It's been another busy week for the Scout Association's Media Team

This week we launched our new Sexual Health guidance material.

Our policy is to ensure our 100,000 adult Leaders have appropriate information and guidelines available so that if a young person came to them and asked for advice around the issues of sexual health they are equipped to respond in a sensitive and positive way.

The Sunday Telegraph ran with the story last weekend followed by most of Monday's papers. It would be fair to say that in the press it was a bit of a Marmite moment. As you can imagine a range of views were expressed about our decision to work in this way. Print journalist and columnists either loved the concept or hated it. Ann Widdecombe MP predictably hated the idea, especially after we obtained a supporting statement from Beverley Hughes, Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families

We always knew that it would be hard to get our message across as effectively as we would like in print. We also knew that if we were able to secure some broadcast space then it would be easier to make our points. We therefore set up our campaign to be able to respond to TV, Network and local radio requests and use this platform to get our messages across. In three days the spokespeople team (an adult Leader and a youth member) covered over 100 radio and TV interviews which have resulted in over 230 pieces of radio and TV coverage across the UK. These interviews were often put together with vox pops from the public. In the vast majority of cases the public comments supported our position.

What a shame then that in this week's PR Week, our campaign was recorded as a miss rather than a hit in their weekly analysis of events. If the journalist who wrote the piece had seen all the broadcast material we had seen I think the results would have been different. But that's life.

The bottom line is though - that now more of the UK population think we are in tune with the needs of modern day young peoples and are supportive of the organisation and what we are offering young people. We even got a mention on C4's 8 out of 10 cats!

If you want to find out more about Scouting Policy on Sexual Health Advice and read, see or hear some of the coverage generated then click on these three links

http://www.scouts.org.uk/noticeboard_view.php?noticeboard_id=57

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7680077.stm

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ3uFjgqOWs

Keep an eye on C4's "Embarrassing Teen Bodies" programmes (21.00 Tuesday 28th October) for two Explorer Scouts finding out more about the HPV vaccination programme.

Simon Carter, Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications at The Scout Association

Following on from Fay MacDonald's excellent tips on individual networking in this blog, I thought I'd share some experiences of consortium working; 'organisational networking' if you will.

Consortiums work best when used to lend weight and importance to an issue that necessitates individual agendas (and egos!) be laid aside. For example: a topic of national importance that requires Government attention, a call for international intervention on a large scale, or the need for a mass public movement.

They 'work' worst (and I wisely resist the temptation for an anecdote here) when one organisation attempts to reign others (perhaps considered more credible or 'grass roots') under a misguided banner. However, let's stick to what works best - and leave the laundry for the memoirs.

You may be a middle-manager or officer and feel you have little organisational steer when entering into consortium working, but I think we can all play our part. After all, your not-for-profit has been invited to play a role because it has a particular expertise or bespoke focus - so never downplay your strength when facing the 'bigger boys in the classroom'.

DO invite yourself along to meetings, to mingle and to offer your specialisms and experience and to weave your messages into the broader campaign.

DON'T be a case study machine without recognition, or put your new buddies above your beneficiaries.

Letters to the Editor can be a chore when written by committee, but beyond this standard call to action in a (likely) sympathetic newspaper, it remains the real voices of real people that will be attractive to the media and other stakeholders.

DO brief your spokespeople and ambassadors, but it should be subtle enough not to obscure the broader 'one message'. There are other tricks that can be purely visual - such as wearing your charity's pinbadge or a T-shirt at a consortium event or TV spot. For example, it was superb branding of Save the Children's director Jasmine Whitbread to be adorned head to toe in their logo - as well as getting Shameless actor David Threlfall to don a T -shirt too - at the End Child Poverty gig in Trafalgar Square on 4th October 2008 . One big message, but ECP Director Hilary Fisher saw the benefit of showing the public that charities were 'in it together' so encouraged both 'Keep the Promise' - and individual - branding.

Online, especially the BBC, sometimes put a 'links' section where your charity's website can be listed - even though it may have been omitted in the body of the piece. It's worth offering to do some of the consortium legwork / selling-in so that it's you that has that conversation with the journalist.

