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PR
Choosing a Medium for Your Message
Now that your public relations campaign has
taken off and everyone in your community knows
what Ruritan is and what your club accomplishes,
publicity for your achievements is not far behind. By
establishing a strong public relations program, you
have laid the foundation for future publicity about
your Ruritan club.
Conventional wisdom says there are two kinds
of publicity: good publicity and bad publicity. Good
publicity comes from successful public relations.
If your public relations campaign has fulfilled its
purpose and created trust and goodwill between
your club and the community, then good publicity
will surely follow. Bad publicity usually comes from
scandal or disagreement that originates within a
club. It is very important to avoid bad publicity when
it comes to your Ruritan club. One incident of bad
publicity can create a lasting impression and it may
take months, or even years, for your club to recover
the community’s confidence.
As mentioned earlier, publicity is the attention
and recognition your Ruritan club earns for its
achievements within the community. Your club
generates its own publicity through public relations,
but the publicity that will help your club the most is
publicity from sources outside your Ruritan club.
When you start to think of publicity (and your
Ruritan message), keep two things in mind:
(1) the source of the publicity, and
(2) the target of the publicity.
The target for your publicity is everyone in your
Section 3: Beginning with a Message
Section 4: Publicity and Media
What Do You Want to Say?
You need only two things to create a public
relations campaign within your community, a
message and a medium. The message is what
Ruritan membership means and, more importantly,
what your Ruritan club has done to improve the
community. The medium you use to spread this
message can be many things. Flyers, posters, road
signs, news releases to your local newspaper, radio
announcements, paid advertisements, and word of
mouth can all be important and inexpensive methods
of gaining recognition for your club.
Think of your public relations campaign as selling
Ruritan. If you’ve ever sold anything, you’ll realize
that the more you know and believe in the product
you’re presenting, the greater your ability to sell
that product. If you, as a Ruritan member, are the
salesperson, then everyone in your community who
is not a member of your club is a potential customer.
The key to successful sales (and public relations) is
knowing your product.
As a salesperson, what is the product you’re
presenting? What is the message you should be
spreading to your community? What should you
tell people about “America’s Leading Community
Service Organization?” If someone asks you, “What
is Ruritan?,” can you answer the question?
From the Officers’ Handbook, Ruritan is a
community service organization with the purpose of
creating a better understanding among people and,
through volunteer service, making their communities
a better place to live and work. The slogan of Ruritan
is
Fellowship
,
Goodwill,
and
Community Service
.
This description of Ruritan barely scratches
the surface of what Ruritan membership means.
Ruritan also means educating the community
and club members (through scholarship programs
and monthly Ruritan club programs), serving the
needs of the community, and caring enough about
others to help in times of need. Besides these things,
Ruritan also means the
Goodwill
and
Fellowship
that
members share both at meetings and in serving the
community.
When you tell someone in your community about
Ruritan, always focus on your club’s activities. Tell
people how each club meeting features a meal and
also a program of entertainment or information. Tell
your friends and co-workers what you learned at
your last club meeting. And never forget to tell what
your club is planning for future meetings. Last, but
most important of all, tell people what your local
Ruritan club has accomplished for
them
.
To successfully spread the Ruritan message, it is
vital that you mention your club’s latest contribution
to the community. Has your club awarded a
scholarship, sponsored a youth program (such as
scouts or 4-H), helped with local disaster relief,
adopted a local highway, or raised money to help
someone in the community? These are the things
that people want to know about Ruritan. Who better
to tell them than you?
Tell people about what it means to be a Ruritan
member. Tell the community what your Ruritan club
plans to do in the future. Tell them how they can
share the accomplishment and pride that comes
from improving the community through Ruritan
membership