This is my last post... Well, ok, just for a while. I am taking a brief hiatus to spend some time on a really important project – being a new mom. And while this new role, frankly, is more than my chronically over-tired brain and body can currently handle, I’m also starting a brand new job (read below), all while living 3,000+ miles away from my Seattle home where my husband and I not-so-patiently await the completion of our adoption of what we believe is the world’s cutest little boy. So hopefully, you’ll all forgive me for my inability to offer sage marketing advice (or anything even reasonably close to that) for a couple of months.


But, to tide us over, let’s review some of what we’ve covered over the past year in Reid on Marketing.

1.    Marketing is NOT a dirty word. It’s one of the most strategic things you can do to ensure the success of your organization.

2.    How NOT to have an identity crisis: Building your Brand. It’s not just for Super Bowl ads, you know.

3.    Developing your story: Creating a message strategy that compels others to action and firmly – and positively – positions your organization in the minds of your key stakeholders.

4.    Speaking of stakeholders: Who are yours? Having a good story doesn’t matter much unless you know who to tell it to! Identify and prioritize the individuals, groups or organizations that matter most to the success of your organization.

5.    The proof is in the plan: Putting it all together and taking it on the road. Your strategic communications plan is your roadmap to using marketing & communications to help your organization fulfill its important social mission.

6.    Getting inside their heads. Market research is just as important in the non-profit sector as it is in the for-profit world – maybe more so. You have limited resources and no time to spare. Make sure you understand where you stand, what the issues are and how your messages are coming across.

7.    Tools of the trade: Developing the basics. Like construction of a house, building a strong brand and a powerful mission-focused organization requires a variety of specialized and highly flexible tools. You may have limited funds or personnel, but don’t scrimp on the foundation of your brand.

8.    Getting noticed: Life in the public (relations) eye. They aren’t called “news releases” for nothing – be sure to write compelling, noteworthy press releases that help journalists write a great story.

9.    Avoid getting noticed [for things you don’t want]: Handling any crisis with ease. You can’t plan for everything, but you can plan for how you deal with adverse situations – and you can come out even stronger than before!

10.    Have some fun. Yes, fun. Marketing and communications is high-stakes strategic work, but it’s also one of the best places to help inject a healthy dose of creativity, innovation and fun into your thinking and your organization.


Thanks for reading and hanging with me this past year. It’s been incredibly rewarding to hear from you and continue the dialog. You are helping shape (and in some cases, re-shape) the world and I can’t wait to see where you take it.


Note from Social Edge: Diana Reid recently joined Unitus as the Vice President of Communications & Fundraising and will start a new blog in the spring to discuss social marketing from a real-world perspective.


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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications

6. Assume that there are no secrets and share public information in a uniform manner. While getting blasted in the media is no fun, if you are proactive and seek out public forums for telling people about the crisis and what you intend to do to address it, you will help manage the message instead of it controlling you.

7. Take Responsibility. When appropriate, apologize quickly and broadly. You don’t need to snivel or grovel, but if you had a part in this crisis tell people that – and tell them what you’re doing to fix it.

8. Conversely, do not blame others. The crisis at hand may be something not caused by you or your organization, but defensively (or worse, offensively) placing blame on others is a very risky strategy. Do your best to remain neutral and helpful, regardless of the circumstances.

9. Be solutions-oriented and future-focused. Once you’ve dealt with the problem at hand, be immediately ready to tell people what your organization is doing to ensure this situation is not repeated (or if it’s an unavoidable or uncontrollable external situation, how you’ll handle it even better next time).

10. Post-crisis, as appropriate, continue to reach out to those affected by the crisis and involve them in developing your future strategy. Engaging with customers, donors or others who may have been “wronged” in some way is never easy or fun, but damage control from a crisis doesn’t end just because you’ve tentatively solved the problem. Rebuilding trust with stakeholders takes time, effort, dedication and humility, but even in the worst of crises, if you act with good intentions and an open mind, you may come out stronger.


In the end, handling a crisis should really be common sense human behavior:

• Don’t do wrong
• Don’t hurt others
• Don’t lie
• Don’t hide from the truth.

Sure, you can complicate it much more than that, but if you keep some simple ideas in mind, you’ll be just fine. And hopefully, even better than that!



