With social media, inaccurate statements and deceptively-edited videos can go viral in seconds. In this fast paced environment, effective communications teams create an organizational culture that values preparedness to successfully address crisis situations as they arise. Working with some of the most targeted nonprofits, we’ve identified some of the commonly experienced phases of opposition campaigns and steps for analyzing false claims. Readers receive guidance on managing difficult narratives, putting information in context and strengthening brands.

Contributors offer some of the industry’s best thinking on the topic of media training, public relations and media relations. Other chapters in the guidebook include:

• Journalist Relations
• Messaging
• Game Day Prep
• Prepping the C-Suite & Other Spokespeople
• Before and During the Interview
• Social Media
• Crisis Management

PRWeek Names Camino Public Relations Finalist for Crisis and Nonprofit Campaigns of 2012

Camino Public Relations and Planned Parenthood Federation of America: Planned Parenthood, Komen Funding Story: Turning Crisis into Breast Health Promotion

New York, NY (PRWEB) February 21, 2013

PRWeek, a leading communications industry publication, has named Camino Public Relations one of five finalists in two categories for its work with Planned Parenthood Federation of America to turn the 2012 Susan G. Komen funding crisis into breast health promotion.

The PRWeek judging panel is made up of senior professionals from agency, corporate, nonprofit, education and government backgrounds. The winners will be announced at the PRWeek 2013 Awards dinner on March 7, 2013 in New York City.

“As a boutique firm focused on social justice issues, we are honored that the PRWeek judges chose us as a finalist and proud of our partnership with Planned Parenthood Federation of America,” said Elizabeth Toledo, president of Camino Public Relations.“Instead of assuming a defensive posture, Planned Parenthood embraced a strategy to change the public conversation about women’s health and significantly expand awareness of the organization’s lifesaving cancer prevention services. Solid public relations strategies combined with excellent organizational leadership turned a crisis into one of the most-talked about issue awareness campaigns of 2012.”

The Susan G. Komen Foundation (Komen) sparked 2012’s largest philanthropic news story when it notified Planned Parenthood that it was disqualified from future funding opportunities. The conflict threatened to pit one of the world’s most trusted women’s health charities against one of the nation’s most trusted women’s health care providers, presenting brand implications for both organizations as well as for a wide array of corporate philanthropic programs.

As Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s crisis communications firm, Camino recognized the potential harm to underserved women and Planned Parenthood’s trusted brand. The communications strategy sought to increase support for access to women’s health care without political interference and prioritized a focus on patient needs and experiences.

The result was that more than 26% of traditional media coverage in the first 48 hours referenced Planned Parenthood’s clinic exam numbers, as well as the voice of patients. This patient-focused message platform was carried through the fundraising implementation conducted by Planned Parenthood’s staff and development consultants. More than 77,000 people donated $3 million in less than 3 days, and by August Planned Parenthood launched a new national breast health program.

“In crisis we see opportunities for a brand to further define itself and reassert its allegiance to the organization’s core values,” added Toledo. “By remaining true to its patients, Planned Parenthood was able to authentically connect with the public and further an important discussion about breast health access for all women. We were honored to be able to help tell that story.”

For more background, visit our case study of the communications campaign at http://www.caminopr.com.

About Camino Public Relations:
Camino Public Relations was founded in 2007 and represents more than two decades of experience in nonprofit communications. The firm’s strategists have been at the helm of the most prominent and controversial social issues of our time, including immigration, reproductive health care, health care disparities, affirmative action, sex education, LGBT issues, employment, politics and more. Camino helps spark positive social change and reach diverse audiences through media advocacy, publicity, social marketing initiatives and crisis communications. By introducing new areas of interest and shifting public perspectives, we transform the national dialogue on issues that matter to further equality and social justice.

Patton’s article looks at what living life in the fast food lane means to a McDonald’s worker who has worked 20 years as a fry cook.  Tyree Johnson earns just $8.25 an hour, minimum wage in Illinois. Johnson works at two McDonald’s restaurants in an effort to earn enough money to pay his rent at a single room occupancy hotel.  Neither of the restaurants will give him full-time hours. Johnson would have to work over a million hours to earn as much as the company’s last CEO, who took home $8.75 million last year.

