Scoring Heroic Media Buzz For Your Charity Event
In August of 2009, Michelle Tennant Nicholson of Wasabi Publicity
, Inc., spoke with Catherine Porche, charity event organizer of NolichuckySplash.com, about how to land media coverage for a charity event. This call was part of Wasabi Publicitys Wasabi Club, where listeners learned:
What to say to TV stations to get them to cover their event,
About free resources to publicize their charity event especially if their budget is $0 to nothing,
Which different newspaper departments to send press releases to,
How radio is different than TV and newspapers,
When to communicate to producers and reporters,
Why people profiles trump organizational round-ups,
And common time-waster pitfalls when publicizing an event.
Heres the transcript of Catherine and Michelles call:
Michelle Tennant:Catherine?
Catherine Porche:Hi. Hi, Michelle.
Michelle Tennant:How are you doing?
Catherine Porche:Im doing great, how are you doing?
Michelle Tennant:Great. So I am let me just introduce you a little bit to everybody whos listening to this recording, okay?
Catherine Porche:Okay.
Michelle Tennant:This is Catherine Porche, and she is about to do a fundraiser called the Nolichucky Splash to increase awareness of the wonderful work that First Descents is you can read about them at firstdescents.org, what they do to raise money. And what they do is they help people who have theyre young adults with cancer. And they provide them whitewater kayaking and other outdoor adventure experiences.
And that is intended to really promote their emotional and psychological and physical healing. Its a really worthwhile cause, everyone. And Cary first her husband Cary Porche first learned about First Descents while he was doing some research on a philanthropy project that he and his wife could support.
So and Carys an avid whitewater kayaker, and Cary and Catherine are both realtors with Northeast Tennessee Real Estate in the tri cities area of Erwin Tennessee, right? Its not North Carolina. Im in North Carolina, but youre in Tennessee, right Catherine?
Catherine Porche:Yeah. Thats right.
Michelle Tennant:Okay. And they have three boys and two Siberian huskies in Erwin. So its really a pleasure to talk to you. And this is so this is just something that the two of you are putting on, and then youre going to do an annual fundraiser?
Catherine Porche:Well this actually is going to be the annual fundraiser, the Nolichucky Splash. And we just really were looking for a way we gave money every year. And we just wanted to be able to give more money. And so I contacted First Descents because they said if you want to do a fundraiser. So I contacted them and said, Ooh, sign me up. Where do I do a fundraiser?
And their fundraiser was more of a door to door collecting money type thing. And we just had bigger ideas and wanted bigger money. So we started putting this together. It started to snowball. And I figured if Im going through all of the learning experience of getting this together for one year, Im going to keep it going.
Michelle Tennant:Cool. So I just wanna people might be hearing a hum in the background. Are you on a phone thats far away from your cradle, by any chance?
Catherine Porche:Im actually on a cell phone at a remote location in the woods.
Michelle Tennant:Oh. Oh, okay. So everybodys going to have to just deal with the hum in the background. If theres any way that like right now the humming has stopped, so
Catherine Porche:I did up my window. Im in the car.
Michelle Tennant:Oh. Oh, okay.
Catherine Porche:My cell phone only gets reception in certain areas, so
Michelle Tennant:Gotcha, okay.
Catherine Porche:Erwins a little town.
Michelle Tennant:Gotcha. Okay. Well the other thing is people might not know who I am if this is the first time that youre listening to teleseminar associated with Publicityresults.com. Im Michelle Tennant. I co-own with Wasabi Publicity and Ive been doing PR for about twenty years.
And the short story on what I do is I place people on Oprah, The Today Show, Good Morning America, New York Times, and all of the other media, whether it be print or broadcast around the world. And I have a long list of clients that you can check out at Storytellertothemedia.com
And we also I have another firm that specializes in technology and search engine optimization and online press kits and so forth. They have a free PR tool that everyone should be using if you want media leads. And that is Pitchrate.com. And if youve not signed up for that you should.
Every day you get about a dozen or so media leads. And these are requests from reporters. And theyre looking for commentary or experts or stories to file, whether theyre family or businesses. So you should check that out.
So thats who I am. And if you want to look at the websites while were talking in this call, you can go to Firstdescents.org or Storytellertothemedia.com or Publicityresults.com. So talk to me a little bit about Catherine is actually someone who is a personal friend. And she knows that I do PR. So she contacted me for assistance.
And I said, You know, I think itd be great to record this call so other people who are doing nonprofit fundraising events can actually benefit from the advice that Im going to give to Catherine. So with that in mind, what types of questions do you have?
Catherine Porche:Well my first question is whats the most effective way to get the television people to cover my event? Would it be best to go to the stations in person, solicit them in writing like in a letter, email, phone whats the most effective especially for television? Because Id like either media coverage to get on one of our little AM shows or something like that. Whats probably the path of least resistance?
Michelle Tennant:Now you said one of the AM shows. So also radio or just TV?
