Equipping Yourself to Engage with the Media

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Equipping Yourself to Engage with the Media
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• Why PR?
• Cost of Advertising - Expensive
• Value of Advertising With no brand, very little
• Cost of PR - Inexpensive
• Value of PR Builds brand awareness and allows
  you to tell a story

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• What PR can do for you?
• Inform your target about your league, tournament
  or club
• Drive registration
• Raise awareness among potential new sponsors
• Help current sponsors see additional value in
  sponsorships
• Increase spectators

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• What else?
• Generate goodwill and excitement about your event
  or organization
• Establish yourself in the community
• Promote your teams and athletes
• Report your results

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• Get Started
• Read the newspaper, watch television and listen
  to the radio this will help you identify who
  within your local media to contact and what is
  going on in your area
• Place introductory calls to build your media
  lists
• Or
• Contact sports departments at local newspapers
  and find out who covers soccer or youth sports
• Contact local television stations and find out
  who covers local sports
• Contact local radio stations and find out if
  there are programs covering youth sports or
  community events

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• Interact with the Media
• When you contact media, state your purpose up
  front and ask if they have time to speak
• Dont expect them to be interested
• Ask about special sections, columns or beats for
  soccer or youth sport writers
• Find out when deadlines are
• Determine their preferred methods of
  communication
• E-mail
• Fax
• Phone

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• Inside the Mind of the Media
• Try to find out what information they want and
  how they want it
• Ask what is important
• Ask what are their objectives
• Members of the Media are busy people, help them
  by preparing information ahead of time
• Schedule
• Rosters
• Player bios 

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• "Reality Check" 
• Youth sports and/or soccer news is not above the
  fold in today's sports landscape. Understand
  that a Thursday night league game will probably
  not yield great media coverage and may not even
  receive interest at all 
• So what is interesting to the media?
• Human interest stories
• Play-offs
• Big events
• What else? 
• Ask, they'll tell you... 

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• "Connecting with the Media" 
• Develop a relationship with the media member who
  covers soccer or youth sports
• Find out what you can about them
• Where their interests lie
• What other sports they cover, etc. 
• Be a resource to the writer
• Offer them the opportunity to contact you for
  background information, feedback, perspectives 
• Find out their personal information
• When you feel you have developed a good
  relationship - ask if they have "another" e-mail
  address that they might prefer you send
  information to or a cell phone number that you
  can call with news and scores as soon as a game
  ends. 
• Respect the media -They "don't have to cover your
  team/league"
• Remember, regardless of how comfortable your
  relationship becomes you are ALWAYS on the record

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• Now What?
• After preparing all your media contacts, create a
  distribution list, either e-mail or fax-based,
  depending upon media preference, to send out
  information

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• The Press Release
• The press release is a news
• story that puts an organization
• or individual in the best light
• possible, garnering media
• coverage
• What factors should be
• considered when writing?
• - Short
• - Sweet
• - To the Point

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• Basic components of a Press Release
• Headline
• The first opportunity to grab an editors
  attention
• It should transmit the core news/message so that
  the editor immediately knows what the story is
  about.
• It should be informative, but not necessarily
  sensationalized
• Leading off
• The most important part of a release is the lead
  paragraph
• The lead should answer 5 and if possible 6
  questions
• Who?
• What?
• When?
• Where?
• How?
• Why?

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• Basic components of a Press Release (cont.)
• Make your case
• The body of your release should bolster and
  explain the points you made in the lead.
• Fully describe your story
• You might include a quote or two providing
  further definition or endorsement
• Define or remind writers who you are
• If you have a web address, remember to add
• The boilerplate should offer a brief description
  of your organization

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• Boilerplate
• Try to tell your organizations highlights in a
  few sentences.
• About US Youth Soccer US Youth Soccer - The
  Game for ALL
• Kids! is the largest youth sports organization
  in the United States
• and member of the US Soccer Federation, the
  governing body of
• soccer in America. US Youth Soccer registers more
  than 3.2 million
• players annually, ages 5 to 19, and over 900,000
  administrators,
• coaches and volunteers in 55 member state
  associations. US Youth
• Soccer programs provide a fun, safe and healthy
  environment for
• players at every level of the game.

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• Some keys to remember for writing and
  distributing press releases
• Try to keep the release to one page. Dont
  confuse background with the essentials
• Stay away from hype, keep the article factual.
  Avoid the superlatives and adjectives
• E-mail it, If your contact accepts e-mail to save
  time and avoid errors
• Other than in the case of trademarked names,
  never use caps. Editors have to take the time to
  convert all caps to regular type
• Always write from a journalists perspective.
  Never use I or we unless its in a quote

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• Some keys to remember for writing and
  distributing press releases (cont.)
• Include contact information at the top of your
  release
• Follow up with a phone call within a day or two
  to confirm that the article was received
• Read lots of good newspaper writing, such as the
  Salt Lake Tribune or New York Times to get a
  feel for good writing and what is newsworthy

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• Some keys to remember when working with photos
• If you have a photo to go with your story, make a
  note at the top of your release. PHOTO(S)
  AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST
• Ask the media outlet if they prefer digital or
  film photography
• If film and you want a photo back, include a
  self-addressed, stamped envelope
• If digital send photos in a JPG at 200 to 300 dpi
  resolution. If youre in doubt, call the
  publication and confirm their requirements

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• Whats your angle?
• You have your media lists
• You know what your press release must contain
• You know how to get it to the right person
• What are you going to write about?