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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications

When a crisis hits, communicate directly, honestly and frequently.

1. Focus on safety and security first. If the crisis at hand has the potential to harm people, animals, property, the environment – make sure you do everything in your power to address, mitigate, reverse and/or compensate for this damage.

2. Develop a set of key messages, facts and figures and speaking points for the crisis and ensure these are rigorously adhered to. This is especially important if your crisis has any potential legal ramifications. While you need to communicate quickly and often, you don’t want to create more problems for yourself by saying things you should not!

3. Address key stakeholders – employees, board, customers and constituents – as immediately as you can. There will be certain times you can’t disclose all details right away, but the best and most important thing you can do is recognize publicly that there is a crisis and let people know what you are doing to deal with it.

4. Designate one or two key executives or board members to serve as spokespeople and make them available to answer questions from employees, donors, media, etc. Keeping your public front small but united helps you ensure the message you’re delivering is consistent and allows others in your organization to focus on their own job or role. A crisis is a stressful time and while everyone might want to help, a smaller, focused communications and response team is likely going to serve you better.

5. Be honest, straightforward and forthcoming in all communications. You may not know all the details and/or may have legal or other reasons for not sharing everything publicly, but do not lie, hide, spin or otherwise avoid telling the truth. Your reputation will never recover, nor will your employees’ or donors’ loyalty.


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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications

Create a cross-functional team tasked with crisis management.

This might sound a bit “corporate” and arduous, but it doesn’t need to be. The goal here is to pull together key people from all of your appropriate departments that may be called into action should a crisis occur. The exact composition of your crisis team will depend on your organization, size, structure and focus, but some folks that should likely be high on your list will be:
- Executive Team/CEO/ED
- Board of Directors and/or Advisors
- Operations (including Human Resources and Finance)
- Legal
- Communications/Public Relations
- Manufacturing/Suppliers
- Customer Service
- Investor/Donor Relations

In addition to the team tasked with dealing with a crisis, also consider how you’ll set up your organization to monitor issues that may become crises. For customer-facing or product-centric organizations you may delegate this to Customer Care or Quality Assurance, and for issues of reputation and image, you’ll have Public Relations and Legal keep an eye out, and so on.

Make SURE you not only have systems in place to cope, but early warning systems that help you buy team to deal with a crisis, or better yet, avert one!

Develop a written escalation path and process for alerting others to potential risks. A crisis doesn’t always have to be a crisis; and if you don’t see it coming, you’re not likely to handle it well.

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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications

Now that we’ve discussed what may constitute a crisis and the risks and rewards of handling a crisis well, here are some tips for handling a crisis:

Plan, plan, plan

Like a bad performance review, a crisis should rarely sneak up on you. The best organizations and corporations out there *know* what their risks, exposure and liabilities are, and plan for contingencies and unknowns. This doesn’t mean that you need to be omniscient, just smart. Sit down with your board of directors, advisors and colleagues and make a list of all of the things that could potentially befall your organization. Consider the internal and external environment of your organization and take stock of where a crisis might come from, and how it could impact your organization and constituents.

As part of your planning process, walk through each type of potential crisis and rate it according to (a) the likelihood it will actually happen, and (b) the severity of the impact if and when it does. Then you’ll want to “stack rank” these potential crises in priority order and start to build scenarios and action plans for dealing with them should they occur. You don’t need to detail every single step you’ll take for every possible crisis that might rock your world, but you should know how you’ll handle the most likely crisis and have at least a skeleton action plan in place for your top 5 most likely/high priority crises.

A crisis management plan will include several components – again varying by type of organization/business and type of crisis. Some common aspects of a crisis plan include:

• Communication plan. Who needs to be communicated with and when? Who will own creating, managing and delivering all communications?

• Action plan. What needs to happen to avert, divert or manage the crisis? What steps are needed to deal with, fix or address any negative impact or harm brought on by the crisis? Who needs to take each particular action? You’ll likely divide the action plan into phases and departments – each step of managing a crisis may require different people (see recommendation #2 next week for additional discussion).

