 Hey everyone, I'm Todd from DAV's communications team, and I'm Mary from DAV's communications team We wanted to talk to you a little bit today about outreach in your communities and social networking And how to spread DAV's messages no matter where you are. All right, cool So I want to talk to you about three things today actually one of them Why we talked to media what makes a good story and give you a couple tips on those on-camera interviews? So first, why do we talk to media? We want to publicize DAV's purpose services Activities and achievements, right? So many people they don't really know who we are what we do And it's really important to highlight these things items such as our claims work our Transportation network and how it offers, you know hundreds of thousands of free rides to veterans so they can get to their VA medical appointments each year Events like the winter sports clinic that we do alongside the VA out in Colorado every year The the T tournament that we do out in Iowa with them as well these kind of adaptive Sporting events folks don't know about and it's really important to highlight these things and show the difference that they make in the Recovery for a lot of our nation's disabled veterans We also want to establish DAV as a leader and trusted source on veteran related issues, right? So DAV has been around for a hundred years. That is a lot a lot of institutional knowledge not just About disabled veterans, but veterans in general. We know the VA system in and out and we know the issues that affect veterans from women veterans homelessness You know burn pits age and orange all the you know There there's nothing that DAV Doesn't know about hasn't done a study on and it's important to highlight that to our local media and third We also want to generate awareness among disabled veterans so that they can actively campaign both individually and collectively For their own betterment, right? So DAV we got more than a million members, but there's far more than that many veterans out there who again may not know about it so if they see us on local media talking about You know something that we've done to help Veterans in their community it can pique their interest it can get them involved and It's kind of one of those things where where the more voices the more power So what makes a good story? What's going to make a reporter want to come out to your local chapter and spend a day Getting your story and getting it out to the local community Well anything that's original novel or unique to your local chapter and services that we provide To our local communities, right? Whether it's doing some sort of fundraising activity to Send a veteran to the winter sports clinic or to the teeth tournament or something such as you know volunteering Okay, we got a someone a veteran in your local chapter who Has just donated their ten thousandth hour to helping veterans at their local VA medical center That's something that's pretty unique and definitely deserves to be highlighted Another reason some personal achievement. Okay talking again about the transportation network Let's say we have a driver who just hit a hundred thousand miles Volunteering his or her own time to get their fellow brothers and sisters to their VA medical appointments That is definitely an achievement to do that hundred thousand miles right even ten thousand whatever the milestone is It's something that you you should try and highlight to your local reporters Anniversaries landmarks dates those are all reasons to reach out as well Something like D day right June 6. You might even have a veteran in your local chapter Who was there that day, right? So let's reach out to Media and try and get their story same worth Pearl Harbor Veterans Day Commemoration that a chapter is doing on 9-11 flag day any of those things that you guys are doing that your local chapters reach out to your local media about it and get them there and Last thing I want to talk to you about is a couple tips for interviews number one Make sure you're wearing some sort of DAV gear, right? It's good to get that logo and that brand awareness out there and show that when you're talking you're representing DAV right, but you also have to make sure that when you're doing that you're staying within DAV's Resolutions and staying nonpartisan right? We're not Republicans. We're not Democrats We are a nonprofit organization dedicated to the betterment of the lives of our nation's disabled veterans And that's all that matters right Also talking to reporters. Let's get some ground rules first, right? We want to make sure that they're not gonna Put out any gotcha or trick questions, right? We're there to talk about the volunteer network and the volunteer network only it that you know Nothing else really matters and if you're talking to a reporter Make sure you you ask them Hey, you know if I mess up right here, is it alright if we start this over and there's really no reporter out there That's gonna say no to that. They want you to look good. You want you to look good if you get going You don't like what you're saying say hey, let's stop and start that over I guarantee they're gonna work with you But just make sure that you handle that before the interview gets going and last use some quotable language, right? Very often we like to do a really long Explanation of what we're talking about, but you'll find out that journalists very often they're gonna use a Five to ten second sound bite of what you're trying to explain so try and keep it concise and Succinct as possible when you are given some quotes But one of the best ways to reach out to your local media is actually through our social networking Which is something Mary is