Archive | January, 2011

Strategic Planning Pt. 2

31 Jan

So by now you’ve planned your destination, the main things you need and your timeline, so what’s next?

4.  Determine your audience.  It’s as important as knowing the date and place in PR!  Who are you hoping to have at your event, meeting, kick off or media event?  You have to know who you are trying to reach or you will just blithely march along and spend a lot of effort organizing and forget you need an audience. Believe me, once you know who is supposed to be there, it’s much easier to know what to do and helps you select proper communication channels and methods to reach them.

5. Determine your specifics.  So you know who will be there, where, when and why.  Now it’s time to flesh out the “what” of your event.  Again, keeping in mind your goals of the event and your target stakeholders, the “what” becomes easier to narrow. If I am targeting kids, I’m not going to load up on a lot of experts to share their presentations…unless of course those experts are in ice cream eating or the coolest dunk in basketball.  Remember your crowd – what will make sense to them?  What will compel them to come and support your cause? What will move them to the intended goal of this event or activity?

6.  What’s in it for the media?  Remember when you are creating a PR event, activity, campaign or cause, there has to be something compelling for the media as well.  Always ask yourself, “Why should they care? Why should their viewers care?” If you can’t answer those questions, it is likely you will not get media coverage. Remember, what is it about your event or cause that has a great picture (for TV), or a great sound bite (for radio) or a fantastic photo and quote (for newspapers)?  Be sure to plan a “hook” for the media in your event as well. If it’s a kid’s birthday, just be sure to plan for photographable moments, so you don’t miss them!

7. Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate.  My final tip for strategic planning is to be constantly alert for digressions.  What I mean by this is that we will set off on a course and often veer off path and be on a side road we never intended.  We have to remain vigilant to steer this event or plan to the goal, and that requires regular and objective evaluation.  Then, when you’re all done, it’s time for more evaluation on how it went, what worked and didn’t work and what you would change for next time.

These basics have worked for me in everything from planning my child’s birthday party to launching a huge event for my organization.  Either way, the basics remain.  Proper planning makes all the difference in the world!

Dreaming…good for my soul

17 Jan
Family Snow Moment

I have ideas…lots and lots of ideas. I joke that I could fill 3 lifetimes with all of these inventions of my creativity. You see, I’m a possibility person.  The age-old song titled, “don’t fence me in” plays in mind every time I hear, “that’s not how we have done it” or “it probably won’t happen.”  Nothing harshes my spirit more than a negative Eeyore-esque person who doesn’t believe in dreams. 

Life is full of possibilities and it can be beautiful if you take time to see it! So call me Pollyanna if you must, I won’t hold it against you and some day when you need to feel valued, I will gladly include you in my dream.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not silly and blithely walk through life believing that if I thought it, it will come to pass. Let’s get real. There are those pesky details such as time, money, opportunity, health, etc. But, overall, I am not afraid to dream. For to me, dreams are the stars, the possibilities and the potential to do and be more in this life. I’m not where I want to be forever. I’ve got things to do!

Sure dreaming is scary and frankly a bit vulnerable. But to me, dreaming is the fuel for my passion, the warmth for my soul and the life to my heart. I have a dream, an exciting, change my part of the world dream. I have seen the location for it, I know the partners and helpers I will call in, I’ve seen the photos of it successfully working in my mind. Now I just need to figure out a few of those pesky details….

Knocking on the cerebral gates of teens

14 Jan

Rolling eyes and sagging posture are nothing new when we discuss our “words” with our not-quite-child-not-yet-adult teen offspring.

“It’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it,” we implore. There are times I swear that unseen to the eyes of a nagging (ahem, educating) parent, a tiny “no vacancy” sign is posted at the cerebral gates of teens. Do they really have no attention for “tone of voice” or feelings in others? Perhaps.

Then I’m forced to take a look at our adult life; our adult habits that we establish as the example. A talk show host opins that, “teens can’t communicate or use vocabulary anymore because of technology.” Celebrity shows tear people apart for their outfit, their bad hair day, their cellulite. News programs, politics and television are full of negativity, gossip, criticism, anger, teasing and intolerance. What about our own conversations in the home? How many times have I had a “tone” to my voice that I intended in every way it was received? Where did our kids learn to use their words – both spoken and unspokane?

Albeit not perfect, I am proud of two relatively decent humans we have raised. They do care about others. They do communicate and use language and they do, despite their best defenses, occasionally absorb a little of our “wisdom” at their cerebral gates.

I can tell by the fact that they sit and talk with us at the dinner table. They have an opinion about the news or religion or business or politics. They are friends to others. They react when things are not fair or don’t make sense. They respond when we are trying to pull one over on them and preach what we don’t practice. They are prepared to be successful because they aren’t afraid to challenge the emptiness of our words at times.

Perhaps that little sign at their gates is more accurately posted as “no vacancy” for hollow words.

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Be careful little ears what you hear.

11 Jan

The events of the week have prompted me to revisit a paper and presentation I prepared during my Masters program at Gonzaga.  The topic was “bullying in schools.”  The project, prompted at the time by the horrific burns of a teen boy who was set on fire by others in FL, was a passionate pursuit as a mother, friend, human to answer the question, ”How have we gotten here?” I believe the incomprehensible shootings in Tucson, AZ this week have us asking it again.

