Promoting Your Group

Introduction

Branding has become such a huge part of our world and the attitudes and ideologies of capitalism are strong in all elements of life. It is therefore worthwhile to consider how the public is used to being communicated to and how you can make your organisation part of their everyday thoughts.

Going through the journey of creating and maintaining a brand not only has strong benefits in getting the public to notice and support you but also benefits your structure and services.

Focusing on how you articulate and what you articulate encourages you to think about what you do and what is needed.

It gives you a clear mission for everyone within the organisation to stick to.

Having strong messages means you can recruit people with different motives for your cause, volunteers, service users, staff, supporters, funders and commissioners.

An effective and honest presence can allow funders to see what you are doing and how you do it which can make a difference in their decision.

Awareness of the cause, challenge or mission of your organisation can be raised which can make the experience of the people you support more positive when they are participating in society.

It can create a good impression with peers and allow strong partnerships to form as they know what they are ‘getting into’.

Branding is everything from the images, colours and logos you attach to your work and the words, slogans, language and tone you use when you communicate. It can even be in your behaviour.

Legal Structures

When you begin to think about your brand, it may be worthwhile (especially as a community organisation to think about your legal structure. You’re not intentionally trying to mislead people but it’s important to make sure you use the correct word for your situation.

Using ‘charity’ for example when you’re not one is unethical and fraudulent. There is a legal line between ‘charity’ and ‘charitable’.

This is especially important when you are fundraising,

It’s also worth articulating it to set the scene and remind people how you are governed. This can be expanded into talking about your internal structure, it helps to explain to people about your trustees / committee or staff or volunteers. Not only does it give people a clear picture of what you do, but it also shows how you do it.

You can also show who you work with (which also shows how you align ethically and politically) by sharing information about your partners. Sharing their posts, talking about the work you do together and engaging with their information or posts demonstrate your network.

Think about how you talk about other agencies, similar to people in your friendship circle, not everyone is a ‘friend’ some are ‘acquaintances’. You could have ‘our friends at…’ for organisations you work closely with; ‘our colleagues at…’ for similar organisations that you may compete with but not work with and talk in the third person about organisations that you are connected to but not otherwise connected.

Thinking about this is important as it allows people to choose who and what they can / want to support based on your structure and their own rules or guidelines. It can also inform and educate the public about our sector, many people don’t know or realise that trustees exist or are volunteers for example. It can also be helpful supplementary information for funders.

Your Role In The Community

We spend a lot of our lives playing different roles and wearing different ‘costumes’ sometimes our unassuming Clark Kent persona at home is outshone by our Superman presentation when we are working or volunteering (or indeed the opposite can be true). The same thing can be said of our organisation, our service users might think we are all things to them and in reality, we are a smaller chunk of their landscape.

When you are branding and communicating you need to take time to think about what you actually do and achieve, not what you think you do and achieve. This is important, again, not to mislead but also to allow you to reflect on your services and work out which to save and which to ditch. What is your role and how do make a difference?

Are you an organisation that focuses on prevention or harm or further issues or are you one that deals with people once that harm or challenge has hit them? If you are both, do you do them both well? Do you do what you do well at all?

Do you campaign, where does your power or influence lie? Are you the voice of a community or are you a niche market that is equipped to represent a part of the community?

Be honest and think about what you deliver and how you articulate those services. If it seems basic, dry or uninteresting when you read it allowed, is it because you haven’t explained the reality? How deep do you need to go?

Also within what you do is who you work with. Consider who you are responsible for and how you talk about them. If there is a particular language or way in which they are discussed or terminology that they use, your communications are a great way of getting these things into common parlance.

Language

Vocabulary

What words do you use to describe what you do? Are they generally understood? Is your world full of technical language? Think about how you talk and how accessible it is. The VCSE tends to run on acronyms or abbreviations because we have such long titles for things but they only work if people know what they stand for. Is your language suitable and relevant to your service users too? Can they understand your communications?

