Event Report

            On Tuesday, March 31, I attended an event through The Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law regarding strategic communications for advocacy. This event was part of a three event series on human rights skills. The event was run by Fernanda Katz Ellenberg, International Programs Coordinator for the Law School and former Senior Advocacy Officer at the Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Center for Human Rights, and Cate Urban, Communications Manager with WEConnect International, an organization that focuses on helping women-owned businesses compete on the global market.

            First, Ellenberg went through her background in strategic communications with the RFK Center. She explained how much of the work she did was on the ground with activists in other countries, doing things such as writing op-eds, helping promote petitions, working with celebrities, but primarily writing press releases. She didn’t go into much depth with many of the other options other than saying that accessing big names for a good cause is possible if you are persistent and stubborn. Often times they may not show up to an event, but they may make a donation or make a statement on social media supporting your cause, or even give you a quote for a press release. But primarily the event focused on how to write an effective press release.

            The first and most important thing, according to the two speakers (though Ellenberg did most of the talking,) is to not show your hand in a press release. You need to balance presenting your message effectively with not providing too much information to keep your edge above competing non-profits. Also, it is important to keep the press releases short. The speakers recommended holding them to one page at most. The next thing one should do while writing a press release is decide who you are talking to. Understanding your audience allows you to appropriately tailor your message. If you are speaking to lawyers focus on the legal aspect of things, while if you are speaking to a general public, it is better to keep things more broad. After that, you must ask, why now? Why is it important to convey this message at this time as opposed to a week from now? Often times press releases are responses to a particular event to help draw more attention to it. Timing, thus, is incredibly important in crafting an effective press release. Finally, the speakers emphasized the importance of crafting an effective title. Titles should be 50 characters at most, and should broadly convey the topic of the release without giving away all of the information. An example Ellenberg used was a, self-admitted, poorly done press release she had crafted in response to a statement made by RFK Center President, Kerry Kennedy, on the Ugandan Parliament legislating on an Anti-Homosexuality bill. The title used was, “Kerry Kennedy, President of the RFK Center, Expresses Grave Concern over Legislating Hatred by the Ugandan Parliament.” Ellenberg said that this title was too long and would have functioned better as an introduction sentence. Instead, she said the title should have been along the lines of, “Kerry Kennedy Says Uganda Parliament is Legislating Hatred.” It is short, it gets the message across, and it introduces the already well known Kerry Kennedy into the picture.

            Beyond that guide, the speakers presented four other tips to being effective. First, make sure all the information you are presenting is appropriate. This means making sure you are not saying too much, and the information you are presenting doesn’t get anyone you are trying to help in trouble. Second, include a call to action at the end. This can be anything from, “look out for more news on this issue,” to, “donate to our cause.” Including a call to action allows people to know what the goal of the press release effectively is. Third, don’t personify organizations. Don’t say that an organization did something, say that a specific person from an organization did something. It gives credit to those who actually do the work and seems more professional, according to the speakers. Lastly, “media spawns media.” This is to say that getting a press release in the Huffington Post gives your organization the credibility to move up to larger media organization like CNN or The New York Times. It also allows you to pressure these larger organizations, saying “company X is talking about this important cause, why aren’t you?”

            Overall, this was a very helpful event for anyone trying to work in strategic communications and the information the speakers provided seemed very well thought out and will hopefully be very useful for any potential career path I may follow.