Catherine Porche:Well my question is mostly about TV, but radio would be great, too. At this point, Id like to just get whatever I can get, and I need to know because Ive driven past the TV station plenty, and I saw that they had security like Fort Knox. Because my original plan was to go in person. I dont know if thats best. What do you think is best?
Michelle Tennant:I think its a waste of time to go in person. The only reason to go in person is if you want to drop off chocolates.
Catherine Porche:Okay.
Michelle Tennant:You might drop off a cake that has they what might be interesting, okay, is to drop off some food, like a cake, with a picture of one of the kids from First Descents.
Catherine Porche:Okay.
Michelle Tennant:And then like a little packet on the side. Not too much, just say, Hey. The who, what, where. Were doing a fundraiser for First Descents. This is Linda and shes a young person who has cancer and theyve got whitewater experiences. Just another way to kind of get in front of the crew.
But youre definitely going to have to follow it up with personal phone calls. I would just call into the newsroom and dont call in and around the times theyre broadcasting. And what you would say is, Hey, I dont know if you know but were doing something called Nolichucky Splash. Im a mom in the area. This is something that my husband and I put together. And theyll say, Great. Tell us more about it. Send us an email. Thats what theyll say.
Catherine Porche:Okay.
Michelle Tennant:They might on the off chance, because theyre in Erwin, say, Send us a fax. And then you want to make sure you have everything together. I love online links thats why we developed Presskit247.com. You dont have to spend a lot of money and a lot you dont have to hire a PR team. You can do it all yourself as well.
You can even just put up information about the Nolichucky Splash on social networking. So you could just do a Linked In page or Twitter about it or whatever, and those are all free services, right?
Catherine Porche:Right.
Michelle Tennant:And I think even with Linked In, you can put actually, you can print a flyer out pretty quickly off your information. So if you were doing it yourself, you would need to have the information online as well, though. So where you could also put photos and things like that. So you might do a Facebook or a Myspace account where you can share information or share files. Okay?
But you sent me some nice pictures via email of some whitewater shots. Thats the most important thing, to let people know, Well, what is the opportunity? And if you just want them to cover the event, then thats you want to let them know just a day or two in advance. Like, Hey, this is happening. Come to our event.
Theyre going to say, Okay, so? You want to give them something to photograph or someone to interview thats got a compelling story or something compelling visually, right?
Catherine Porche:Okay.
Michelle Tennant:So you might say were just creating Linda, arbitrary name out of the air. Shes 13, she has cancer. Shes going to be going down the river for the first time. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You can interview her. And then what was it about. I would recommend doing that in advance so that the event can actually be publicized beforehand. Because its open to the public right?
Catherine Porche:Yes.
Michelle Tennant:Yeah. So give them something compelling to cover. Hi, Im Catherine Porche. Im a mom in Erwin. You just want to first say, I have a story idea for you, do you have time to talk? And theyll say, Let me know. Or, No, were in the middle of something, breaking news. Call back later. And dont be put off. Dont make it mean anything if they cant talk to you/
Catherine Porche:Oh, right.
Michelle Tennant:Right? So you can then just quickly you want to make sure that youre talking a lot of times what people will do when theyre talking to the media is they give the whole back story first. You have to help the media locate what the hell youre talking about at the very beginning.
Catherine Porche:Okay.
Michelle Tennant:Hi. Im Catherine Porche. Im a mom and a business woman in Erwin, Tennessee. My husband and I have created something called the Nolichucky Splash. Its a nonprofit charity event that helps young kids with cancer experience whitewater and other outdoor adventures. Wed love to connect you with one of these young people so that you can get a whole back story on how their lifes been affected or improved.
And theyd be like, Oh, well tell me. And then you get them talking about, well, what type of things do you like to cover like that? And then theyll say yes or no, or I dont know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. If you have a person of note like a mayor or somebody thats important, then thats also someone they could interview. But the most important thing is to try to get them to do it before the event.
Catherine Porche:Right.
Michelle Tennant:And they may not. They may say, Oh, were just coming to the event, and thats what you got, so you can always then, with the coverage at the event. Then people will go to the website and maybe donate later.
Catherine Porche:Right.
Michelle Tennant:Same with print. Like, same with the newspapers. Just make sure all the calendar people know. And then just put your who, what, when, where and how in an email or a Word document. Get that over to them. The photo that you sent to me would be something do you own that photo?
Catherine Porche:Yeah. Thats actually a photo of Cary.
Michelle Tennant:Oh great. So then you just want to provide that as youll see it all the time in papers and stuff. Theyll say, Special to the paper. Thats just because its from the people people are just giving them a photo to use. But you want to say, Heres a photo that you can use. They love photos, make things visual.
Catherine Porche:Right.
Michelle Tennant:And then same thing. Let them know about the opportunity to maybe interview a child or somebody with a compelling story from the nonprofit. Or if you dont have that, then you guys are compelling stories.
Catherine Porche:Right.
Michelle Tennant:Why are you doing this? Uncle Butch, you share the story that your Uncle Butch passed of cancer. So that may be something that you want to quickly say say, Well were doing this out of personal reasons. Were just a couple in Erwin. We decided to do this because our Uncle Butch passed of cancer, and so we wanted to give back.