Meanwhile, the current CEO of McDonald’s, Don Thompson, a 22-year veteran of the company who has roots near the Chicago housing project where Johnson grew up, has access to a private plane and investment counseling as part of his compensation package.  He also purchased two condos in an upscale Chicago neighborhood for $3.3 million.

The health consequences of eating a fast food diet are well documented.  Patton’s article sheds light on the socio-economic impact of fast food jobs – one of the largest growing sectors in the U.S. economy.

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The Sidney Hillman Foundation honors excellence in journalism in service of the common good.  TheSidney Award is given monthly to acknowledge an outstanding piece of socially conscious journalism.

Hurricane Sandy Relief: St. Mark’s Church from The Episcopal Church on Vimeo.

Hurricane Sandy. We all have been impacted in some way.

Parts of our city remain blacked out and people are hurting. After a normally busy Wednesday, requests for food and assistance have risen each day as people go without power. We have seen new pantry members, demand for hot meals and brown bag service, and requests for emergency provisions rise. We are hearing people talk about spoilage, a lack of cooking facilities to prepare food, and often a lack of resources to purchase it.

At YCP we continue to serve breakfast each weekday morning. Dinner three nights a week. Emergency pantry 7 days a week. Supplemental pantry four days a week. We have increased our output and will do so to serve our fellow New Yorkers during this time of need. Please know we are here for anyone that needs us. Come by, call, email or visit our website for more information on how to get help—or how to give it. If you can spare a few hours, volunteer to help pack and distribute food, or serve hot meals. And if you are in a position to donate, please consider doing so at this time, at http://tinyurl.com/YCPDonate.

If you are able to give help, YCP is looking for volunteers to assist with our Emergency Food Relief Project that will serve as an immediate response in the coming week:

·         We’re asking for twenty-five volunteers to come to YCP on Tuesday (November 6^th) from 10:30am-2:30pm to continue efforts started by Robin Hood Foundation, Fairway Market, and others to make brown bag meals to be provided to people in the communities most affected.

·         If you are unable to come in on Tuesday, we are asking for people to make brown-bag meals off-site that can be brought to YCP.  If you are able to participate in this project, we are asking that each brown bag meal consist of two deli sandwiches individually sealed (ziplock preferred), a snack item, such as granola bars, and a juice box.  These brown bag meals can be delivered to YCP beginning Monday, November 5^th through Thursday, November 8^th.

If you would like to help on Tuesday or are able to make brown bag meals throughout the week, please contact Jen Winter at jwinter@ycp.org.

We are so grateful for the immediate response of our volunteers and we ask for your patience as we work within our capacity to put you to work for our city.

Can we end HIV in America?  Last spring Dawn Averitt Bridge, one of the nation’s most dynamic leaders in the HIV-free movement, stopped by Camino’s offices to talk about a vision for achieving an HIV-free America.  That day we eagerly pledged to do what we could to spread the word.

Consider this: in the United States 1.2 million people are living with the virus, 50,000 are infected every year, and 1 in 5 people don’t even know they have it. With all of the advances in testing and treatment, and knowledge we’ve gained about preventing the spread of HIV – you would think these numbers would be smaller.

That’s why a broad coalition of public, private, nonprofit and government organizations that focus on HIV/AIDS came together to launch the inaugural National HIV Awareness Month (NHAM) in July. Camino was honored to partner with them on a multi-media strategy designed to re-engage the American public on the issue and build a strong foundation for an ongoing campaign that will culminate each year in July.  The campaign underscores the value of combining social and traditional media strategies for maximum reach.

The Opportunity

Over the last couple of decades a number of HIV/AIDS advocacy organizations and service providers have made huge strides in reaching out to at-risk audiences to increase awareness, testing and treatment. Several of those organizations were founding partners in the effort to launch a national awareness month, including AIDS United, amFar, the Black AIDS Institute, the Latino AIDS Commission, the Magic Johnson Foundation, the National Association of People with AIDS, the National Minority AIDS Council, the Positive Women’s Network, and the Well Project.

On top of that, NHAM coincided with the XIX International AIDS Conference, held in the U.S. for the first time in more than two decades – igniting robust interest from national, state and local reporters.

