Franchise Advice
to follow you and your achievements. After the event post a lively account of the day on your social media channels. Create an album on Facebook so everyone can see what fun you had and how hard you worked and send out individual images to your followers on Twitter. Remember to find out if members of the
school/hospital/group have social media accounts so you can name-check them on all your posts. Also reference the Facebook and Twitter accounts of your local paper and magazines too, make sure you keep on their radar. The day after the event check with the paper that they received your press release and images and offer them further comment if necessary then, very politely, ask if they think they are likely to use the story and if so when. Keep checking the publications and their websites daily for your story. Don’t ring to chase every day, you will simply annoy them which will be counterproductive. Check once then leave it.
their photograph. Don’t ‘assume’ they are happy to appear in their local paper. Check first and never photograph children without written permission first.
“Make sure you observe the franchisor’s guidelines of how to use the brand and messaging and you’re ready to go”
Getting your story into the press Before the event, ring your local paper and let them know what you’re planning to do. If they’re really interested they may send a photographer to cover the event in which case you can pretty much guarantee coverage. If they’re too busy to cover it, offer to send them a press release and high res image immediately after the event. Old news is dead news. Get it to them within hours if possible.
Social media Before the event record the build-up with your team on channels such as Facebook and Twitter. Post fun pictures and/or videos of people preparing in different ways; maybe trying on your new wellies if you are gardening or while in training for a charity run. Engage your followers in what you’re
doing; let them follow the story with you. Invite them to come along to support you if appropriate. Don’t ask them for money, this isn’t about fundraising but awareness raising. If they are asked for money every time they visit your site they’re very likely to stop coming. If you use Twitter, consider starting a hash
tag ie #brandnamecharityrun and let friends and clients know they can use it on the day to follow your progress. Put one member of the team in charge of taking pictures and uploading them with updates to Twitter during the day. How about having a simple re-usable corporate hash tag ie: #brandname printed on the back of your t-shirts? Anyone who sees you on the day will instantly be able
Coverage Well done! You achieved coverage. You have your photo and a write up in your local press and your staff are buzzing from the event. Congratulations. Of course you want to tell the world about your success and so you should, but be careful, there are very strict guidelines laid down by the Newspaper Licensing Agency that mean you are not allowed to photocopy any printed matter without the copyright holder’s permission. For you this means that you cannot post a scanned copy of the article to your website or social media page. If you do you could be fined heavily. However, if the article appeared on the
newspaper’s website, which most do, you are allowed to use their URL to direct people to the article from your site and other social media channels.
And finally.... Once the dust has settled and you’ve counted up your donations from your charity run, sit down and look back at the event and ask yourself a few questions. Did your team enjoy taking part? Was it good for morale? Was the charity/hospital/school pleased with the results? Did your event achieve its aims? Were your customers interested/engaged and talking about it? Did the newspaper like it? If you can answer yes to these questions then you had a success on your hands and should be getting your diary out to plan your next charitable event! n
Louise Bruce
Louise Bruce is managing director of Big Red Box PR
June 2012 |
Businessfranchise.com | 17
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