Publicity and how to gain it

[hops_scout]

I thought I'd open this up to you guys because we need ideas. In the Sports over Camping thread, we've found that Scouts dont get much publicity.

 

Let me know what you guys think and then I'll chime in later.

[dsteele]

Ahh, PR -- the magic bullet.

 

It's about as real as Ponce DeLeon's Fountain of Youth or the lost City of Gold. Positive Public Relations can fix any ill.

 

But what is positive public relations?

 

It seems to be something done by someone else, anyone else, that gets us (BSA members) presented in a positive light by the media.

 

I think that's only half the idea.

 

I think the better half of the idea is letting the people (public) see us in our uniforms out where they can see us.

 

Public relations on a grass-roots level is tough when we're an organziation that meets in church basements and camps in the woods. Who is going to see us in those places?

 

I think our best public relations come when we're out where people can see us -- good turns, Eagle Scout projects, popcorn sales, etc.

 

I don't know about you, but I rarely look at newspaper photographs unless they're related to the story. I often miss Eagle Scout announcements.

 

However, one place where we can all make a difference, particularly in weekly papers, is letters to the editor. Many people read those and many papers have a requirement to publish them as long as you list your name and home-town.

 

Write a letter.

 

Unc.

[txscoutdad]

Our troop will marching in the Veteran's Day Parade in downtown Dallas this month. Since we're all homeschooled its eaiser for us to do than most troops I guess. It gets Scouting out there for people to see.

 

Unc.

You might be happy to know that the paper here does Eagle Scout announcements twice a week.

 

Funny thing about this is its in the same part of the paper where later in the week they have wanted criminals posted. I like to ask people which day would you like to see your son in the paper, the day about the Scouts or the day of the Wanted Poster

[Proud Eagle]

Another area is to take the time to try to get your local paper, radio, or TV station to cover specific Scouting things that may be of interest. This is more workable in small towns where there isn't so much other news.

 

If there is a big district camporree at the local state park, someone should make sure the local TV station sneaks it in someway. Around here, the weather men actually do a lot of that, they will say have a brief shot of some event while summarizing the days weather, that sort of thing.

 

Our troop used to have the troop picture taken at camp published in the local paper. They were more than willing to provide the space.

 

Eagle Scout projects are frequently the source of large articles. Other times they will put something in about an Eagle COH.

 

I know when I did my project, and had my COH, I knew in the back of my mind that the paper often did articles on those. However, I didn't think it was very important, so I didn't make the effort to contact the paper and see if they were interested. So, I am probably one of the very few local Eagles who never received mention in the paper. Looking back, that was a mistake. It was a chance to do something that would help in a small way the public's perception of Scouting. At the time, I just saw it as self promotion, and that was something I wasn't going to spend time on when there were more important things to do.

 

That decision also disappointed some other people who had, I later found out, been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to clip an article about it. Oh, well.

 

So, I guess the best way is to start locally. Contact the small town newspapers (or even the big ones, all they can do is say no). Write something about those service projects. Talk to your local mayor about getting a proclamation made for the anniversary of the BSA.

 

Perhaps the best answer is, start thinking of Scouting as a news worthy enterprise. Don't think of summer camp as a routine part of the program, think of it as an amazing opportunity that other people may not know about. Those of us close to the program probably take a lot of this stuff for granted, and don't really consider as being a important thing for the community to know about.

 

Oh, one final thought. Word of mouth between people that know each other is far more powerful than some radio ad or news article. Spread the word on Scouting to your friends, neighbors, family, co-workers, and people you go to church with.

[Bob White]

PR and other marketing avenues are both a skill and a science. The best way to get good PR is to recruit a volunteer or volunteers onto the district and council committees that are trained and experienced in that field. Why try to figure out how to do something, in addition to your other responsibilities, that someone else is already trained to do? Recruit them to do what they do best.

 

BW

 

 

[Proud Eagle]

Bob,

 

That is good advice for the council and/or district. Certainly a true public relations campaign needs to be run by someone that knows the business. The problem is finding someone that knows the stuff and is willing to do it, but then that is the problem with all volunteer positions.

 

However, I think a grass roots effort may have even more of an impact than a council or district level PR campaign.

 

Plus, we can all make a difference in a grass roots campaign, but most of us would have nothing to contribute to some fancy council organized media project.

