NETA Community Engagement Council Webinar

1. NETA Community Engagement Council Webinar Telling Our Stories Sandy Welch – Program Director, NSF Anne Bentley – Vice President, Corporate Communications, PBS Produced by: Angie Callahan, WHRO/Norfolk

2. Evidence Showing ImpactTelling your Story Sandra Welch Program Director

3. MeasuringAudience Impacts Awareness, Interest, Engagement, Behavior, Skills

4. This presentation is largely based on: And our website: http://evaluationspringboard.org/science

5. Intended Impacts, Indicators and Evidence

6. Chapter 1: Intro to Evaluation Why do an evaluation?

7. Chapter 1: Intro to Evaluation Why do an evaluation? • Ensure that your product/program is successful…and…

8. Chapter 1: Intro to Evaluation Why do an evaluation? • Ensure that your product/program is successful…and… • Prove that it is successful!

9. Options for doing an evaluation?

10. Options for doing an evaluation? • Hire a professional evaluator (if you have $$)

11. Options for doing an evaluation? • Hire a professional evaluator (if you have $$) • Partner with a local university

12. Options for doing an evaluation? • Hire a professional evaluator (if you have $$) • Partner with a local university • Use existing evaluations

13. Evaluations of Programs Examples to build on: Dragonfly TV/Sci Girls Design Squad NOVA Time Team America PBS NewsHour

14. Questions?

15. Anne Bentley Vice President, PBS Corporate Communications

16. Communicating Your Great Story Develop a Strategy • Identify your audience and your objectives. Who do you want to reach with this message? What do you want to accomplish? • Be more specific than “raise awareness” or “get press coverage” • Do you want to build awareness of your station’s work among educators and administrators? Do you want to build your brand among local businesses and potential sponsors? • The more specific you can be in your objective, the more potential you have for success

17. Communicating Your Great Story Choose the most effective vehicle to reach your audience • There are many tools in your press tool box • Use a press release to disseminate newsworthy information to a wide variety of news outlets • Use an Op Ed or letter to the editor to share an opinion or view point about a current topic in the news • Consider “pitching” a story to a local reporter if you have something you think is worthy of a feature article • And use direct communications with stakeholders (e-newsletters, social media) to reach your target audience more directly

18. Communicating Your Great Story Tell a compelling story • Make sure what you are sharing is relevant, unique, and interesting • Get to the point quickly, and assume that most people won’t read past the first or second sentence of whatever you’re writing • Always highlight the local impact, and explain why this matters to your local community • Use interesting statistics or examples • Include quotes from stakeholders or outside validators in press releases • Indicate if you have other assets (photos or video) that accompany the press release; providing this sort of material boosts the likelihood that you will get coverage

19. Communicating Your Great Story Follow up • It’s not enough to just send an email; follow up with a phone call • Build relationships with local news media; become acquainted with what beats different reporters cover • Don’t always expect news coverage when you reach out to a reporter; consider holding “briefings,” or providing background information so that reporters can include that information in future stories • Reporters are very busy people; try to become a helpful resource to them, rather than just another person who spams their inbox

20. Communicating Your Great Story Track your success, and leverage earned media across platforms • Share news stories that mention your work with your newsletter subscribers and supporters, and post them on social media • Make press releases and news clips easily accessible from your website • And analyze your outcomes, so that you can refine and revise your strategy as needed

21. Resources for Stations To help stations communicate their story, materials are regularly developed and provided by PBS A few examples include: • ValuePBS.org • Station Education Map • Customizable written assets, such as op-eds, press materials, etc.

22. Resources for Stations - ValuePBS.org • Lays out the case for why PBS and stations are “Trusted. Valued. Essential.” for communities, for education and for kids and parents • Provides informative, factual and specific information that is downloadable and highly sharable • Materials include PDFs, Fact Sheets, Brochures, Studies, Infographics • Embeddable on station sites with customization options

23. Resources for Stations – Station Education Map • A new Education Station Map feature has been added to ValuePBS.org to showcase the work being done by stations in local communities • Powered by information developed and managed by stations, the map is an interactive way to share the important education outreach work being done in communities around the country • Allows visitors to learn about stations’ education outreach efforts and initiatives on a • National, • State, and • Station level

24. Resources for Stations – Station Education Map • A new Education Station Map feature has been added to ValuePBS.org to showcase the work being done by stations in local communities • Powered by information developed and managed by stations, the map is an interactive way to share the important education outreach work being done in communities around the country • Allows visitors to learn about stations’ education outreach efforts and initiatives on a • National, • State, and • Station level

25. Resources for Stations – Station Education Map • A new Education Station Map feature has been added to ValuePBS.org to showcase the work being done by stations in local communities • Powered by information developed and managed by stations, the map is an interactive way to share the important education outreach work being done in communities around the country • Allows visitors to learn about stations’ education outreach efforts and initiatives on a • National, • State, and • Station level

26. Resources for Stations – Station Education Map • Station level view features local education initiatives, showcasing the hundreds of education engagement efforts taking place in communities around the country

27. Resources for Stations – Station Education Map • The map is available to embed on stations’ sites; instructions and more map-related resources and materials can be found on:Connect > Communicate/Promote > Articulating Station/PBS Value • Content Owners for nearly every station have been identified • These contacts have access to add/edit content on the site via an easy to use CMS tool, accessible at: http://valuePBS.org/wp-admin/ • If you have technical questions or need access to the CMS, contact: • Susan Timcheck | setimcheck@pbs.org | 703-739-5337

28. Resources for Stations - Written Materials • The PBS Communications team routinely produces customizable templates for stations’ use that highlight the impact of our collective work, telling our story and making our case, such as: • Speeches • Op-Eds • Press Materials • Social Media Language • Specific examples include: • CEO remarks at a City Club of Cleveland event • Public funding op-ed • Remarks from SXSWedu These specific materials are accessible at: Connect > Communicate/Promote > Articulating Station/PBS Value

29. Creating Testimonials • Intro to Storytelling • Real people connect with real people • Share tangible impact, more than fan stories • Show and tell why PBS stations are worthy of support • Strategy • Prove PBS stations are more than just another TV service • Impact stories are differentiating • Meaningful opportunities that broaden personal horizons • Casting • Finding storytellers takes time; build ~three months for casting into production schedule • Define what types of stories you’d ideally tell before starting the process • Storytellers should: • Reflect diversity of community and programming • Demonstrate tangible impact • Be believable, authentic and relatable for many • To learn more about producing a testimonial, an archived webinar is accessible at: ftp.pbs.org | Username: stations | Password: pbs345 | Folder: Tell Your Brand Story > Toolkits_Webinars

30. Questions?