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Archives for November 2012

Opportunity for New England Nonprofits: Student-Designed Event Plans

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I’m thrilled to offer this opportunity to New England-area nonprofits: a custom event plan by Framingham State students taking my Event Planning & New Media course.

Deadline to express interest: November 14, 2012.

Please have the point-of-contact at the nonprofit email sue(at)DesignatedEditor.com and be sure to include a link to the nonprofit’s website.

Framingham State UniversityFor their final group projects, students will work with nonprofits to understand their target audiences and design a new event for them. The nonprofits will gain a plan to guide their new events, and we hope the organizations can host these events in the future. This is an ideal opportunity to work with a younger demographic and see what types of event may work best to reach 20-somethings.

Students will conduct a phone interview to better understand nonprofits’ goals and target audiences. The projects will develop a new event concept and provide a plan to support it. It’s a great opportunity to tap into a 20-something mindset.

Please note

Students select which nonprofits to work with; they are not assigned in the hope you’ll see some passion in their work.

This is not an internship: Students will be delivering a well-designed plan and will not be there for events (although beyond-class arrangements can be made with students).

Highlights from the actual event-plan assignment

1. Interview a development/marketing professional at your nonprofit so you can better understand and thoroughly describe in your event proposal:

  • Target audience
  • Goals
  • What types of events do the nonprofits think would NOT be successful

 2. Create a NEW concept (as opposed to them giving you ideas). Thoroughly describe your event:

  • Detailed assessments of target audiences that would attend your event. Be sure to discuss personas.
  • Describe the event and outline as many facets as appropriate: venues, timelines, features, food, entertainment, etc.
  • How you recommend promoting your event to various target audiences (hint each may require different tactics)

I look forward to providing my students an opportunity to create portfolio-level work that will benefit resource-starved and worthy nonprofit organizations in New England.

Thanks so much for passing this information along to nonprofits in your network who may be interested,

Suzanne aka Prof. McDonald

 

Authors and publishers: Stay relevant with PR and multimedia

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Responding to changes in the publishing industry, insider Barbara Cave Henricks explored how authors and publishers can set themselves up to succeed in this new environment.
As the publishing industry evolves to a faster, more consumer-centered marketplace, there is much to be learned from professionals like Barbara Cave Henricks, who gave a talk called “Discoverability and the New World of Book PR” at South by Southwest Interactive 2012.
She is the President and CEO of Cave Henricks Communications, a media relations firm, and  represents brands such as IBM, Amazon, and Gallup, and publishing companies including Random House, Penguin, HarperCollins, Jossey-Bass, and Harvard Business Review Press. Detailed below are some of her insights on how authors can get ahead in this rapidly changing environment.
Multimedia marketing boosts book sales
  • Video hugely effective in book marketing. Book trailer can showcase author’s charisma and  gain media attention
    • Video can be very effective to build a rapport with readers
    • Video is good for PR purposes, but keep your videos fewer than 3 minutes long
  • Pinterest is an opportunity to engage with important audiences
  • Evaluate the pin-ability of website images
  • Google+ is  all about personal branding and boosting search results
    • Be sure add articles to your Google+ profile

Million dollar question: What is a book going to look like in 3 to 5 years?

  • Books of the future will be like a magazine subscription, gets updated on your device
  • What is the bookstore of the future? A coffee shop with an espresso-book machine
  • Curation of PR lists is much more crucial for books today. Don’t just be a part of the noise, differentiate
  • Give readers a reason to use their smartphones when marketing books, photosharing, take action

It’s the author’s job to extend the conversation past the book

  • Marketing is the ability to produce interesting content that gives an audience something to talk about
  • Find ways to be heard, provide meaning, authors are expected to participate fully
  • Provide value to an audience and keep building that, need to have a league of fans to help boost your book
  • Best book campaigns requires full and early cooperation between authors and publishers
  • Extend the book with quotes, action items, help make it memorable, and include interesting typography

Thanks for the insight, @RustyShelton, @laurakelso, @barbarahenricks, @shelbysledge, @ambermcginty, @KeithArsenault !

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