[Bob White]

Proud Eagle,

 

What is a grass roots PR effort? Multiple units with multiple stories being distributed in multiple formats to a multiple number of people in multiple media outlets?

 

As I said, marketing is a skill and science as are most mass communication occupations. If you want to be effective in your public relations efforts you need to accept and respect that.

 

To get your information on air or published on time and effectively you need to understand the elements that each mdia outlet need to be efficient at their end. Why don't scouts get more publicity? If in your area you are using a grass roots effort and its not working, that's why.

 

If each unit is sending in their own stuff in a variety of formats it is going to look like chaos to the media and they are going to 86 all of it.

 

There is a reason that the district and council committees exist. The unit's job is to deliver scouting. Why would each unit extend energies and resources away from that responsibility, when it could be done better and more efficiently on a larger scale by the support services of the district/council?

 

 

 

[cubbingcarol]

BW, while in a perfect world or a perfect council your ideas on PR would be the ticket.

 

In our neck of the woods it just does not apply. Our council office is located 115 miles away from us. It is in a city (some would call it a town) of 120,000 people. Our little town on the other hand, barely has 6,000 people.

 

Our DE lives in a different town located 90 miles away.

 

In the city of our council office, they have a daily newspaper. Do you know how often our entire community is featured in it? Only about once a month, and that is only if something extrodinarely bad or good has happened.

 

Our little newspaper comes out 3 times a week. If we didn't take the pictures with the story down there ourselves, our little pack of 32 boys (only pack in town) would never be recognized by the paper.

 

The last time an article or picture of one of the boys from the only troop in town was in the paper was 2 years ago. Obviously, they (anyone connected with the troop) haven't bothered to do as we do and take it the paper.

 

We want our boys recognized, not only for their achievements, but also for their public service. Besides, the boys get such a kick out of seeing their picture in the paper.

 

Just letting you know how the other side has to get it done.

Carol

 

[Bob White]

And in a smaller community with fewer outlets and fewer units perhaps having info arriving from each unit would work. Is it? I can tell you that in a rural area like ours where the district is 140 miles long and 60 miles wide serving 117 units, grass roots helter skelter PR won't get the job done.

 

I would have to think however that no matter what your area that a more professional approach would almost have to be more effective. These are the sorts of htings that district committees are built to do. Just becasue you do not have a resouce to recruit doesn't mean that the district committee would not.

 

Let them know your needs, that is what they are there for. I would bet kids would rather have great meetings than their names in the paper. Why use a unit's limited resourses for something other than delivering a fun program?

 

BW

 

 

[dsteele]

Parts of the point I was trying to make are touched upon here.

 

Please let me ask the following question, hoping only to illuminate my point . . .

 

Which would stick out in your mind the most that Scouting is alive and well in your community if you were not involved in Scouting?

 

A: You read about Scouting for Food in the paper in a nice large article that drew your attention.

 

b: You see a photo in the paper of a Scout burdened with large bags of food destined for the hungry in your community.

 

c: You hear a ring at the doorbell. A Scout in uniform asks if you will fill his bag with canned goods to give to the local food pantry.

 

d: A television reporter covering the local Scouting for Food drive on the news at noon on Saturday.

 

e: The Chief Scout Executive on Good Morning America talking about an anonymous 1,000,000 Boy Scouts collecting 43 million cans of food for local hungry.

 

I'll go with C. See it, participate in it, buy into it.

 

A, B, D, and E, are merely numbers, images, or heresay.

 

Unc.

[EagleInKY]

PR takes place at multiple levels. To be effective, all forms of media need to be employed. I know that locally, we've had some good recruiting campaigns using local "celebrities" during round-up time. Also, publicizing activities such as Scouting for Food build a lot of public goodwill.

 

At a unit level, appointing someone to be publicity chairman is a great idea. Whenever a significant event happens, try to get it in the local paper. Even in many cities, there are local papers within the different areas. We live in a small rural area outside of Louisville, and we have our own local paper. They are always willing to run stories about our troop. I just send them an e-mail with a photo attachment and they run with it.

 

A good idea - Our district provides media contacts for all the local newspaper, TV and radio stations as part of the program preview packet in the summer.

[Proud Eagle]

Bob,

 

I think you have good intentions, but I don't think your concept is realistic in many cases.

