A great way to celebrate your achievements and capitalize on your successes is to share them with your clients, members, community leaders, and other influential decisionmakers. But how can you do that without sounding like you are bragging?
Tell the story of your success using one of these five approaches, which will work for newsletter articles, website content, and press releases.
Profile a Person Involved
Personal profiles are a great way to share good news. Instead of talking about your accomplishments directly, profile the people who worked on them or the people who benefit from them. If the profile is of a staff member, have them explain the challenges associated with the project and why the success is so meaningful to them. If you profile someone who benefits from the successful project, ask them to explain how his or her life has changed for the better as a result of the organization's achievement.
Analyze a Trend
Put your accomplishment in the context of larger trends within your community or national trends in your field. Use events and statistics from sources outside your organization to demonstrate how your success fits into a larger pattern (or bucks a trend).
Explain How You Did It
In an easy-to-follow format, provide your readers with clear directions on how to do something related to your accomplishments. What did you learn during the process that you can share with others? What can your newsletter readers do to help build upon your achievements and further your mission? Show your readers, step-by-step, how they can be a part of your success.
Create a Top Ten List
People love lists! Create a top ten list related to your accomplishment. Consider these angles: Ten Things We Learned on the Way to the Top, Ten Mistakes We Made Before We Hit It Big, and Ten Things We Do Every Day to Keep Growing. You don't need ten items, of course. You can pick any number that works.
Challenge the Conventional Wisdom
Busting a myth or challenging what most people assume is true is another great way to grab and keep your readers' attention. Being successful often involves taking risks and doing things differently than others. Talk about how you broke away from norms to accomplish something great.
It is important for you to share your successes publicly, because success breeds more success. No one likes a show off, but if you use a strong, creative angle like those described here, you can tell your positive stories and successfully cultivate more supporters, clients, donors, and volunteers.
? 2005, Kivi Leroux Miller. All Rights Reserved.
Kivi Leroux Miller is president of Writing911.com, which provides free writing advice, tip sheets, e-courses, and in-person workshops for people who need to write well at work. She specializes in helping nonprofit organizations improve their newsletters, annual reports, and other publications.
Visit http://www.writing911.com to sign up for "Writing Tips," a free monthly e-newsletter that will help you improve your writing and your publications.
limo prices to midway Crystal Lake west of Randal .. Lockport Chicago limo O’HareIt's hard to imagine a reporter working today who doesn't... Read More
The short answer is, it works best when its fundamental... Read More
There are a lot of things that make a business... Read More
What's more crucial to the success of a business, non-profit... Read More
What else, for goodness sake, could you as a business,... Read More
As a business, non-profit or association manager, your public relations... Read More
Ever wonder why papers devote a page or more to... Read More
It's difficult enough running the day-to-day aspects of a business,... Read More
As many of you already know, promoting and marketing your... Read More
If your key ? that's KEY ? outside audiences don't... Read More
What makes a good media release and how do you... Read More
You can SO measure return-on-investment for a public relations program!Try... Read More
When developing a publicity campaign for their business many owners... Read More
When your book is mentioned on television, sales go up.... Read More
Say, from tactics like special events, brochures and press releases... Read More
When you pay good money for public relations services, you... Read More
Because it can alter individual perception and lead to changed... Read More
Especially good advice for business, non-profit and association managers whose... Read More
In last year's animated film Shrek II, a giant gingerbread... Read More
News releases are not the best way to get major... Read More
Taking your ad and turning it into paragraph-style prose is... Read More
What's REALLY potent for a business, non-profit or association manager... Read More
If you're serious about getting great results from your PR... Read More
A press release telling about "Stevie, the Water-Skiing Squirrel" will... Read More
Want to get radio interviews and coverage in print publications... Read More
taxi o'hare Auburn ..It's hard to imagine a reporter working today who doesn't... Read More
What do Monica Lewinsky, Shoshanna Lowenstein, and even Richard Hatch... Read More
Sure. What else do you call a human discipline whose... Read More
Because good public relations can alter individual perception and lead... Read More
It could, but what if it doesn't?Will you be prepared?Will... Read More
Many of my clients have had the misguided perception that... Read More
How do you make a friend of the media? A... Read More
"Advertising is what you pay for. Publicity is what you... Read More
They'd hate to admit it, but the media is pretty... Read More
Whenever a recession or volatility threatens the economy, companies immediately... Read More
As someone with expertise in media relations, I've been asked... Read More
Even after a nice piece in a national publication, or... Read More
Would you like to expand the volume of your business?... Read More
You are in business for yourself, but how well do... Read More
More than half of America skips the Super Bowl, the... Read More
When special events and communications tactics rule the PR roost... Read More
You may remember Forrest Gump's Vietnam pal ? the one... Read More
As a business, non-profit or association manager, any tool that... Read More
New business owners often miss out on publicity opportunities because... Read More
It is virtually impossible to succeed professionally and personally without... Read More
You know that getting publicity is vital to the health... Read More
Although it seems less common these days, there are still... Read More
Sometimes a phone call isn't intimate or long enough to... Read More
The right kind of PR, that is, the kind that... Read More
Only two media in Spanish speaking countries offer RSS: the... Read More
Public Relations |