• Decision tree. Depending on the scope and scale of the crisis you’ll have major decisions to make at various points. Think back to the Tylenol crisis; there were any number of steps Johnson & Johnson could have taken – from denying the problem was theirs, to settling lawsuits quietly, to recalling just a certain lot number of Tylenol capsules that may have been linked to the deaths, to their final decision/action: recalling all Tylenol capsules and replacing (at no charge) customers’ current bottle of capsules with a new packages Tylenol tablets. For your plan, identify at what points in your crisis response you’ll need to make decisions, what they might cost/gain your organization, and who will take the lead on that decision.

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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications

As we’ve discussed previously, the true raison d’être behind Public Relations is to develop and/or manage your organization’s image and reputation in the eyes of key publics. Even in the best of times this isn’t always easy, and in the worst, well, it’s obviously going to be no picnic.

Thus, one of the smartest things you can do for your organization’s longevity is to create a “crisis” communications plan – well in advance of when you might ever (and hopefully never) need one.

So what constitutes a “crisis”? Well, that’s obviously going to depend on your organization, industry, geographic location, key stakeholders and the like, but the bottom line is that a crisis is any situation that can threaten the integrity or reputation of your company and/or cause harm (physical, environmental, financial, etc.) to your stakeholders. These situations can be caused or influenced by your organization or completely external, yet with significant impact on your organization, employees, constituents and/or other individuals.

From a communications and reputation perspective, a crisis is when the stakes are inordinately high and you have a chance to really shine – or fall flat on your face. If handled well, damage can be minimized and your organization can even be strengthened; remember the Tylenol tampering scare back in the 1980’s? Or Wal-Mart’s rapid response to communities in the New Orleans region after Hurricane Katrina?

Conversely, if a crisis is handled poorly, your reputation and/or your organization may never recover. Consider the current U.S. Administration’s lagging response and/or disjoined relief efforts following Katrina -- the November 2006 elections show us this has certainly not been forgotten. And the makers of Kryptonite bike locks perhaps now wish they’d not been so slow or somewhat flippant in their response to Internet videos in 2004 that showed how to easily open Kryptonite bike locks with a ball point pen. Only after tremendous public outcry, threats of lawsuits and extensive media coverage did the company issue a recall, and even then it was limited, with company spokespeople blaming the problem on the style of lock, not their company.

So how do you ensure positive crisis management? (And no, that’s not an oxymoron!). It all starts with a clear vision, excellent long-range planning, strong organizational structure and governance, easily mobilized resources, proactive communication and a cool head. I’ll provide some more specific tips for crisis management in my next post.

In the mean time, be thinking about what crises could potentially befall your organization and how they might impact you, your employees, your world… To be sure, that ought to get your creative communication skills flowing!

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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications

They Don’t Owe You Anything!

Ten things you should remember:

5. Take your time, be honest and forthcoming and focus on building strong relationships with the media. You may not get your story printed this time, but you can be sure that the journalist will remember his or her conversation with you (especially if you’re rude, aggressive or ill-informed). Handle each contact with the utmost professionalism and care, be proactive and helpful, and treat the media as people – not a tool for your publicity machine. Getting to know reporters as individuals and building trust is key to long-term success. Present yourself and your organization as experts in your field, offer up research and/or data they may need, brainstorm story ideas with them (as appropriate), and be concise, factual and friendly. By respecting their job and their role you’ll stand a much better chance in the long-term of getting your news covered. Remember also that the media/publishing world is extremely fluid – journalists move from publication to publication quite often. By cementing a strong relationship with someone, you can help ensure that you will still be in their contacts list when they get to their next – and perhaps bigger – gig.

6. The term “media” has grown to encompass many more professionals and types of outlets than in the past. Not all media is created equal, but you will be wise to respect each and every writer – from TV anchor to magazine reporter to blogger to “YouTuber”. As noted in #4 above, the blogger of today could be the magazine editor of tomorrow and woe to you if you’ve made a fool out of yourself and/or insulted him or her.

7. Don’t pitch the exact same story or angle to every publication. First of all, this means you didn’t do your homework (see #1!). Second, this can backfire with the media; no writer wants to see their article repeated in another publication. This doesn’t mean you have to offer “exclusives” (where you’d give a big story only to one publication and no one else), but it does mean you need to let journalists know who is writing what (see below), so they can ensure their angle and article is unique.