 

If, for example, in our attempt to have co-ordinated PR, we didn't bother to contact the media outlets ourselves, then who would? In you system, it would seem we would go through channels and pass the info to the district or council person in charge of PR. That person then might pass it on to the media if it fit in with the larger council PR agenda. Of coarse, one of the obvious flaws is that news must be new. By the time we send the information up the chain, and whoever is in charge (and knowing how beloved committees are, it would probably be a group of people) has a chance to look at it, and then gets in contact with the media, it is already old news. Also, it takes almost as much effort for us to send information up the chain, as it would to get in contact with our local paper and radio station.

 

Our council has only put out one major press release in the last several years. It was to let the public know about certain financial difficulties and accounting irregularities.

 

Normally if the council is trying to get something in the press, it only bothers with the media in the city the office is in, which serves only a tiny fraction of those people living in the council.

 

Now, in a large city, with no small media outlets, it would be difficult for a Scout troop with a couple dozen members to ever get anything of significance published on its own. So in those cases, someone probably really is needed to make it work.

 

However, most of us live in small towns and such where the local paper can far more easily interact with a variety of local groups.

 

Really it comes down to this, if we want our unit service projects, or our unit's Eagles to ever recieve even the slightest mention in the press, in our town, the unit leaders must be the ones to do the job. My troop has had quite a good experience in the past running our own little PR program. Any time we contact them about a significant community service project, the local paper is willing to cover it. Any time the paper has a chance to write an article about a new Eagle Scout, or a Scout completing his Eagle project, they take it.

 

We are usually able to get coverage from multiple TV stations for our annual Christmas tree sale, as well as spots on the local public access channel, on the local radio station, and multiple mentions in the paper.

Now to produce this effort, it required the work of a couple of troop committee members. One of them was a professional graphic artist and photographer with experience producing advertising material, the other was a business owner. Unfortunately the troop no longer has either of those committee members, and no one currently has those levels of skill. Yet we still get some results, though not quite as good as in the past. (Plus, on tree sales for example, once we got TV coverage, other troops in another council covered by those same stations realised it was a good idea and started doing the same, so it reduced our exposure level.)

 

So, in the final analysis, a PR pro would be nice, but so far council and district level PR has produced far less positive results then the efforts of any of a number of individual Scout units. The success my troop has had in the past isn't much different from that of many other units across the council. In the end, it is a job that needs to be done, and if the district and council can't or won't do it, that means those of us at the unit level are going to have to figure it out ourselves. I would rather spend time working on something of direct benefit to the boys, and I know most other unit leaders and committee members feel the same way. Yet, if not us, then who?

 

The answer, at least around here is, if not us, then no one.(This message has been edited by Proud Eagle)

[Bob White]

We would be a stronger program if only more scout leaders could visualize how to make things succeed with the ease and frequency as they visualize things failing.

 

Why do so many people waste time and energy coming with excuses not to do something, or why something will fail, without ever making an effort to make it succeed.

 

You are not even phased by people who say "try this it worked for us", you immediately lapse into "Oh sure where you live maybe, but that couldn't possibly work here".

 

I am amazed and saddened by how many people create their own defeat before they ever make the effort to try to succeed.

 

 

 

 

[fotoscout]

Now dont anyone get jealous. My PR is very easy, I walk next door to my neighbors house and let her know what were doing. She takes pictures, writes a story, and poof were in the paper.

 

Yes, she happens to be the editor of our local paper. My pack is in the paper 4-5 times a year, 2 or three of them are the front page.

 

But I have to admit that we get very little out of it. Scouting in our community as a whole, gains, but on a unit level we get nothing except some very happy parents when their kid is on the front page.

 

Oh yeah, and I get bragging rights at RT.

 

[cubbingcarol]

BW,

 

Who said anything about defeat?

 

We have great success with taking the pics down to the paper and them getting them in. Yea, it might take 3 minutes to drive downtown and talk to them but I figure I can spare that time. And as far as using resources that would go elsewhere, what do you mean? It costs nothing to get into the paper or on the radio station here in town (we have no TV station). And our program never suffers, we take the pictures for our own scrapbook anyway. And who said anything about our approach not being effective?

 

Why regard the way we do PR as a failure or ineffective, is there a law or rule in BSA that says we can not do our own PR?

 

Just curious?!

Carol