Counting. Between Pesach and Shavuot, multiple alerts arrive in my in-box reminding me to count, count, count. So far, every evening, I’ve remembered. (Full disclosure: my iPhone plays an 8:30 pm reminder.) All this focus on counting makes me suggest that you use numbers to show your parents, donors, and even the media, how your work “counts.”

Newspaper editors loves love user-friendly PR pitches. Busy parents crave transparent information and want to know what’s happening in your classrooms (and boardrooms), but often don’t have the time to read lengthy articles. You know what your constituents’ main concerns are. While these vary from school to school, there is no doubt that parents and donors want to be sure you are being fiscally responsible and proactive while providing a stellar Jewish and General Studies education.

The following counting lists might capture attention – and increase understanding, appreciation, loyalty and support!

Three Ways We Contained Costs This Year:

We made more frequent but less costly and more effective fundraising appeals utilizing social media.
We applied for and received funds to upgrade our inefficient HVAC system.
We partnered with another local school and a local senior center to qualify for significant volume discounts on office supplies.

Four Is Our Magic Number:

4 new innovations in our early childhood reading program.
4 new teachers coming aboard in September.
4 national Merit Scholarship Winners.
4 generations participate in our Yom HaShoah program.

Five Ways We Make Counting The Omer Meaningful:

Kindergarten students plant vegetables while learning about harvesting and the concept of omer.
Middle schoolers count omer over the phone with their nursing-home-resident “sefirah buddies.”
Eighth graders visit the bar kochba caves during their Israel trip.
Sophomores explore one of the seven lower kabalistic sefirot each week.
High school seniors learn that  ”Torah is acquired through 48 ways (Avot, 6:5).” They then prepare for matan Torah by logging to Rabbi Noah Weinberg’s series, the “48 Ways” every morning.

If you are ready to jump to 33 – click her to read a past Lag B’omer post, offering 33 easy to implement marketing and fundraising tips.

Should you have any questions about marketing, resource development, or any of my day school services, please call me at (516) 569-8070 or send me an email.

Until the next issue, Kol Tuv! Sincerely,

Candace Plotsker-Herman
Creative Communications

Certainly your students use Facebook. And you do as well. Perhaps your school has won one of the exciting and generous contests sponsored by savvy mega stores during the past year. Or, perhaps like many of my clients, you’re dabbling and wondering if it’s worth your effort. Alternatively, you may be anxious about March 30th: the day that all Facebook pages will be upgraded to the new timeline format (like it or not…so it pays to like it!) I chatted with social media networking guru Rebecca Saidlower to get some advice. You may be surprised that Saidlower who is Associate Director of Marketing and Communication at the Jewish Education Project cautions, “It may not be worth the effort. Think carefully before investing the resources to establish and maintain a social media presence.”

The first strategic step is to clarify your goals. Tempting, as it may seem, your goal is not merely to have a Facebook page because “all the other school do.” A broad goal might be “we want to increase our engagement with our target audience through having a Facebook Page.” We’ll discuss narrower goals and how to achieve them below.

Rules of Engagement
Define your audience: With whom do you wish to connect?

Narrow Your Goal
Do you want third grade parents to understand what goes on in your reading lab?
Do you want to inform parents about your new middle school Hebrew language immersion program?
Do you want to increase communication with grandparents?
Do you want to reach out to alumni who graduated between 1990-2011 because you are honoring their former AP English teacher?
Think about where and how to engage these audiences. Find out how they get their information. Don’t make assumptions!

Page or Groups
After defining your target audience (and you may have several) think about the best way to reach them through Facebook.

You may decide to create a dedicated group page for grandparents, for alumni in general, or graduates of specific years in particular. “Groups” explains Saidlower “are for building a community.” They allow constituents to speak directly to one another. But – beware! You surrender a certain amount of control. On your page you “push out” information. A group assumes more control its own content.

The New Facebook Timeline
Facebook Timeline offers multi-faceted opportunities to inspire your audience. You can reach them through pictures that touch the heart and with historical narratives that impress, inform, and celebrate the past while looking towards a hopeful future.

Should you have any questions about marketing, resource development, or any of my day school services, please call me at (516) 569-8070 or send me an email. Wishing you a chag kasher v’samayach and sedarim that infuse meaning into your family’s timeline.