8. After you pitch to a journalist and they decide to write the story, your job is not done. You or your PR rep should follow up regularly (weekly or bi-weekly, depending on the type of story and/or time schedule) and see if there’s anything you can do to help; such as provide additional data, interviews, references or fact check details. Don’t get in people’s face, but a respectful check in is generally a welcome activity and continues to cement the relationship.

9. Prepare your spokespeople and/or references (or yourself!) for their interview with the media. Make sure they know the ground rules (e.g. there really is no such thing as “off the record” for most journalists…) and are prepared to be articulate, knowledgeable, focused, charming and effective speakers. Nothing harms a potential story quicker than someone who can’t ever seem to get to their point, doesn’t have their facts straight or doesn’t know anything about the publication or news outlet they’re speaking with.

10. Practices makes perfect. You won’t get 5 cover stories your first time out. In fact, you may only get one in a year, or even a lifetime. But stick with it, stay focused and your PR efforts can reap tremendous rewards.


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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications

They Don’t Owe You Anything!

Ten things you should remember

Good public relations practitioners know something many other people don’t: The media doesn’t work for you. And, it isn’t their job to write about you or make your organization successful.

As we discussed previously, the media’s job is to write about the news and to look for unique stories or trends that their readers will find interesting, useful and informative. Thus, your job is to generate news, and deliver it to the media in a way that makes it easy and compelling for them to cover.

Now, in approaching the media in hopes of getting them to write about your organization, there are ten things you should remember:

1. Don’t blindly contact every possible publication out there. Do your homework first and identify publications or media outlets that cover the sort of news and/or organization you are hoping to present. Better yet, before you even contemplate press releases and media outreach, build a list or database of the most appropriate news outlets for your organization to seek out. You can get media information and clippings from things like Bacon’s, Media Map, Burrelles and other news/media services, but it’s even better to read the publication (imagine that!) and understand who writes for it, the publication’s style, reach and audience demographics. That way you’ll not only know if it’s right for you, you’ll know how to talk to the journalists and editors, and what they’ll look for from you.

2. Once you’ve done your homework and created a list, prioritize and pare it down. If you are a small organization with limited PR staff/resources (and even if you’re not), you’ll need to ensure you get the biggest bang for your buck. You can’t call, email, pitch or provide interviews to everyone, so be smart about focusing your media outreach on targeted publications/outlets that will help you achieve your strategic PR objectives.

3. Before contacting anyone, make a list of the ideal story (or stories) you’d like to see printed. What does the headline say? What will the audience take away from reading this article? This sort of strategic thinking and PR planning is a great way to be crystal clear on your messages and know exactly who to pitch your story to in order to get the result you want. And, using your research from #1 above, you may want to alter your desired story/angle (and thus, your pitch) for different types of publications. After all, Vanity Fair, Fast Company and Time Magazine may all cover social entrepreneurship, but odds are you’re going to see entirely different slants in each!

4. Reverse engineering #3 above, consider who you want to be the ultimate reader/consumer of your news. Who is your organization’s target audience and what do they read, listen to or watch? Understanding where they get their news and who/what influences them will help you select the sort of media outlets that make most sense.



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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications

We’ve talked content, structure, fact and fiction, now let’s discuss the finishing touches for great press releases:

11. It may sound brain dead obvious, but proofread your press release several times before issuing it. Nothing will detract credibility points faster than misspelled words, grammatical errors or other idiotic uses of language. And, if you’re not a great writer, hire one. You can’t afford to have run-on sentences and rambling phrases when trying to compete for media attention.

12. Consider how your press release will be “discovered” and its longer-term shelf life. Most newswires distribute (and archive) press releases electronically – via the web and/or email – and are searchable via the leading search engines. Consider peppering your headline and lead paragraph with the most pertinent, popular and/or likely to be utilized search terms, to increase your chance of being noticed by the media and other key (and potential) stakeholders in the coming weeks and months.

13. Newswire (press release distribution) services abound, so do your homework to find out which one(s) most effectively target the type of media you’re seeking to reach – and to find a service that fits your budget. Many newswire services offer non-profit rates, so be sure to investigate those as well before signing up with a specific outlet. Some good starting points for distribution of your announcements include: Business Wire, CSRWire, PR Newswire and PR Web, though there are certainly others. If you are blogging on your website, be sure to put your press releases into your blog/RSS stream (as well as in your regular email newsletters to key stakeholders) to ensure they are picked up through all of your electronic subscription points.

