Thursday, January 04, 2007
STAGE 4: Doing Your Own Publicity
Publicity - this is the hardest part, but there are people who will help you.
Publicity simply means getting the media to take notice of you. How do you think people get to appear on Macca's Australia All Over on Sunday mornings on ABC Radio? Not even half the number of people who call get through to Macca. Which one's do? The ones who Macca thinks his listeners will find interesting. So you ask yourself; "Would the readers of this newspaper/listeners to this radio station/viewers of this tv station be interested in what I've got to say?"
In our case, the drought was the big story and the media needed a new angle. There is a limited number of ways you can say "Things are crook in Tallarook." Adoptasheep meets the media's need for a new angle. It's a good news story about the drought. Instead of doom and gloom, it featured hope. If you watch your tv news carefully you'll notice each program needs to finish with a good news story for the night, to lighten up the mood after all the bad news. Adoptasheep fitted the bill.
We didn't plan it this way. It was our good luck to stumble onto this opportunity.
HOW TO CONTACT THE MEDIA
I went to the websites of 2 newspapers - the Sydney Morning Herald and the Daily Telegraph - looking for email addresses of editors that I could send my press release to. found the "Contact us" button and found a list of journalists and editors. Don't sent your release to the Managing Editor. They are too important to have anything to do with the news. Send it to the News Editor or the Editor. That's all we did. A press release to 2 newspapers. Only one of them picked it up: the Daily Telegraph.
But that was enough. The media works like this: The breakfast radio programs read the morning papers early and start ringing likely interviewees. Radio 2SM and 2UE did just that the day a small article about us appeared in the Telegraph. The television stations do the same. Channel 7 called us and asked could they send a news crew in a chopper. The next day, the Herald's online edition called and interviewed us, the Herald having missed the opportunity for the print version by not running with it first up, leaving the Telegraph as first in, best dressed. News ain't news if it's already been reported.
Channel 9 called after the Channel 7 item went to air, and they featured Daniel for a fresh angle, and ran it on the Today Show.
While the Channel 7 item took 2 hours to film, it ran for only 90 seconds on tv. But the news broadcast featured the item in its 'still to come' alert at the beginning of each commercial break. So we got maximum attention for the article.
The next phase was the online phase. Channel 7 and 9 and both the newspapers featured us on their websites and provided links to our site.
So you can see how the media can work for you, if you get it right. (And luck plays a big part.)
HOW LUCK HELPED US
They say you make your own luck. What they mean is you activate your luck when you take action. There's an old saying from the Middle East: "Go and wake up your luck."
This is what was waiting to help us when we launched Adopt A Sheep:
1. Christmas -Our timing was perfect because we provided the perfect gift for 'hard-to-buy-for' people. It was easy to buy online. There was a buzz about it. It was in the news. It was inspiring. It was all about helping others (ie. Christmas). Sheep were seen in every nativity scene. It was ideal for young children. It was all about 'love' and 'caring'.
2. Drought - City people really feel bad about the drought and want to help, but don't know how. Many of our adopters thanked us for giving them a way to make a contribution.
3. Farm Management - It seems that our approach to land management is acceptable to non-farming people. We're not greenies, but we do farm for sustainability. We believe soil health and species diversity mean better pastures and low stress treatment of animals means better fleeces.
We were lucky to have all these things helping us - hidden from our view, visible from the hear and now, but not from the then and there.
ANOTHER REASON WHY IT WORKED
4. Authenticity - We never tried to be anything other than what we are. We were up front being better off than many farmers, that we had off-farm income and were not eligble for drought relief. We told everyone our story and provided links to our web and blog sites. We admitted our mistakes. We let people make up their own minds.
WRITING YOUR PRESS RELEASE
I have been trained to write press releases. I did a course. But you don't have the do a course. There are other ways to have a press release written.
1. Journalists from your local newspaper might do it for you for free, inspired by your story. Get the paper. See who writes the stories. Find the paper's contact details - they'll be in a special section somewhere in the pages. Call the writer(s) with a simple request - write a 1 or 2 page press release. They might do it for a few beers or a few bucks.
2. Students at local colleges and unis - Some unis, like CSU at Bathurst, have a PR course. Contact the person who runs the course with your simple request.
3. Farmer's Association - They may have someone who can write a simple press release.
4. Ask around - Many people in the community have relatives or friends in the media or PR who might help.
It's hard work getting media coverage. But it is worth it when it pays off.
HERE IS THE PRESS RELEASE WE USED - COPY THE FORMAT FOR YOUR OWN
Adopt An Australian Sheep?
“Adopt A Sheep” is an online appeal launched by an Australian farm family to raise the money they need to fee their flock through the worst drought in 1000 years.
The appeal is being launched on a blogsite – http://adoptasheep.blogspot.com .