Until the next issue, Kol Tuv! Sincerely,

Candace Plotsker-Herman
Creative Communications

Seasonal Focal Points… No doubt, your Tu b’Shevat plans are in place. Preschool and lower school bulletin boards are dressed in creative “trees” that may be blossoming self portraits, blooming mitzvah notes, or sprouting pictures of students’ extended families. Hopeful little planters adorn classroom windowsills. Middle school students may be involved in multi-faceted projects that weave Torah and Science together. Perhaps they are participating in innovative cross curriculum projects such as Hazon’s Min Ha’Aretz.

Hazon’s Min Ha’Aretz uses food and Jewish tradition as focal points to create innovative programming for students (grades 5-9) and their families. Min Ha’Aretz weaves together tradition and contemporary food issues (nutrition, chemical pesticides, obesity, and environmental damage) in an 18-lesson curriculum. To get your copy, click here.

Should you have any questions about implementing a Tu b’Shevat plan or about any of my day school services, please contact me at (516) 569-8070 or send me an email.

Until the next issue, Kol Tuv!

Sincerely,

Candace Plotsker-Herman
Creative Communications

Dispel Myths… Possibly, your high schoolers decided to host a Tu b’Shevat seder for the seniors from the local nursing home and/or the public school students down the block. Perhaps they are raising funds to help Tea reach its one million dollar goal so it can continue creating and implementing creative ecological educational programming. Or, they might be involved in raising awareness about, and funds for, the Jewish National Fund. (JNF Parsons Water Fund is a $100 million initiative to increase Israel’s supply of high-quality water by more than 440 billion gallons over the next decade.)

My point? Tu b’Shevat is celebrated is a variety of ways. Analyze your school’s unique Tu b’Shevat from a public relations perspective. Then strategically plant your PR seeds and weed out the PR myths.

Your Tu b’Shevat PR should be about more than getting a picture in the paper. It should help attain your short and long term goals. These might be as complex as dispelling harmful myths or as simple as being seen regularly in the paper by your constituents.

Myths persist and sadly the bad ones blossom. Use your Tu b’Shevat PR to weed them out!

Myth One: the school’s Judaic Studies curriculum is basic, boring, and not rigorous.

Promote your Tu b’Shevat Seder not only as a “feel-good” photo-op but also as a concrete celebration of Jewish history and philosophy. Share how students learned about the development of rituals. An Introduction to the Tu b’Shevat Seder by David Jay Derovan, provides excellent background, tracing the b’Shevat Seder’s historical development to the sixteenth century Kabbalists of Tzfat.

Myth Two: The students aren’t really taught about Tikun Olam. They put money in a tzedaka box every Friday and participate in bike-a-thons, but they don’t connect to them or Eretz Yisrael in a meaningful manner. They worry too much about their SAT scores and the football score and too little about their sacred obligations.

If this misperception haunts you, your PR efforts should focus on how you teach a connection to the earth. Focus on your innovative, cross-curricular methods of teaching environmental responsibility. (See the Teva Center’s list of 30 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Environment.)

Myth Three: The school provides and excellent Judaic and Secular studies education. Sadly, they don’t seem to be very Zionistic.

Your release should demonstrate that your Tu b’Shevat lessons foster a direct connection to Israel. Perhaps, addressing the initiative to increase Israel’s supply of high-quality water through programs such as the Jewish National Fund’s, Parson’s Water Fund.

Should you have any questions about implementing a Tu b’Shevat plan or about any of my day school services, please contact me at (516) 569-8070 or send me an email.

Until the next issue, Kol Tuv!

Sincerely,

Candace Plotsker-Herman
Creative Communications

Planting Schedule… It’s possible that your goal is simply to appear in the newspaper monthly. Even so, think about your overall calendar.

A simple PR calendar should reflect your school’s varied strengths. Even if you have a loyal base AND a pre-school waiting list, you want to present a well-rounded image.

Clearly, a community day school promotes itself differently than a Mesivta. Yet, the strategic rules are the same. If your goal is to be in print once a month during the school year – you still need to plan those ten releases and be sure they reflect ALL your priorities.