Identity

So much identity can be shared through how we speak and how we share information. Some people have a very unique style (I have often been told I write how I speak and in my accent) and this can be felt through reading. Sometimes this is a good thing but can be a challenge when multiple people are sharing information from one organisation. To combat this, many organisations have a communication strategy which lays down how the organisation ‘talks’. The identity can be formal or casual, energetic or calming, humorous or serious. You can also establish how much depth and detail you go into. It’s the instruction manual for representing your organisation. This is useful for big teams and especially teams of volunteers who all have their version or experience.

Individuality

Sometimes as organisations, we have pet names for services or specific words for people and terminology which is unique to us. Often organisations like to play these things down and try and make their communication generic and neutral. Whilst there is some mileage in generic and neutral, we would argue that your own words and phrases are what makes you unique. You should be proud of them and use them. You may have to explain them sometimes, but you never know who might suddenly feel at home with how you look at the particular condition, challenge or activity.

Accessibility

One of the ethical (and sometimes legal) duties we have as organisations are to provide our information in a clear, easy-to-understand way. This is beyond disabled people, accessibility affects lots of people in different ways.

Writing accessibility into websites and digital content can be costly but there are various options you can consider. Accessibility doesn’t always end at websites though, there are things to consider in print media too. Some general accessibility rules:

Your text should be a minimum of size 12 font but ideally size 14.
Avoid italics and underlining as they can be difficult for people to read.
No large blocks of text in capital letters as the letter formation can be harder for people to distinguish.
Typefaces should be sans serif because Sans Serif fonts are easier for people to read and recognise.
Words should not be hyphenated or split between two lines as it makes words harder to read.
Single pieces of information like websites, phone numbers or email addresses should be kept to one line.
The colour contrast between the font and the background colour should be clear.
Avoid overlapping text over images.
Has a clear structure, for example, if there are long sections of text consider breaking it up with sub-sections.
Leaving a space in between each paragraph.
Use page numbers if your document has multiple pages.

Think about the number of words you are sharing too, be clear and to the point. This is about making the information as easy for as many people as possible to navigate for themselves or others. Where might you need to support your information with symbols, pictures, diagrams or video or audio cues?

Reputation

When you are creating the external image of your organisation, think about some of the things people may already know or think they know about you. How many myths do you need to bust? Is there anything you need to update the public on or ‘set right’?

Stereotypes – do you or the people you work with have any negative stereotypes that they have to battle to participate?

Stigma – sometimes, people seeking specific support can be treated negatively because of the things people think they know about the cause or support.

Assumptions – we can often form an impression or an idea about a place before we visit, or we go by hearsay and information pieced together from a range of sources. Think about the things people say to you when you work with them ‘I didn’t know this was free’, ‘You’re all so friendly, ‘Why do I have to fill out this form?’, ‘Can I just turn up?’ and use these questions and assumptions in your publicity to give the outside a clearer picture.

Confusions – are you often mistaken for being another organisation? Do people sometimes think you are part of something you’re not? Perhaps you need to be clear on your structure and connections.

Battles – like ‘feuding celebrities’, organisations can badmouth each other and critique services, activities and team members. Consider the outward perception of doing that, even if you are in direct competition.

Reputation – how do people perceive you? Good? Bad? Do they even know you exist? Word of mouth travels fast in a small town and there are times when you need to reform some opinions or set the record straight on some facts. Consider also where that reputation comes from, is it something you can control or is it something beyond your capacity? We often inherit bad reputations from previous leaders or become the victims of stigma, stereotypes of confusion.

Clear, simple, honest communication allows people to see what is happening and if the outside world still has issues, perhaps something isn’t working.

Audience

One of the super cool and clever things that most humans can do is adapt their way of talking to suit who they’re talking to. We do it all the time, almost unconsciously. When you are communicating as an organisation, you need to think about who your audience is.

