In anticipation of that time, I'd like to request that each member of the Advisory Board make just one media contact. We have a press list, but that doesn't really accomplish very much. We need to make Contact with these media outlets. Someone pick the Sentinel. Someone pick Parents magazine. Someone pick Hannaford Supermarkets. Someone pick the Boston Globe. Someone pick NECN.
Let them know what we're doing and do everything you can to systematically get them to cover us.
We have two facets of marketing to look at. The first is the immediate-need goals which are "brunch this Sunday," "concert tickets on sale now," etc. These are messages targeted mainly to the local residents. They are for their edification about upcoming events and about how the Good-Wil Initiative is working to improve the community in a creative way.
The second facet of our marketing need is more about long-term growth. We need to get national publications as well as other forms of national media such as social networking (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) to cover the various aspects of this unique community business model.
We need the national coverage for three reasons:
1. national recognition will create greater local credibility, which means more local money generated for our nonprofits;
2. we hope to make this model known to other communities and eventually help them begin their own creative social enterprises. These may be entities of their own that they create using Good-Wil as a model. Or, they may franchise the Good-Wil model and hold their own Good-Wil Sunday Music Brunches with local talent that they're mentoring toward professionalism. Just like the mentorship I have received here. They would use Good-Wil as a licensed brand;
3. also, an internationally-recognized music product coming directly out of this Initiative would add a tremendous amount of attention to the viability of creative social enterprise as a global business model that, as a regular practice, would partner with local charities for the purpose of elevating them both. We would be a shining example of how a community can create new industry and diverse self-sustainbility for itself.
So please put your thinking caps on and reach out to just one media outlet. Local, regional, or national. Bulletin board, public access, radio, newsletter, magazine, network news, national periodical, and internet. All inroads are welcome.
What I'm suggesting is that you each ADOPT a media outlet as a personal project, not just a one-time cold call. This would be more personal.
Let's use the Boston Globe as an example.
You read the Globe and recognize some of the contributors' names. You have an opinion as to which one writes the best political content, the best literature coverage, op-ed, etc. You might endeavor to figure out which contributor might be the most interested in learning about the Good-Wil Initiative. This is important. THEY are the ones who need to be interested in our project the most. Look at their columns. Are they interested in:
- new ideas
- community
- arts
- business
- philanthropy
- jazz
- adult contemporary music
- the music scene in general
- education
- community redevelopment
- mentorship
- social enterprise
- (I'm sure we can think of others...)
If you know of a media outlet that you could find a living person to talk to and convince that we are worth talking about, let everyone know! Investigate them a bit. Do a small amount of research and we'll craft a story catered specifically for their fields of interest.
And if they don't bite right away, keep notifying them. They may be fascinated, but it could take time for a storyline to excite them. Each time we send out a new press release forward it to them with a personal note. Keep your name familiar to them. Maybe you'll even make a new friend! Make them your little bi-weekly pet public relations project.
None of us have the time to individually devote to managing an entire publicity campaign for a large organization. It's way too big a job for one person to manage on a volunteer basis. For that reason, if we each of us could do just one small thing and own it entirely, the collective momentum would be profound. We have a small team of marketing professionals that can help us navigate each contact but we are the ones who must individually reach out to them.
Like I said before, it can be as simple as a set of bulletin boards at several Hannafords. But someone has to actually call them and find out what the procedure is and then personally make sure our posters get up each time there's an event to promote. It doesn't have to be time consuming to be effective.
Let's rock this region Good-Wil style.
with tremendous respect, Wil
