Shhh... I'm sharing with you a secret. Possibly the most powerful social media tool available. The one you cannot do without. It requires that I say the same thing twice:
- There’s so much buzz/excitement/confusion about social media that we sometimes overlook old-school tools/techniques that make our lives easier.
- Sometimes we get so bogged down in our day-to-day operations that we neglect tools that can really make a difference in how we manage our time and workload.
The PR calendar.
This is where you outline the topics you need to cover in a year. I recommend that you always plan 12 months out. As soon as January is done, you add the next year’s January. Same with all the other months. For a small organization, I recommend working with 12 topics—one per month.
This strikes a balance between always having a good story angle to share to your media list and being annoying. As in, be persistent, but don’t be a pest.
It also simplifies your workload. Now you know the 12 topics for which you need to gather information, devise a story angle, and produce/distribute press releases. It also tells you when. Doesn’t that feel a lot better?
Caveat 1: There are, of course, variations of complexity to this concept. Larger/more complex organizations require more involved your calendars. I’m outlining a really simple version here. Great for individuals, small businesses, nonprofits, and other organizations. Start here and add complexity as needed and as you gain momentum in using this strategic tool.
Caveat 2: When I speak of a press release, I’m talking about the story, the writing/text that communicates to someone what you are talking about and why it is interesting. I tend to write a one-two page abstract that is then chopped up for various purposes. One version can be formatted for journalists and sent to my media list. Another version gets tailored for a blog posting. Yet another can be shared in a letter to customers or the board of directors. Though each is tailored (Note: I said TAILORED, not re-written) for the specific audience, they draw off the same core. Consistency is a beautiful thing. It’s also efficient. But so is letting each audience know you care about them.
First thing to put on the calendar: Date-specific activities.
Do you hold an annual event (or semi-annual) that you need to promote? Calendar.
Do you have (or always kick yourself for not having) an annual holiday tie-in? Say, you want to promote your holiday-related fundraising effort or remind people to choose energy efficient lights. Again, calendar.
Do you have other date- or season-dependent messages? Say, you want to remind people to child-proof their swimming pools as the summer comes around. Or, did you know that April was National Volunteer Awareness Month AND National Oral Health Month? (Volunteer dentists, anyone?) Here’s a calendar of all those national awareness dates. Calendar.
How about checking in with your team’s marketing or fundraising folks? (Assuming you’re not already both.) They must have campaigns that you could (or should) support. It’s amazing when an organization brings its efforts in line. Marketing industry parlance has dubbed this “integrative” marketing. Do I need to say "calendar"?
Some companies/organizations can fill their whole calendar this way. But wait...
What about the non-date-related topics you would love to promote? Maybe there are topics that are just plain interesting (careful: think in terms of interesting to your AUDIENCE). Or, if you’re an affiliate of a national organization, they probably send you materials all the time (possibly even at the last minute). If you have months remaining, fill them with your favorite non-date-related topics.
You probably have a few topics left over at this point. We ALL have more topics we’d love to promote than we do time to promote them. That’s what “tickler” files are for. Store these topics away. You will have more months in later years. Remember, we’re simplifying our lives.
Calendar full? Excellent! Now shift everything to the left so that it’s a month ahead of what you originally wrote.
Huh?
You just turned your PR calendar into your production calendar. You’re going to begin producing things a month ahead. This gives you time to actually produce the items, but also to distribute them.
Rule of thumb: Though you can sometimes (even often) get lucky and get a journalist to cover you at the last minute, you will be FAR more effective in “getting the word out” if you are well ahead on the calendar. My personal preference for a calendar-based event is to work six weeks ahead, sending two separate releases. The first is a 200-or-so-word summary “alert”. The second goes one or two weeks ahead of the event serves as a reminder. I also like to put more details into that one.
Oh, and when working with the media, you can often find or request a calendar of topics they will be covering throughout the year... and the deadlines for materials they will consider for those topics. This is particularly important for holiday-related topics. The traditional media (AND bloggers, in particular on the social media side) typically produces materials well ahead of the holidays. Remember, you’re not the only one vying for their attention. Your preparation and attention to their calendar increases the possibility they’ll cover you. Key: Make their job easier.
What’s all this talk about journalists? Isn’t this a blog about social media?
Yes. Remember, I said this was old-school. HOWEVER, the principal works to your advantage in social media, too. I’m doing two things with this calendar:
Focusing you on just one topic per month. This is paramount. It simplifies your workload. It ALSO simplifies what your audience encounters. You only have so much of their attention span. Staying focused helps you use it efficiently. Yes, you have many other topics... but you also have many other months coming up. If someone (i.e. your boss, your board... whoever) insists on a new topic at the last minute, get out that calendar of topics and ask which month they’d like to replace with this higher-priority topic. (This is a powerful workload management technique. It helps you communicate that there is a plan of action and resource management in place... you embrace their input, but refuse to allow their railroading of the process. Hold your ground. It’ll be fun. Oh, and ask yourself the same question when you’re tempted to change topics.) Preparing materials a month ahead. This requires discipline on your part. But doing so ALWAYS makes you more efficient and better at your job. You got no self-discipline? I’m sure there’s a self-help blog out there for that. (But you’ll probably spend all day reading it instead of doing the work on which you should be focused.)
Truth is, social media done well is an ongoing conversation. With the platforms (i.e. MySpace, Facebook, a blog, Twitter, etc.) on which you are running your own profiles/accounts, you are serving as facilitator. Yes, you should follow the flow of what individuals are asking/discussing with you. (In fact, these make great calendar fodder, as you know there is interest in the topic.) However, as facilitator, you need to provide conversational catalyst. Having a topic for which you have done research and prepared materials is a major tool here. Your PR calendar is your guide to the topic. You then customized what you’ve done at the “media relations” level to fit the needs of each platform.
Yes, this requires understanding the needs and nuances of each platform.
However, the calendar is particularly powerful when applied while you’re gaining an understanding of these needs/nuances. It gives you a topic that you can use across all the platforms... and I already mentioned the power of consistency. Once you have the calendared topic in place, you can riff on it all you need in the social media conversations.
To bookend, the old-school PR calendar is the new new-school tool. Go make one. Use it. Then come back here and tell me what else I should have said.
Public relations geek, consultant, writer, speaker, social media explorer, surfer (the ocean kind), paraglider... maybe even some kind of artist.