Demographic – who are you really talking to? Most organisations will say ‘everyone’ as they don’t want to exclude anything, but in reality, most won’t be talking to absolutely everyone, there will be a group that stands out more. Pick those people, think about how and in what style they generally need to be spoken to and use this as a baseline. Anyone else who is interested or relevant will get picked up because they know what is happening.

Capacity – consider the capacity/understanding and abilities of your audience. What levels of literacy, language, and complexity of the message are suitable?

Culture – we all have something that we latch on to, culture is sometimes universal but can also be attached to a demographic. What cultural products (TV, movies, music, sports) do people attach to? Look for ways in which people can be engaged by using references from culture.

Mass Appeal – if you are trying to talk to a broad range of people, consider how you are going to be neutral. When covering a lot of people, base it at a level which is a reading age of around 9 – 11 years old. The logic here is that people in all capacities can understand it.

Targeting – if you are going to target the information, consider what makes the information relevant and if you need to change any language to make it more appealing to the group. Think about:

How they speak – language/colloquialisms/slogans
What they use – social media/leaflets/word of mouth
Where they go – work/rest/play
How they get in touch – call/email / in person
Barriers – any issues that would make it difficult
Triggers – anything that feels inappropriate

Aesthetic

We are very visual beings, pictograms and images outdate words as a form of communication. Symbols and visual cues are crucial and with the increasing use of technology, our communication becomes even more image-based than ever before. Think about the following when creating the visual appearance of your organisation:

Symbols and icons – your logo can be anything you want and there are trends and approaches you will see come and go. Think about something that will last a few years. Consider a design that can’t be taken as something else (turn it around all angles and look at it). Make sure it doesn’t remind people of another organisation – do some market research.

Meaningful colours – Colour Theory is an entire movement and there is lots written about it – check it out online. We have various social and emotional responses to colours and associations with them (think national flags and sports teams). Choose wisely, play around with your design in different colours, and see what fits.

Reproduction – is it going to be easy to duplicate? If you print a lot, does your logo or branding look good in black and white or greyscale? Are you stuck with colour printing all the time? Also, does it photocopy or print well? Sometimes if details are too fine, they don’t copy cleanly.

Vectors – when you finally decide on a logo/branding, you should consider turning it into a vector (giving it a transparent background) this can make an ordinary photo or image suddenly turn into a branded piece of communication. It also gives you much more flexibility in using it. There are guides on the internet and free programmes you can use that will help you do this.

Spacing – There’s no point in having a lovely design, smart logo or any meaningful text if the audience can’t see it or engage with it. Think about how much clear space you have around your content and does it give somewhere for the eye to ‘relax’. This is beneficial to all viewers but also aids in the accessibility of your products.

Collateral

Following from creating a strong logo and brand presence, it is worth thinking about the photos and images you use.

Aim for quality – We have all seen grainy photos that were unclear and look like they were taken in the 90s (or older) it doesn’t always give the best impression. High-quality images can be taken quite easily and cheaply, using the best resolution you can achieve. Also, think about what is in the background and if you need to make some editing and adjustments.

Take your own – Stock images were everywhere for a while and now they have become a figure of fun. Take your own images where possible as audiences are increasingly able to see through stock images and it can look like you are ‘fake’. It might even be better to have poor-quality images rather than stock images.

Use people like you – People that live in Warrington know what a small place it is and the kinds of people that live here. They know our communities, how they are made and what we do. Use images that represent the community accurately. Don’t represent minority communities for the sake of it. Use your target market as the basis for your selections.

Create connections – Most of the VCSE is quite emotive and runs on feelings and hugs. Use those emotional hooks and find images that will elicit an emotional response.

Be consistent – Pick a style of image and stick to it. It’s all black-and-white action shots or full-coloured posed photos, pick a theme and follow it through. The style of the image can define a service or can make the audience be able to pick out one of your pictures from the crowd because of your distinct style. Use the same images in all your platforms, and keep to a theme, audiences will remember the photo you used with your press release or latest appeal and they will be drawn to that when you use it elsewhere.

