Log on with the press

Getting good publicity for your Men’s Health Week activity is vital to increasing the awareness and reputation of your organisation and ultimately, to promote men’s health.

The Men’s Health Forum will be generating media coverage nationally during this year’s Men’s Health Week. Coverage during previous years has been good by the standards of national health events and we hope to generate even more in 2013.

Can you help us with national and local media enquiries? If your organisation is happy to see its great work in the papers or on the TV or radio let our team know a little about the activities you are planning for Men's Health Week.

How you visited How to run and event and the pages to download posters and leaflets or graphics for online use? Visit the resource pack homepage.

Following these tips will help you generate the local publicity you need

• If your organisation has press/public relations staff, coordinate with the relevant people, do not do it all alone. They will have local media contacts and expertise but do share the social media details below.
• Compile a list of all the local and regional media in which you hope to get your story/event covered (remember local radio, television and websites too – not just newspapers). Different audiences are reached by different media methods, it is important to cover them all. You can usually find contact details on each publication’s website.
• Decide whether you want publicity before and/or after the event. If you want to entice people to attend, local papers and other media outlets may run a news item in advance. You may also want to consider direct advertising. When writing your news release, remember it must include the 5 Ws (who, what, when, where and why). Make sure the release includes a clear contact name and details so that journalists can get back to you. Distribute the press release by email if possible.
• Mention National Men’s Health Week in your release. You may get more coverage if journalists know that your event is part of a big, national story. It is also worth giving the publication a call beforehand to talk them through the details of your event and get the correct email address to send the press release to. Do not assume that people inside the publication talk to one another. We suggest starting with the news desk.
• If you are inviting journalists to an event, think about how you will manage them in advance. Some men, considering a health check for example, may be put off if they turn up and see journalists and cameras. Consider inviting the media to attend your event at specific times. Remember, it is very important for the media to be able to talk to some ‘case studies’ (i.e. ‘real people’), not just experts.
• Get the support of local celebrities or dignitaries if possible. This is a great way to increase interest quickly in your story/event. Your local MP may attend, for example, especially if given enough notice. If you can’t get a VIP to turn up, try and get a written statement of support which you can quote. This can be much easier than you may think.
• Ensure someone is around to deal with media enquiries, especially on the day of an event. Nothing can be more detrimental than people trying to get information and not being able to.

Pictures and social media

• Create a Facebook or Twitter account if you do not already have them. You can ask your friends, colleagues, and supporters to invite their contacts and gain rapid publicity this way. Social media is almost always free, extremely effective in reaching enormous amounts of people and very important in raising awareness for your work.
• If you do not hire a photographer, take decent quality photographs of the event. These will be useful for journalists if they are unable to attend and also for your own records. High resolution digital pictures which can be emailed are best. Also share pictures on Facebook and Twitter.
• Details of our Facebook and Twitter accounts are below. On Twitter use the hashtag #MHW13. Hashtags group messages and pictures from many different people to form a single topic.

After the event

• After the event, contact key journalists and media outlets with some essential facts demonstrating the success of your event, for example ‘we saw 30 men, 10 of whom were obese and didn’t know it’. Also, include a photograph to illustrate the event's success.
• Monitor the media to keep a record of all the coverage you achieved, both nationally and locally. This is especially important as many managers and funders like to see this sort of evidence as a return on their investment. If you do not have a media monitoring provider, try using Google news alerts.

Finally, please send copies of your cuttings and photos to the Men’s Health Forum too! If they are online, you can easily share them with us via social media. This will enable us to assess the overall impact of the Week on our end.

If you have any further questions feel free to contact our knowledgeable PR staff here at the Men’s Health Forum. Our main contact is Colin Penning.

The MHF on social media

Follow @MensHealthForum

Remember to use the hashtag #MHW13

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