Welcome

Your Public Image Support Team

 
The District 6630 organization includes a Public Image Support Team comprised of Rotary members with experience in public image, marketing, communications and the technology needed for an effective club public image program. But, most importantly, this team is dedicated to supporting our district’s Rotary Clubs with information and support to assist their activities in such diverse activities as public relations, public image, marketing and the effective use of club websites and social media.
 
Public Image 2022-23 Committee:
 
Whether you’re new to public relations, image management and marketing or a professional, Rotary needs your help. We encourage you to visit the Rotary Brand Center, where you will find a variety of media-ready materials that can be adapted to your needs.

Our quick guide to 10 Ways to Rock Your Club’s Rotary Brand:

How Do I Promote My Club and Its Projects?

Here is a quick list with more details below.
  1. Maintain an attractive and up-to-date website
  2. Maintain active social media channels, tagging people and organizations at every opportunity to cast a wider net
  3. Share your details with the District P.I. team for distribution to other clubs
  4. Know Your Local Media – invite them as an “honored guest” at your next meeting to begin building and/or enhance the media relationship.
  5. Write a Press Release that journalists will want to share
  6. Consider advertising on social media, local cable stations or local papers

Building A Better Website:

Think of your Club’s website as a window display that allows people to understand WHO you are and WHAT you do as a club.  It’s important that it tells the story of your Club’s personality and also gives members and prospects “call to action”, which can be an easy invitation to join your club, whether as a new member or just joining to help in a service project.
 
Want to know what makes for a great website? Visit the Websites page in the Brand Center for a few tips and spend some time visiting websites of other clubs across the world. You'll come to see sites that are engaging and some that are not. ClubRunner has wonderful templates to help you create a great site. District Webmaster Cheryl Warren is available for one-on-one coaching to help your club build a website that helps best represent your club and its projects.

Social Media Magic:

Social Media has become a big part of our lives. In fact, social media pages are often considered the “new Yellow Pages” when it comes to people finding you. Social channels are also a great influence on whether people “see” themselves fitting in with your club’s personality and mission. 
 
There’s more to social media than just posting. Think of it as your first tier of marketing your club. It requires a strategy and some planning. It also requires participation from as many club members as you can get to follow, post and share to your page. This creates a ripple effect of awareness.  Taking on the Club’s social pages can seem daunting for one person, so be sure to get more than one person if you can. Together, your team should start with building a content calendar, then you can create many posts at once and schedule them to post on days and times you want.  This helps you think ahead and not fall prey to losing opportunity when life gets busy at the last minute.  This Social Media Page on the Rotary Brand Center is very helpful in starting to craft your social media presence. 
 
The Meta (Facebook) publishing tools are free and enable you to post simultaneously to Facebook and Instagram. Don’t forget about LinkedIn as that’s another great place to meet new members and link to the organizations and businesses. If your Club wants to make it a one-stop-shop for posting, there are paid posting sites like Buffer, Hubspot, SproutSocial that allow you to work from one online place to post to all of your events and planned posts.
 
We need to plan, but don’t forget to be spontaneous. Fun photos and “live” videos make for engaging content and allow for members to feel connected.
 
Vice Chair Elana Koh of the E-ClubNEO is in the process of putting together a few videos to help you with your social content. Stay tuned!

Crafting Engaging Messages

The WAY you tell your stories is equally as important as HOW and WHERE.  This applies to everything you write, from social posts to website copy to press releases. The most important rule is to somehow find and add the emotion to whatever story you’re telling.

In Words:

In  headlines and opening copy, see what happens when you weave emotion into the 5 Ws (who, what, when, where, why).  This is how you can be professional, yet approachable and engaging. 

Example:
Rotary Youth Exchange students attended a Cleveland Guardians game on Saturday, July 3rd as a group outing.  Our students represent the following countries: Spain, China, Argentina and Italy. The Cleveland Guardians played the Chicago White Sox…

vs.

At the corner of Carnegie and Ontario, Rotary Youth Exchange Students from District 6630 cheered on the Cleveland Guardians as they beat the Chicago White Sox 3-1 in an exciting display of baseball.  Students from Spain, China, Argentina and Italy got a taste of our nation’s pastime (including Ballpark Hot Dogs), making memories they’ll surely take back home with them, along with their new friendships made here in Cleveland.   

In Images & Photos:

The best resource for capturing your club’s energy is hiding in your pocket or your purse… It’s your phone.  Don’t wait for a fancy camera person to take pictures.  Photos and selfies from your phone can be a great asset for your public image campaigns.
 
Tips for better photos and images are this:
  1. Capture unstaged moments that are more light-hearted and fun. Even if you have to take 3 photos from your phone and choose the one that caught the best expression, just keep clicking.
  2. Get as close as you can. It’s okay to sneak up to a seat up front. Photos where we can actually see people’s faces and smiles are way more engaging that from far away. If you take a shot from far away and try to zoom or crop into it, you’ll be left with a blurry image that doesn’t help either. Get close. Capture the smile.
  3. Crop and Edit. Your phone also has a great cropping tool so you CAN zoom in if you’d like.  In our Top 10 Ways link above, you’ll find a slide where we compare two photos as they were taken, and then cropped for effect.
  4. Using apps on your phone or websites like Canva* are great ways to make more engaging posts.  Canva can be FREE and comes with templates with specific sizing for Facebook posts, Instagram posts, and even videos and flyers. You can add text and logos with a snap. You can edit videos and even add animations for pizazz! Tina Ingraham will offer one-to-one training on Canva if you need.
*Canva is a website that allows you to create professional looking images, videos, flyers and more. There is a free version to this subscription, or you can submit your tax exempt and utilize the Premium version for free.  Visit the website here: Home - Canva. If you want to become a Canva master, be sure to walk through one of their tutorials:  https://www.canva.com/designschool/tutorials/

Sharing is Caring.

Remember, Rotarians love to share ideas and what works for their club. Spend some time doing internet searches of other Rotary Clubs around the world to see what their websites look like, or see what type of images they share on social.  Join Rotary Facebook groups where the whole idea is sharing graphics and images for your social channels and websites.  It’s a great source of inspiration when you’re not sure where to start.
 
Be sure to come back as this Resource Page will be updated with more tips and techniques.