The flock of 3000 mothers and lambs are being hand fed on a woolgrowing farm called “Uamby” in a valley 300 miles north west of Sydney, Australia in a historic district first settled in 1822. The Kiely family sent 1000 wethers to market as the long dry got longer, but they stand to lose nearly a decade of breeding for superfine fleece if they are forced to send their lambs and ewes to the slaughterhouse.
Adopting “parents” pay $35, the amount it will cost to feed a single sheep for 100 days. In return they can choose to adopt a lamb, a ewe or a ram and give it a name. They get a photograph of ‘their sheep’ and a certificate of adoption. As well they will receive frequent reports on how their sheep is going. And the Kielys invite adopting parents to visit with their sheep out on the farm.
Michael and Louisa Kiely left the big city several years ago and ‘went bush’ to join the farming families fighting to make their dreams come true in the Australian outback. “We walked away from a marketing business that was very successful, but was tearing us apart as a couple,” says Michael Kiely. “It was always Louisa’s dream to go farming, and it was always my dream to stay married to her. So here we are.”
Australia is in the grip of the worst drought in living memory, with waterways drying up and dams at historic lows. The Kiely’s have battled drought for most of their farming career. They use special farming techniques to protect the environment from degradation and make the most of what rain falls. They were recognised in 2005 by being selected as among the 10 most innovative farm families in the Central West. They use greenhouse-friendly no-till farming and humane stock-handling techniques.
The Kiely’s were able to graze their flock on green pastures long after many neighbouring farms had started hand feeding, thanks to a system called time controlled grazing which allows the grasses time to recover and encourages ‘biological diversity’. They also keep a mob of kangaroos and wallabies on their farm.
“The ‘roos deserve a place to live, too. Unfortunately they get to the best grasses before the sheep do, but we’ve learned to live with that.”
The Kiely family has also made their own private reconciliation with the original native (indigenous) inhabitants of the land. Wiradjuri elders conducted a ‘welcome to country’ smoking ceremony during which the Kiely’s read a declaration of commitment to protect the land. (See http://envirofarming.blogspot.com)
They are woolgrowers for ethical reasons: “Our sheep are precious to us and we'd hate to lose any more. We grow sheep for wool because it's not the same as growing animals up to slaughter them. We make sure they have enough shade and water and we use the most humane handling techniques. And we're always looking to improve. Because we believe contented sheep produce better wool, and better karma for everyone.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Michael Kiely (612) 6374 0329
Michael@newhorizon.au.com
http://envirofarming.blogspot.com
‘Uamby’
RMB 384 Uamby Road
GOOLMA NSW 2852
Publicity simply means getting the media to take notice of you. How do you think people get to appear on Macca's Australia All Over on Sunday mornings on ABC Radio? Not even half the number of people who call get through to Macca. Which one's do? The ones who Macca thinks his listeners will find interesting. So you ask yourself; "Would the readers of this newspaper/listeners to this radio station/viewers of this tv station be interested in what I've got to say?"
In our case, the drought was the big story and the media needed a new angle. There is a limited number of ways you can say "Things are crook in Tallarook." Adoptasheep meets the media's need for a new angle. It's a good news story about the drought. Instead of doom and gloom, it featured hope. If you watch your tv news carefully you'll notice each program needs to finish with a good news story for the night, to lighten up the mood after all the bad news. Adoptasheep fitted the bill.
We didn't plan it this way. It was our good luck to stumble onto this opportunity.
HOW TO CONTACT THE MEDIA
I went to the websites of 2 newspapers - the Sydney Morning Herald and the Daily Telegraph - looking for email addresses of editors that I could send my press release to. found the "Contact us" button and found a list of journalists and editors. Don't sent your release to the Managing Editor. They are too important to have anything to do with the news. Send it to the News Editor or the Editor. That's all we did. A press release to 2 newspapers. Only one of them picked it up: the Daily Telegraph.
But that was enough. The media works like this: The breakfast radio programs read the morning papers early and start ringing likely interviewees. Radio 2SM and 2UE did just that the day a small article about us appeared in the Telegraph. The television stations do the same. Channel 7 called us and asked could they send a news crew in a chopper. The next day, the Herald's online edition called and interviewed us, the Herald having missed the opportunity for the print version by not running with it first up, leaving the Telegraph as first in, best dressed. News ain't news if it's already been reported.
Channel 9 called after the Channel 7 item went to air, and they featured Daniel for a fresh angle, and ran it on the Today Show.
While the Channel 7 item took 2 hours to film, it ran for only 90 seconds on tv. But the news broadcast featured the item in its 'still to come' alert at the beginning of each commercial break. So we got maximum attention for the article.
The next phase was the online phase. Channel 7 and 9 and both the newspapers featured us on their websites and provided links to our site.
So you can see how the media can work for you, if you get it right. (And luck plays a big part.)
HOW LUCK HELPED US
They say you make your own luck. What they mean is you activate your luck when you take action. There's an old saying from the Middle East: "Go and wake up your luck."