There was significant opportunity to use social media as a Launchpad for National HIV Awareness Month. A top social media share tactic was the launch of the Pledge to End HIV in America on the Care 2 petition site. The original goal of 10,000 names was shattered as the signatures passed the 30,000 mark.  An equally successful share tactic came in the form of five posters all designed by fashion icon Kenneth Cole for NHAM. Each poster was released on the NHAM Facebook page – one day at a time drawing fans back for each reveal.

To leverage the built in media interest for the international conference, Camino used traditional public relations tools, including a press release announcing the launch of the national awareness effort, and advisories detailing the availability of experts. The materials reached more than 2,200 reporters at news, consumer and health publications and broadcast outlets, in English and in Spanish. A PRWeb distribution also resulted in direct deliveries to more than 7,800 media outlets and more than 1,200 full page reads on PRWeb.com. In total, the release distribution generated more than 50,500 news feed impressions and was re-posted by more than 100 sites, including the Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Miami Herald, Houston Chronicle and Newsday.

The Results

National HIV Awareness Month gained media attention from important outlets like ABC News, Blisstree and TheRoot.com. And the many major outlets that discussed HIV/AIDS in America — the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Associated Press, among others. This campaign set the stage for sustained audience engagement by NHAM over the year and broadly positioned domestic HIV awareness topics in the mainstream media. In addition, NHAM’s social media reach increased exponentially.

In total, thirty traditional media outlets and blogs wrote original stories about or mentioned NHAM in their recent coverage of HIV/AIDS. And, NHAM received more than 1,000 online mentions in July, on nearly 300 blogs, including the Huffington Post, Care2.com, GlobalHealthHub and Ask Miss A.

On Facebook, the number of unique people who potentially viewed content from NHAM was 78,793. The NHAM Facebook fan base experienced a 381 percent increase. The Kenneth Cole posters alone generated 1,601 individual user and “virality” percentages of up to 70.4 percent. (Virality is the number of people who have created a story from a post as a percentage of the number of people who have seen it.)

The NHAM Twitter profile saw a 166 percent increase in followers, including such influentials as Rep. Charles Rangel, Rep. Judy Chu, the International AIDS Conference, the CDC, joinRED, FACE AIDS, ISIS, and The Body. We were thrilled that on July 19, Janet Jackson posted a tweet recognizing July as National HIV Awareness Month.  Her tweet was retweeted more than 618 times. She also posted about it on her Facebook page, receiving 823 likes, 92 shares and 430 comments. Janet Jackson has nearly 2.5 million followers on Twitter and 1.1 million likes on Facebook!

Ultimately, the inaugural NHAM campaign was able to maximize the impact of a limited budget to produce impressive publicity results and establish a solid foundation for annual NHAM activities. More broadly, this campaign successfully united segmented audiences with the common goal of ending HIV in America, a key benchmark for a successful long-term campaign.

Luckily, search engines provide ways for the savvy web developer to get noticed through a process called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In a nutshell, “SEO” refers to the strategy of making it as easy as possible for someone to find your website or social media page using Google, Yahoo, or similar search engines. That refers both to people looking specifically for your organization, as well as people looking for help with a subject area, such as people searching for legal assistance or teen resources. For example, from Camino’s New York headquarters, when we search for “hunger” on Google, the first agency we see (ranked 6th after movies and wikipedia) is the “New York City Coalition Against Hunger”. But when we type in “food pantry”, the top result is the “Food Bank for New York City”. If you were an agency that addressed hunger and food issues, you would likely want to analyze which search terms were most likely to be used by your customers, and what you could to do convince Google to rank your agency high in its results.

If you don’t have an SEO strategy in place, here are some tips for creating one.

