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● Introduction & Index ● What is PR ● Job Expectations ● Types of Media ● Building Relationships ● Media, Hams & FCC Rules ● The Basic News Release ● Interviews and Live ● Making your own show ● Easy P.R. ● Public Service Events ● Piggy-back to Events ● Pictures NOW! ● P.R. Research Aids ● Making Friends ● ARES® PIO ● Final Exam Information |
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We’ll go over how to create a website in a moment, but for those who gag at the very thought of working with computers and don’t want to get involved with the hassles of a special web address or internet servers… That’s OK. You don’t have to! For a quick and easy site, just go to www.WordPress.com and you can have them create one - and even host it - for free! I created one for myself just for fun in one evening. Easy! Static websites are fine in their place. They are good for providing easy to find, basic information to people. We use them in the three major campaigns. The only real problem with them for PR is that they do not attract people. In PR work you want to attract people to your topic. So, for the campaigns we created the brochures and the videos. That’s the attraction piece. Then we refer them to the websites for the “more information” parts. That combination works well… providing… You’ve seen them. They are bland and old. You know - the kind of websites that have not been changed or updated since Noah stepped off the ark. Having a website with outdated information on it is actually worse than no website at all. (At least if you have nothing there, people are not being misled.) But unfortunately too many clubs and groups create a website and then forget it. Anyone looking to join them gets email address that no longer work, contact people that no longer are there and “news” about Field Day of 2003. That’s not the way to make new friends. A website, even a static one, is like having a pet. You cannot forget about them and just walk off. Someone has to take responsibility to keep it healthy, cared for and fed with new information. Dynamic websites change regularly. These are the blogs, news crawls and video sites that can attract internet users all by themselves with no supporting materials. Quite often they have audio or video embedded in them, and that too changes regularly. The WordPress.com site I created is a blog - a running dialog that I add to (admittedly not that often) as things happen. YouTube.com is a dynamic website - and a great one! It is far easier to create and post video there than many people expect. Just shoot some video, edit it with your home computer (Windows XP has a movie maker built right into it that’s easy to use) and upload it to YouTube. They actually WANT clubs and nonprofits to use their free facilities. Watch this video from YouTube about 5 types of video that groups have used with success. Not all 5 types fit Amateur Radio groups, but you get the idea. |