This is what was waiting to help us when we launched Adopt A Sheep:
1. Christmas -Our timing was perfect because we provided the perfect gift for 'hard-to-buy-for' people. It was easy to buy online. There was a buzz about it. It was in the news. It was inspiring. It was all about helping others (ie. Christmas). Sheep were seen in every nativity scene. It was ideal for young children. It was all about 'love' and 'caring'.
2. Drought - City people really feel bad about the drought and want to help, but don't know how. Many of our adopters thanked us for giving them a way to make a contribution.
3. Farm Management - It seems that our approach to land management is acceptable to non-farming people. We're not greenies, but we do farm for sustainability. We believe soil health and species diversity mean better pastures and low stress treatment of animals means better fleeces.
We were lucky to have all these things helping us - hidden from our view, visible from the hear and now, but not from the then and there.
ANOTHER REASON WHY IT WORKED
4. Authenticity - We never tried to be anything other than what we are. We were up front being better off than many farmers, that we had off-farm income and were not eligble for drought relief. We told everyone our story and provided links to our web and blog sites. We admitted our mistakes. We let people make up their own minds.
WRITING YOUR PRESS RELEASE
I have been trained to write press releases. I did a course. But you don't have the do a course. There are other ways to have a press release written.
1. Journalists from your local newspaper might do it for you for free, inspired by your story. Get the paper. See who writes the stories. Find the paper's contact details - they'll be in a special section somewhere in the pages. Call the writer(s) with a simple request - write a 1 or 2 page press release. They might do it for a few beers or a few bucks.
2. Students at local colleges and unis - Some unis, like CSU at Bathurst, have a PR course. Contact the person who runs the course with your simple request.
3. Farmer's Association - They may have someone who can write a simple press release.
4. Ask around - Many people in the community have relatives or friends in the media or PR who might help.
It's hard work getting media coverage. But it is worth it when it pays off.
HERE IS THE PRESS RELEASE WE USED - COPY THE FORMAT FOR YOUR OWN
Adopt An Australian Sheep?
“Adopt A Sheep” is an online appeal launched by an Australian farm family to raise the money they need to fee their flock through the worst drought in 1000 years.
The appeal is being launched on a blogsite – http://adoptasheep.blogspot.com .
The flock of 3000 mothers and lambs are being hand fed on a woolgrowing farm called “Uamby” in a valley 300 miles north west of Sydney, Australia in a historic district first settled in 1822. The Kiely family sent 1000 wethers to market as the long dry got longer, but they stand to lose nearly a decade of breeding for superfine fleece if they are forced to send their lambs and ewes to the slaughterhouse.
Adopting “parents” pay $35, the amount it will cost to feed a single sheep for 100 days. In return they can choose to adopt a lamb, a ewe or a ram and give it a name. They get a photograph of ‘their sheep’ and a certificate of adoption. As well they will receive frequent reports on how their sheep is going. And the Kielys invite adopting parents to visit with their sheep out on the farm.
Michael and Louisa Kiely left the big city several years ago and ‘went bush’ to join the farming families fighting to make their dreams come true in the Australian outback. “We walked away from a marketing business that was very successful, but was tearing us apart as a couple,” says Michael Kiely. “It was always Louisa’s dream to go farming, and it was always my dream to stay married to her. So here we are.”
Australia is in the grip of the worst drought in living memory, with waterways drying up and dams at historic lows. The Kiely’s have battled drought for most of their farming career. They use special farming techniques to protect the environment from degradation and make the most of what rain falls. They were recognised in 2005 by being selected as among the 10 most innovative farm families in the Central West. They use greenhouse-friendly no-till farming and humane stock-handling techniques.
The Kiely’s were able to graze their flock on green pastures long after many neighbouring farms had started hand feeding, thanks to a system called time controlled grazing which allows the grasses time to recover and encourages ‘biological diversity’. They also keep a mob of kangaroos and wallabies on their farm.
“The ‘roos deserve a place to live, too. Unfortunately they get to the best grasses before the sheep do, but we’ve learned to live with that.”
The Kiely family has also made their own private reconciliation with the original native (indigenous) inhabitants of the land. Wiradjuri elders conducted a ‘welcome to country’ smoking ceremony during which the Kiely’s read a declaration of commitment to protect the land. (See http://envirofarming.blogspot.com)
They are woolgrowers for ethical reasons: “Our sheep are precious to us and we'd hate to lose any more. We grow sheep for wool because it's not the same as growing animals up to slaughter them. We make sure they have enough shade and water and we use the most humane handling techniques. And we're always looking to improve. Because we believe contented sheep produce better wool, and better karma for everyone.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Michael Kiely (612) 6374 0329
Michael@newhorizon.au.com
http://envirofarming.blogspot.com
‘Uamby’
RMB 384 Uamby Road
GOOLMA NSW 2852
