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Shane Greer has posted a sound piece about PR on his blog regarding the need to incorporate photo-ops in your campaigning. There’s a lesson here that all activists learn. Up and down the country, whatever the party or cause, people are campaigning on issues. But doing that groundwork is only half the battle. It’s crucial to make the most out of your events and activities – and a photo opportunity can massively boost the coverage of your campaign.
Here at TYC we try to avoid being text heavy, because we know that people make a decision as to whether to read a story within a fraction of a second. A potent photo can easily grab attention and cause your audience to read your article or grasp your message, where as a lot of text may well go unread and your campaign unremembered.
““A picture paints a thousand words. Tempting though it is to avoid the use of that obvious cliché when writing an article about photo ops, to do so ignores the inherent value of the statement. It might be one of the oldest clichés in the book, but it’s also undoubtedly true. And for those active in the public policy arena it should act as a constant reminder that if you’re failing to incorporate photo ops into your activities you’re punching far below your weight.
The case for using photo ops in campaigns couldn’t be more compelling. Former Conservative party strategist David Canzini says: “These days people have less and less time, so messages need to be communicated quickly. People won’t always read the article about your campaign in the newspaper or your piece of campaign literature.” He adds: “A strong photo op allows you to tell the story without people having to read anything.” What’s more, as Jo Tanner, director of iNHouse PR says, a strong image will make an enormous difference to the page: “A photo op immediately increases your presence on the page of a newspaper.” And who wouldn’t want that?””
Campus Leftists and their acolytes will use every trick imaginable to oppose overt, active pro-freedom groups on campus. The latest instalment of the Young Britons’ Foundation bible ‘Every Monday Matters‘ has some tips for how, if all else fails, you can still form pro-freedom/conservative societies on your campus in all but name. Remember, you never fight alone – YBF is always available to offer activists help, support and legal advice – just ask!
1. If party political societies are banned, form a Hayek Society or a Friedman Society to discuss economics. If your university has an economics or politics department, so much the easier.
2. Set up a Freedom Association branch, a libertarian society or an Adam Smith club. It will not be party political. For while many of the principles of the Freedom Association, say, may be shared by the Conservative Party, the Freedom Association is only too happy to say where it believes our freedoms are being infringed – whichever party is in government!
3. Set up or take over a debating society. If universities are to be places of intellectual enquiry then debates are surely a pre-requisite.
4. Set up a Hansard Society, a political club or a Law Reform Society open to all those interested in political discourse. This is easier if you have a politics department or a law faculty.
5. Set up a sports or social club such as tiddlywinks, beer tasting, frisbee or yodelling – whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day your goal is to show up your illiberal students’ union or university as being ridiculous in its attempts to deny you the right of peaceful assembly. If the beer tasting society simply happens to be full of libertarians who act just as a libertarian society ordinarily would do then what a remarkable coincidence!
If you ever encounter difficulties at your university with the students’ union or your university authorities as a result of your political activities or beliefs, contact YBF at info@ybf.org.uk immediately.
With the end of the Lent Term and the arrival of the Easter holidays, some well-earned downtime is approaching. The Young Britons’ Foundation’s latest tip has some suggestions for how to make the most of the Easter break and steal a march on your campus rivals:
1. Plan for a Summer Ball or Party
2. Plan ahead for next academic year
3. Sort out your admin
4. Focus on the elections
5. Work on campaigns
YBF’s latest advise calls on students not to be afraid to hold their student organisations to account – ask questions, and demand answers.
Start with the National Union of Students. Ask how much your students’ union has paid to the NUS in the past decade, on what dates and when each year’s decision to pay that money was made and by whom.
Then look at Clubs & Societies, particularly political and cultural societies. Ask how much has been given in the way of grants to all political and cultural societies in the past decade. For example, has the local Hayek Society been unfairly treated in comparison to the campus Green Society even though the Hayek Society has 50 members and the Greens only a dozen? Does the Islamic Society get more or less than the Christian Union? Or the Palestinian Society more than the Israel Society?
