Stars of HOPE Tickets!

We all have those moments in life. Maybe it was the first time you went to a museum in London… or a play in New York… or maybe it was walking through the gates of Wrigley Field – those moments that open your eyes and change your world.

Big Brothers and Big Sisters create these moments for their mentees every day.

Thanks to the Oregon Bach Festival, we have the opportunity for one of these moments on a grand scale – we’re sending our HOPE program participants and their mentors to see a first class production in one of the best facilities to see performing arts in the world. And you get to join us!

You can enjoy an amazing show and watch the world open up for 14 young women. It all starts with a celebrity-style entrance complete with a limo, a red carpet and a troop of paparazzi at the door. The show, Joan of Arc, is a celebration of girl power, independent women and amazing music. Check out this preview!

Tickets are $60 and $40 of that goes to Big Brother Big Sister of Lane County. Board Member Kelli Matthews is coordinating the fundraiser through her company, Verve Northwest Communications. You can get ticket vouchers (to be redeemed on the evening of the show) at BBBS or contact Kelli – kelli@vervenorthwest.com or (541) 579-5888. Or buy tickets right now!

The Schedule: 6 PM: Celebrity-style arrival of HOPE Program participants & their mentors. 6:30: Reception at Jacobs Gallery 7:00: Pre-Concert Talk with Barbara Altman 8:00: Concert More info: http://on.fb.me/lgpAGr Learn more about H.O.P.E.

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Verve in Our Community: A 2010 Recap

At Verve, community service and involvement are at the core of what we do and who we are. This community is our home, and we feel a responsibility to give back to those organizations devoted to making the Eugene area a better place to live.

Throughout this year, we’ve worked hard to demonstrate this responsibility through volunteering and serving a number of different local organizations:

Kelli has served as marketing chair on the leadership team for United Way of Lane County Success by Six for more than four years. Success by Six is an initiative aimed at reducing child abuse and neglect through prevention efforts and ensuring that young children enter elementary school ready to learn.

Several Verve team members volunteer with the Rotary Club of Eugene Airport. Kelli is the club’s public relations director, while Amy contributes design work and Paige maintains social media for the club on their blog and Facebook page. Kelli also serves at the district level, speaking at events & working with 2011-2012 district governor on new PR initiatives.

Kelli is also on the board of Committed Partners for Youth of Lane County, which matches youth with mentors who inspire and encourage their growth. She’s also submitted application material to be a mentor, a role she hopes to take on in 2011.

The Friendship Foundation for International Students plays an important role in the community as it seeks to promote international understanding by connecting international students with the Eugene community. Verve helps make this connection possible. Kelli chairs the FFIS Steering Committee, which oversees programs allowing international students to practice English with a native speaker; and the homestay program, which places students with families during school vacations.

Our volunteer reach extends beyond the Eugene community. Elsewhere in the Willamette Valley, Verve leaves its mark at the Business Enterprise Center in Corvallis where Kelli is a business advisor. The center is a business accelerator, helping start-ups get off the ground by providing them with professionally managed services and facilities.

Earlier this year, Amy contributed design work to Artists for Children of the World, an art show held in the Portland area that allows local artists to showcase their work, and sends proceeds from the event to children in 32 disadvantaged countries across the world.

Amy also uses her design skills to benefit another important local nonprofit, FOOD for Lane County, which collects, rescues, grows, prepares and packages food for locals in need and distributes it through a network of area agencies to serve those in need in our community.

This October, Eugene held its inaugural Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Kelli and Angela raised money and walked in the race. Kelli led a team that raised over $1000 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, which supports breast cancer research.

At CAWOOD’s Carnival for the Cure in September, Kelli braved the dunk tank and raised more money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation than any other participant (and also proved she can tweet from underwater).

Angela also donates her time to volunteer work with the Eugene 4J and Springfield School Districts.

In addition to the time we donate to the above organizations, Verve also serves its community financially through contributions to Committed Partners for Youth, FOOD for Lane County, Rotary International and Relief Nursery, a local non-profit working to strengthen at-risk families and protect young children.

Our commitment to the community will continue through 2011, as Verve will sponsor the 2011 Local Food Connection event. The event, held on February 7 at Lane Community College in Eugene, helps link local farmers, ranchers, fishers and food buyers so they can strengthen their business connections and maintain a strong sustainable food network. For more information about next year’s event, click here.

