Public relations campaign ideas

TracyT · Guest

I recently joined an advanced club in my city (Lubbock, TX) and was
asked to be the VP of Public Relations and VP of Membership for the
club. This is my first go at either of these offices.

Can anyone give me some good ideas for a PR/Membership campaign for an
advanced club? There are 6 other clubs in Lubbock. Three of them are
having membership problems (two below 20 members and one far below 20
members). I thought that perhaps the advanced club should lead a
city-wide PR/Membership campaign to get the word out about Toastmasters
and attempt to drive up membership at the regular clubs.

The clubs in Lubbock are already working on a campaign to contact local
businesses (each club took a list to contact). Does anyone have any
other suggestions? Especially ones that would rely more on the members
of the advanced clubs and not put the workload onto the members of the
regular clubs?

I'm sure the VPPR & VPM manuals have some suggestions, but I have not
received those manuals yet and I want to go ahead and get started with
some ideas.

Thanks,
Tracy Thomason - CTM
VPPR & VPM of the Lubbock Pro Club

wordkyle · Guest

Good for you, Tracy. We all appreciate the dedication you're showing
toward TM.

I'll let other folks in the group give you their ideas. They are a
good-thinking bunch. :-)

TracyT wrote:

TracyT · Guest

Thanks Kyle.

I was actually thinking at lunch today who I could invite to one of
your club's meetings. I know several people who live near Toasters but
they all have children at Maedgen Elementary and I figure they are busy
dropping off kids at school during the 7am to 8am range.

Toasters is so much fun. I just need to find some early birds to join.

Talk to you later,
Tracy

wordkyle wrote:

rich.hopkins@gmail.com · Guest

Do you have a club at Lubbock's Christian University? Just wondering -
I know a lot of Lubbock grads.

Grassroots campaigns are very effective. A press release here or there,
an appearance on a Radio station (easier to do than you'd think), a
large event announced to the media.

And there's always the cold call approach to Human Resources at local
companies...

Rich Hopkins - ATM-G
District 9, Region I
www.richhopkins.net
www.buildingachampion.blogspot.com

TracyT wrote:

TracyT · Guest

Rich,

Yes, the Lubbock Pro Club meets at Lubbock Christian University. But
there is not a regular club there. However, building a club at LCU has
been discussed.

The Lubbock clubs as a whole are doing the "cold call to HR" approach.
Someone else in town is heading up that campaign. I'm not in charge
but I have been on two of the company visits.

I like the grass roots idea. I'll look into that approach. Someone
here at the newsgroup had suggested taking the spare Toastmasters
magazines and distributing them to doctor's offices and such with the
address labels removed and new contact labels in their place. I want
to incorporate that idea into my campaign as well. I think that would
work well with a grass roots approach.

Thanks!
Tracy

rich.hopkins@gmail.com wrote:

betsy_in_va · Guest

Tracy--

You've probably heard this one already, but it works well. Go to the
public library and find all the books on public speaking, leadership
training, overcoming fear, etc. Put a book mark in each book with
toastmaster info. (ps. In my neck of the woods, public libraries are
generally ok with this idea but we ask permission before doing this in
a school or private library. Better to ask than to tick off the
librarians. They can be very helpful resources.)

Betsy

TracyT · Guest

Betsy,

I had not heard that before, but that's a clever idea. I'll use it!

Thanks!
Tracy

betsy_in_va wrote:

wordkyle · Guest

[To the group:]

And there you have it, folks, an unsolicited testimonial from someone
who has visited my club! (Too bad he has trouble getting up at
"Dark:30" on Thursday mornings...)

TracyT wrote:

Joy · Guest

"betsy_in_va" <b7760@keogan.com> wrote in message
news:1154606321.570347.198190@p79g2000cwp.googlegroups.com...

Jonathan · Guest

Hi Tracy,

You might want to get an education in (Don't call it PR to the media)
public information industry. Type in key word 'Press Release' and
you will find a bunch of sites. Only look at the ones that have a lot
of free content. The basics will be free and that is all you will need
to get your feet wet. That is where you will want to start.

One place has 89 free tips you can subscribe to and she has a news
letter too. Go to http://tinyurl.com/ekdx6" for her 'On Line Press
Release Quiz' and see how well you do. You won't need to buy anything
to get an education. Added benefit, she is also a nationally recognized
speaker.

Once you learn the principles..."What's in it for the potential
members", you will be ready for the next step. In your case, advanced
speakers who might have economic reasons for constant and never ending
growth and development, the incentive could be monetary.

Armed with this knowledge, start a news paper press release campaign.
Include proposing the local TV and Radio shows that you could do an on
air seminar on communication improvement.

Of course, you will only give them a taste of membership but with your
campaign, you will end up with more than enough members.

Then on the on air program, give people a lot of free information. Give
them web sites that solve problems and have lots of free information
related to your topic. Have this so that both the newspaper and radio
can include it on their web sites.

What ever the niche, find free resources to over deliver.

I do something very similar when promoting my art into new territories
and it works very well.

Best wishes.

Jonathan
http://www.speechmastery.com/

TracyT · Guest

Thanks for the suggestions, Jonathan!

I will read through that site.

Tracy

Jonathan wrote:

RICHARD MJR HAYS · Guest

Great thread and information about PR in this thread. I am Vice President of
Public Relations for Edgewood Toastmasters(631552-13)in District 13. You can
find information at http://edgewood.freetoasthost.com/ (Edgewood
Toastmasters)and http://www.d13tm.com/ (District 13
Toastmasters)respectively. Go to your local library and its web page(plus
others mentioned by posters here). Then type in "Public Relations" to find
every book and web site to "borrow/obtain ideas to use for your clubs." I
also wrote in the District 13 HERALDING 13 NEWSLETTER about the 'Ralph
Smedley Award' and 'TLI-Toastmasters Leadership Institute.' Feel free to
visit d13tm.com and click on the August 2006 newsletter link. Then read
those articles and use my words for your given situations. Glad to pass
along this post/information as a public service. Good luck and have very
Happy plus Successful Toastmastering.
--
Richard M. Hays, Jr. aka "Rick from Mt. Washington"
1-412-512-9564 cell phone
hays7@verizon.net home email
http://edgewood.freetoasthost.com/ Edgewood Toastmasters web page
http://www.d13tm.com/ District 13 Toastmasters online
http://www.metro-cities.com/ Metro Cities Communications/Podcasting link
home page
"Act as though it were impossible to fail." Sir Winston Churchill

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