However, there are times to be humble, and consider whether your charity's raison d'etre is bleeding through into the messages, and if so - is it necessary to get a namecheck everytime? If a killer message about disability (for example) is the key statistic used, isn't it better to be getting this out into the public domain rather than a token rewording of your slogan or mission statement? And remember, you can always diversify / splinter off into your own trade press - allowing you to lead with your case study - and namecheck the wider consortium at the end of the piece; thus turning the tables but still toeing the line.

By playing fair, and playing along, consortium working can be something you can dip into and out of - share the glory and the publicity when it's right. Oh yeah...and change the world a little bit as well. Two (or multi) heads can be better than one, and if you are small then having your CEO or charity tagged onto a piece of national coverage or marketing is a real boost. But if you rely on consortiums to up your game rather than concentrate on your own cause - then perhaps you've got less to shout about in your day job.

Rob Dyson, PR Manager at Whizz-Kidz

Good to read journalist Johanna Payton's blog post below for her take on the desirability or otherwise of named days.

You know the sort of thing: from the worthy - World Day Against Child Labour - to the weird. Like the proposed Toad Day Out where Australian families have been urged to roll up their sleeves and slaughter the cane toad in a national day of amphibian pest control.

And before all toad lovers start blogging the point is not whether it is a good idea to whack cane toads with golf clubs, sticks or a rolled up copy of PR Week, it is about whether the 'day of' has gone past its sell-by date.

The intentions behind the days are invariably sound. Raise awareness of the issue. Attract new supporters, members, money. Get over a key message that moves your campaign or organisation forward in the minds of viewers, readers and listeners. But is the 'day of' format the best way to do this?

Admit it. When you see a leaflet, poster, flyer that proclaims yet another unique day don't you flick over and move on to the next page? I do.

With everything from the day of the potato to the day of the ingrowing toe nail (ok so I made the last one up but do check out the UK Potato Days) do such days really serve your public relations needs? If they do that is great but sometimes I am just not convinced.

We hear from fundraising colleagues about donor fatigue. What about 'day of' fatigue? Can't we just organise exciting events and informative sessions to meet the staff/volunteers/experts without the mind-numbing tag of another 'day of'?

As public relations and communications professionals we have the energy, creativity and skill to represent issues and organisations with innovative and impressive means. So why then do we always hark back to the good old tired but tested 'day of'?

Because it's easy. And everyone knows that it will get some coverage if not a lot. And the volunteers expect us to do it as the day is often a lot of fun (and hard work).

If you've ever sat in a planning meeting in January thinking about a truly new angle on Worlds AIDS Day for the following December you will know how hard it can be to get across your organisation's take on AIDS and the amazing work that you and your colleagues are doing. So do what other fellow fatigued communicators are doing: opt for something interesting and really targeted to selected journalists at another time of year.

And none of this should be seen as critical or the work done in the past by creative campaigners working in everything from cancer research through to clean water provision in the developing world. The plea is just to take a real, hard look when someone at that planning meeting says "why don't we do a day of the xxx?"

Resist, resist!

Norma Johnston, CharityComms Director

I never meant to end up managing PR for the UK's largest coeducational youth work charity. It kind of just happened! In the mid 80's what turned me on was glaciology and studying the way landscapes changed over time. I initially went to work for the Scout Association to save up some money so I could undertake a PhD at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge. The trouble is I liked what I was doing on a day to day basis. I am not quite sure how I got from a departmental assistant responsible for updating policy and rules to pro-active PR work. I guess I have been lucky and have worked with some great bosses who have knocked off my rough edges and helped me build my skills but as I say I never actively choose to work in the media. The great thing is it's fun and I have learnt loads along the way. Even after 20 or more years in the voluntary sector I am still learning (and relearning) new things every day...which leads me onto the point of my first blog for this site.

My team spent last week trying to close down a story that had the potential to do us damage. We had been working with the Met Police for over a year on an exciting new project around engaging more young people in our youth work programmes. In the run up to the launch of this project a combination of inaccurate briefing and poor reporting meant our messages were not getting through. In fact despite our best efforts the information out there was just plain wrong!