Safe Schools Coalition reports that students who are subjected to bullying are more likely to carry weapons to school, binge drink, use drugs heavily, take sexual risks and think about or plan suicide (Safe Schools Coalition, 2007). The targeted students suffer physically, emotionally and mentally and are shown to be less likely to finish school or hold jobs later in life (Safe Schools Coalition, 2007).

In order to address this serious issue, we have to honestly take a look at our own lives first…even if we ourselves are indicted in the process.  ”What? Me? I’m not a bully.  I think it’s terrible!”  Good, that’s a start, but what have we allowed in our own homes, schools, businesses, churches (gasp! you can’t go there…sorry, especially here), communities?

I do not believe that bullying exists in a vacuum or that it is an isolated attitude or behavior.  Rather, bullying is rooted in prejudice and stereotyping and it begins with labeling. We must take a stand against all forms of bullying in order to stop violence in schools, in our communities. That change needs to start with parents, leaders, faculty, student leaders, our own families if we hope to see a change in this world.

Brenda Allen in her book, Difference Matters, Communicating Social Identity, states that “once a person is labeled (e.g. as ‘gifted and talented’ or as ‘developmentally challenged’), that individual’s identity becomes fixed, and the label can forever have positive or negative impacts” (Allen, 2004, p.27).

Do we really believe we have that much power?  

If we listen to ourselves and how we label things, how we communicate, what words we choose to describe things we don’t like…we just might hear a few things that are alarming!  Better yet, listen to what your little ones are saying and you’ll know exactly how you speak at home.  Nothing like a three-year old to ensure some humility!

Being the mom of teens, one of my least favorite terms that had its day was “retarded.”  That word was used to describe everything from a dance move, shirt food, television show and nearly everything else between. As a former therapist, I quietly breathed a prayer of thanks when that word lost its savor.  Now they are compelled to utter “gay” as the current adjective of choice.  Sigh…it’s a process. We continue to work on the language of all us at home!

But that leads me to my point.  We have to recognize the great power to build or destroy that comes with our communication…and we must commit to use it with care and love!

Be aware of how you speak, label, communicate.  Mind your words and I believe that is the first step to curbing bullying.  Maybe there is something to the golden rule after all.

If you’re still unsure, have a three-year old around for a bit….they’ll teach you everything you need to know about your language!

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Strategic What? Simple Strategic Planning Pt. 1

5 Jan

Life in PR, marketing, community relations comes with lots of planning! I’m no expert, but I do get asked a lot to share my strategic planning for communications and PR.  Frankly, I use this same process to plan everything from my son’s graduation BBQ to the crisis communication plan for the non-profit hospital for which I work.

Strategic planning may sound threatening and ominous, like a painstaking process that requires sleepless nights and gallons of caffeinated beverages to accomplish. But it doesn’t have to be. Now, full disclosure here, I’m the kind of person that is organized, goal oriented and creative, I actually like strategic planning! A strategic plan is not scary, it’s more like a road map.  Nothing more than a suggested course of where we may head on our next year-long road trip for the organization.

But just like any road trip, there may have to be adjustments along the route.  So using the road trip analogy, I’ll outline how I prepare a strategic plan.  Whether it’s a single event, a marketing proposal, donor project or complete campaign, I follow this same map and find that it gets me where we need to go, or at least in the right direction! So, pack your bags, get ready and let’s hit the road!

Building a strategic plan:
1.  Pick your destination.  Just like you’d select the city you plan to visit on a cross-country road trip with the family, you have to at least know the general direction you’re heading. Typically we don’t just pick a random city off the map, but we look into it.  What is there to do? How much does it cost? What are some of the main attractions of the area? How can you get there? Can I get the time off work for that trip?  What are the kids’ schedule? You get the idea.

The same holds true for marketing/PR or event practicalities. Ask yourself, what is the event? When is it going to be held? What time and where?  Who is supposed to be there? What else is going on in the area at that time?  What facilities or resources are available? In this section you would also ask yourself questions like, how much budget do you have (or don’t have)?  But most of all you have to know why you are going.  What is your goal with this campaign, event, communications, etc.?  If you don’t know that, you might as well just save yourself the time.  Sit and just write our a check and give it away! To approach a campaign, program, event, project without knowing why you’re doing it is like putting gas into a car with a hole in the tank!

2. Plan the big stuff that you need to take.  If you’re driving and camping across the U.S. you will need a tent, sleeping bags, camp stove, etc.  If you are planning a grand opening or anniversary event for your organization, you will need a speaker, facility, emcee, decorations. Are you serving food? Taking donations? Need a photographer?  The big stuff takes planning.  You have to get these first.  What good is it to plan your wedding and then find out there is no available chapel or preacher for the day you picked?  This is your chance to really look at what resources you have then decide what you can and can’t do.  If I only have an $800 budget for a big anniversary campaign, you may only be able to print and mail to a limited number of people and then use social media, word of mouth and public relations to get the word out to the rest.  Then, you still might have to enlist your mom to help make the cookies!

3. Plan your timeline.  When is your event/campaign/launch/trip to Mount Rushmore?  Put it on the calendar and then work backwards.  When will you need to pack? Prepare packing lists? Hire a house sitter? Request the time off work? 

Again, for successful event planning or strategic planning, break down your project.  Work it backwards from your desired “hit” date.  Create a project flow. Graphic ideas/colors by March, printing by April, mailing in May, social media campaign in May-June, advertising on radio in June, PR hits in July the week of event.

You’re on your way…check back for Strategic Planning pt. 2!

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