Service to our local community is an essential part of our work and is at the core of who we are. Verve is proud to support these organizations and is proud of the contributions it makes in Eugene and elsewhere in the state. We are grateful for the work these organizations do to better our community and look forward to making an even bigger difference in 2011.

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Letters to the Editor: Tips for Getting Published

Letters to the editor can be an important advocacy tool for business owners. Often, the letters to the editor are among the most often read sections of your local paper.

A letter has the potential to reach a large audience and they’re often monitored by elected officials looking to get a bead on public opinion. A letter is a great opportunity to expand on an issue or provide a viewpoint not covered in an article and demonstrate support (or opposition) on an issue.

Some tips for getting your letter in the paper:

  • Keep it short: most newspapers have a word limit. Make sure you know what it is before you send. My local newspaper, for example, the Register-Guard in Eugene, has a word limit of 250 words. There is a lot of competition for a small amount of space.
  • Stay on topic & be timely: don’t wander down the rabbit trail. Keep your letter on a single topic and make your point succinctly. It’s crucial that your letter tie into a recent article (see the next tip) or to recent events.
  • Make reference to the newspaper: References articles that were printed recently is a good way to tie into issues of the day and increase your chances of your letter being printed. (ex: “I was disappointed to see that in MY PAPER’s September 19 article…” or “I agree with (author’s name) characterization of this issue…”)
  • Don’t take – or make – it personal: Use verified facts without overstating or exaggerating your point. Don’t insult those who may have a contrary opinion and don’t play defense, even if you feel you’ve been attacked.
  • Include your contact info: Most papers will not publish your letter anonymously. Be honest about who you are and what stake you have in the issue. You have a valuable opinion – state it and be proud.

If you don’t see your letter in 4 – 7 days, it’s ok to follow up with a polite phone call to the editorial department of your local paper. And remember, even if your letter isn’t published, it has been read and is helping to bring awareness of issues to the editorial staff.

Image by just.Luc. This article originally written for the NWSA member newsletter.

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Top 5 Shortcuts for Social Media Management

Over at my blog, PRos in Training, I’ve been sharing my top 5 social media management shortcuts. For you, I offer a recap of the five tips. You can click on each to read in full.

I’m often asked about how to best handle social media maintenance and management tasks. Over four years or so I’ve developed a few shortcuts that work well for me.

#1: Use a Feedreader

Yay feedreaders!

Using a feedreader to track blogs I’m interested in along with keyword searches is my number one shortcut. It was thanks to Bloglines, my first feedreader that I really started to understand social media. I subscribed to PR, social media, marketing and advertising blogs left and right. By doing so, I learned best practices and social media etiquette through observation.

#2: Create a Process

The cost of social media isn’t in the hard costs, it’s in the time costs. Creating a process for yourself will help save time and also make social media activities a part of your routine.

I find it challenging to share my personal process because I’ve developed it over more than four years. So take what you think will work and modify the rest to work for you. The point is to have a process, not replicate my process.

My process basically breaks down into three categories – making time to track, time to write and time to play.

#3: Use Twitter

You can’t possibly subscribe to every blog on your topics of interest. Using feedreaders and Twitter in a complementary way will help you stay in the know and also save you time. To make Twitter work focus on: finding the right people to follow, building lists and mastering third party applications.

#4: Use a Smartphone

If you’re in communications (and if you own or manage a business or lead a nonprofit, you are!) – get a smart phone. For real. It doesn’t have to be an iPhone. Just get a smart phone.

A quick scan of Twitter or Facebook, a timely update to your Tumblr or blog, even being able to handle an urgent situation are all possible from the palm of your hand. Knowing I can “hear” if someone is talking to me (or a client) saves me a ton of time.

#5: Try Stuff!

Don’t be afraid to try stuff out and seek out new tools. The more you explore and learn the ins and out, ups and downs of social media and web 2.0, the better you’ll be about deciding what makes sense for you.

Trying stuff is the best part about social media.Sometimes I cringe when there’s a new tool on everyone’s lips, wondering how I’m going to find the time to manage one. more. thing. But that’s my job! To try it out and figure it out and decide if it’s worth integrating into my work or not. Ultimately, it’s not a chore, but a new challenge.