Then move onto Sports Clubs, key allies of conservative activists on campus across the country and whose budgets are often cut in favour of left-wing hobby horses and pet projects. In the past decade have grants to the men’s and women’s rugby, cricket, hockey or football clubs been cut? Pledging to increase their funding is usually a sure fire way of ensuring their support in students’ union elections but as fiscal conservatives remember that you will need to make savings elsewhere in the budget.
Look at the Staff of your students’ union, some of whom will revel in Whitehall-style titles such as Permanent Secretary. They are normally your employees, not those of the university. They are accountable to you. If they fail to perform their tasks properly then, subject to the country’s onerous employment laws, they can be sacked. How much are they paid? What other perks – such as pensions, private healthcare, car and other expenses – do they get? Has the budget for their pay and perks increased in the past decade?
Another area that is full of waste is the Conferences budget. It’s the same in local government too. How many of your fellow students have attended external conferences such as the NUS Conference in the past decade? Who went and why? How much did it cost to send them to those conferences – including registration fees, travel, accommodation and subsistence?
At a time of recession, when millions are worried about losing their jobs and homes, conservatives everywhere need to follow the lead of the TaxPayers’ Alliance in exposing waste. With your help, the Young Britons’ Foundation can do this on your campus. Now get asking!
HonestReporting has published a superb guide to internet-activism, tailored to supporting Israel, but also easily adapted to any cause you with to advocate. This FREE 24 page booklet covers the fundamental principles necessary for advancing your cause online.
Broken into three sections, this guide is a complete guide, starting from almost a ‘activism-for-dummies’ level, and building up to more complex and sophisticated tips and tricks. It’s an excellent entry-level handbook for the desk-bound activist: you could do everything contained here from your office, campus library or home computer. It also serves a great refresher for more seasoned activists.
The guide breaks down e-activism into these stages:
Learn What’s Happening
- Case Study: You Can Make a Difference
- Find Out What’s Happening
Mobilize a Response
- Write a Letter
Share It With Everybody
- Be Heard on the Internet
- Disputing Information Found Online
- Create Your Own Blog
- Social Networking Web Sites
- Sending Alerts to Organizations
- Resources
We often advocate the campus/non-campus organisation approach to activism – founding a society, recruiting members, hosting speakers, and campaigning, but we know that that approach doesn’t suit everyone. Some of you will lack the time, for example, to involve yourself in that approach.
But with this guide you can be an armchair activist, working alone – no events to organise, no cold days spent on the streets, you can even carry out this activism from your work, or iPhone!
Download the free guide, study it, and you’ll have all the tools necessary to become a one-man liberty-cell fighting for hearts, minds and freedom.
YBF’s latest tip turns on Morton Blackwell’s 22nd Law of the Public Policy Process: Never miss a political meeting if you think there’s the slightest chance you’ll wish you’d been there.
Politics is a bug. Once you catch the bug, it is rare a cure can be found. Even repeated electoral disasters cannot cure you of the disease (Ted Heath kept losing general elections but he was convinced he could have won in the late 1970s).
There will be times when you will wish you attended an event that you chose not to attend. Something else will have cropped up at work or in your personal life. You will have a diary clash, you won’t be able to afford to go or on a particular day you will decide you just cannot be bothered to go to whatever event it is.
And then you will discover that the event was truly memorable in some way and you will regret, sometimes to your dying day, that you didn’t go.
Continue reading the latest instalment – and apply for this year’s MUST ATTEND events – over at YBF.
In today’s hectic multimedia age, it is easy only to spend time reading blogs, websites or newspapers with whom you are in agreement. That is a very dangerous course for the conservative activist to take. It is imperative to be as well read as possible – not just so that you know what your opponents are up to but also to get you sufficiently angry and motivated that you remember why it is you do what you do.
That said, time is tight. I would therefore recommend the following ten online resources to bookmark and check either daily or at least once or twice a week. Just hold your nose as you read them..!
Head over to YBF for the reading list of enemy lies and propaganda.
Much of the work done by conservative activists of all ages is far too inward-looking and parochial. As a result it is far from welcoming to potential new members.
