For Admins: Ideas For Promoting LibriVox
Posted: April 10th, 2012, 3:15 pm
Admins,
As admins, I'm not sure how often you have virtual meetings among yourselves and LibriVox leadership, but if you do, here are some more ideas to create more public awareness and volunteer recruitment:
Ask volunteers to reach out to their local media for coverage
This is something I've been working on in my small corner of the globe. Draft a sample letter that current volunteers could use to send out to their local media (TV, radio, newspapers), reserving a section for the volunteer to personalize the letter. For example, a general plea for media coverage along with some LibriVox titles/authors of local interest or the local volunteer's personal experiences. Quite often small to medium size communities are starving for story ideas and it's a great way to highlight how local citizens are impacting the world in a positive way. You may need to create a pool of admins who would be available to the media for interviews (see last suggestion: Marketing/Promotions Team).
Create official and unofficial promotional videos
We've got lots of wonderful instructional video, but I haven't seen much promotional video. This idea has three levels of engagement:
Have some of our more seasoned voice artists and audio engineers host free live workshops (via free web meeting services such as http://www.join.me and promoted on the main LibriVox website). The workshops could be on topics of interest to both regular volunteers, but also as free education for those who are aspiring in careers of broadcasting, audio production, etc. Since we are all in various parts of the globe, several different instructors could do their live presentation at different times/dates. Of course the PR twist here is that the workshop itself is not necessarily the main purpose. The real idea is using the workshop as a venue to sell the idea of getting more people within the industry to donate their time and talents to LibriVox and by doing so, they are gaining experience and a great addition to their resume. For this to be sucessful, there would need to be some work done by LibriVox in getting the word out via the web (Google meta tags, search engine optimization, etc.)
Recruit at VolunteerMatch.org
Text from their website: As the largest online network of participating nonprofits, we help thousands of organizations recruit volunteers every day. Regardless of your volunteer needs, we can help. As a VolunteerMatch member, you can post your volunteer opportunities, track your interested volunteers, increase the visibility of your organization and more! The best part? Registration is free, and only takes a few minutes.
Marketing/Promotions Volunteer Team
Now, take all of the ideas listed above (and even some that I haven't thought of) and create a new team of volunteers who are interested in coordinating and coming up with new ideas for the PR/Promotions of LibriVox. This team may need their own bulletin board section and/or they could meet virtually through JoinMe. I've offered just four marketing/promotion ideas, but I'm sure there are many, many more and the work involved could keep these volunteers quite busy.
Your feedback is welcomed. I hope that some of these ideas can take LibriVox to the future and beyond!
Aaron
As admins, I'm not sure how often you have virtual meetings among yourselves and LibriVox leadership, but if you do, here are some more ideas to create more public awareness and volunteer recruitment:
Ask volunteers to reach out to their local media for coverage
This is something I've been working on in my small corner of the globe. Draft a sample letter that current volunteers could use to send out to their local media (TV, radio, newspapers), reserving a section for the volunteer to personalize the letter. For example, a general plea for media coverage along with some LibriVox titles/authors of local interest or the local volunteer's personal experiences. Quite often small to medium size communities are starving for story ideas and it's a great way to highlight how local citizens are impacting the world in a positive way. You may need to create a pool of admins who would be available to the media for interviews (see last suggestion: Marketing/Promotions Team).
Create official and unofficial promotional videos
We've got lots of wonderful instructional video, but I haven't seen much promotional video. This idea has three levels of engagement:
- First, is the idea of creating a couple of "official" LibriVox produced videos which can be uploaded and shared online. Draft some of our more talented voice artists to write and record 1-2 minute audio explaining very simply what LibriVox is. Then, have some of our volunteers who are gifted in graphic arts to add visual elements to the voiceover to create videos. Once the videos are uploaded, encourage general volunteers to "like" the video on Facebook or other social media sites.
Second, create a separate "theme" of official LibriVox videos similar to the first example, but marketed more toward those who are aspiring to be professionals in broadcasting, audio engineering, etc. Promote the idea that LibriVox is a great way for these career-minded folks to gain experience and to have some career-related community service to add to their resume.
The third idea is to have volunteers create their own personalized video following a theme such as "Why I Love LibriVox". They could share personal stories, scenes of them recording, etc. and then post their personalized "commercial" to YouTube, Facebook or their own websites.
Have some of our more seasoned voice artists and audio engineers host free live workshops (via free web meeting services such as http://www.join.me and promoted on the main LibriVox website). The workshops could be on topics of interest to both regular volunteers, but also as free education for those who are aspiring in careers of broadcasting, audio production, etc. Since we are all in various parts of the globe, several different instructors could do their live presentation at different times/dates. Of course the PR twist here is that the workshop itself is not necessarily the main purpose. The real idea is using the workshop as a venue to sell the idea of getting more people within the industry to donate their time and talents to LibriVox and by doing so, they are gaining experience and a great addition to their resume. For this to be sucessful, there would need to be some work done by LibriVox in getting the word out via the web (Google meta tags, search engine optimization, etc.)
Recruit at VolunteerMatch.org
Text from their website: As the largest online network of participating nonprofits, we help thousands of organizations recruit volunteers every day. Regardless of your volunteer needs, we can help. As a VolunteerMatch member, you can post your volunteer opportunities, track your interested volunteers, increase the visibility of your organization and more! The best part? Registration is free, and only takes a few minutes.
Marketing/Promotions Volunteer Team
Now, take all of the ideas listed above (and even some that I haven't thought of) and create a new team of volunteers who are interested in coordinating and coming up with new ideas for the PR/Promotions of LibriVox. This team may need their own bulletin board section and/or they could meet virtually through JoinMe. I've offered just four marketing/promotion ideas, but I'm sure there are many, many more and the work involved could keep these volunteers quite busy.
Your feedback is welcomed. I hope that some of these ideas can take LibriVox to the future and beyond!
Aaron