Tips for using the correct logos, wording, photos and more.
TIP: Tie your club’s media pitch to something timely
Media can be a challenge for the Kiwanis Club of Jamestown in North Dakota, U.S., because the nearest TV station is 100 miles away. However, our local newspaper and radio stations are always wonderful about running stories about our efforts.
The times we are most successful with TV media is when we connect it to a timely issue. For example, we package thousands of meals every year as part of our Kiwanis Against Hunger project. When we pitched the story, we tied our Kiwanis efforts to the recent increase in food insecurity in our region. In 2020, we held a COVID-19 raffle specifically to help nonprofits struggling with fundraising because of the pandemic. We would have helped these nonprofits anyway; however, this way we could do it and connect it to what was happening in our world.
If I could offer a few best practices, they would be:
- Prepare beautiful press releases and imagery. If you don’t know how to do this, recruit a member who does.
- Email and call local news outlets. If they do run a story, snail mail them a thank you note after. (It’s the kind, Kiwanis thing to do. Plus, they’ll remember you and think of Kiwanis for future stories.)
- Build a social media schedule with UNIQUE content — not the same thing each time.
- For an event, you can try:
- 3-4 weeks out: 1-2 posts/week.
- 1-2 weeks out: 2-3 posts/week.
- Day of: reminder in the morning plus posts throughout the day.
- Encourage your members to share content to their personal social media pages/groups. That’s an easy and inexpensive way to make sure people see and support your great work.
Tips from Katie Ryan-Anderson, Kiwanis Club of Jamestown, North Dakota, U.S.
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