rotary pr Tips
29 September 2011- edited by Joseph Lorenzo
Rotary in the news
Kelli Ellsworth-Etchison is passionate about Rotary and the benefits it affords her to connect with members in her community. A member of the Rotary Club of Lansing, Michigan, USA Ellsworth-Etchison believes that Rotary is the best way to stay “linked in” in the community and that it provides real-life connections - not possible online that strengthen over time. “My involvement in Rotary has enabled me to meet so many people, whom I otherwise would not have met, and who’ve affected my life in so many positive ways,” Ellsworth-Etchison says. Consider taking the time to promote your ‘Rotary Story’ and send it to your local media. Read her full post featured in The Greater Lansing Business Monthly Online.  

Celebrate World Polio Day - 24 October
To encourage widespread support for the effort to eradicate polio online, the website www.thisclose.net makes it possible for you to join the ranks of celebrities and others around the world in pledging to make a difference in this effort. Right now, you can create your own ‘This Close’ message, and share it with members of your social networks, and encourage them to do the same.
 
Here is how you can participate:
  • Visit (http://www.thisclose.net/),
  • Click on “Add your face and name”,
  • Select a silhouette,
  • Upload your picture or take a new one using your webcam,
  • Use the 5 different adjustment tools to customize your ad
  • Personalize your ad by selecting a color for the background and End Polio Now T-shirt,
  • Publish your ad in the online gallery as part of the global campaign,
  • Don’t stop there: Share your pledge and invite friends to do the same through Facebook, Twitter and other social networks.
You can also take part in a special celebration to honor the widely-recognized World Polio Day and Rotary’s tremendous progress around the world. The plan is to have Rotarians change their social networking profile pictures to their “This Close” ads and ask their friends to do the same, generating awareness about the issue and also collaboration.
 

Share Rotary's "This Close" video

 

Watch and share Rotary’s newest public service announcement, “This Close” — a video declaring to the world that we are “this close” to ending polio for good. With the help of notable figures including Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, humanitarian Jane Goodall, and actor Jackie Chan, this campaign is off to a good start. Help promote the video by copying the embed code and pasting it into your website or blog.


You can also share this video on your Facebook page, in your club or district newsletter, or through Twitter. If you have an opportunity to place this spot on a local television station, you can download a broadcast-quality version. See who else is supporting the print campaign. Radio, billboard, and Internet materials available at http://www.rotary.org/ads.

Follow Rotary PR Tips on Twitter
You can now join the @RotaryPRTips conversation on Twitter. Sign-up for a free account and join the Rotary public relations conversation. This account will help make more of an immediate connection with Rotarians who are responsible for club public relations. This account will also provide you with another resource to learn more about how you can make more of a local public relations impact in your community. We look forward connecting with you and hearing more about how you are promoting Rotary in your community. Please let us know if you have an idea of how we can best use this new account.

RI President Visit News Release

If RI President Kalyan Banerjee is planning a visit to your club during the next year, make sure to share this news with members of your local media by sending out a hometown news release. This template helps you create your own news release and contains background information about Banerjee. Make sure to customize your release by adding local content about projects or events happening while he is in town.



Did you know that Rotary PR Tips reaches more than 15,000 people in 120 countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe? It's a great opportunity to learn how the media works and how other cultures promote their projects. What PR tip would you share with readers? Send it topr@rotary.org.

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