Association PR superstars are succeeding in ways others may not even think to try. Here are 10 opportunities to increase your success:
1. Your CEO’s Speech—reach more influentials, executives, professionals, political leaders and business owners and create an awareness with consumers.
2. Power Base PR—help guide national policy by appealing to people at a grassroots level, generating tons of letters to legislators from your power bases, major groups of constituents, with something at stake in your issue, showing how they personally stand to gain or lose depending on what Congress does.
3. Your Leaflet—you can a) drive more traffic to your websites and bring in inquiries from wealthy suburbanites and b) turn the leaflet into a successful series of releases so you reach millions of upscale people without paying for millions of leaflets.
4. Reducing Fears—by increasing public awareness of the truth, you avert or reduce the spread of untruths and half truths that could lead to unduly restrictive or burdensome regulation. Without mentioning anything negative, you can reduce unfounded fears and build awareness of the positives. Protect the members against being blamed for something that’s not their fault.
5. Building Membership—have prospective members see, in their own local newspapers, your stories on the high standards that the association symbol represents, the theme of a coming event, or how the bombers serve the public interest. Build incentive to join with a steady flow of reasons and reminders in the media.
6. Marketing PR—if you have a story for wealthy suburbanites, you can get thousands of placements in community news outlets nationwide, all supported by local advertising and tending to exist in the wealthiest and most populous communities.
7. Your Week—reach millions of additional readers, listeners and viewers nationwide at very little additional cost to your current program by covering additional media.
8. Impress Investors—let them know about your technological successes, news of progress that increases public respect for your management or members and that helps create a more informed market assessment of your future.
9. Your Good Deed—show how your organization has contributed to social citizenship, health, education, protecting the environment or sponsoring the arts. The public holds the association in higher esteem if you can demonstrate how it has behaved responsibly.
10. Video—repurpose the video that you devoted so much time and effort to create and extend your reach to millions more Americans in new markets, letting thousands of news and talk show hosts use it and create a viral effect on social media.
Give the members more voice and they’ll be thrilled when you report that you created thousands of additional placements on the story they care about most. When they see business coming through the door or more phone calls, visits to their sites or e-mails, they will understand and appreciate the value you have created by covering additional media.
In a contest, there is a principle of primacy: The side that gets to the papers first tends to be believed more; the side that comes later, with conflicting facts, tends to be believed less by a press and public that have been conditioned to “know better.” Top association managers, recognizing the principle of primacy, are helping to prevent trouble by increasing public awareness of the truth immediately, to protect the members. Let more media use your story. Give your members the pleasure of massive additional placement by covering more media.
