Services We Provide to Clients
We provide a wide range of services designed to help you build trust with your community, including:
Messaging
Explaining information so that a lay person will understand it is a challenge for almost every organization. We can help you craft simple, jargon-free messages that align with your organization’s goals. Depending on the nature of your organization, messages may pertain to:
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How you spend your money
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How you make policy decisions
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How you resolve conflicts and problems
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How you educate your students
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How you screen and hire staff
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How you nurture the social/emotional health of your students
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How you keep your campuses safe
Problem Solving
The best PR is doing the right thing in the first place. We will help you:
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Analyze and advise you on how key decisions will be perceived by the public
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Design 2-way communication strategies to increase responsiveness to your audiences
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Create and implement communication plans to increase buy-in from the public around important decisions
Communications Planning
We can help you identify your communication priorities, and work with you to write a communications plan that incorporates measurable objectives, strategies and tactics tailored to your community.
Community Engagement
Connecting with your community is the first step toward building understanding and trust. We will:
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Design and implement community engagement plans around a specific issue
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Plan and facilitate meetings that will help you understand the needs and wishes of your community
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Evaluate and create follow-up messaging
Media Relations
We understand how to work with reporters and can support you in responding to media inquiries:
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Provide counsel on how to respond (Hint: tell the truth, and as quickly as possible)
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Write press releases and statements that will give the reporters the information they need to write accurate stories
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Pitch positive stories about your organization
Situational Response
All organizations have everyday problems that can easily be misunderstood if you don't provide context. We can provide messaging that tells your audience why or how an issue arose and how you are addressing it:
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Write easy-to-understand explanations for your website, social media and public communication
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Draft responses to community inquiries
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Provide context for tough decisions
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Offer reassurance to key stakeholders
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Respond to media
Crisis Management
How you respond in the immediate aftermath of an emergency will determine the level of trust in your organization. We will:
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Develop a crisis communication plan for your organization so you are prepared when the unexpected occurs
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Provide advice on how to communicate during an emergency
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Write communication updates
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Determine which communication channels to use
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Respond to media
Financial Communications
Making numbers understandable is one of the toughest challenges any organization faces, especially public agencies who must maintain transparency with the public. We can help you:
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Translate numbers into a story
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Make complex budgets understandable with charts, graphs and infographics
Coaching and Mentoring Your Staff
Whether or not you have a dedicated communications professional on your staff, an outside perspective from a trained professional is helpful. Naomi can bring her experience serving as a public relations accreditation chair for the California School Public Relations Association and the Public Relations Society of America, San Francisco Chapter to your organization and coach your employees on public relations best practices.
Internal Communications
Keeping insiders in your organization informed of district news is essential in building trust. We will help you design communication that is sensitive to the needs and interests of board members, staff, and community.
Reputation management
Develop a strategic plan to help your organization reshape its narrative
Writing
Writing clearly and effectively takes time. We will add time into your day by helping you draft:
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Letters
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Website content
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Presentations
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Brochures and marketing materials
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Speeches
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Fact sheets
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Frequently Asked Questions
Building Your Communications Infrastructure
Do your constituents and customers go first to the local newspaper, your website or social media? Do you need to reach special interest groups, such as senior citizens or parents of pre-schoolers? Do you need a mass communication system to reach your audience? If so, do you use it primarily for sending emails, text messages or audio phone calls? We can help you analyze your audience and design a communication strategy that helps you reach your constituents, clients and customers. We will:
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Identify communication channels
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Design an information flowchart
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Identify vendors for services such as mass notification systems and websites
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Create organization policies and protocols for sharing news and information
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Develop a social media strategy
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Identify and provide videographers, graphic designers and other specialists
School Marketing
Many school districts are facing declining enrollment due to charter schools opening, or families moving to regions with a lower cost of living. Districts whose funding is based on enrollment must recruit students or face steep budget cuts. We will:
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Develop a school marketing plan and implementation tactics
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Create appealing logos and taglines to promote your school
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Produce brochures and videos
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Design a social media strategy
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Oversee a website design
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Train your staff in customer service and outreach strategies
Research and Analysis
You can't communicate effectively without assessing what you know about the problem you are trying to solve. Do you want to increase donations to your non-profit? You need to understand how your organization is perceived and what is motivating current donors to give. Do you want to increase enrollment in your schools? Doing so involves understanding how and why parents are making choices to enroll or not enroll. We can help you with:
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Polling: we can help you identify professionals who will conduct statistically valid, scientific polls
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Internal or community surveys: We can help you write and conduct informal surveys
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Compiling and analyzing existing data, such as year-to-year enrollment numbers, that tell a story about your organization
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Reviewing media coverage and social media posts that inform you about the community's understanding of an issue facing your organization
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Focus groups: we can organize and facilitate conversations with small groups of constituents.
Communications Training
If you do not have a communications or public relations professional on the payroll (and even if you do!), your staff will need to be communications savvy. We will conduct trainings on:
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How to write effectively
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How to market your organization, including public schools
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How to talk to the media
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How to protect your organization's reputation in a crisis