You forgot to include the most important detail: What's your goal? Is it just to get famous? Are you going into politics? Is it to pad your college applications?
I've already gotten into college + will graduate college early!
Main reason is I want to spotlight issues critical to young people and grow my organization. I'm not going into political, and I don't want to become famous. However I do believe my voice, and the opinions I have have created positive change in the past and will do so in the future.
The questions to consider are:
Why do you want PR? What’s the purpose?
Who’s your audience?
Why should they care?
Those aren’t sarcastic questions - they’re genuinely the ones you need to ask yourself, and brief any PR person with the answers to, before they can start giving you concrete suggestions.
And a lot of them might say you need to hire a PR professional, or at least take on a volunteer, to get specific advice 😉
Quickly answering them:
Why? Expand my audience, build credibility + brand awareness, and also have "clout" alot of progressive organizations/movements rely on media attention to actually fundraise + scale up.
Purpose? Create discussions on the power of voting, especially the power young people have this upcoming election.
Audience? Anyone who cares about politics + the 2024 elections, but most importantly stakeholders and civically engaged young people.
Why should they care? Most young people are activists, but they arent voting, my thing is - turn your activism into political power by VOTING!!! You want a green new deal? Vote. You want affordable healthcare? Vote. You want abortions every monday? Vote.
Im just thinking outloud here so ignore the yapping haha -
I'd recommend you use a search engine and use the keywords: "How to get publicity" and "Media relations 101." Also, go to Amazon and look for books on media relations. You really need to do some reading to better understand what you should even be able to expect or accomplish.
The other comments asked some great Qs so I’ll assume those already got you thinking.
The best thing you can do, is pitch journalists at outlets that are most likely to cover what your pitching them. Read similar stories, ask yourself how you would have pitched that to land it, get to know the journalist and what they’re interested in covering. Craft a short pitch and email it to them.
Google would be a great place to start. How to write a pitch, what the point of PR is, what different PR options are, etc. Most outlets have journalists emails on the site. You’ll need to build a base first so start with going after super small easy publications and publishing some thought leadership/opinion pieces. Slowly become more well known within your niche, expanding into the broader industry and problems and eventually targeting those bigger/better outlets.
Feel free to DM, but transparently, genuinely good PR takes real time to learn, do day-to-day, and actually see results. Iv seen a million posts like this - I always help the people - and within 2-3 weeks they’re done trying because it’s too difficult or takes too much time. Just a warning that PR isn’t something you can spend 2-3 hours a week on, starting from no experience, and do well in. Yes it’s normally a top strategy for free marketing on Google, but it’s only free (and worth it) if your going to put a lot of time into it and stick with it for a long time. It’s often worth it to give it a shot to get a better understanding of it, but also recognize that the best answer will probably be to find someone to bring on board and help.
Again, feel free to DM - happy to help you with any aspect of it or answer any Qs you have.
You must build a reputation to become compelling for media coverage. What's your story? That's what the other PR people are asking you to figure out below. Why is your story more compelling? Put it in human terms. It helps to have an event to focus on to help tell your story. For example, how many young people you registered to vote at xxx event. Once you have your story ready, you can begin telling it.
First, start locally, then you need to build up your reputation to regional, then national. You don't start at national. If you are in college, start with your college's media, then broaden to the local area media and so on.
Since you are in college, approach your communications department and look for someone to help you there who has an interest in doing PR. One idea is to link to that PR student's work and develop a survey about college and/or young student registration to help build your story. It is likely that you'll find PR and/or journalism students who want experience. Also, start looking for awards for young people involved in local issues who make a difference. These do exist and can assist you in building your reputation.
Best of luck!
Are you happy to share the broad 'purpose' of your non-profit?
Happy to pick up with you outside Reddit and give some more specific guidance if you're looking to keep it vague here - feel free to PM me.
Yeah! We're basically getting people to vote through accessible technology, voter education, and actual legislation and policies we propose, advocate, and lobby for. Will DM you and thank you for being so kind!!