14. Be sure to post your press release to your website, update your press kit, and send copies to your board of directors, major donors, strategic partners and other important stakeholders. They can help pass the word and potentially get you linked to the right media.

15. Get going, be strategic, write good stuff and have fun!


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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications

We covered general structure and content in my last post, so let’s talk language and news vs. opinions now:

6. Keep acronyms, industry-specific terms and highly technical language to a minimum. The media doesn’t have the time (or inclination) to be an expert in every single subject. While you don’t want to pander or assume the lowest common denominator, you must use clear, illustrative, professional, plain speak vocabulary. And, if you don’t have a copy of the Associated Press Stylebook – get one!

7. While language should be clear and professional, feel free to use the appropriate tone and color for your particular sector and/or target audience. If you are writing about something whimsical and light – such as a feel-good charity event and carnival to benefit kids – have some fun with it. (Don’t get too cute however!). But, if you’re writing about something like the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa and increasing numbers of orphaned children, a more somber tone is obviously apropos.

8. And while we’re on the topic of language, try not to use useless filler words that can’t really be proven or don’t truly differentiate your organization from others, such as “market-leading,” “innovative,” “ground-breaking,” “special,” “unique” and other such vague terms. While you may think they describe your organization and sound really cool, they’re just “yawner” words for the media, who will pass right by. Use words that actually describe what you’re doing and why you’re unique instead.

9. A press release is generally a place for statements of fact, not opinions (unless you are an advocacy organization expounding your views and seeking to incite a following… Even still, opinion should always be used cautiously, as you can easily turn off more people than you intrigue). Try to keep your announcement to facts, figures, events and well-researched data points. And, if you are using third-party data or other secondary information, be sure to fact check carefully – and get appropriate permissions to reprint – before including it.

10. Quotes by executives and strategic partners, while nice to have, almost never get printed by the media, so if you’re going to use these, put them towards the end of your release. The most common reasons for utilizing a quote are to be able to say something you can’t necessarily say as news fact in the body of the release (“This is our greatest product release ever!”) or to enhance your credibility with a third-party quote of appreciation or endorsement (“Partnering with xyx organization is the best move we’ve made, as they truly industry leaders.”)

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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications

Do’s and Don’ts for Writing Great Press Releases

Writing a press release should be a relatively easy exercise once you’ve determined the specifics of what you’re announcing and clearly identified what you hope to achieve from making the announcement. Here are 15 tips to get you rolling:

1. Before writing, create a list and/or an outline of your key messages and the most important data points. Winnow this down as much as possible to the most crucial bits of data. Leave out everything that isn’t entirely necessary and/or adds little real weight to the announcement. And no matter how tempting, don’t try to announce too many things at once. You’ll just muddy the waters and confuse the media.

2. Keep your press release to no more than two pages; less if possible.

3. Your headline should be brief and attention grabbing and tell exactly what is being announced and by who. A subhead can add further detail to a headline if needed.

4. The typical structure of a press release is a lead paragraph that explains the announcement in brief (see below), followed by 4-5 additional paragraphs that describe key facets of the announcement in more detail. Be sure to include your URL and phone number/email address for a media contact person within you organization.

5. Your first paragraph should answer everything someone needs to know about your announcement (in PR 101 speak, this would be your “Who, What, When, Where, Why and How” elements). Most journalists, if they make it beyond the headline as they’re scrolling the newswires, will only have time to quickly scan the lead paragraph. If you don’t hook them there, you probably won’t hook them at all.



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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications

Creating a Press Release that Doesn’t End up as Hamster Cage Liner

Before we talk about how to write a great press release, it’s just as important to discuss why you’d want to issue a press release (and equally important, why not). In the most general terms, a press release is a communications tool used to share important news to the media. Note here that I mention “news.” This means, yes, you should actually have news – and news that someone else beside yourself and your board of directors will actually care about. This might seem obvious, but all too many for-profit and non-profit organizations send out flurries of press releases that contain no useful content whatsoever. Then, instead of getting noticed and written about in the media, they are ignored, or worse – they annoy or anger their intended media outlets.

