Most new pieces of technology have been designed to make life easier. Phones to read emails on, doing the shopping without leaving the house, Facebook so we never have to see our friends in person. It just keeps getting better.
What’s going to make life easier for you as a media relations officer working in a charity? Probably something that’s free and is going to help you get more media coverage for your charity. Well it already exists and it’s called askCHARITY.
askCHARITY.org.uk is a free online contacts book of charities for journalists, which is designed to help charities get more media coverage and ensure that journalists can get the charity contact details they need for their stories.
One of the most popular aspects of the service is the case study finder facility called the Answer Service - which lets media users send out their requests for spokespeople, interviewees and subject specialists to charities listed on the site.
We thought we’d share some of the top tips and feedback that we have about the site to ensure you’re making the most of what it has to offer!
Tip 1. Build your organisation’s media contacts book by looking at past requests.
As a charity user of askCHARITY, you can look at requests that have previously gone out from journalists. Each request gives the journalist’s contact details as well as giving you a good idea of their interests, sympathies and specialist subject areas. Jennifer Wilson of The Children’s Hospital Charity said, “I find the askCHARITY journalist request service really interesting and useful as it’s great to see the kinds of things journalists are looking for.”
Rob Dyson, PR manager at Whizz-Kidz agrees with Jennifer saying:
“askCHARITY is a fantastic resource and a peer-to-peer bible for charity PROs...The icing on the cake is the free journalist enquiry service; just essential during these times of financial prudence and cutbacks.”
Tip 2. Include your out-of-office mobile number on your entry.
Journalists use the search engine on askCHARITY to find the details of your charity to contact you directly. But the media never sleeps which means they may need to contact you outside of office hours – so don’t miss out – include your mobile number on your charity’s entry.
Tip 3. Be aware of deadlines.
Every request sent to you states the deadline, try and give the journalist plenty of time to digest and use your information. It may be helpful to have already prepared a range of case studies which can be called upon quickly. It is also useful to know whether your case study is happy to be identified and will provide pictures before you sell the story to a journalists.
Tip 4. Media requests are fantastic opportunities especially for smaller charities - so check them regularly!
One of askCHARITY’s badges of honour is that it helps the largest but least represented part of the charity sector: small charities. Often journalists contact larger charities rather than smaller organisations that they might not already know about. Peter Saunders of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC) says, “We’re a small charity and don’t have the time to pursue media coverage, askCHARITY has been very helpful in regards to our limited resources”.
Tip 5. Use askCHARITY to get coverage in media outlets that your charity doesn’t normally get coverage in.
What askCHARITY is particularly useful for is helping charities to reach areas of the media that are hard to reach. Hannah Rowley, PR officer at World Horse Welfare says, “We hadn’t been able to get into nationals or glossies before and it’s something we had been concentrating on, and now through askCHARITY we’ve had fantastic coverage in both.”
A great success story from the Bath Cat’s and Dog’s Home (BCDH) is their connection with Full House magazine. A contact through the Answer Service, Full House magazine publishes pictures of animals that need re-homing from BCDH every month. Rachel Phelps-Allen from BCDH said “a woman’s weekly isn’t a publication we would usually target... but we got a request from a journalist and went for it.”
Reaching new audiences is a recurring theme with charities using askCHARITY. Women’s magazines can be particularly tough to get into, but as BCDH proves, using the service can help make it happen. Even if you think you’re not exactly what the journalist is looking for, drop them a line anyway and suggest your take on the story they’re proposing. There’s nothing to lose.
Tip 7: askCHARITY is more than just a contacts book!
There’s the media directory, expert blogs and message board to help you keep in touch with other charities. Make sure you check the site regularly to keep up to date.
AskCHARITY has been going from strength to strength with nearly 3000 charities, 2500 journalists and over 6,000 requests sent out via the Answer Service. The onus is on the user, you reap what you sow with the Answer Service, act on as many requests as you can and enjoy!