Promote your cause without spending $$$

In today’s world of high tech there are lots of avenues to promote your cause without spending a lot of money. It will take you time but that why you are in this arena. In most cases you do it because you are part of the organization or you want to support a specific cause, or both. What I will tell you is how to accomplish the goal or getting you public relations information out to the public via many avenues that for the most part are free for the asking, from my experience. It will take some work on your part but it does do the job.

Newspapers

            We have a newspaper that provides a “Community Service” for nonprofit groups. That means they will promote your group at no cost. In our case they put 4 advertisements in the newspaper 3 times each. The ad size is 3”x 6”. You need to provide the artwork.

Magazines

            I have been successful in getting numerous articles along with photos about our group by contacting the local magazines. As I am out and about I pick up magazines and find the editor and then call. The call gets me an email address and I send articles I write to the email address. Sometimes they get in the magazine. Because its free the article should be interesting and about the local community. My experience is if the article has to do with “In the service of the community” it gets published.  

Internet

All of this is free. You do need to sign up and provide some basic information about yourself but it’s worth it.

            YourHub - This is a great place to post stories, blogs and events. Sometimes if the item is interesting enough they put the article and your picture in print in the newspaper.

            Yahoo – Yahoo has a place where you can post events that are occurring at the group. I post a lost of data here and the event pop up when you search for things going on in your neighborhood.

            Flickr – I signed up for a flickr account originally to post pictures that I took for my friends to look at. I enjoyed it and decided it made sense to sign up for a second account and then posted pictures about my group.

The key here is when you add the tags. Always use you groups name or its abbreviation every time you download a picture. It’s very easy to use. When I do a yahoo search most of the pictures that I put on flickr show up, when I click on my groups name and then click on images.