Solicitation Overload!!

I am a strong advocate for managers at mission-based organizations to submit articles and information for publications outside their own organizations, as well as for their participation as presenters at conferences both on and offline. These activities create credibility for the individual and the organization he or she represents, help get the word out to a broader audience about good things the organization is up to, add to the organization's reputation as a collaborator, and so forth.

That said... many of us are on "submit a story" or "please present at our conference" overload. I get a solicitation at least once a week from a representative of a portal, publication or conference to submit a story or create a presentation, and many colleagues have reported the same. In this time of staffing cutbacks and increased workloads, many people are finding it impossible to allow the time needed to prepare information for any organization other than their own.

If your online publication or portal solicits stories or other information from others outside of your organization, or, if you are going to hold an online event and need people from outside your organization to participate as presenters, consider people's shrinking availability, their own on-the-job priorities, and the increasing number of competitive offers they receive. You should consider what incentives you can offer to make it worth a person's time to contribute to your online publication, portal or workshop, including:

• Detailing in your solicitation how many people visit your web site, subscribe to your email-based newsletter, or will be attending the conference.

• Noting in your solicitation how you will publicize the person's contribution outside of publishing their information or hosting their presentation. For instance, will you send an email to your subscriber-base? Posting announcements to online discussion groups? If so, approximately how many people do you expect to reach?

• Providing payment of some kind. The reality is that money is a big incentive for people to contribute as presenters or content providers for your organization. Consider putting a line item in next year's budget specifically for this type of payment. Even a token amount can make a big impact on a person's willingness to provide content for your online publication or to create a presentation for your conference.

• Thanking each and every contributor, personally, not only at the time of submission, but also days or weeks after the information is posted or the conference is over. A personal note -- particularly something snail mailed can make a big difference regarding whether or not the person will respond to future requests for stories or participation.

• In addition to an email or postcard of gratitude, consider providing a gift of thanks (a t-shirt? a printed certificate? a coffee mug? a pin? a bumper sticker?).

 
The Above Information was originally featured in the Tech4Impact newsletter.

 
Return to the index of resources for "Community Relations, With and Without Technology"

Disclaimer: No guarantee of accuracy or suitability is made by the poster/distributor. This material is provided as is, with no expressed or implied warranty.

All Coyote Communications materials are works-in-progress. If you would like to add something to these materials, please contact me with your suggestion; if your contribution is used, you will be credited (unless you don't want to be). Please include your name, email address, web address (if applicable), the name of the company you represent (if any), and any other information you would like to share.

Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute a limited amount of material from this web site without charge to recipients if the information is kept intact and without alteration, and is credited to:
          

Please notify me if you intend to use these materials or to quote me.

my consulting services | about Jayne Cravens | return to home page |
contact me | linking to or from these pages