Toastmasters - what does a VP PR do?
“If your stories are all about your products and services, that’s not storytelling. It’s a brochure. Give yourself permission to make the story bigger.”
– Jay Baer
In a Toastmasters club there are management roles - which last for one year. In these roles you have the opportunity to learn and apply project management, strategy, leadership and management. How? Well, it's simple, on July 1, when you take over the club in one of these roles you are at point A. You need to make a strategy to grow the club to point B - the end of your term. This is where project management starts - why do you need to make the strategy happen (all done by you) how, when, where etc. You will work to grow potential substitutes, here you develop leadership because you will be able to apply many of the skills you need. And management - you will have tasks, you will have a team. The advantage of Toastmasters is that you can fail and learn from it, as then when you are faced with such an opportunity in the workplace you already know what you need to know.
On the PR Topic as part of my DTM I created a booklet that you can download for free and use it as resources.
The content is based on my professional experience of over 15 years as a PR and Marketing / Communication Senior Consultant in different companies and industries. It is meant to be a useful resource that I can share during my PR trainings :)
The articles related to Toastmasters are based on my experience and what I saw working in the 4 clubs I was part of over my time as a Toastmasters member, a club coach and mentor. I wish to be of help to those who are just starting out in Toastmasters and have stepped into the shoes of the club's management team. So I asked a few people who had the role of VPPR - what they wanted to know at the beginning of the role. And here's how this article came out. Obviously you can go to the Toastmasters website for information on this.
If you're wondering why I chose this role to open the series of articles, it's because VPPR is the face of the club. PICTURE! In my years of Toastmasters I have heard people refer to VPPR as Vice President of Public Relations. It could be because you are the one who provides the information but it is much more complex, you do not stay at the cashier and you do not collect money - because that means in fact relations with the public. But in an organization we are talking about Public Relations - that is, making people talk about you without paying them to do it. Provide content and materials, inspiration and information. As a PR person you build a reputation, the image of the organization, you make long-term plans, it means you launch a bi-directional communication to different audiences and you influence through your campaigns.
Now let's go to the real stuff and leave the books aside.
If you have chosen VPPR the first thing you need to do is to have measurable goals:
How many platforms do you want to use? Do you have the materials, skills and time to develop content for everyone? How many posts per week do you want to have?
How many people do you want to bring to club meetings every month?
Do you have a team to work with?
Now if you answered these - set up a posting schedule. I use this, I took it from one of the websites I follow, I adapted it to what I needed and it helps me a lot in my activity. You need numbers (Apple), excel (WinOffice). Personally, I use Google Drive - it is fast, I can access it from the phone and make changes in real time, and it also adds that they have the opportunity to see the documents both my team + and those I choose. In your case it can be the whole team of officers + your PR team
If you look at the bottom line of the picture - you will see that the platform has a partition. There you can write your statuses, prepare the pictures you need (and add where necessary the visuals). Ask the people who can help you. You can post them on Facebook and Instagram (from the content creator from Facebook). On LinkedIn you will have to enter the day you want to post, as well as the other platforms. But when you have inspiration - you can develop content in this document for a few weeks and not stay daily to fight it. What does planning help you with? At an efficient party of time and activity.
For you as a VPPR it is important to take only the information that interests you from this article and what can be applied to your club. One year of implementing a strategy like the one below, on all platforms means one year of Social Media Manager having passed the CV experience. Now let's talk a little about each platform and what it is advisable to do.
What counts here: comment, share, private messages, rating on the club page. Answer each one in a polite manner. Thank and encourage people to get in touch with you, talk about their club experience. Where you have a private message or people who were "interested" in meetings - you can approach them in a non-invasive way, explaining their position in the club. You can tell them that you are there to answer any questions or concerns - if that helps them make a decision about coming to the meeting. At this stage he didn't invite them to share or like - he was just trying to establish a connection. They will have a friendly face and if I don't know anyone in the club - they may be more open to come.
Posts:
If you have a clear strategy and do sustained campaigns - you have daily posting material. However, it is ok to have 3 - 4 posts per week + event strategy (see below). People are interested to see what the acquaintances do, to find out information and to see funny things. For statuses - I recommend you read the two articles I wrote on the blog - with copywriting and creative writing formulas. Don't forget to call to action: do something, read, come, share. Make a mix between simple posts, videos (both uploaded to Facebook and other platforms), live, photos, quotes.
Event - the Facebook one
Before the meeting
Make the event the next day after the club’s meeting, or at the latest on Saturday. Write a different description for each event. Develop a story based on the theme of the meeting. Invite everyone who liked the page. Plus friends you know would be interested. Share on your own wall, writing why the world should be interested. Ask the club members to do the same (but especially the officers). Photo of the event - in tune with the theme. The name of the event should be different each time. Don't put the "Toastmasters 234 Top City Sitting." You can always keep Toastmasters in the title for consistency.
The day after you do the above, start posting. It offers information about those who will go on stage. Pictures, quotations, description of speeches + title, go one post per day so you do not collapse. Remember to tag the person you are talking about.
During the meeting - event
Post a photo from the beginning of the meeting and review what is happening that day.
Introduce yourself to the guests, put on the agenda a QR code or the platforms where you post about the activity of the club. Tell them when the pictures will be posted - ask for their agreement. If they have returned, ask them for their friendship on facebook and ask them if it bothers them to hide them in pictures.
Circle a sheet in the room where you can agree on the photos, plus the contact details of the people (name and email address) will help you if you want to send a newsletter or an email campaign.
From time to time, go live - even with people you know are more disinhibited.
After the meeting - event
Make an album of photos from the event on the page and share in the event of the meeting. Thus, those who did not come will see what they have lost :). Post only those pictures that are quality and do not put people in unpleasant positions. If they are with their mouths open or their eyes closed, twisting or not in a very positive position - do nothing public. Think about it if it was your picture - would you like to go to a local newspaper? If yes, then post it, if not, no!
Here I recommend you to make a group besides the page. If you take it from scratch you will need the involvement and support of the whole club to grow the community. It's a professional platform - these people look at the pages I follow. If you get started, do at least 2 posts a week - experiment and see which days you have a better audience. Then keep them. Toastmasters experience is considered by some companies - professional experience. You can put your activity in the CV. Just like I do ebook, counts comments and shares, page and group involvement.
For the posts here you need blog articles, pictures more profitable than those on Facebook, it works well and video (especially uploaded directly to the platform, not via Youtube). Don't forget to tag (@) the people you present or the pages where you get information. This way you will reach the network of those people and increase the page.
Provides ideas on public speaking - how to improve it, quotes about Leadership, stories from people in the club. Invite people to visit you at meetings.
It's a visual platform - make sure the pictures you post here have that "something". If you are a big Insta fan in the club - ask the person to help you with the pictures, but also with an increase in the number of followers. Tag to other clubs, to the profiles of the people who appear in the picture and develop a list of hashtags (#) appropriate to your club.
What matters here? I will let Robert Katai show you much more clearly what to track on your account. If you have not already chosen to do a business account - I recommend it since it will help you to see the things that Robert is talking about in the picture below. For social media news and cool information from the digital area, plus a super nice podcast I recommend you to "Follow" him:
Youtube
If you are part of the clubs that film the sessions you have full material. Ideally, you should edit each speech and mount it with one intro and another - specific to your club. Then climb them onto the platform. Make sure you have a broad description, with the speaker's name, a few words about the club - where and when you meet, on which platforms it is active, etc. Put tags for better indexing. Then share by private message to the club members. You can read about the youtube algorithm in my article here.
Blog or site
If you already have one or are on your list to develop this you can do it on a free platform, in the first phase. Or you can find a budget or someone to sponsor the project. But here it would be ideal to have people who want to write. You can "sell" the idea of the club with the help of the Vice President of Education - because at level 4 of the Pathways people can choose to start a blog to go over certain projects, that means writing articles. Already having a club platform I can use it to achieve its educational objective. And the VPE can be part of your PR initiative.
Here you need some SEO knowledge to help increase your visibility. You can easily check things out and find out what Search Engine Optimization means (the way Google chooses to put your site above or below). Either you track and use the audit from Neil Patel's website, or you take an SEO Check app - where you will be provided with information that you can use.
You can approach bloggers to invite them to meetings - to see what they eat. Review the people who deal with this in your city, Kooperativa 2.0 is a platform where you can see a whole list of blogs by area. Give them quality content and in time you will be rewarded for your work. You can partially retrieve articles from them - with reference to the blog where the article comes from.
Google
Tag for the place where the meeting is held, those who use Mpas can easily find you (as well as on Waze;) free publicity. From time to time look for the club and see where it appears - what sites, what the vibe is. Is the information up to date? Name of the team of officers, the day you meet, the place. If not, approach the site owner and ask him to help with the change. Also tell him that he is welcome at your meetings.
Here's how to put a new place on the Waze map:
Stories
Available on Facebook (page, event and group), Instagram and Youtube - use them often - it helps you reach people who do not follow you in a traditional way and whose posts do not reach organically.
The above may seem like a lot, especially if you have no experience, but within a week - if you organize yourself well, it takes somewhere 2-3 hours. If you do video editing, it will initially take longer if you don't have the experience - but once you get the taste you will do it for your videos as well. But you don't have to do it yourself - find people in the club to be part of the PR team. Someone to take care of Insta, someone else to help you with youtube or facebook. That is how each one will learn and you will do the coordination part.
Non-digital life:
The promotion can also be done offline - you can choose to go to radio or television and talk about the Toastmasters experience. Get a colleague - divide your emotions into 2;). In Romania there are clubs that have weekly radio shows and this helps a greater number of guests / members. If you have an endorsement in the building where you hold your meetings, put up a poster there to notify the visitors of the building of your existence.
Go to events and offer business cards, take the floor and ask questions by introducing yourself to Toastmasters, print flyers and think about a quarterly or monthly newsletter (after inspiration)
Ask some photographers to come and take more pictures of you. Take mini photo shoots and give photos of members. If the pictures are successful and people change their profile picture ask them to tag the club, but also to the photographers - it will be publicized for each of you.
Make testimonials /videos / interviews with the members and special guests (like area director, division or district director) and use them on your youtube channel/social media and website.
Together with the Vice-President of Members, they organize socializing events, in addition to those after the meeting. It can be boardgames or movie nights where members bring their friends. Organize demo sessions in companies.
Print stickers with club data and when the meeting is happening. Make them colorful and funny, and give them to members to put on their laptops or paste them at work in the common area (with the agreement of the company, of course). Stick the stickers on Toastmasters magazines and leave them at the nearby blocks or at social events. Trisha had a great idea leaving the magazines through the cafes or the coffee area in the block:
This is one article out of a series of articles dedicated to my learning journey in Toastmasters. Follow for more.
