MEDIA BUZZ
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Crafting the best message: The first and most important step in promoting your project is creating media that is easy to promote. When you have clear messages, captivating images, and a target audience, getting people excited is easy!
Goal: What is the change you want to see? What problem are you targeting? What solution are you working towards? When creating conversation-starters and mediagenerators, all decisions should go back to these questions.
Audience: Who is your target audience (and please don’t say everyone). You target audience could be people at your school, people that hang out at a local coffee shop, people that read your campus newspaper, or the viewership of Glee. The messages and media you use should match the audience and be accessible to them.
Message: You want to have a clear (and short!) message that is easy to understand. This doesn’t mean that you have to dumb it down. Sexual violence is a complicated issue. Spreading a message that is concise and accessible works best in our 140-character culture. Once you’ve got people engaged, you can lead them to more in-depth content.
Use images: Always use clear, captivating, powerful images. An image is worth 1,000 words, and will get 1,000 more likes on Facebook. Your image can be of a demonstration or art in progress, art that depicts the problem you’re addressing, your group members in action… be creative!
Hang-ups: Seemingly insignificant arguments can derail a campaign. People are easily confused and, especially on the internet, eager to complain, rant, and argue. You want the conversation that you create to stay positive and productive. Once you have your campaign ready, you need to get it out there! A lot of people think that getting media means that you are in the New York Times or on Good Morning America. And while that can be a big deal, there are a lot of outlets that get a lot of eyes that are more accessible. Just ask yourself how frequently you read the Times versus how frequently you read your Facebook newsfeed.
Before your launch, ask yourself: Is there anything in our messaging or the way we are presenting it that could be confusing? What will people who don’t know the background or history think when they first look at it? Is there anything people could argue with or be upset about?
Get it out there! For a very general list of media contacts, and more tips, go to: fair.org/take-action-now/media-activism-kit FALL 2013
ICONSENT ACTION PACK
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