Like so many things in life, blogging is only worth doing if you’re going to do it right. Find out what it takes to blog effectively.
On April 11, Community Media Workshop is proud to host a basic blogging workshop that’s hands on and will help you learn about launching, writing and publicizing your organization’s blog.
Participants will also learn:
- How blogging can help your nonprofit promote your message
- Tips on how to maintain your blog and generate content
- How to raise the visibility of your blog using social media
Led by former Chicago Tribune reporter and ChicagoNow blogger Teresa Puente (Teresa will also be speaking at our Making Media Connections conference this June).
Click here to learn more about and register for this workshop
Click here to view more upcoming trainings
The 2011 session of Professional Media Relations (PMR) is shaping up, and participants will have the chance to learn from reporters and experts in the field. In addition to regular trainers, Workshop President Thom Clark and Vice President Nora Ferrell, confirmed guest speakers include:
- Dave Hoekstra, Chicago Sun-Times reporter
- Ingrid Goncalves, director of communications for the Center for Labor and Community Research, as well as a former PMR grad (Read Ingrid’s success story here.)
- Alejo Torres, senior outreach program manager, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
- Wanda Wells, long-time Chicago broadcaster and Workshop trainer
Professional Media Relations–a cornerstone course at Community Media Workshop–kicks off in January, but there’s still time to sign up. You will learn how to craft a communications strategy, draft media materials, serve as a spokesperson, pitch a reporter and use social media tools. Sign up for Professional Media Relations today.
A Workshop participant pitches Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown
Prosperity starts with effective communications! For 20 years, Professional Media Relations (PMR) has been Community Media Workshop’s cornerstone training. This intensive training session is designed for nonprofit communicators to plan media campaigns. Over the course of five Fridays, you’ll learn from The Workshop’s own industry professionals basic public relations skills, how to develop a story, and will get the opportunity to pitch your story to journalists. The course includes one copy per organization of Getting On Air, Online, & Into Print, the indispensible media directory of Chicagoland media contacts. Register Today!
This training has helped numerous nonprofit communicators launch their media campaigns. Read Ingrid’s story about how PMR helped her get a story in the Chicago Sun-Times!
Community Media Workshop’s calendar of Spring trainings are now available to view and register for on our Trainings Page.
Sit down with and pick the brains of Community Media Workshop’s president and vice president at our Professional Media Relations trainings, and get all the information you need to know to catapult your nonprofit’s communications campaigns. Learn how to fully utilize your 2011 Media Guide, design a user-friendly website, take your social media initiative to the next level, and much more!
Spots for Spring are filling up fast, so visit our Trainings Page and reserve your place at one of our informative workshops now!
STORY POWER (Wednesday, June 9- 9AM to 4PM)
“Thank you for offering this workshop! It’s something of an “advanced” course for those of us who are familiar with the techniques of media outreach, etc. but want to strengthen our story gathering, writing and speaking skills. Thanks again!” – Jane Lawicki, Rotary International
The most important tool you can have as a communicator is the power to captivate potential audiences with your organization’s story. Learn how to make your story not just another spiel about your organization but rather a powerful tool to captivate the media, potential funders and future members. Powerful storytelling is a necessity whether you are pitching to traditional or online media.
Story Power is back by popular demand and taught by award-winning storyteller Susan O’Halloran. Susan will empower you with the ability to captivate audiences and move them to action. Register Today! Read the rest of this entry »
Making Media Connections is right around the corner and we want to make sure you take advantage of our EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT. Register before April 30 and get 20% off registration and be entered to win your very own FLIP CAM. Sign Up Today! This year our annual conference highlights how nonprofits tell their stories and develop communications strategies in a digital age.
JOIN US! Making Media Connections annual conference “Storytelling and Strategy in the Digital Age” June 9 and 10, 2010
Columbia College Chicago, Film Row Cinema 1104 S. Wabash, 8th Floor www.communitymediaworkshop.og/mmc2010
For more information on the various panels and workshops, and to register for the Making Media Connections, go to www.bit.ly/mmc2010 or call 312-369-6400. Read the rest of this entry »
Website Design, Content and Usability – NEW
9 a.m. to noon, Thursday, April 29
With: Emily Lonigro, LimeRed Studio
$95, REGISTER
Ever wonder what makes a killer Website? Or how some sites make sense right away, while others over think or miss the mark completely? What’s the connection among online beauty, brains and brawn? This session will offer quick (and not so quick) fixes to get your site looking and behaving better and more for anyone who has to maintain, redo, or create a nonprofit Website.
Emily Lonigro is a branding and web design specialist who combines insightful marketing strategy with distinctive design execution. Before co-founding The Web Farm with Keidra Chaney, she started LimeRed Studio in 2004 to help small businesses and nonprofits enhance their marketing collateral with stellar design.
Writing To Make The News
9 a.m. to noon, Thursday, March 18
$95 REGISTER
Learn the basics and more: how to write a press release, the difference between a media alert, news release, and pitch letter, and how to produce polished versions of all three. Along the way, Alton Miller, author, press secretary to the late Harold Washington, and Columbia College dean offers insights into effective public relations. Learn:
• Pre-writing and preparation
• Editing to strengthen your writing skills
• How to deliver your messages in the context of an integrated marketing communication campaign
If you struggle to communicate your story ideas to the media, then it’s time to learn new writing techniques. Learn successful techniques to write clearly and concisely in ways that help deliver your messages starting as soon as your next news release.
Trainer: Alton Miller is currently associate dean of the School of Media Arts and a tenured associate professor at Columbia College Chicago, where he teaches public relations writing and political PR. The first half of his PR career (1965-85) was in the performing arts. From 1985-87 he was press secretary to Chicago mayor Harold Washington, and his PR work has continued in politics and arts advocacy, including work as communications director for Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, City Treasurer Miriam Santos, and the Illinois Arts Alliance. He is the author of three nonfiction books, including a memoir, “Harold Washington: The Mayor, The Man.” In 2005 he received his M.F.A. in Writing from Goddard College. His thesis was a political novel, “Chicago Power & Light.“