going to handle with you right now Absolutely, and as Todd said about social media Not only can it help you reach journalists in your community, but leaders perspective members supporters It's important for every chapter in department to have that social media presence Why like I said you're able to reach out to people in your community Maybe it's that veteran or that family member that's looking for something and they don't know what it is But DAB has it or it's a mayor or city councilman that doesn't know isn't aware of some issues that the veterans are having The local media will like as Todd said highlighting volunteers for the work that they do or your chapter for its fundraising efforts to to send disabled veterans to adapt the sports Events or conventions or or meetings or maybe it's it's even as as serious as a suicide prevention and awareness having that connection with the veterans in your community is Invaluable either that you can't put a price on that and the other positive about social media is it's free It's free. It costs no money for your chapter for your department To to be a part of it. So you can really take advantage of that popular widespread Outlet to get the message across and to let people know who we are So how does it help you share your message? Well? One way is you can you can tag people by tagging people You're reaching out to that journalist that Todd mentioned. You're also You're getting their audience involved as well You can find out how to how to do that really you just you you google search for them on their social media You find out what it is and then you make sure that they're tagged whenever you make a post It allows you to reach more of an audience Which ideally ends up with more involvement and support from the people in your community So another thing to remember though is to stay on top of your messages It's highly discouraged that you open up the social media channel and then ignore it You really need to have somebody dedicated if not a couple of people dedicated to those pages whether it's sweater or Instagram Your Facebook page to stay on top of that audience Engagement because that's how you're gonna keep it going when people comment or have a recommendation or a complaint They want to hear back from you. So make sure that you you respond to that within a reasonable amount of time If you don't have the answer to what they're saying or what what they're commenting about simply say I've heard you and now I will find the answer but give them some sort of a response Put yourself in their position when you reach out to somebody you would like the response as well So remember that whenever you have these pages open, don't just forget. Don't just set them up and forget about them Another thing to remember is the rules of the organization, you know Todd mentioned it without reaching the same way on social media and we all know that it can be a hostile hostile conversation Involving religion and politics, you know, all of these things if you are a chapter or department Social media page Twitter Instagram Facebook, you are non-partisan and you are non-combatant You are not argumentative and you don't get into politics. Okay, so be careful on the subject matter on the content that you decide to post Don't post anything that is for one candidate or another or anything that's gonna that's gonna cause Some controversy and some some opinionated Conflict on your page. We don't want that your page is a representative of DAV So make sure that it whether it's at the local level or the presidential elections that are right around the corner Just keep your page clean when in doubt leave it out. Okay, but don't get mad at your audience If you do have an audience member comment or be hateful or try to lead you down a partisan path You can hide them. You can block them. There are steps you can take but don't engage That's the biggest point don't engage with that negativity and that controversy Other than that, you know, you can keep it fun to highlight one of your members highlight their service tell their story These are all ways to to get your community involved get potential members involved family members transitioning service members and Ultimately as well The media the local media they see you have an active page and an active chapter They're more likely to to respond when you reach out to them If you need any additional guidance or you want to find out more about some of these things that we've talked about today You can go online to our website gav.org and find our publicity guy Our publicity guide covers tips and tricks do's and don'ts And it has a lot of resources there covering media outreach community outreach and social networking And if you have any other questions, don't don't be afraid to reach out. We're here to help as always You can see right there. That is my contact information Todd Hunter, I'm the assistant national communications director T hunter at Dab.org And here's Mary Mary you can reach her also. She is also an assistant national communications director M Dever d e d e r at dab.org and we got one more member of our team Always willing to help on any social media guidance or advice Jeremy Sharp is our social media manager You can reach him at Jay sharp at DAV.org we want to thank you guys for taking the time out today to watch this We wish you the best of luck. We want to see those stories out there Whether they're on the local news or on your social media channels. We wish you the best of luck Hope 2020 starts treating everyone a little bit better And and but let's all do have a good time celebrating this hundredth year of Existence for such a wonderful organization. Appreciate you guys. Thanks so much