V P COMMUNICATIONS

2013 Carlson Leadership Academy

INTRODUCTIONS Facilitators

Kay Robinson Bryce Giesler

Agenda: Morning & Afternoon sessions Who Are you? Your Expectations? Parking Lot…

SESSION OUTCOMES Understand the role and significance of the VP

Communications Determine strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats as

VP of Communications Understand the various SigEp communication channels and

how to effectively leverage them Learn how to pitch a story, get published, and use local

media to create chapter publicity Learn how to use social media in a chapter’s

communications plan Create an effective communications plan Learn and discuss best practices as a VP of Communications Create SMART goals to aid you in being successful as the VP

Comm

GETTING STARTED Use each officer’s individual strengths to build

a complete team. Enhance skill sets. Be able to manage both

the intangibles and the tangibles of leadership. Think through individual responsibilities Remember, the ultimate measure of our

performance is that of our chapters. Work toward our vision for SigEp

COMMUNICATIONS – MORNING SESSION Understand the role and significance of the

VP Communications Determine strengths, weaknesses,

opportunities, threats as VP of Communications

Understand the various SigEp communication channels and how to effectively leverage them

Learn how to pitch a story, get published, and use local media to create chapter publicity

ROLE OF V. P. COMMUNICATIONS Define role in Chapter Describe your responsibilities as VP Comm What are the most important? What gets you Excited? Nervous? Role of VP Communications involves…

ROLE OF V. P. COMMUNICATIONS V. P. of Communications is a crucial, yet often under-

utilized role within the chapter. Many duties were once reserved for the President Make a dramatic impact on those not familiar with your

chapter. V P of Communications = Chief Information Officer. (C.I.O) Maintain strong lines of communication among your various

audiences—both internal and external. Be proactive in distributing information to:

Members, Parents, News outlets, SigEp Headquarters And your many other audiences.

Historical record keeping - important, but a small part of the job

MESSAGING Help craft the message on campus

What is the core Message How does VP Comm & cabinet play a role?

Build a cabinet Who is in a cabinet? What makes a good cabinet?

SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths – Internal characteristics that give you an advantage over others

Weaknesses – Internal characteristics that place you at a disadvantage relative to others

Opportunities – External chances that can lead to increased performance and success

Threats – External elements that can lead to trouble and/or unsatisfactory performance

SIGEP COMMUNICATIONS CHANNELS Various SigEp Publications

Objective Audience Types of Stories Frequency

Ideas & Tips for submitting a story… HQ Stringers

GET PUBLISHED LOCALLY/ON CAMPUS Why is PR important? Chapter PR Handout; Topics

General Media Relations Events and Activities Publicity Scholarship and Leadership Publicity Crisis: When media comes to you.

Sample

PRACTICE: PITCHING A STORY Pair up

Tell about a recent or upcoming event. Spin it for different publications. Local newspaper Journal story Sound Bite story Identify important elements for each outlet

Brief outline of the story about your partner’s chapter.

MORNING RECAP Write down your take-aways from this morning Specific requests for the afternoon session Parking Lot LUNCH!!!!

COMMUNICATIONS – AFTERNOON SESSION Learn how to use social media in a chapter’s

communications plan Create an effective communications plan Learn and discuss best practices as a VP of

Communications Create SMART goals to aid you in being

successful as the VP Comm

RISK MANAGEMENT Lunch Follow-up

RM Take-aways? How does it apply to your position? One thing to improve chapter approach to RM? Questions, Follow-up for group discussion?

Case Study

ALUMNI COMMUNICATIONS Alumni are important, but first responsibility is

to the chapter Newsletters – More practical for AVC or

Volunteer to handle Contribute stories to newsletter, and include

parents. Ways to maintain Alumni Contact

Keep calendar of events updated Coordinate schedules for Homecoming, etc. Invite to Rituals Engage through social media

THE POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIAImportance of Social Media Personal FB, Twitter, G+, etc. accounts? Chapter Accounts? Why is it important?

The people you’re engaging have all made the choice to come to you! You have a captive audience, whereas a mass email or a flyer might not be seen.

Lots of people read social media more carefully (or more often) than their email. It doesn’t feel like they’re getting SPAM from unwanted sources.

Reach a very wide audience, including undergraduates, alumni, potential new members, parents, university members, other chapters, and more.

You can see who’s talking about you. You can spread your brand/message virally. This is a great place to communicate with parents

THE POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA Chapter experiences? Why Beneficial?

Connects people. Method of communication more relevant to

today’s college students and young alumni, plus more and more older alumni are learning every day.

Great way to share/communicate events, photos, news, keep people in touch.

MANAGING SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS Best Practices Handout Interactive (Rush videos?) Surprises? New information? Ideas for status updates (FB, Twitter) or Videos

Contest: The chapter with the largest increase in Facebook fans over the next two weeks wins a prize!

Take a screenshot of your chapter’s group when you get home from CLA. Take another screenshot two weeks after CLA. Email both pictures to communications@sigep.net so we can see how big the increase was.

Tell all of your new fans to follow us at: www.facebook.com/sigmaphiepsilon! And @OfficialSigEp on Twitter! And www.facebook.com/SigEpBlog! And @SigEpBlog on Twitter!

New Game in town: Google+ Circles, Communities, Hangouts, Collaboration, Screen share, +

++

CREATING A COMMUNICATIONS PLAN One skill that’s important is the ability to plan

ahead. Let’s practice setting up a detailed

communication plan. Why is a communication plan a smart idea?

Allows you to think long term—even months ahead of time.

Writing it down means you can share it with the rest of the chapter.

Writing down steps makes it easier to delegate specific assignments to members of your cabinet (or anyone else who wants to help out).

CREATING A COMMUNICATIONS PLAN Exercise – 15 Minutes Split up into groups of three for this exercise.

Meet somebody new, from a different chapter, who they haven’t worked with already this week.

Use a big philanthropy/recruitment event in April.

Look at the Communication Plan Template in your workbook

Create a plan to publicize the event. Think about all sorts of mediums.

COMMUNICATIONS FORUM – 25 MIN Discuss important issues for your chapter Share with others and get outside perspective Approach:

What is the issue? What is the goal? What is the initial action you can take.

GOAL CREATION AND PLAN OF ACTION SMART Goal Setting

Specific — Must make sense and be clearly understood.

Measurable — Some quantitative number or measure must be attached to each goal so that members will know when it is achieved (e.g., 35 men in recruitment; raise $5,000, 3.15 GPA).

Attainable — Must be within reason yet “stretch” us.

Relevant — The moral and ethical check when engineering your goal.

Timely — Set a time line. Be specific. Give a completion date.

WRAP-UP Tie up any loose ends and answer any

questions. Refer to the expectations list created at the

beginning of the day Try to cover all those topics on the PARKING

LOT that have not been covered already. You will be meeting with your executive board

team after a quick break.