In today’s information-saturated world, the media’s historically fast-paced job has become even more insane. Your average reporter has to sift through hundreds of media packets, press releases, newswires, blog sites, websites, podcasts, news conferences and any number of other “information inputs” each day. Then they have to figure out what is really news (and what is umm, crap) and cover that news.

So as a social entrepreneur, your job is to make it easy for them to understand why your news is truly news, why their readers will care about it, and then help the journalist write about it by giving them all they need to draft a story in one brief, concise, impactful document: Your press release.

So that said, let’s look at when you might consider issuing a press release. Here are a few ideas for topics you might want to announce:

1. Significant new strategic partnership or alliance
2. New and/or notable major donor and/or grant received
3. Upcoming special event that you are hosting or sponsoring
4. Notable speaking engagements or conference participation
5. Launch of a new product or service
6. Significant additions to your staff (usually only VP and above)
7. Major organizational milestones such as number of constituents served, development goals surpassed, awards received, etc.
8. Significant structural change in your organization (such as mergers or acquisitions)
9. To alert the media and constituents to key world events affecting your constituents (and what you are doing to help make their world a better place)

Now, in reality, using these loose guidelines above, you could probably justify issuing a news release for just about every major activity of your organization. DON’T!

Ask yourself first:

• Who really cares about this? Who should care about this?
• Where does my target audience get their information and news?
• Is there some other way I can/should tell this story to reach my audience?
• What journalists, bloggers or publications typically cover news of this sort?
• What story do I hope a journalist writes, based on this news?
• When was the last time I issued a press release?
• Do I have a plan for contacting journalists and arranging for interviews to discuss this announcement in more detail, or am I just throwing something over the wire?
• And yeah, is this REALLY news?

Once you’re clear on why you’re writing, who you’re writing for and what you hope to get out of it – get writing! We’ll talk about what to include and how to structure an effective press release next time.


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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications

There are probably as many definitions for public relations as there are flavors of ice cream…

To some, PR is all about spin and getting someone to believe something about an organization and its products or dealings. For others, PR is a constant cycle of writing and issuing a flurry of press releases (and ultimately hoping one will stick). Still others believe that PR is the art of schmoozing the media – be it magazines, newspapers, radio, talk shows, or what have you – in the hopes of getting your company’s name and/or story in print (and better yet, getting the angle and message you actually want printed).

In reality, these are all somewhat correct. At its simplest, PR is a communications activity focused on reaching out to the public in order to develop a positive perception of your organization and/or influence action towards your organization in a favorable manner (e.g. getting the public to donate to your cause, volunteer, buy your product or service, etc.).

Public relations can also be used to try to correct misinformation about your organization or to repair its image following a crisis.

So, perhaps most succinctly put, PR is about opinions and image.

Two of the main differentiators between public relations and other types of marketing are

• (a) with PR you don’t pay to place your message (as you do in advertising)
• (b) as a result, you don’t truly have control over the message that is ultimately received by the public.

This isn’t to say that conducting strategic and effective PR doesn’t cost money; only that you are not paying for specific space in a magazine or on-air to get your story out there. This also doesn’t mean that you can’t or shouldn’t work your tail off to influence the message the public takes away in a powerful and positive way either. In fact, this is what truly great PR is all about.

Over the next few weeks we’ll cover a variety of topics including:

• Why utilize PR for your social organization?
• Writing a great press release
• Smart media relations
• Public affairs and crisis management
• Exploring web-based technologies to increase your reach
• Other PR tools and tactics

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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications

Other general notes for creating effective presentations:

• Less text is always more impactful. Try to have no more than 3-4 bullet points per slide, and if you are using graphics, use only one graphic per slide.
• Make sure all text is legible and easily readable from a distance. This may seem brain-dead obvious, but you’d be amazed at how many presentations are completely lost on an audience because they can’t read text, charts or graphs or see what should be emotionally-powerful photos.
• Photos, audio and/or video (when appropriate and technology allows) are more powerful than words alone.
• Infusing your own personal story with the story of your constituents is a wise idea, but do NOT make the issue exclusively about you. Social entrepreneurship is not a place for sizable egos. 
• Don’t feel you need to put EVERYTHING into your presentation. It should be a tool or an aid for discussion, not an exhaustive report of every thing you’ve ever done.
• When giving a presentation, you should usually allow 2-4 minutes per slide. If you have 30 minutes to speak, you should have no more than 10 slides. Again, less is more.
• Practice, practice, practice. The best speakers rarely have to refer to their slides. Your story, your voice and your passion should be the backbone of the presentation – and the slide deck should serve to provide additional context or back-up data.
• Whenever possible – invite and enable others to speak for you and/or with you. For an audience to hear about your successes directly from the people you’re helping is more powerful than anything you directly can say.
• Finally, as with any story, your presentation should have a beginning, middle and end. Keep it flowing, relevant, fresh and ‘lyrical.’ Your audience should be taken on a journey and deposited at its natural conclusion.
  