I hope you find this useful. I’d love to hear your best shortcuts, too.

image by laughlin

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Get Real! Sustaining Social Media Through Smart Planning

The secret to social media success? Well, there’s no single secret, but in my experience, being realistic about the commitment it takes to do social media right is extraordinarily important to sustaining this aspect of your marketing and communications for the long term.

I often approach strategies and tactics in three stages: ramp-up, core activities and maintenance. This basic structure applies whether you’re listening and monitoring, blogging, social networking, or video sharing. “Build it and they will come” seems to work best in corn fields in Iowa.

Ramp-up

Establishing your organization’s presence on the most appropriate outlets takes time. Who are you most interested in connecting with? How do you build that network. Inviting people to friend/follow/subscribe to a blank page isn’t terribly compelling. So adding some initial content, giving new members of your network an idea of what you’re about and what kinds of stuff to expect from you is important.

Core Activities

Regardless of the channel or the tool, you’ll find once your presence is ramped up that each has a set of core activities that require your attention on a (very) regular basis. It’s important to gauge what that looks like for your organization and to build the time it takes to participate into your strategic social media planning.

For example, I recommend a minimum of 6 – 10 tweets a week to create a baseline level of content. I recognize that seems prescriptive and it’s certainly not mandatory, but it can give an organization a sense of the commitment. Then, of course, you add onto that number the replies and retweets – the actual conversations.

Maintenance

Beyond the day-to-day, each tool or channel has maintenance activities – those activities that help you to build your presence and reach out to expand your network or connect with emerging influencers. This might mean seeking new friends/followers, promoting your social media presence off line, adding new subscriptions to your feedreader.

This three part approach is simply one slice of the social media strategy pie, but may give you a start for thinking about how to approach a given tool.

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We’re Serious ‘Bout Bizness

Amy & I recently had new photos taken by the talented Jason Miller (also Amy’s husband) for our soon-to-be-launched website. We just want you to know we’re serious… serious ’bout bizness.

I also had a hard time figuring out what to do with my hands, a la Will Ferrell in Talladega Nights.

Okay, so maybe not so serious, but we have a freakin’ good time.

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Video Can Illustrate, Simplify

Fighting wildland fires is a complicated business. Government agencies, private contract companies, elected officials, communities on the urban-rural interface… and the list goes on. Verve works with the National Wildfire Suppression Association regularly to help this association tell its story to all these audiences. This year, the strategic plan included producing a video to help NWSA members and partners help tell its story. We invite your feedback.

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Want to Intern at Verve? Here’s the Scoop!

Verve is looking for a summer intern to work with us. We’re a (very) small agency with a handful of local and regional clients. Interns will work primarily with me (Kelli) on public relations, marketing communications and social media projects.

What I look for:

  • Self-driven: this is a must. I’m not often in an office and need an intern to be able to drive the bus on a project, to ask for help when needed and be able to work solo most of the time.
  • Flexible: Every day is different and you need to be able to respond to day-to-day demands of agency life.
  • Great Writer: Whether it’s press releases, blog posts, twitter updates or video scripts, you need to be able to write clearly and effectively
  • Tech-Savvy: I do a lot of social media and need you to understand the basics of WordPress, Twitter and Facebook Pages. You don’t need to be a coder, but should be able to find your way around.

Interns typically work 10 – 15 hours a week on pro bono and nonprofit projects and will earn a stipend (amount TBD). Eugene-area preferred, but will consider others. I’m wary about a virtual intern, but could be convinced.

Interested? Email me (kelli@vervenorthwest.com) a cover letter and resume. Be sure to include links to your social sites (Twitter, your blog, etc.). I’ll accept resumes through May 14, 2010.

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Social Media for Nonprofit Development Pros

Had a great time chatting with the folks at the Emerald Valley Development Professionals group. Below is my presentation (via Prezi)

EVDP Presentation on Prezi

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Perception is Reality

The first week of March I had the pleasure of presenting at the National Wildfire Suppression Association at its annual conference in Reno, Nevada.

My topic was reputation management and I looked at it by asking the attendees thinking to think about reputation as the sum of the perception’s of individual members of your audience.

Here are the slides. Of course, they may not make total sense out of context. Please leave me a comment or send me an email if I can answer a question for you.

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