Don’t overuse – Whilst it’s important to use the same images throughout, be aware of how often you have used them. It will get to a point where you are building quite a library of images but aim to cycle them so as not to lose the interest of the audience. Be aware when you start to use older images if you still have the permission of the subjects for you to use them again, people move on.

Case Studies

You may wish to use case studies to publicise what you are doing, reporting on funding or sharing good news stories. There is no real science to this, they are a very personal taste thing. We have compiled a list of things that I would encourage you to think about.

Purpose – What is the point/aim of your compiling this? Think about this through creating it.

Relevance – Does the story you are about to tell connect to your purpose and does it say who you are as an organisation? Is it relevant to the town/audience?

Context / Branding – Can you draw a direct connection to your cause and mission from what happened? Think about how you tell the story and the words you use and stick to the branding guidelines you created to ensure that the audience knows that it’s yours.

Length / Editing – if you don’t have a submission suggestion for a word count (for a funder for example) try and keep it as short and to the point as possible. If need be, timeline the key events and work out a way of giving the edited highlights which tell the story but don’t cover boring on unnecessary information. Also, consider the redacting of key information to protect or remove people and details that don’t need to be publicly shared.

Achievable – This is sometimes a difficult one and very much one of my opinions. Is the case you have chosen achievable? One of the biggest critiques of case studies is that the people who are chosen are usually outstanding in situation and story. If you are trying to get the average user or someone to see themselves in the story, then often high achieving people are out of reach. If you want to reach the ‘person on the street’ then cover achievable, ‘normal’, ‘everyday’ feats and stories. Sometimes these stories are still as interesting (often more).

Permissions – Have you got the relevant permissions to use the story and the images? Make sure that when you gather permission that you outline how long you intend to use it for and where it is likely to be shared. Always inform the subject if you decide to make any changes to these arrangements.

Articles / Posts

Sometimes, the good old-fashioned print media is the best option, Gareth Dunning from the Warrington Guardian shared his top tips.

Plan – Give the paper enough notice to make sure that your article is in when it’s timely for your situation. Send the paper some options of events that you are doing. You can always cover things before they happen, not just always after.

No more than 250 words – Keep it short and snappy, it doesn’t need to be a long rambling piece. You are thinking about people’s attention span but also the space that the paper has to report on community events.

Keep the important information high – Make sure you put all the key information near the start of the article. If an article is too long an editor or reporter will shrink it from the bottom and will just chop off information. They tend not to touch the start.

Good quality image – Share the best quality image you can and make sure it’s clear and relevant. Think about editing it if it isn’t all that you need. Your image is probably going to be the thing that attracts people to the article so make it stand out. There will be lots of images of people standing in a line, try and make it interesting and fun (if it suits your article).

Contact Details – Provide the reporter with contact details in case they have questions, need more information or want to follow it up in another piece. Also, if you have contact details within your piece, make sure they are clear.

Media Platforms

The number of platforms and ways to engage can be daunting and choosing the right one for you is sometimes a tricky task. There’s not necessarily a way in which you can choose badly and pick the wrong medium, it’s more that you would be wasting your time. So, w have gathered some thoughts and things to think about here:

Who is it going to be for? Think about what you know about the people you are trying to communicate with and what they use. Not what you think you know or what stereotypes tell us, what you know. Use your target market as a guide. Think about how easy or accessible something is, consider the public trust of a platform and think about what it might say about your organisation.

How easy is it to use? We all take many roles in our lives and media guru isn’t one we all slot into well. If you find a mode that you can fit into your schedule, then it’s still getting the message out there somewhere.

Can you carry it in your pocket? Sometimes the best publicity tool is in our pocket or bag. If you want to get good at getting messages out there, get good at your phone. It’s amazing the things you can do with apps and the ability to share information on the go.

What are you sharing? If you have lots of words to post, choose Facebook, if you have fewer things to say consistently, choose Twitter. If you have images, what is going to show them off the best? Are your people leaflet readers or paper buyers? Would a spot on a local radio station capture some imagination?