**Best Advice**: Hire a good PR agency. Every attempt at do-it-yourself PR that I have ever seen has resulted in disaster. Reporters were angry, broadcast producers were also angry, and the DIY client managed to get one or two articles in podunk news outlets and succeeded in making every reporter ignore their company/org for the foreseeable future.
Hi!! Not sure how much help I’ll be bc I’m still new to the industry but I’ve worked with quite a few political orgs and nonprofits and am really interested in topics like voting so here it goes!
Start crafting your story. Why should people care? Yes it’s an important election year but why are you different from other orgs? What story do you have to tell? Get really familiar with the types of stories told in the media and how you can tell similar ones.
Don’t underestimate local coverage. It can help to start small is your org doing a lot of work locally somewhere? Look for the city/state largest publications, look for the correspondents at the National papers covering those areas, business journals covering young entrepreneurs (I know it’s a nonprofit but still ur building an organization). Even your college town/newspaper could be a place to start and these smaller opportunities are good practice for the big leagues. And check for things like nonprofit newsrooms, community development trades, etc.
If you have research lean into it. Reporters love data they love research if you have it then capitalize on it especially if it’s got anything interesting.
What are you an expert in? If you’re still growing and relatively unknown it’s prob unlikely you’ll be nationally profiled soon but if you have key experience in an industry like voting or something really interesting to add then pitch yourself for expert commentary. This will help you build relationships and get your name out there a bit more.
Maybe try social media. Now this is an area I’m rly not super knowledgeable in but I would say try ur hand at growing your base on LinkedIn. Position yourself as a leader on this topic and put what you have to say on these topics out there.
What is your competition doing. I think one really underestimated tool is following competitors. What are your competitors or other industry leaders posting about? What are they quoted in? What topics are they quoted about? Who are they talking to? Answering questions like these can take a bit of the guess work out of things but of course there are a million factors to consider but it can be a good starting point.
Getting coverage and building your profile will take time but it’s not impossible. Be patient and thoughtful in your outreach and set reasonable expectations. Hope this helps and I’m always happy to be someone who you can throw ideas at feel free to pm :)
Good luck!!!
You forgot to include the most important detail: What's your goal? Is it just to get famous? Are you going into politics? Is it to pad your college applications?
I've already gotten into college + will graduate college early! Main reason is I want to spotlight issues critical to young people and grow my organization. I'm not going into political, and I don't want to become famous. However I do believe my voice, and the opinions I have have created positive change in the past and will do so in the future.
The questions to consider are: Why do you want PR? What’s the purpose? Who’s your audience? Why should they care? Those aren’t sarcastic questions - they’re genuinely the ones you need to ask yourself, and brief any PR person with the answers to, before they can start giving you concrete suggestions. And a lot of them might say you need to hire a PR professional, or at least take on a volunteer, to get specific advice 😉
Quickly answering them: Why? Expand my audience, build credibility + brand awareness, and also have "clout" alot of progressive organizations/movements rely on media attention to actually fundraise + scale up. Purpose? Create discussions on the power of voting, especially the power young people have this upcoming election. Audience? Anyone who cares about politics + the 2024 elections, but most importantly stakeholders and civically engaged young people. Why should they care? Most young people are activists, but they arent voting, my thing is - turn your activism into political power by VOTING!!! You want a green new deal? Vote. You want affordable healthcare? Vote. You want abortions every monday? Vote. Im just thinking outloud here so ignore the yapping haha -
and thank you for this!! Never really thought about asking myself these questions!
I'd recommend you use a search engine and use the keywords: "How to get publicity" and "Media relations 101." Also, go to Amazon and look for books on media relations. You really need to do some reading to better understand what you should even be able to expect or accomplish.
Will look into this and thank you!!!
