Media Top Tips
Local press love hearing about people doing their bit for charity. Getting your fundraising featured on local news channels and social media really helps to raise awareness of your event and encourages more people to sponsor you!
Give your local paper or online news website a call and ask to speak to the news desk – by doing this you will find out who to send your press release to. Be sure to include a great photo as it helps to grab the media’s attention!
Press Release Tips
- All press releases must start with: ‘For immediate release: day/date/month/year’.
- The headline should be short and informative. When a journalist is looking through lots of press releases, a catchy headline will grab their attention.
- The five “W”s and the “H” as follows: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? Any good news story provides answers to each of these questions.
Example
For example, if you wish to cover a story about a local sports team fundraising for Orchid you will need to answer the questions;
- Who is the team? Who is the coach? Who are the prominent players?
- What sport are they playing? What is the fundraising event?
- Where is it being held?
- Why are they fundraising for Orchid?
- How are they going to fundraise? How much training and preparation do they need? How much money did they/ do they plan to raise?
Social Media Tips
More people visit JustGiving pages via Facebook than via any other social media channels. This means that Facebook is the best place to post links to your online fundraising page!
When promoting your fundraising on Facebook make sure you:
- Like our Facebook Page.
- Tag Orchid in your posts so everyone can see our work.
- When you update your status or post news about your fundraising, include your fundraising page link. This way all your friends will know where and how to support you.
- Get your friends to share and ‘like’ your status.
- Post photos or videos on your wall and ask your friends to like them. This will mean that more people on Facebook will see your post.
Twitter is a fantastic place to promote your fundraising. If your tweets are snappy and include interesting information, news could spread fast. Ask your friends, family, employers and colleagues to retweet!
Be sure to:
- Follow @Orchid on Twitter.
- Mention @Orchid so that we can favourite and retweet your tweets.
- Tell everyone what you’re doing: e.g. “I’m fundraising for @Orchid by…”
- Include links, such as your JustGiving page or any local press coverage. You can shorten any links using bit.ly.
- Include photos, or even better, video to make your tweets more interesting. Check the current Twitter post sizes before posting to make your post look attractive. These change from time to time but are always easy to find by ‘Googling’.
The website Charity Digital has some great tips for using Instagram Stories to promote your fundraiser.
If you’re a working professional, you can engage your business contacts in your campaign by using LinkedIn.
Be sure to:
- Explain why you are fundraising in a professional manner.
- If you are doing the event to support a loved one, it is fine to mention this. It gives some colour to your life.
- Include links, such as your JustGiving page or any media coverage. You can shorten any links using bit.ly.
- Include photos and videos and ensure they are the right size for LinkedIn. These change from time to time but are always easy to find by ‘Googling’.
- Keep images modest as is suitable for the platform. Remember, you’re talking to your professional contacts!