SEO strategy has major buzz among social media experts, and entire businesses now exist to help organizations play nicely with search engines in an effort to get noticed. Smaller grassroots organizations generally don’t have the budget or resources to hire specialty firms to handle SEO. But this absolutely doesn’t mean that they can’t compete for the all-important search engine ranking. There is no “secret sauce” that specialty firms employ to catapult their clients to the top of a search query. They simply use a combination of techniques, strategies and tactics that, when executed correctly, help position a website in the most favorable light in Google’s eyes. Being strategic about positioning your site for search engines is fundamental to reaching your audience.
Here’s how to improve your website’s SEO and push it higher in search engine rankings:

Understand how search engines find, capture and catalog the billions of sites across the Internet.
Search engines employ “spiders” that “crawl” the web, index websites and their contents and feed the results back into search engine databases. Engines use this data to direct searchers to relevant websites. These spiders not only look at the content of a site’s webpages, but also look at dozens of other items, like a the site’s architecture (source code), links, title tags, html formatting, all to help it understand what that page is about.

After the spiders crawl through your site and send their findings back to Google, Google uses dozens of different layers of criteria to rank your site. Once your site is ranked it is then turned into a “listing,” similar to what’s found in the Phonebook or White Pages. When a person searches certain terms Google then tries to match the person’s search with relevant and accurate “listings.” If Google determines that your site is a relevant and accurate match to a certain search, it displays your site to the searcher. If your site is rated high (relevant and accurate) for a certain query, you might be the first term displayed. If not, you might be farther down the list.

Recently Google has experimented with “personalizing” its search, meaning that it tries to align search queries with what it perceives as the personal preferences on a searcher. For example, if a person searching for “electronics” happens to be in New York, Google might be more inclined to show local results rather than an electronic chain located in Los Angeles that might happen to have a higher Google rank than the New York shop. Personalization is somewhat new and its effects on SEO are still being studied and analyzed. For now an understanding on what it is and how it might results in different search displays for different people should suffice.

Once you understand your site and how it talks to search engines, make sure you understand your audience.
It’s true that the SEO process can get technical and tedious fast. That’s one reason so many companies hire outside firms. But you’ve got an advantage over specialty firms, no matter how much SEO practice they have: you understand your audience better than anyone.
Understanding your audience well enough to know what information is relevant to them is difficult for third party vendors to learn quickly. That’s one reason I recommend organizations keep SEO internal. The second reason is that optimizing a site requires testing, repeated implementation and constant adjustment. The ability to gauge your site’s effectiveness in-house enables you to continually finely tune your site to better align with search engines and the motivated searchers who find value in your site. If you do partner with a third party vendor for SEO, I would recommend a partnership that empowers your in-house communications team to understand their process and strategy and add that to your organization’s knowledge base for future employees and projects.
To understand your audience, ask yourself not just who wants your services, but how they might access it. Ask whether another group serves as a connector between your organization and its audience. For example, if your organization provides art projects to help parents communicate with children, your audience isn’t just parents. It’s also social workers, counselors, teachers – anyone in a position to arm parents with tools for better communication.
No matter who performs the SEO, making sure that person has a solid understanding of your organization’s audience and their needs is an absolutely critical first step.

Once you understand your audience, make sure you understand how your audience talks to your site
Because there are an infinite number of ways to approach SEO (some more effective than others), at Camino we believe strategic thinking is paramount. You’ve already exercised strategic thinking skills by understanding your audience. The next challenge is to move your perspectives from inside the organization to that of an outsider to understand the process that your audience undertakes to find the information you provide.

For example, let’s say the organization you run provides free eye care to underserved children. A great service, right? Of course it is. The challenge is to connect your service to those that need and want it. Who wants it is the first question to understanding who we will target with SEO. It’s safe to assume that not many children will search for your services. Most likely it will be parents, social service workers, and maybe teachers who are working on behalf of the parents. Filling in this list gives us a starting point for SEO. We can now create a search profile for each person on this list, cataloging their search habits and trying to understand how they generally go about finding information. From this profile we can start to piece together a series of keywords that the searchers might be more likely to use.

Each group might have a slightly different way of approaching their own search. The teacher might think the student has a “problem” whereas the parent might think the child has a “challenge.” This understanding will help inform the copy we write, the Meta data we include, and how we title the resources on that page. This type of SEO-informed writing sends a message to Google and other search engine that you are interested in connecting with searchers who are seeking your specific content. Google rewards sites when they deem this to be true and soon you’ll find your ranking moving higher on the results page.