How secure is it? Check that you have all the necessary measures in place to protect your information. Consider how publically and widely this information is being spread. Think about the images you share and who is on them from a safeguarding perspective.

Do you have to go it alone? Who else is going to work on this with you? For consistency, one person managing an account is better, but for ease, several people can carry the burden. This is where having a series of people linked to the account comes in handy. Just make sure that they all know how the organisation ‘talks’ so that posts remain on-brand.

Posting

An age-old question for publicity is when to share information. There appears to be multiple versions of the science. By all means, do your research, but here are some of the points from across all the advice I thought was useful.

When are people active? If you are a consumer of media (which we pretty much all are) think about your own usage, watching your family, friends and colleagues and see what they do when. Note the times people check their phones, read the news, talk about what is happening in the world and try and match the peak periods, if you post just before it, or get your article submitted in on time or put the leaflets where they go, you have a higher chance of people engaging.

What can people stand to read? Think about the articles you have spotted, the leaflets you’ve picked up and the amount of information on them. How often have you just scrolled by a massive text post because you couldn’t be bothered? Even if you are into the organisation or cause, you don’t always want to read a small novella on a Wednesday.

Do you have something to say? This is always tough. It’s easy to tell everyone about bob finishing a jigsaw or what Enid had on her toast, but really, who cares? Post when you have a message which is relevant and on-brand. Don’t post for the sake of it. Stick to your strategy and try to tie in something about your wider work to every post. It’s better that you say little but make a big impact with it than be on all the time irritating people with your tedium or monotony. If you struggle to put things out

Personal vs. Professional - If you are used to writing, blogging, or posting then you have a particular style or ability to say whatever you want. Be mindful that this communique is different. Community organisations are supposed to be non-partisan and not promote faith (unless faith is your cause when you can act in the spirit of the faith but not try to convert/recruit people to it). Keep the ranting to a minimum, and highlight issues and how they affect the community, not what you think about it. Take to your personal accounts to rant, but be mindful that you could be traced back.

Attach it to events / TV – Many shows and events now are given a hashtag, keep an eye out for things that relate to your work or cause. Is it being covered in soap? Is there a reality-style contest about it? Coverage of an event? Documentary? Post around the time when it’s on as people will be joining the discussion. There could also be something going on in the town that you may wish to support because it connects to you

Once It’s Out There…

Right, you’ve put your information together and sent it out into the big wide world, surely your job is done, right? Sadly, not, there is still stuff to think about…

Comments – If you are on a platform where people can comment, keep an eye on them and see what is happening and how it’s being received. You may need to wade into the debate or tot up that approach to experience if it didn’t go well.

Contact – Who is dealing with contacts, messages, conversations and/or enquiries? Do they have all the support and information they need to do it well? Are they versed in the ‘talk’? Are they (and this could be you) the best ambassador for what you do?

Capacity – Do you have the time, inclination, effort and skill to make all this happen? Have you overreached yourself? Better to start small and build than go big and then have to go home in shame soon after…

Problem-Solving – This depends on the situation, but do you have a plan if someone gets upset or takes to the media to spread negative messages about you? How do you deal with publicly shared complaints? What do you do if you find your name is mud? Consider that part of this idea is connected to data breaches and how you keep and store information.

Visit sites directly. Always make sure that you are visiting your social media site by directly typing the address into the address bar at the top of the screen. Be aware of clicking links that take you to social media sites from third parties, especially if they ask you to log in again.

Think before adding. Not every account that wants to connect to you is legitimate, and there are countless empty or fake profiles being used for a variety of dodgy activities. Check before making connections.

Click cautiously. There are websites, pages and emails that are ‘phishing’ (trying to trick you into providing personal details) and links that are attempting to gather your information. If in doubt don’t enter your details, even if it has logos and similar branding. There are many ways in which anyone with some basic design abilities can recreate a legitimate company’s style or branding.