And its a positive story. Its uplifting. Its about good charity work and how people can get involved. Its something that people need to hear about right now, especially when an economy is down. The newsrooms are really, really clamoring for positive news stories. So you would just call the and you would call the station. Let me give you a website that you can find everything for free.
Catherine Porche:Okay.
Michelle Tennant:Years ago we found this. Im in no way affiliated with it. Its called Usnpl.com. So it stands for yeah, U.S. Newspapers List.
Catherine Porche:Okay.
Michelle Tennant:The Usnpl.com. And then you go in here. So youre Tennessee, right? Not North Carolina. So
Catherine Porche:Right.
Michelle Tennant:Tennessee, lets see the and then you go into the cities. Okay, heres Erwin. So theres the Erwin Record, okay? And then you would the paper is currently inactive, it says. Okay. Thats fine. Thats happening a lot around the country. And then theres the Beacon.
So then you would go into the Beacon. And then Im on their website right now. And then you would look at contact info. Lets see, da-na-na-na-na. Yeah, contact us right there on the left hand side. And then you would just call that number. See, it says Tips and press releases. News@vbbeacon.com. And thats where you would send your email. Its that easy.
Catherine Porche:Okay.
Michelle Tennant:And you would just give them the who, what, when, where and how. But you want to make sure that you put at the top if you just say nonprofit event, Catherine, its going to sound like youre from the organization.
Catherine Porche:Right.
Michelle Tennant:And its not interesting to them. Whats interesting to them is that youre just a mom and pop in Erwin doing this because your Uncle Butch passed.
Catherine Porche:Okay.
Michelle Tennant:Thats whats interesting. Like, What? Like an average person just takes it on. And this this start with the sentence, just like you did with me. It was a really great thing well the first email, you said, Im doing a fundraiser, right? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Dont start that way. Start with the one you did below when we were talking about this call which was, My husband, Cary and I recently lost our Uncle Butch to cancer. And we feel that this is something that affects everybody in one way or another. Then we decided to do a fundraiser.
You want to take that last sentence and put it up top so that the news people can get what it is in a heartbeat. And then you put- like in any news release, you do like an upside down pyramid. So the information is like really succinct at the top
Catherine Porche:Right.
Michelle Tennant:And at any point, the editor can cut from the bottom. But if all they did was read the first paragraph, they would still get the news.
Catherine Porche:Gotcha.
Michelle Tennant:Thats how they so they want the whole story in one or two sentences. And then you can send that information the newspaper, to the TV stations, and also the radio stations. So lets look and see under Usnpl.com, lets see who else is in Erwin. So thats you can look and see whos nearby.
Catherine Porche:Right.
Michelle Tennant:You can also look in North Carolina, because Ashville may be interested in running something, especially probably just their calendar sections. Maybe even Charlotte. People drive.
Catherine Porche:Well we have a lot of kayakers coming out of North Carolina, and we have some organizations that have donated out of North Carolina as well. But well also be drawing in some of the tri cities, especially Johnson City
Michelle Tennant:Yeah.
Catherine Porche:As far as television, radio, etcetera. Those are all located in Johnson City.
Michelle Tennant:Well if you look on the left hand side under Tennessee information. So it pops up first, just the newspapers. But then you click on a little link called TV stations
Catherine Porche:Mm-hmm.
Michelle Tennant:And then you can actually look and see, Oh, well actually they have a lot here. They have radio stations, colleges and universities, TV stations, newspapers and restaurants all would be worth contacting.
Catherine Porche:Right.
Michelle Tennant:Right? So the only one in Johnson City is WJHL under the TV stations. And so thats who you really want to cater to.
Catherine Porche:Okay.
Michelle Tennant:Is that who youre passing?
Catherine Porche:Yeah.
Michelle Tennant:Okay. So then you go about us because the only drawback about this being free is that youve gotta do the research yourself. You can purchase lists, or you can hire a PR firm like my PR firm, Wasabi Publicity and say, I want to hire you to contact everybody in the entire area. But its for an event like this, even local, its going to be probably $2500.00.
Catherine Porche:Wow. Okay.
Michelle Tennant:Which is not really budget efficient for someone whos just doing an event. You might as well put that money towards the fundraising, right?
Catherine Porche:Yeah. Since our goal is $5000.00.
Michelle Tennant:Right. Exactly. So then you just this is how you can do it yourself. Then you go to contact us, and I always say youll know when you need a publicist. Everyones like, Well when should I do it myself? When should I hire a publicist? Its just like
Catherine Porche:If you still have time to do it yourself
Michelle Tennant:Exactly
Catherine Porche:You dont need a publicist.
Michelle Tennant:Exactly. People who are just incredibly busy with their platform, whether its a book or theyre a doctor or a lawyer, theyve got to have a publicist to move their career forward.
Catherine Porche:Right.
Michelle Tennant:Or
by: Michelle Tennant
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