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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications

On the more practical level, here are some things to consider adding to your standard PowerPoint presentation:

• Detailed research, data, “needs analysis” and history of the issue, people or region you are focused on serving. What is the landscape and what makes your organization and your mission necessary and useful (if not critical)? [Note: credible third party data is especially effective here. Consider using research reports, government papers, media citations, etc. to make your point.]
• Your organization’s vision, mission, brief history and leadership team
• Objectives, strategic goals, progress year to date (and/or multi-year results)
• Financials such as operating budget, key funding sources and development goals
• Your organization’s success and/or metrics in relation to other similar organizations (as appropriate/applicable)
• Photos and/or stories from the field and those you serve. How has your organization changed their lives and/or positively impacted the community, region or world?
• A clear and concise slide on how someone can get involved and/or help you achieve your mission – e.g.
  

• Volunteer initiatives
• Program support
• Professional services
• Donation or sponsorship levels
• Fundraising events
• Advocacy, grassroots, outreach or letter-writing campaigns
• Staffing or board of directors/advisors recruitment

• Contact information for your organization (especially if you are leaving the slides as a printed hand-out)
• Also consider creating 2-3 specialized slides for diverse audience needs (that can be added in or removed from the slide deck as appropriate for the presentation situation). For instance, a foundation or high net-worth funder may want more or different information than a group of potential volunteers or interns. And a government organization or potential business partner may be interested in different aspects of your organization than fellow social entrepreneurs. This enables you to keep your presentation fresh, brief and targeted each time.
  

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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications

PowerPoint Presentation or other Visual Storytelling Aid

While important and useful, oftentimes a brochure or even a website isn’t sufficient to tell your organization’s story thoroughly and completely, or to convince a group of people to take action (which as a social entrepreneur, is what you’re all about – taking action to change the world and motivating others to help do the same). Occasions such as speeches, town hall meetings, congressional hearings, development events, conferences or other “1-to-many” venues often call for a presentation that includes not just words, or even charts and graphics, but a story.

Why a story? Think back to when you were a kid… What are some of the most memorable times you can recall? What kept you on the edge of your seat wanting to know more? What taught you lessons and morals? What opened your eyes to other parts of the world? What warmed your heart or inspired big dreams for your future? Yes, stories. These tales could have been found in books, in song, or in fables passed down orally from generation to generation, but almost universally, stories are very much the fabric of most of our lives. Well-told stories create mental images; they tug at heart strings; they create angst, anger, laughter or elation; they inspire new stories or new acts of greatness; and above all, they seem to bring people together.

So, what’s this got to do with a business-related communications tool? Plenty. For a social entrepreneur, telling the story of how you came to be a social entrepreneur has the power to inspire and educate others. The story of the people you are serving for and/or with can shed light on new cultures or issues, and compel others to seek ways to get involved and add their energy to the cause. And, the story of how you’ve creatively, effectively and passionately built your organization around a mission and a vision that creates social change can move even the stingiest donors to reach deep into their pockets to help support your efforts (or customers to buy your products or services).

So before you think about creating an actual document – a presentation – think about your story. What is unique, rich, dramatic, compelling, urgent and/or widely appealing? Then, consider who your most likely audience(s) will be and what opportunities you’ll have to tell your story in depth.

What is most important to them: Facts and figures? Photos of far-flung people and places? Charts and graphs? Testimonials and personal anecdotes? Business-driven data or warm and fuzzy images? Consider also: What is the core of your story and should be told each and every time? What topics or information may vary by audience?

Once you have brainstormed who will want or need to hear your story, you’ll be better prepared to create a presentation that will help you inform, educate and motivate your audience. And you will be able to “slice your slide deck” in a variety of ways to include certain elements for one audience and then leave out pieces that aren’t important for others.

