Developing a Comprehensive Media Strategy (Ina Howard-Parker)

Official description: Join Represent Agency to workshop the development of a successful media campaign. Learn some media tips and tricks for launching grassroots-to-grasstips advocacy campaigns, publishing a book, or creating a groundbreaking new website. 

I'm super excited! Right now people are doing introductions about what type of work they do. Ok, 20 minutes so far of people's intro's....interesting number of people looking for book publicity help. 

PR often gets a bad rap as spin in activist circles. Pretty clear that this audience doesn't have to get over that boundary. Just in case, the reasons it matters:

1. your organization always has a public image. Whether it's you and your mom or you and your international organization. 

2. you always want to be actively shaping that public image rather than just being reactive. If you find yourself in crisis, you want to be able to shape the reaction.

3. have relationships with journalists, so that you have an open door for when changes happen. You're always going to be your best advocate and understand what's unique about your work. 

4. funding is always an issue - advertising and marketing tend to be more expensive than PR. PR can be done with virtually no money. If you get 3 column inches in the NYT, you get a lot more credibility than buying an ad.

5. we are public educators trying to shift the public debate. To keep it within our own little thought bubble doesn't create the change we want as effectively as we can.