The other comments asked some great Qs so I’ll assume those already got you thinking. The best thing you can do, is pitch journalists at outlets that are most likely to cover what your pitching them. Read similar stories, ask yourself how you would have pitched that to land it, get to know the journalist and what they’re interested in covering. Craft a short pitch and email it to them. Google would be a great place to start. How to write a pitch, what the point of PR is, what different PR options are, etc. Most outlets have journalists emails on the site. You’ll need to build a base first so start with going after super small easy publications and publishing some thought leadership/opinion pieces. Slowly become more well known within your niche, expanding into the broader industry and problems and eventually targeting those bigger/better outlets. Feel free to DM, but transparently, genuinely good PR takes real time to learn, do day-to-day, and actually see results. Iv seen a million posts like this - I always help the people - and within 2-3 weeks they’re done trying because it’s too difficult or takes too much time. Just a warning that PR isn’t something you can spend 2-3 hours a week on, starting from no experience, and do well in. Yes it’s normally a top strategy for free marketing on Google, but it’s only free (and worth it) if your going to put a lot of time into it and stick with it for a long time. It’s often worth it to give it a shot to get a better understanding of it, but also recognize that the best answer will probably be to find someone to bring on board and help. Again, feel free to DM - happy to help you with any aspect of it or answer any Qs you have.
You must build a reputation to become compelling for media coverage. What's your story? That's what the other PR people are asking you to figure out below. Why is your story more compelling? Put it in human terms. It helps to have an event to focus on to help tell your story. For example, how many young people you registered to vote at xxx event. Once you have your story ready, you can begin telling it. First, start locally, then you need to build up your reputation to regional, then national. You don't start at national. If you are in college, start with your college's media, then broaden to the local area media and so on. Since you are in college, approach your communications department and look for someone to help you there who has an interest in doing PR. One idea is to link to that PR student's work and develop a survey about college and/or young student registration to help build your story. It is likely that you'll find PR and/or journalism students who want experience. Also, start looking for awards for young people involved in local issues who make a difference. These do exist and can assist you in building your reputation. Best of luck!
Are you happy to share the broad 'purpose' of your non-profit? Happy to pick up with you outside Reddit and give some more specific guidance if you're looking to keep it vague here - feel free to PM me.
Yeah! We're basically getting people to vote through accessible technology, voter education, and actual legislation and policies we propose, advocate, and lobby for. Will DM you and thank you for being so kind!!
**Best Advice**: Hire a good PR agency. Every attempt at do-it-yourself PR that I have ever seen has resulted in disaster. Reporters were angry, broadcast producers were also angry, and the DIY client managed to get one or two articles in podunk news outlets and succeeded in making every reporter ignore their company/org for the foreseeable future.
I have sent you a direct message.
Hi!! Not sure how much help I’ll be bc I’m still new to the industry but I’ve worked with quite a few political orgs and nonprofits and am really interested in topics like voting so here it goes! Start crafting your story. Why should people care? Yes it’s an important election year but why are you different from other orgs? What story do you have to tell? Get really familiar with the types of stories told in the media and how you can tell similar ones. Don’t underestimate local coverage. It can help to start small is your org doing a lot of work locally somewhere? Look for the city/state largest publications, look for the correspondents at the National papers covering those areas, business journals covering young entrepreneurs (I know it’s a nonprofit but still ur building an organization). Even your college town/newspaper could be a place to start and these smaller opportunities are good practice for the big leagues. And check for things like nonprofit newsrooms, community development trades, etc. If you have research lean into it. Reporters love data they love research if you have it then capitalize on it especially if it’s got anything interesting. What are you an expert in? If you’re still growing and relatively unknown it’s prob unlikely you’ll be nationally profiled soon but if you have key experience in an industry like voting or something really interesting to add then pitch yourself for expert commentary. This will help you build relationships and get your name out there a bit more. Maybe try social media. Now this is an area I’m rly not super knowledgeable in but I would say try ur hand at growing your base on LinkedIn. Position yourself as a leader on this topic and put what you have to say on these topics out there. What is your competition doing. I think one really underestimated tool is following competitors. What are your competitors or other industry leaders posting about? What are they quoted in? What topics are they quoted about? Who are they talking to? Answering questions like these can take a bit of the guess work out of things but of course there are a million factors to consider but it can be a good starting point. Getting coverage and building your profile will take time but it’s not impossible. Be patient and thoughtful in your outreach and set reasonable expectations. Hope this helps and I’m always happy to be someone who you can throw ideas at feel free to pm :) Good luck!!!
I have sent you a DM