Being strategic about SEO extends to your content as well. Search engines not only index static content on your site but they also index dynamic content as well. Blog posts, pictures, videos and other pieces of content your organization produces will all be factored when your site is indexed. Because search engines assume that newer content is more relevant, the more fresh and new content you post for search engines have to index the better. Developing an SEO best practice guide can help your entire communications team integrate SEO into their products. Press releases, for example, are great vehicles for organizations to rise in search rankings. Writing copy using strategic keywords and phrases can elevate your press release into a powerful SEO tool.

Again, understanding the audience for each and every piece of content is key to being able to connect to them via search engines. Let’s say you provide free art classes to low-income youth and you write a blog post detailing the upcoming registration days and times. This content is obviously not meant for funders, advocates, or volunteers, but rather parents and caretakers. The copy you write, as well as the meta-data you provide, should keep this in mind. Referring back to the keyword and search matrix you created can give you quick and easy ways to write copy that includes those phrases and words.

Bonus: Now you’re ready to optimize your online advertising, too.
Understanding your audience and their search strategies will also help inform any online advertising you employ as well. Online advertising is a great supplement to organic searches and can help bolster your online presence to a multitude of different audiences. As with SEO, accuracy and relevancy is key when constructing a successful and value-added online advertising program.

While search engine optimization can be an inexact science, it can produce added value when done correctly. Taking the time to utilize SEO best practices and techniques can connect you to searchers interested in the issues, idea and themes you work on.

The YCP Direct program incorporates the latest technology into the pantry’s daily operations. Clients can now order their groceries off-site and at their convenience through the YCP website. Using the YCP Direct program, clients choose from nutritious food options and select a pick-up time to reduce congestion in the pantry on pick-up days.

The flagship Choice Pantry program utilizes web-enabled tablets on-site that allow clients to place a custom order and pick up the same day. In this program, clients are assisted by volunteers in choosing from a menu of pantry options by viewing images and script in a chosen language. By encouraging clients to become active participants in the selection and ordering process, YCP remains true to its mission to promote client dignity and independence.

YCP served over 2 million meals to New Yorkers last year, distributes grocery packages to over 1,200 needy families each week, and is designed to meet the needs of New York families by providing culturally appropriate and nutritionally balanced food. Camino Public Relations is proud to support YCP and their efforts to expand access to the pantry.

View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.

It is imperative that we recognize cyberbullying for what it is – a symptom of the larger problem of relational aggression.

-       Teenager Dominique Napolitano, Girl Scouts USA

I’ve been trying to remember the first time I was bullied at school.  Experts say bullying starts in about the second grade but my memory only takes me back to seventh grade when a girl on the spirit squad decided that she would beat me up for thinking I was all that on the cheerleading squad.  It was such a lopsided fight that she made a bully appointment, deciding on Monday that she’d “whoop” my “sorry a—“ on Friday after she finished eating her lunch.

I didn’t tell my Mom about the threat but I recalled a story she told about a girl getting her earrings ripped out during a fight in her high school.  And, she said bullies don’t like to pick on confident people. So on Friday I went to school without earrings, made a point of enjoying my lunch, then confidently walked with purpose toward the girl and said something like “come on, let’s do this.”

We didn’t fight, the pom pom bully ended up saying “naw, whatever.”  Words plus attitude beat fists.  I wonder if we had played out this scene online, like the Facebook generation often does today, would my words have carried the day?

Three years ago Rep. Carolyn Maloney tried to pass “Safe Schools” federal legislation that directed schools to do something about bullying. At that time she reported “24% of students ages 12 to 18 reported having been bullied in schools in the last 6 months.”   That legislation proposed surveys that assessed the safety of schools by measuring, among other factors “student self-discipline and tolerance for others, and students’ care and respect for one another and their mutual cooperation.”  Rep. Maloney’s efforts generated scant attention.

That was before “cyberbullying” and “sexting” hit the headlines. In 2008 there were just 42 mentions of “sexting” in the media, and since then there have been well over 5,000 mentions including every major media outlet, reaching an audience of tens of millions. In the wake of high profile tragic teen stories with a sexting or cyber-bullying component, Congress, state lawmakers, and even the Supreme Court have been weighing in on the practice.