When you are set to welcome new members at a recruitment stall or even a social, fundraising or speaker event, you must eschew the temptation to give vent to the many (perhaps justified) frustrations from which you may be suffering. It is a profoundly unattractive trait of conservatives (and, to be fair, the English in general!) to moan rather than to exhibit the welcoming and optimistic approach of Americans or Irish. It is only when considering the inherent truth of this that you realise the accuracy of Australians branding us as whinging poms!
When welcoming new members – or prospective new members – it is imperative that those individuals, whatever their age, are embraced into the conservative movement with enthusiasm. If people are made to feel welcome, they are more likely to get involved and to stay involved.
When I first joined the Conservative Party, I went to YC events. These were great fun. The booze flowed, debate took place, policies were discussed and your presence was welcomed. By contrast the senior constituency associations that I joined were thoroughly unwelcoming – and this is a problem that continues today in too many parts of the country. Is it any surprise that there are too few young activists if they are treated like slave labour?
This week why not give your activists a treat. On Wednesday 11 March, YBF is hosting a parliamentary rally from 2pm at the House of Commons. The rally is being addressed by, among others, Michael Gove, Ann Widdecombe, John Redwood, Greg Hands and a host of leaders of the wider conservative movement itself. The YBF rally, which is free of charge but where spaces are allocated on a first come, first served basis by emailing christian@ybf.org.uk, is a great event to reward your best activists and to showcase the spectrum of conservative views and talent to your newer members (many of whom may not have ever been to Parliament before).
Make events fun – that is the lesson for this week. What we are doing as conservative activists is of the utmost importance for the future of our nation. But we can do it with humour too!
The Leadership Institute, on whose work the Young Britons’ Foundation is based, has as the basis for its training workshops the principle that “being right is not enough”. There is no point being correct on the issues of the day (be it Europe, hunting, taxes, crime or whatever) if you cannot communicate your viewpoint effectively and persuade others to follow or agree with you.
Barry Goldwater was right in 1964 but he lost in the then largest ever landslide to President Johnson. By contrast Ronald Reagan demolished both Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale in 1980 and 1984. He had the same views as Barry Goldwater but, through his sunny demeanour and ability to communicate to Americans, he was able to win and to win well.
While it is rare for younger activists to get exposure to local and national broadcast media (although there are, of course, exceptions), it is much easier for young conservatives to spread the word in written form. Many do so by blogging. Some writes letters to the editor of their student, local or national newspapers. But often the best way to persuade is by writing considered pieces in, for example, the student newspaper. A feature on, for example, a conference or speech you recently attended or discussing a particularly newsworthy event or policy issue is a great way to persuade others. It is also very good practice.
It is likely that your student newspaper will not have a conservative viewpoint. Offer to write a piece. If the editorial team turns you down, write a letter to the editor for publication (which letter is, of course, essentially just a shortened version of an article in any event). If you still cannot get published, maybe it might be time to consider setting up your own campus publication – be it online or in print. Get writing!
See this latest edition of Every Monday Matters in full at YBF’s blog.
The campus newspaper provides a great mechanism for getting your organization’s message to the student population. But don’t forget that there are other media outlets serving your campus and community, notably local newspapers and television news networks. Invite these news outlets to your events, and try to build relationships with their staff to help get your message out.
The first step is to craft a press release for your event. This should include the event, speakers, sponsors (the more you have, the more likely you will be to get the press interested!), location, and time, as well as contact information for your organization. Send this out to local media at least a week ahead of time; fax numbers and email addresses will be available on the appropriate websites.
Next, craft a media packet with information on the issue being discussed at your event. Don’t get polemical — include hard facts and statistics, and make sure to cite sources. Make sure to reiterate the information in your press release, as well, including biographies of speakers, the mission statement of your organization, and your contact information. This will make it easier for a reporter to cover your event, and thus increase the likelihood of getting space on the page or in the evening news.
Remember that colleges serve as a source of pride and identity for a community: local inhabitants want to know what students are doing! So don’t be shy; contact your media, build relationships with reporters, and spread your message!
Be sure to check the Students for Liberty blog often for tips, new and views in the cause of Liberty.
