Almost 20 Publicity Hounds took me up on last week’s offer to critique their news releases and story pitches that piggyback onto Hurricane Katrina.
In all but a few cases, I gave thumbs-down to what I saw.
Several Hounds came up with “Buy from me and I’ll donate a portion” offers which sounded tacky.
Another Hound whose expertise is leadership wanted to post a message on her website insinuating that President Bush, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin are the Bosses from Hell. I told her to remove it.
Another wanted my opinion on a fund-raiser his business is sponsoring. It has a humorous twist that’s so inappropriate that I’m even embarrassed to explain it here.
Enough said.
Thanks to Publicity Hound Ana-Marie Jones, executive director of Collaborating Agencies Responding to Disasters and a former staff member of the American Red Cross, for suggesting several ideas that she says can “help without the hurt, and make some great success stories.” They include:
—Donate money or disaster supplies to an agency serving people with special needs & give a donation to a sister organization in the impact zone. If it relates to your niche market, so much the better. Good examples are women’s shelters, eldercare/hospice providers, community dialysis clinics, and anything related to helping children heal. “You’ll be helping on many levels, and long after the disaster fades from the news, agencies will be sharing their efforts with donors, staff, volunteers, adding info to websites, sending mailings, creating annual reports, and otherwise promoting the successes you made possible,” she says.
—Find a local agency and flex your Publicity Hound skills to promote their Hurricane Katrina efforts. National organizations like the Red Cross have sophisticated marketing and PR support and can pull resources from all over the world. Most small, local nonprofit agencies have limited ability to get the word out. The leverage potential of this is great. See above.
—Protect your local residents, businesses and nonprofits from getting taken by the many Hurricane Katrina scam artists. It’s a great public service and it gets your name out to everyone. See her group’s rumors page.
—If you have disaster related support or services you offer to your clients, if you have pricing policies related to emergencies, or if you have business continuity plans and emergency protocols in place to help ensure your services will remain available, share it. Being a strong, resilient, prepared business AND being ready to serve your clients’ critical needs is a powerful selling point.
If in doubt, get a second opinion.