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HINTS AND TIPS FOR ‘DIY’ PUBLICITY

Thank you for being involved with Youth Decide and talking a stance on climate change.

Following are some general tips to help you generate some positive publicity for your event and your school or community group – plus some steps to walk you through it.

General tips for getting into the news

  • Love the local; You have a good story! Local news loves stories about local people and they want to be the first to hear what is happening in their community.
  • A picture is worth a thousand words; A key ingredient in local media is a great photograph. Most likely they will want to send a photographer from the paper out to get a shot. You can entice them out by describing what you will have set up that they will see eg. a large group of young people painted green lining up to vote on climate change. It’s not a deal breaker, but if you can, try to be colourful and creative. It also helps to get as many people together as possible to be available for the photo – that way you give them options of different shots.
  • Aim high; Remember you may be able to generate more than one story from this event! You could try for some pre-event publicity. Perhaps stage a “mock event” prior to the Youth Decide vote to provide a picture opportunity and if you are interviewed, talk about your plans to encourage as many young people as possible in your local area to join the campaign. Then there’s the event day publicity – invite media to attend your event to see young people casting their vote and to hear why young people are concerned about climate change.
  • Gift of the gab; In addition to the media release and photograph the newspaper might want to conduct a short interview so designate a spokesperson. It’s usually best that it’s someone who is heavily involved in the event so they know the details – plus they can talk from their own experience. I.e. why are you holding this event? Why are you concerned about climate change? What do you hope to achieve?
  • Flexibility; Local newspapers are sometimes resource poor and therefore may not have a journalist or photographer available at the exact time you have specified. You may need to be flexible to have them come along.
  • Timing; Local newspapers are generally weekly publications and may therefore need about 1 to 2 weeks’ notice in order to plan the paper and make the news deadlines.

Easy to Follow Steps

There are a number of ways of ‘getting your foot in the door’ and getting the story you’re looking for (particularly if you already know your local journalists), however the following steps may help guide you if you’re going in cold.

Step 1:
Seek approval from your school or university – they may also have PR support to help you.

Step 2:
Decide what your group will be doing to raise awareness and cast their vote for Youth Decide.
For example what event are you holding and what will it look like?

Step 3:
Identify a spokesperson who can do media interviews and to quote in the media release.

Step 4:
Fill in the blanks in the template media release - DOWNLOAD (Word; 264kb). Then include the details of your event and include some quotes from your spokesperson. Don’t forget to delete the content in blue, plus the brackets and italics and remember to include your own contact details at the bottom of the media release.

Step 5:
Find out the local newspapers that operate in your area. The paper will require that the members of your group live in the region of the paper. Some useful websites to do this are;
http://www.fcnonline.com.au
http://www.newsspace.com.au/
http://www.newspapers.com.au
http://www.news.com.au/network/

Step 6:
Pick up your local newspaper and take a look through it to see which journalists are writing stories that may be similar (i.e. about school events or environment stories). Also see if there are contact details at the front of the paper that advise you where to send story requests.

Step 7:
Call your local newspaper and ask to speak to the journalist or editor you’ve identified.
When you speak to the paper, remember that you need to ‘sell’ in the story to encourage the paper to cover your story (it’s not a given they’ll do so) so think about what is most interesting to your local community and practice what you want to say. Most importantly remember to be polite and considerate of their time!

Step 8:
Let your contact know you have a media release you can email them and also the details of the event you’re holding. Try to ‘paint a picture’ of what they can expect to see and most importantly photograph.

Step 9:
If they agree, make the logistical arrangements, remember to update your teachers or principal and make sure you have lots of young people around when the journalist (and possibly the photographer) arrives to make a great photo. And have fun!

Step 10:
We’d love to hear how you go! Please send us a copy of your story when it runs – email it to tamara.blackmore@youthdecide.com.au or post it to;
Tamara Blackmore
World Vision Australia
1 Vision Drive
Burwood East
Victoria 3151

If you have any questions you can contact Tamara Blackmore, Media Officer on 03 9287 2081.

Good luck!

Download the DIY Tips & Hints guide (PDF: 241kb)
Download Media Template (Word: 264kb)