Communications and Outreach Workshop: North American Safe Boating Campaign ("Wear It!")

©2012 Paul Werth Associates | Tiger Team Meeting 1All content ©2012 Paul Werth Associates

Communications and Outreach Workshop

North American Safe Boating CampaignAugust 21, 2012

©2012 Paul Werth Associates | Tiger Team Meeting 2

Messaging & media


GOAL: Increase awareness of boating safety issues and increase the use of life jackets. (Strategic Plan, Objective 2 and Objective 4)

Who is sharing this message?

What are they saying?

Messaging & media


Campaign :30-second elevator speech:

No matter what activity you have planned - boating, fishing, sailing -

always remember to wear a life jacket every time you are on the water.

Accidents on the water can happen much too fast to reach and put on a

stowed life jacket. Wearing a life jacket saves lives. The North American

Safe Boating Campaign - or simply, ‘Wear It!’ - is a year-roundeffort to promote boating safety, including always wearing a

life jacket.

Messaging & media


Messaging & media

Delivering effective campaign messages:

Objective 2: Boating Safety Outreach(Grassroots efforts, traditional media and social media)

Deliver effective boating safety messages through various educational

resources and media to reduce deaths and injuries of recreational boaters.

Objective 4: Life Jacket Wear

Increase adult life jacket wear rates nationwide.


Tips for sharing the campaign message:• Answer the most basic questions

• Keep it short

• Top three messages

• Life jackets save lives.

• Remember to ‘Wear It!’ every time you are on the water.

• Follow safe and responsible boating practices.

• Making it interesting

• Keep the message in your best interest

• Share positive results

Messaging & media


Campaign talking points:• North American Safe Boating Campaign

• National Safe Boating Week

• Ready, Set, Wear It!

• National and state recreational boating safety statistics

• Life jackets

• Boating safety tips

Messaging & media


Media interviewee’s ‘Bill of Rights’:You have the right to:

• Decline an interview.

• Decline to answer a question.

• Know who will be interviewing you in advance.

• Know what general subjects will be covered.

• Know - in general - how, where, and when your interview will be used.

• Be assisted during the interview by your public relations and/or legal counsel, or at least have them present if you choose.

• Ask for additional time to research unexpected questions.

• End the interview at any time.

• Discuss problems with a reporter’s supervisor.

• Be treated fairly, honestly and professionally.

Messaging & media


Media interviewee’s ‘Bill of Rights’:You do NOT have the right to:

• See a list of specific questions in advance.

• Review a finished story before it is printed or aired.

Messaging & media


‘Be’ attitudes for media interviews:• Be cooperative.

• Be accessible.

• Be direct.

• Be a resource.

• Be an authority.

Messaging & media


Tips for successful media interviews:• Know the important points you want to make, and stick to it.

• Practice.

• State your conclusions first and state them again at the close.

• Avoid saying “no comment.”

• If you don’t know the anwer, say so.

• Always tell the truth.

• Nothing is “off the record.”

• “Background” the reporter before the interview.

• When interviewed on camera, look at the reporter.

Messaging & media


Answering questions from the media:• Keep responses under 10 seconds if possible

• If asked multiple questions, answer one - the easiest!

• Eyes on the message points

• NEVER repeat negative words

• Avoid complex words and examples

• It’s OK to say, “I don’t know”

• Breakdown tough questions to highlight one of your key message points

Messaging & media


Flagging ideas for emphasis (not nagging):

• “I can’t stress enough the importance of…”

• “Last year, thousands supported Ready, Set, Wear It! because…”

• “You should write this down.”

• “I’d just like to reiterate…”

• “Finally, the most important thing people need to know is…”

• “There are three things to highlight at this point…”

Messaging & media


Neutralize difficult questions by bridging:

• “That’s an interesting question, but what you really need to focus on is…”

• “Well, the answer is no, but what is really important here is…”

• “Did you know that…”

• “What we mustn’t lose sight of is…”

• “Let me answer by putting things into context.”

• “I think the real question is…” (Then ask the question you want to answer)

• “I can’t speak to that, but what I can tell you is…”

Messaging & media


Practice talking points (10 minutes)

Mock media interviews (10 minutes)

Messaging & media


State outreach efforts


State communications efforts:• Grassroots efforts (training volunteers, hosting events)

• Participating in media interviews

• Social media

Available resources:• SafeBoatingCampaign.com

• Campaign resource kits

• Messaging & media guidebook

• Logos and other branded resources

State outreach efforts


Social media


Social media success highlights:

Social media

@BoatingCampaign

facebook.com/SafeBoatingCampaign


How did communication begin?

Social media: Evolution of communication


We like pictures.



How did communications evolve?



We like hearing things.



Then we got visual.



Then we found a way to watch on demand.



The internet changed communication.



It’s still evolving.



Plain copy was boring.



Steve Jobs changed the game.



Internet killed the video star.



Think of the social media explosion:• MySpace was about copy.

• Facebook promoted photos.

• MySpace countered with audio.

• Facebook made video more accessible.

• MySpace lost its personal approach.

• Facebook won.



Do we see a trend?• Copy first

• Images second

• Audio third

• Video fourth

• Legitimate interaction always

Social media: Trends


A good social story:• Emotion

• Hits home

• Beginning and end

• Sparks action

• Captures the moment

Social media leverages copy, photos, audio,

video - it’s all about authentic and legitimate

interaction.

Social media: What’s a good story?


Facebook:• www.facebook.com/insights

• Customize your tabs

• Edgerank

• Info tab is important

• Disclaimers are more important

Social media: Tips


Twitter:• Keep it under 120 characters. You want people to retweet

you.

• Put the link in the middle of your post. Track your clicks through bit.ly or ow.ly.

• The less you tweet out links all day, the better click through percentage you get.

• The following words get you higher click rates: via, @, RT, please

Social media: Tips


Twitter:• Tweet on the weekends

• Tweet early and late in the day

• Hootsuite is your friend for scheduling

• Adverbs and verbs do better than nouns. Create emotion and action.

• Create lists.

Social media: Tips


LinkedIn:• Join groups

• Answer questions

• Don’t post the same stuff on Twitter that you do on LinkedIn. Keep it professional.

• Get recommendations

• Use the apps

Social media: Tips


Geolocation and recommendations:• Post comments on FourSquare

• Explore how to integrate Instagram and Tout

• Encourage people to review on various review sites (Tumblr, Digg, Reddit)

• These platforms have longer shelf lives than Facebook and Twitter

Social media: Tips


Questions

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Communications and Outreach Workshop: North American Safe Boating Campaign ("Wear It!")

Education