Last month Rep. Maloney held a congressional hearing on cyberbullying and sexting, where experts urged lawmakers to include a cyberbullying component when they reauthorize the No Child Left Behind legislation (ESEA) later this year.   This time everyone from Dr. Phil to the Girl Scouts was in the room.  Rep. Maloney isn’t alone – the majority of states have been wrestling with cyberbullying, most notably related to sexting concerns.  The most recent action occurred Monday when Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed a new law that makes “sexting” among minors a misdemeanor.

While elected officials and educators are trying to stem adolescent sexting, pop culture media continues to witness the normalization of sexting. This week’s issue of US magazine reports on its Hollywood scandal pages that a “Bachelorette” contestant’s “sexting” emails were sent to TMZ for worldwide broadcast.  From Lindsay Lohan to Vanessa Hudgens, young stars are frequently in the sexting news. A recent London-based poll concluded that one in five adults in the U.K. have engaged in “sending racy texts or picture messages.”  In pop culture, sexting is either flirtatious or scandalous, akin to infidelity.  Pop culture doesn’t treat sexting among adults like a crime.  When the Supreme Court ruled on a sexting case last month the issue was never about sexting itself being criminal, but the proceedings focused on whether an employee could use a work-issued phone for personal use. In contrast, it is rare to find a media mention of sexting among teens that is treated as appropriate flirtation.  There’s a major disconnect between the sexting and cyber-harassment conversation in popular culture, and related conversations about adolescents among educators, pundits, and parents.

At the Maloney congressional hearing some advocates proposed that the Safe Schools Improvement Act (H.R. 2262), be part of the reauthorization of ESEA.  This would define “violence” to include “bullying and harassment”, and create a federal grants program for antibullying and harassment programs.  The legislation is sponsored by Rep. Loretta Sanchez, is supported by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network and has a long list of Congressional co-sponsors and educational endorsements.

My favorite testimony at the Maloney hearing came from teenager Dominique Napolitano.  She was the only witness that focused her remarks on emotional and social bullying in what she described as “relational aggression.”   Ms. Napolitano described relational aggression as “behaviors that harm someone by damaging, threatening, or manipulating her relationship with her peers, or by injuring a girl’s feeling of social acceptance.”  She was testifying on behalf of the Girl Scouts, whose research showed that “nearly half of girls defined safety as not having their feelings hurt,” and that “girls’ number one concern was fear of being teased or made fun of.”

There isn’t much conversation about the root causes of harassing and malicious behavior among adolescents, which is what makes Ms. Napolitano’s testimony stand out.  The public discourse virtually never mentions sexuality education as a potential point of prevention, despite the common use of sexualized and homophobic slurs in sexting and cyberbullying.  Instead the focus is squarely on the technology (monitor your kids computer time) and punishment (should this be a misdemeanor or a felony?).

While state lawmakers help educators figure out the discipline side of the equation, lawmakers like Rep. Maloney and Rep. Loretta Sanchez are focusing on the school climate piece.  How do we create “respect” among students?

Many organizations and educators have been doing just that in school districts nationwide. For example, Scenarios USA is an organization that helps promote tolerance and respect in schools through student writing and filmmaking projects.  Scenarios’ recent work focused on themes of masculinity.  During a break in the filming of a script about sexual orientation, two male students sat on a picnic table and talked.

Teen 1: “If we don’t like something, that’s ‘gay’, that’s ‘gay’, that’s what we use a lot.”

Teen 2: “I mean, ‘gay’ is a term that we use a lot.  And it’s funny,

(Pause)

Teen 2: “…but when you think about it, it’s not really funny.”

Teen 1” “Exactly.”

Teen 2: “At times I notice that we say something like that and we don’t realize that it could be hurtin somebody.”

Cyberbullying and malicious sexting are social problems more than they are a technology challenge.  Bullying, sexism, homophobia and stigma have long been a tradition in the hallways and schoolyards of schools nationwide.  Now that some of that bullying has spilled out of the hallway and into the public eye it’s harder to ignore. While leaders rightly scramble to protect bullying victims from the glare of the Internet spotlight, it’s refreshing to also see some organizations and policymakers taking on the root social issues that perpetuate the underlying bias at play.