  • Don't forget to promote your project's Web site. Make sure the Web address (URL) appears on all project publications and mention it in any project broadcasts, especially if your Web site features your Sound Partners activities. Ask other related Web sites to link to yours.

Launch the Project with Fanfare

  • If your project is conducive to it, think about a creative way to kick-off your efforts:
    In Las Vegas, KCEP will partner with six other organizations to execute four childhood health campaigns. Given the number of partners and the immensity of the project, KCEP might consider launching the campaign with a health fair. The fair would attract press, and establish the project as a real community service from the start.

Soon After the Launch of Your Project

  • Arrange general information meetings with reporters covering your project's beat. Brief them on upcoming activities, members of the community participating in the project, the overall goals of the project, and its timeline. Continue to stay in contact with reporters, updating them on scheduled events, guest experts and project achievements.

  • Visit editorial boards of local newspapers to present an overview of your Sound Partners project, as well as specific upcoming programming and events.