Tues, Jan. 29, 6:30pm: 10 Writing Tips to Promote Causes, Non-Profits and Businesses

Free Workshop on 

Tues, Jan. 29, 6:30pm at Mystic and Noank Libary

Educate society by sharing your passion through articles, recipes, books, fairy tales, poems and press releases!

Lisa Saunders will cover: 

1.     Write a Q. and A. on You/Your Work: Post it on your website with your bio under a “Press Kit” tab. Questions to answer: 1: How did you get into this non-profit (or business) or write that book? 2: Why are you passionate about your non-profit/business? 3: What is your mission? 4: What do you want the public to experience? 5: What makes your approach unique? 6: What do you wish everyone knew (what is your message)? Include sample reviews of your non-profit (or product/service).

2.     Write a Book/Booklet and E-Book—acts as a business card/great networking tool: Sharing your expertise gives you expert status, credibility, free publicity, speaking engagements, volunteer help and donations (or clients).  Lisa's Guide for Writers: How to get published and self-published, includes questions to help writers get started and tips on interesting the media.  

3.     Plan Event to Showcase Your Knowledge: Present free lecture at library—events gets publicity.

4.      Write a Press Release: Interest the media by creating an urgency to cover you/your work (or award received, etc.) One way to create urgency is an upcoming event. A press release should be written in Associated Press style and answer the following questions: Who is this about? What will happen (or happened)? Why? Feature the “story” behind your work. The following note from my former boss expresses why I was able to gain so much free TV/newspaper coverage: “Lisa, you really did a wonderful, wonderful job of unearthing stories and getting the media to pump out a steady stream of positive press.” Tzipora Reitman, Director of Campus Communications, Rockland Community College.

5.     Submit Your Event to the Media: Follow the guidelines and keep it short! Don’t send a flyer or tell the media just to go to your website. Don’t ask the media to rewrite your content, which can lead to mistakes. Send/post a press release about your event to local media such as Groton-Mystic Neighbors at lsaunders@bestversionmedia.com, The Day, The Westerly Sun and This is Mystic, talk show hosts and friends. Upload it to free press release sites such as PR.com (example from my press release posted on https://www.pr.com/press-release/773215, a publishing company, Sector, specializing in early childhood education and care (ECEC), learn about CMV and used it , including my quote, in their article, "Pregnant and working in ECEC? Make sure you know the risks of contracting CMV," and created their own article geared to Australia:  “In Australia, state governments have differing recommendations for pregnant ECEC educators working with young children. Some states, such as Queensland, suggest relocating educators who are pregnant to care for children aged over two to reduce contact with urine and saliva” (Clark, 2019).

Post your press release on your website/blog so you can create a link to just that press release. Use that link for Twitter/Facebook. Create a flyer as a jpeg because photos work well on Facebook.  Upload event wording to: thisismystic.com/submit-an-event; core-ect.co; events.ctnow.com; connecticutmag.com; visitconnecticut.com/submit-event; https://patch.com/connecticut/stonington; theday.com/section/submitcce; thewesterlysun.com

6.     High Resolution Photographs:  Make sure you have one of yourself, one of your non-profit/business, and one of you with your product (for example, a book cover will not work—it needs to be you holding the book to avoid “rights” issues with the book publisher). Keep taking photos. I got a lot of mileage out of a photo of me with the Connecticut governor. Images should be downloadable from your website under the “Press Kit” tab. Ideally, you/your family or employee took the photos so the media won’t have to worry about getting photographer permissions. If the publication wants to send a photographer to you, accept that--their images will be much higher res and they will probably be printed larger and get more attention. 

7.     Make Yourself Available as a Quotable Source--register for “Help a Reporter Out: Free Publicity - Connecting Reporters” to receive daily online queries at: www.helpareporter.com.

8.     Send a Monthly Newsletter/Blog Post: You should always be finding ways to collect emails to stay in touch with satisfied customers and educate potential ones. Offer something free, such as advice/coupons, to get email addresses. I use Mailchimp.com to share recipes, events.

9.     Create a “Keeper” Business Card:  Your card should have something useful on it to make people keep it (as an author/speaker, my “card” is a bookmark). My husband kept our real estate agent’s card in his wallet for years because it had a restaurant tip chart on the back. Perhaps share a link on your card to free “How To” info and/or a coupon to entice them to your site where you can offer them something in exchange for their email address.

10.  Submit an Article, Fairy Tale, Recipe or Poem to Media:  Michael Whitehouse, publisher of Groton-Mystic Neighbors, wrote "6 Keys to Writing A Non Profit Spotlight,” with reminders that nobody cares about your cause until you make them, stories inspire, you must follow writer’s guidelines, photo submissions and rights, and how to entice volunteers (who often donate, too).

Lisa Saunders is the content coordinator for Groton-Mystic Neighbors. A former college campus communications writer,  Lisa was awarded the National Council for Marketing & Public Relations Gold Medallion. Contact Lisa at: lsaunders@bestversionmedia.com; Submit your news: www.bestversionmedia.com/submit-content;

Visit Facebook: Groton-Mystic-Neighbors-Best-Version-Media or Lisa’s personal website: www.AuthorLisaSaunders.com