PR and social media for your charity event

Jackson Wightman – Director of Communications, CauseForce

Bio

• Director of Communications at Causeforce• Shoppers Drug Mart Weekend to End Women’s Cancers• Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer• The Underwear Affair

• Entrepreneur • FAIT ICI – local focused organic store in Montreal

www.faitici.ca

• Contributing Editor at PR Daily• www.prdaily.com

• Blogger • www.jacksonwightman.com

Outline

• Charity events and media coverage: the challenge

• Your participants = your best asset• Using video• Using the exclusive• Using social (esp. Twitter) to get coverage• Guerrillas in the mist?

Charity Event PR: the challenge

Charity Event PR: the challenge

• “So many events, so many causes”• Condensed season • Media inundated with pitches• Media in fluxBUT• PR has changed so profoundly that you can

win with a mix of old and new tools

Participants = your best asset

Your participants = your best asset

• Heart strings to move action• Participants humanize event/cause• Mine community constantly

• Internal comms key

• Empowering them to get press

Using video

Using video

• Your events ARE visual• Video: site, sound and motion • Flip cam = $200• Culture of “shaky video”• Ultimate social object• Amazing for storytelling• Video must be ready quickly • Increase chances of coverage due to macro factors

The Exclusive and you

• Old PR tool• Media does not want to cover same story• But you need them to • So, you give them slightly different angle by

pitching participant exclusives• WEWC TO case study

Social and your PR

• Red herring debate on where to house social• Your PR team BETTER know Twitter• Greatest media relations tool since the press

release• Solves age old PR problems• Quick way to help reporters • Stay on their radar• Be SEEN to be sharing content

Guerrilla warfare?

Guerrilla warfare

Guerrilla warfare

• Media stunts are appealing• Great way to placate stakeholders• Need to be different• Visual first but with interview opps• Limited power to drive bottom line• Best practice: grassroots initiatives where you

empower your community to drive bottom line

Takeaways

• Crowded field = coverage hard to score• Need to tug at heartstrings• Capitalize on current ease/culture of video• Give media “multiple angles of same story”• Social not just a “community building” tool• If you use guerilla it needs to be more than a

photo op

Thank You!

Questions?

Please follow up with me!

Email: jwightman@endcancer.caTwitter: @jaxx09www.jacksonwightman.com