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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications

Brochure

Similar to your website, the purpose of your brochure is (most often) to quickly educate current and potential stakeholders on the mission, values, purpose and progress of your organization – and to do so in a clear, concise and decidedly “portable” fashion.

And, depending on your strategic plan and current organizational objectives, you may have additional or different reasons for developing a printed brochure. Some of these may include the need to promote a specific project or fundraising campaign, a lack of Internet access for key audiences (and thus, no access to your website), your organization’s participation or attendance at a conference or event, to serve as a recruiting tool for new employees and/or board members, an upcoming direct mail campaign, or any number of other activities where a brief printed piece will help get your message across (without losing your audience in the process).

Brochures, like any other piece of marketing collateral, can be expensive to develop. So, before you get started, make sure you understand the exact need and purpose for the brochure -- and where and how it will be used. Sometimes you can get away with a 4x6” one-sided flyer or post card, and other times you will need a full 8.5x11” tri-fold brochure (or more) to tell the full story. Most often, the ideal brochure will be a small subset of your website (and then you’ll lead people back to your website by providing your URL in the brochure for more information).

The easiest and most powerful information to include in a brochure is your organization’s mission statement and core purpose; description of your key programs, products, services and/or constituents; a brief history of the organization; brief results and accomplishments; information on how others can donate their time, money or additional resources to help you achieve your mission; and of course, your organization’s contact information. Bios of the management team are useful if space permits, but not a requirement in such a brief document.

Photos, charts and graphics that depict the mission and the successes of your organization tell an even more powerful story than any text can, so use these liberally and keep the brochure design, voice and style consistent with your website and all other materials. (Yes, I’m a broken record on this one!).

For brochure design, consider again bartering services or finding a local design student to help you without breaking the bank. And, if at all possible, use the same designer you’ve used for all of your other materials to ensure consistency. If this isn’t possible, make sure your designer has copies of all materials, guidelines and logos to ensure design alignment and brand integrity.

Print as many copies as you can afford to print at one time (once you’ve analyzed where, when and how you’ll use the brochures) as printing just a few can be significantly more expensive per copy than printing several thousands. However, before your print large quantities, consider the "shelf life" of your brochure content. If you have prices, quantities, dates or other highly dynamic data in the brochure, you may want to either print smaller quantities or consider putting often-changing information into some other sort of document or brochure ‘insert’ that can be rapidly updated and inserted into the brochure on an as needed basis.

In terms of print shops, FedEx Kinko’s can do a great job for you on the fly, or you can also find professional quality business printing firms in your area that may offer you significant volume discounts and high quality results. To ensure your money is well spent and the final brochure is top notch, make sure to get pre-production samples and to proofread the brochure not once, but at least 4 or 5 different times (ask board members, volunteers and others to help so you have multiple reviewers!), before you say “go” at the printer.

Finally, as with your business cards, be liberal in distributing brochures, without being wasteful. Sometimes you can’t be in all places at once and/or there’s just no way you can talk to every single possible constituent or contributor, so providing brochures that tell your story can extend your organization’s reach and provide a compelling reason for stakeholders to further seek you out (directly or via your website).

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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications

More on websites:

In developing your website, you should again rely on your previous work in developing your brand, identity and messages. Nothing new should appear on your site that isn’t consistent and complementary to these initial elements, or you risk fragmenting your story and confusing stakeholders.

Designing and building a website can be costly, but doesn’t always have to be. There are some great software packages and templates out there (Adobe Photoshop has some great stuff and even Microsoft Publisher has a reasonable set of website templates), and many web hosting companies offer discount rates for non-profits (and even for-profit rates with companies such as Register.com and GoDaddy.com are pretty darn cheap these days).

As with your business cards, it’s wise to find skilled help to design and build your site (unless you have strong graphic talent yourself) so that the first version is solid and compelling. Going back and redoing something later not only wastes precious time, money and resources, but you can alienate supporters and stakeholders by overhauling your site into something completely unrecognizable to a previous version. It’s better to think through what you’ll need in the long run to fulfill your mission (refer back to your strategic plan!) and design a phased approach to your website that builds the initial framework, look and feel now, while allowing you to add and augment as you move forward and grow.

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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications