Promoting an Academy to the Media, Parents,Students and Others

The Power of the NAF Network

• There are over 500 NAF Academies in 41 states and the District of Columbia

• If each of these Academies assigned one person to work on publicizing their local Academy a couple of times a year, the amount of exposure for NAF Academies as a whole would be huge.

• My challenge for you: commit to promoting your Academy in some way twice in the coming year, and help to encourage other NAF Academies to do the same.

Identity

A consistent identity communicates consistency with an organization, and allows your audiences to visually link to your Academy each time they see the same visual look.

New NAF Brochures

New NAF brochures can be downloaded at www.naf.org. Hardcopies of the brochures can be obtained (50 per Academy of each) by contacting Marceline Dickson at NAF.– National Academy Foundation General Brochure– Academy of Finance Fact Sheet– Academy of Hospitality & Tourism Fact Sheet– Academy of Information Technology Fact Sheet– Academy of Engineering Fact Sheet

Key Messages

Key messages ensure that everyone involved with your Academy is consistent in the way they describe the Academy.

Key messages are in the NAF Style Guide, which is

available on the NAF Web site.

Public Service Announcements

(PSAs)

Distribute these PSAs to local media and become part of NAF’s campaign to connect schools to businesses.

• Camera-ready print ads• Radio PSAs

Media Pitching Tips

• Pick a point person

• Get to know your media

• Make a media list

• Craft your story

• Have all your materials ready

• Manage expectations

Current Potential Story Opportunity

• MDRC Study, released June 27, 2008

• Study follow career academy students (NAF and other academies) over an eight-year period

• Results reflect positively on career academies and provide a great reason for a reporter to cover your local academy as a success story

Wire Services and News Services

• Wire services provide an easy to get national coverage for your story, in many papers

• New services help distribute your story to a wider audience

Sample News Release:

New Academy Announcement

Easy format allows you to create a news release about a new Academy using this template.

To use the template, just add information in place of the text that is blue.

Sample News Release:

New Academy Board Appointment

This template announces a new Advisory Board member.

This type of announcement is usually picked up by business publications and general community type listings.

Sample News Release:

Expert Visits Academy Students

You can create a news event by having a high-profile person visit your Academy.

Consider politicians, business leaders, well-known industry leaders.

Sample News Release:

Open House

An open house provides an opportunity to expose a large number of people to your Academy.

News releases about open houses are usually picked up by newspaper calendars or columnists (i.e., business or community)

Op Ed

An op-ed is an abbreviation for opposite editorial due to the tradition of newspapers placing such materials on the page opposite the editorial page

This Op Ed is a way to garner media attention when there isn’t a news item to report.

Letter to the Editor

Letters to the editor created so that they come from an Advisory Board member, lending third-party credibility.

Letters to the editor are most likely to be picked up when they are short and to the point.

Internet Strategies

Given today’s highly-wired world, it is important to have a presence on the Web.

Some ideas:• E-newsletters (both create one and utilize other

organization’s e-newsletter to promote your Academy)• Online newsroom for your Academy• Post press releases on free Web sites• Make use of community boards• Interact with bloggers• Utilize social networking sites, such as MySpace,

YouTube and Facebook

Event Ideas

• Academy Launch Event

• Community Open House/ Partnership Recruitment Event

• Local “Generation Now: Connecting Schools and Business” Summit/Panel Discussion

Reaching out to Diverse Audiences

Spanish Translation:– NAF’s boilerplate paragraph now available in

Spanish

Consider ways to connect with audiences you might not otherwise:

If you have something you think might be newsworthy, please let NAF know! We will have our media agency look at it and see if it is something they think can garner press.

Please send all clippings

of media coverage to NAF!

What does your Academy

need to help promote itself?