After two days of chipping away at the problem and some negative reporting in the national press we were making little headway. Our only option looked like weathering the storm and waiting for the credit crunch to move the agenda on. Then BBC Breakfast come to us asking for support in putting together a piece that explored the issues in depth. The time frames were stupidly short and we did not really have the resources in place (people, case studies spokespeople etc) to do the job properly (Which I guess is always true) and we had loads of other important stuff planned and in the diary. It just felt wrong as the BBC initially wanted to repeat the same incorrect story that the newspapers had been reporting. But a quick phone conference with the team confirmed that even though we were not well placed to make the piece a success we would go for it as we decided this was the only way we could get the correct messages out there. We had to call in a lot of favours from friends and colleagues to make it work. I even persuaded the person we put up as spokesperson to break off from planning her own wedding to do the interview. I faithfully promised her one hit at 07.50. In the end she ended up doing another hit at 08.50. That will cost be a bigger wedding present!

We got there and ended up getting two good hits on BBC Breakfast that were spot on message. If you want to see what happened: click here. The whole team pulled together and I am really proud of them.

The lesson I relearned this week was to grab the opportunity when it’s there and work with the way things are going rather than confront them head on. It would have been easy to pass up a really good opportunity as it did not fit in with our plans. As it turned out all the efforts were worth it even if it will cost me a bigger wedding present. I am looking forward to celebrating with Graham and Caroline on Saturday afternoon this week as they get married.

Simon Carter, Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications at The Scout Association

With the current economic climate impacting us all, I'm often involved in ongoing discussions with clients around how best to promote your organisation when times are hard and budgets are small. One of the key activities I always tend to recommend is networking. This is something you can do all year round and can be really rewarding, especially for smaller organisations.

Whilst networking events are not usually free, if you pick the right ones, they are usually a good investment as it can be a fabulous way to build relationships and meet influencers and referrers. Note that I didn't say networking can be a fabulous way to get new business or recruit funders. It can be, but it's not usually direct in the sense that you don't go along to an event and blatantly sell your product or organisation and then get immediate results. A clever cartoon I saw summed this up perfectly when it says "If you talked to people the way advertising talked to people they would punch you in the face." Enough said. Effective networking is about discovering opportunities, sharing information and knowledge which can be a great resource and form of ongoing support. Also, if you are a not-for-profit be sure to ask membership organisations if there is a discount on the annual fee or one off events.

To get the most out of networking, I recommend the following tips:

Find the right groups
If your organisation and the work it does is positioned as a local one, it makes sense to start close to home. Your local chamber of commerce is often a good place to start or else your local Business Link might be able to recommend some in your region.

Know your position and message
Be clear about your organisation, what it does and your role within it. Try to be succinct and be honest. You will be the face of your organisation; an ambassador, so before you go along take a few minutes to think about what you want people to remember about you. Not every person you meet will be overly interested in what you do, but they might be able to recommend to a friend, company or peer who could be.

Be interesting, but be interested
Be friendly, open and genuine. Ask questions and remember to listen! Even if you think your work is the most interesting project on the planet, there is nothing more frustrating than listening to someone talk about themselves for 20 minutes, even if they are Brad Pitt's stuntman! Keep a dialogue going and don't talk at people. Try and find out what they are seeking to get out of being there - is there anyway you can help them? This is about building mutually beneficial relationships.

Mingle
Even if you don't feel particularly confident about talking to new people, bear in mind that quite a few of the people there probably feel the same! Try to avoid sticking to one person like glue all night and even when you already know people, always make an effort to speak to several people you don't know too. If there is someone there you would really like to meet but you’re not sure how, you could always ask the organiser for an introduction.

Meaningful Follow up
Often, one the key objectives of networking is to secure the next step in the relationship, once you've established a reciprocated interest or opportunity. This will usually mean arranging an informal meeting or chat over coffee. This opens the door to build on your initial conversation, gives you scope to talk on a one to one level and also means you don't monopolise them for the whole event. It's a great way to end a good first conversation - be sure it's what you both want though and you're not just pushing for a meeting for the sake of it that isn't going to be useful to either party.

Get involved
Another way to make the most out of such events is to volunteer to get involved - help the organisers, give time, share skills, offer to be a speaker if you have a particular area of topic that you think their audience may be interested in hearing about. This helps hugely to raise your profile in a really positive way and costs little more than time. I can speak from experience as probably 80% of my current clients have come via referrals from people I’ve met whilst networking and through volunteering at my local Chamber of Commerce.

Useful links:
http://www.britishchambersofcommerce.org.uk
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk
http://www.business-scene.com/index.php?newregion=charity

Fay MacDonald, Director, Diosa Media Ltd, www.diosamedia.com