communication department

Volume XX Number 3

PR in the Lone Star: Some Tips and Advice for Fellow Leaders

By Lauren Womack, Public Relations Manager, Lone Star Community

Hi, Lauren Womack coming to you live from the Lone Star Community STC with some tips and observations that I hope you can use to add to your own public relations (PR) efforts. As you know, getting the word out—loud and proud—benefits you, your member community, and STC at large.

Finding Focus

For me, the key to getting really excited about our PR efforts was finding my focus, and I came to that focus gradually and organically. As a result of my total greenness when first stepping into a STC leadership role, I initially had a very local focus instead of a national one. As I’ve become slightly more adept, I still think locally and act . . . locally. It’s the right approach for me—and, I think, our council—to serve our community first.

Additionally, when I was invited (and gratefully accepted) to take over as PR manager three years ago, the Dallas Fort-Worth (DFW) area was just beginning to recover from the telecom bust. In fact, I had just gotten my first job back in our field after being outside it for about a year, so I knew exactly what it was like to need a job and keenly remembered the aimless anxiety and low-level desperation accompanying my sometimes seemingly fruitless search.

Those two factors led me to the focus of my PR role: getting our members jobs and promoting the Lone Star community as a way to do this. Furthermore, because not every job is a dream job—or even a good job—I wanted our members to have choices. Having a job is a necessity; being able to choose a great job is truly a bonus.

Lone Star’s Job Bank

Happily, not only does the Lone Star community have a job bank (in existence since 1982!), it is also available to every Internet browser and provides free posting. Free is an easy sell. So, by increasing recruiter awareness of it (and STC in the process), I strive to increase the number of jobs in our job bank, and, as a result, the number of jobs technical communicators can choose from. Because all technical communicators can access the job bank, I hope any nonmembers using it will start to consider the value that networking through STC might offer them.

The approach I developed is three pronged. First, as recruiters contact me about jobs, I always respond with a polite “no thank you” e-mail and an invitation to post the job to our bank. I’ve come up with a generic e-mail that lets recruiters know:

. . . if you are seeking a large pool of qualified applicants, please consider posting your relevant jobs on the Society for Technical Communication Lone Star Community’s job page. You will reach technical communication professionals (writers, editors, trainers, information specialists and architects, and business analysts) in the entire DFW area and it’s free.

I’ve shared my generic e-mail with the council and asked that we all start using this approach. The benefit of this e-mail is two fold. We have seen postings to our job bank in direct response to the information shared, and I have developed friendly relationships with several area recruiters. They’re grateful for the tip and tend to remember me for having given it. (Volunteering for your council, as you know, really is a great way to network.)

Second, with the help of Paul Holland from the Web site committee, I have expanded on this with an e-postcard project. What started out as an idea to mail physical postcards to all members, asking them to help their community by referring recruiters to STC, eventually grew into a virtual postcard mailed out quarterly to a database of over 140 recruiters (and growing!).

Third, I use the time-honored networking method. At every community meeting I attend, I introduce myself to at least one new face and ask, “Where do you work? Are you looking for a job?” As is probably the case in other STC communities, many new people come to the meetings specifically to network, and it is our privilege and duty as council members to welcome and help them. If I find a member or visitor looking for work, I copy that person on any new jobs that come my way until he or she finds employment. Of course, I still invite recruiters to post to the job bank.

Please note that, in order to be sure I continue to get requests from recruiters, I keep my résumé updated on several job boards. Again, this helps me get to know area recruiters, should I need them; it keeps me cognizant of the number and types of jobs available, and from which companies; and it allows me to continue personally promoting the job bank. And, who knows—maybe a job will come along that is so all-out perfect for me, I will be tempted!

Press Releases

As you might have guessed, getting our members jobs has become not just the focus of my PR effort, but its passionate pursuit. However, there are a couple other things we do of which I am also proud. With the help of this year’s excellently organized first vice president Susie Lynn Fox, I now schedule our press releases so other committees can recycle them—whether for e-mail announcements, meeting announcements, meeting programs, Web sites, or our award-winning newsletter, Technically Write, to name a few.

I also always think about the distribution list. Of course we have e-mail addresses for various departments at the area newspapers, but this year’s scholarship PR effort led me to add area schools’ technical writing departments and newspapers to the list. Thinking of smaller newspapers led me to include smaller, local area magazines. Of course, I always personally copy friends and colleagues on releases regarding upcoming meetings. You’d be surprised how many of your friends would like to attend a meeting and catch up with you at the same time!

Putting Ideas on the Back Burner

One last thing—what do you do when you have a great idea and can’t get necessary committees on your council to help out? Put it on the back burner. I’ve found you really can’t make anyone do anything. Chances are it will still be a good idea when the next council is in place with some new faces and fresh blood. Try floating it again and see what happens!

Don’t be discouraged if you can’t get a great idea implemented the first time you try, and don’t waste too much time on it the first time. Keep thinking about it and refining your pitch! That’s not a bad plan for all your PR efforts.

Contact Lauren Womack for a copy of the generic e-mail or to see what the recruiter e-card looks like.