BE SEEN BE KNOWN Getting the good news out to local media

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1 BE SEEN BE KNOWN Getting the good news out to local media

2 Managing the good news and the bad news Congregations are encouraged to maintain a positive profile with local media. Church Councils may also from time to time want to talk publicly about events in their community. Key Messages are important Getting your story in the local or regional media has the potential to inform large numbers of people, to challenge incorrect perceptions, inform and possibly change the way people think about faith, the Uniting Church and Christian views on a variety of issues.

3 Media Guidelines There are guidelines for media on the website with is a series of steps that can be taken to help you work with local media to raise the profile of your church. Build relationships with local media One of the best things you can do is build relationships with your local journalists. Find out who they are. Local media is interested in local news stories. You may be able to localise a Synod or national Uniting Church story. Contact the Synod Communications Team if you would like to receive media releases that could be given a local angle and contacts.

4 What is newsworthy? Special Events Forums Anniversaries Concerts Christmas and Easter services Courses you run at your Church

5 What is newsworthy? Special Events Forums Anniversaries Concerts Christmas and Easter services Courses you run at your Church People make the news. Are there interesting people in your congregation? Is your minister retiring after 30 years of service in your church?

6 Make sure your Church website is up to date always If you pitch a story to local media, often the first place they look is your website. Churches, who place a priority on being understandable and welcoming to non- Christians, find that they can really reach into the community.

7 Refer to the Media Guidelines for Churches There are tips to writing a media release, tips for interviews and what s newsworthy for you local news paper in the Media Kit for Congregations and Presbyteries. The Guidelines refer to local media. Refer queries by metropolitan or national media relating to the wider Church issues to the Synod Communications Team or Assembly Senior Media Officer.

8 Get some help from those who are doing it well Churches in your area may have already built a rapport with local news outlets. Contact them to find out things that have worked for them and even partner with them for the best results. News outlets are more likely to promote something they see as important in the local community.

9 We are here to help If you are contacted by radio or broadcast media please get in touch with the Synod Communications Team to find out what to do next. We are always looking for excellent local stories If you have a good news story about your church or faith community please details to contactus@nswact.uca.org.au

10 Digital Footprint Website nswact.uca.org.au (new website launching soon) Facebook Uniting Church official facebook.com/unitingchurchnswact Insights Magazine facebook.com/insightsmagazine/ Twitter Uniting Church Insights Magazine

11 SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CONGREGATIONS Promoting values and mission effectively

12 What is content creation? Your website has only seconds to capture interest. The initial exposure helps people determine whether they want to spend more time reading, listening or viewing. The key to creating content that people will engage with is mostly about trial and error until you discover what your audience wants.

13 What is content curation? Content curation is the practice of finding, organizing, annotating and sharing the best and most relevant first and third-party content for your audience.

14 Our websites are only effective when linked with social media tools Don t assume if we build it, they will come. Websites need to either be automatically linked to social media, or you need to curate and educate your audience through the use of social media tools.

15 Your index page is your best asset, but It s not what you have on your index page, it s how you promote it. Source (NYT Innovation Report)

16 10 tips for creating and writing great posts that your audience will love and share Craft shareworthy posts Building trust Share your data Be mobile friendly Post with purpose Post with your audience in mind: know what their questions and concerns are and why they re using social media.

17 Leverage the power of long tail keywords In longer posts, the opportunity for using a variety of long-tail keywords is greater. And this means better performance in search queries for semantically related keywords, not just exact matches. Longer content gets shared more A lot of studies have shown the undeniable relationship between higher word count and increased backlinks which increases SEO and, of course, conversions and rankings on Google. Write great headlines Short posts or long ones, great headlines rule. Use long tail keywords. Test them out on social media.

18 It s about quality AND quantity Many studies show search results rank based on volume of word count: The more content you have, the more of it gets indexed. Use more, bigger and better images Studies show images on Facebook pages increased shares by 53% over the average post, and that posts with images have an increase of 104% in comments. Avoid repetition Don t try to force your ideas with filler content; if you re satisfied with what you ve got, stop writing.

19 Give your posts time to simmer When writing longer articles, give your posts a day or two to age. This gives you time to switch gears between writing and editing to really fine tune your post. Put share buttons at the bottom of every post Make it easy for your readers to share by placing social media share buttons at the bottom of all posts and pages.

20 Strategies for posting to social media 1. Keep the goal of your post top of mind 2. Write compelling headlines (long tail keywords are your best friend) 3. Lead with the good stuff 4. Make every word count 5. Keep it simple 6. Provide context 7. Graphics expand on the story 8. People make things interesting

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22 Twitter People who prefer Twitter like: Short and simple messages, straight to the point. Links so they can get more information. Hashtags help group the message to a group of related conversations. Facebook People who prefer Facebook like: A personal touch. They want to know you re a real person. Belonging to a group or community of people. Keep in mind, people often use Facebook because they feel the need to belong.

23 Pinterest People who prefer Pinterest like: Stress relief: People go on Pinterest to relieve stress and organize things. Simplicity: Pinterest is an elegant, simple design that people love. Interaction: Pinterest makes it easy to discover new boards and engage with others when they re-pin your pin. Google + People who prefer Google+ like: Connecting: Google+ makes it easy to connect with people who have similar interests. It s great for meeting new people. Consolidation: Google+ is an all in one kind of network. It allows you to have long conversations like Facebook, share quality photos like Instagram, connect with likeminded people like LinkedIn, video chat like Skype, and more.

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25 5 tips for writing engaging headlines Make sure the headline works out of context Tell readers something useful Don t succumb to cute or faddish vocabulary Omit nonessential words Front-load headings with long tail keywords

26 Use video to tell the story Studies have shown people are scanning text and watching videos instead. A while ago Facebook changed their algorithm to play content that is directly loaded into your pages and this content is more highly ranked, against links out of Facebook to Vimeo or You Tube Channels.

27 QUESTIONS