"Everything you need for an action" PR/social media workshop

In this three hour workshop, we will build a complete social media & pr campaign for an action or event and conduct a moc press conference.

1. INTRODUCTIONS (20 minutes)
Let us know what you're working on, what group(s) you're with, and what you hope to learn in the workshop.

2. PICK A CAMPAIGN (10 minutes)
As a group, we'll decide what action or event we want to make a campaign for. It can be something that a workshop participant is actually organizing, or we can pick an issue or movement to build a sample campaign around.

3. COLLECT INFO & DETERMINE CAMPAIGN COMPONENTS (15 minutes)
What do we need to know about an action or event in order to put a communications campaign together? This includes time, date and exact location of your event; info on the organizers of the event, including group or individual names, web sites, social media handles, and hashtags; and at least one contact name, phone number and email address for your press release.

What will the components of our campaign be? Typically, a campaign to promote and PR an event or action is built around a facebook event or web post, images or memes to use on social media, and a press release that's emailed. You can also include a twitter storm, direct outreach to media via phone or twitter direct message, and/or publishing your press release online.

4. CREATE YOUR IMAGES AND MEMES (30 minutes)
We will use the clipping tool, google image searches, and the free graphic design website www.canva.com to create a facebook event page cover photo and and image to use for twitter and facebook event promotion.

~ 15 minute break ~

5. WRITE YOUR EVENT POST AND PRESS RELEASE (30 minutes)
You'll use almost the same language for your Facebook event or web post and your press release.

6. POST YOUR EVENT AND MEMES (20 minutes)
We'll cover tips for Facebook event posting, and how to write promotional posts for Twitter and Facebook. We will also look at a few ways you can use twitter to inform media about your event and connect with them.

7. SEND YOUR PRESS RELEASE (10 minutes)
We will go through the simple steps to email a press release to my short list of 50 Chicago news assignment editors and top reporters. We will take a look at sending releases via gmail vs. sending them with MailChimp.

8. HOLD A MOC PRESS CONFERENCE (30 minutes)
We'll look at the roles you need to fill for your press conference, including an mc, two or three speakers, reporters, and crowd/supporters. We will hold a quick moc press conference where workshop participants will fill each of these roles.