We do need actual news to hang them on

Agreed, absolutely. I was thinking of the following as newsworthy topics: -- Strategic new partnerships with pet stores or shelters. One example might be when we started doing classes and events at the WC PFE. Technically, this expanded an existing partnership but it gave us a bigger presence in the East Bay / Contra Costa County, which has been kind of a blind spot for us for a while. We might have to parse back and forth on the definition of "strategic" but, for starters, it needs to be more than a pickle jar for donations at their checkstand. -- Fairly major upcoming events such as adoption fairs, particularly those done in partnership with shelters. Again, we would have to decide, perhaps on a case=by-case basis, what constitutes a "major" event. One example for consideration is the multi-rescue adoption fair done at HSSV earlier this year. -- This is a new idea to the group, but I think that we should consider sending out quarterly press releases with some accurate but high-level statistics. I.E., Mickaboo took in 99 birds and spend $99K on veterinary bills in Q3 2010. Since we are a 501(c)3, this information is available to anyone who wants it anyway, but, as we have heard, there's a kneejerk accusation that we are a for-profit enterprise from people who didn't bother to -- and, frankly, didn't need to -- look up our numbers. Posting stuff like this in a press release makes us look more "corporate" (which , granted, some people might not like) and should minimize the frequency and impact of such accusations. It would also give us a much easier counter to such accusations: "Haven't you read our press releases?" Of course, each press release would mention other facts about Mickaboo and tenets of our mission and vision, all in context of the primary topic, and would feature quotes from Tammy, Michelle, et al. And, yes, some press releases would be somewhat redundant to the information that's on our "Upcoming Events" page. The advantage to a separate press release is that we could keep it for posterity and expound on the details of the event and other important information. With all of this in mind, does anyone have thoughts about what would be good fodder for our next press release? Is it too late to do write-ups on the Solano Stroll or Folsom Zoo presence? How about the Mickacoo fundraiser? --VH

For those things that we want the media to publicize, this strategy will not work. It seems to me we are talking about two different things. One is more of a "where can I find Mickaboo this weekend?" events calendar; the other are true press releases, which are done when you want things spread wide & far. Reporters/editors will not think to be checking the Mickaboo website every day, week, or, most likely, year. We need to offer to them items that they like (positive reinforcement) and that may help them sell papers (whether made of paper or published on the web). Thus, I recommend sorting the contacts (for example, there's a column in the Marin IJ which is called "Three things to do today!" and it lists various local things I can go to that might interest me. We might send our 'events calendar' materials to the person who organizes that column. They won't publish everything we send, but, if we don't send it, we can be sure none of our events will be published. Then the "real" reporter contacts need to be informed each time something notable happens. For example, Mickaboo Partners With Petco! Who Knew? is a press release they may run, and if it's not too busy a news day, we might get better placement. But that means connecting, personally, with reporters on a fairly regular basis. Occasionally an event may warrant a reporter's coverage, but probably not, unless there's a bigger "hook." p On Sep 7, 2010, at 10:08 PM, Vincent J. Hrovat wrote:

Patti, this question is mainly for you but if somebody else has input that'll be great. I am not a PR or media person, so forgive me if this sounds naïve. I am wondering, if Mickaboo does “press release” type documents, whether we really need to distribute each of them to media sources for publication, or can we can simply post them on our web page for reference.

Here’s my train of thought: when I want to know about a company – as a possible employer, possible investment, whatever – I go to their web site and poke around. One of the places that I always look is in their list of press releases. I don’t know or care what papers actually ran those stories, and I don’t look for them in the mass media publications. I get them directly off of the principle company’s web page. That is what I am thinking of for Mickaboo as well: a separate (simple!) section of our web page where we can post these press releases, along with links to mainstream media articles about Mickaboo, and maybe keep them available for 2-3 years. That would give us a distinct, low-impact place to keep this sort of information.

Just because we post something out in such a "press-release" area, do we necessarily have to forward it to media as well? I am thinking that not all mainstream media is going to care each time that we do a Fall Furry Friends Flurry (or whatever) shelter event, but that we might still want to put together a press-release type of document regarding the event for organizational self-documentation and as a hedge against people who claim that we don’t work with shelters.

Thoughts?

--VH

-----Original Message----- From: media-advisors-bounces@mickaboo.org [mailto:media-advisors-bounces@mickaboo.org] On Behalf Of Patricia Blau Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 9:17 AM To: Mickaboo media advisor team Subject: Re: [Media-advisors] Checking in . . . .

Hi all, I'm happy to help with press releases. We do need actual news to \