So while a Mesivta might learn more heavily toward articles that reflect its Limudei Kodesh curriculum and the kesher maintained with alumni while students are studying in Israeli yeshivas and after they return to pursue college education. To reflect varying strengths, a Mesivta should be sure to promote its AP scholar and state-of-the-art Science program. Similarly, the Community Day School might promote the way it stresses that stellar analytical skills are not only for acing tests but also for being productive and inclusive members of society. An encompassing approach would be to demonstrate that its graduates are comfortable leading services at any college Hillel House.

For a free ½ hour phone consultation about creating an effective PR calendar, contact me.

A few more Tu B’Shevat resources:

Canfei Nesharim
Canfei Nesharim’s website includes many articles and Divrei Torah exploring the connections between Tu b’Shevat and the environment. It also features sample lesson plans to educate about the environment from a Torah perspective.

Lookstein Center
The Lookstein Center provides links to a variety of lesson plans, articles and printable Tu b’Shevat Sederim.

Hazon
Hazon is a dynamic organization that works to create a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community for all. Learn about its innovative educational curricula and resources and download the Tu b’Shevat Haggadah.

Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL)
COEJL seeks to expand the contemporary understanding of such Jewish values as Tikkun Olam, Tzedek, and G’Milut Chasadim to environmental action and advocacy. Its Tu b’Shevat page features creative resources.

Jewish National Fund
The Jewish National Fund (JNF) is not only about tree certificates and little blue Tzedaka boxes (though they certainly are a source for both)! Access the JNF’s Tu b’Shevat Across America page which provides different Tu b’Shevat Haggadot, activities, lesson plans, sermons, and a host of other resources. Tu b’Shevat in the Schools program will provide you with free educational newsletters and posters.

Teva Center
The Teva Center is a non-denominational Jewish Environmental Education Institute. It runs single-day programs as well as residential programs (from two- to four-days in duration) for fourth- through eighth-graders. These intensive programs are designed to sensitize participants to nature’s rhythms and help them develop a more meaningful relationship with both nature and their own Jewish practices. (These programs take place at several sites in the Northeast.)

Should you have any questions about implementing a Tu b’Shevat plan or about any of my day school services, please contact me at (516) 569-8070 or send me an email.

Until the next issue, Kol Tuv!

Sincerely,

Candace Plotsker-Herman
Creative Communications

What does a Latke have to do with a story? Well, you start with something simple – a potato. Add some ingredients; do something special to them – and what do you get? A delicious Latke. OK – unleash this image on your parent ambassadors and ask them how their children’s teachers took something simple and turned it into something spectacular.

Are they stuck?

How did a seemingly simple teaching strategy turn a child who was frustrated with Rashi script into a Parshanut super-star?

How did a Morah’s simple yet magical words take a sulking child – whose mom was in the hospital having a new baby – and transform him into a proud big brother and cooperative second-grader?

Latke Cooking Activites. Here is another thought to share with your parent ambassadors: Tell them the many ways that your teachers transform a Latke cooking activity into a comprehensive cross-curriculum event. Let’s count eight ways:

A Jewish History lesson.
A Math lesson.
A Science lesson.
A Hebrew language lesson. Read ingredients in Hebrew rather than in English.
A Music lesson. Students sing songs about Latke making while they grate the potatoes.
A small group collaborative activity. One group peels, another grates, and the third measures.
A Bracha review. What is the Bracha for a potato Latke? What if the potato Latke is part of a larger meal?
A Chesed activity. Students share their Latkes with the class next door, the school secretary, the crossing guard, the security guard, and the school nurse.

Click here to read Chanukah unwrapped: Part II.

My team and I are here to help you communicate effectively, increase visibility and loyalty, recruit and retain students, and raise needed funds. To discuss your needs, please contact me at (516) 569-8070 or send me an email.

Wishing you a happy and healthy Chanukah!

Sincerely,

Candace Plotsker-Herman
Creative Communications

What’s inside your Sufganiyot? Sufganiyot are special not only because they are fried but also because of the hidden surprises they contain.

Ask your parent ambassadors to recall those special moments, the hidden benefits they have reaped as a result of their letting you be their partners in educating their children.

Suggest that they think about the issues they struggled with when they were deciding if they should choose your school – and how the benefits have convinced them that their decision was correct.

Share your own stories as springboards for your parents. But encourage them to think of their own, more personal narratives. These personal stories are the ones that will ring most true and will therefore be most compelling.

Add Sizzle. Once your ambassadors-in-training think of their stories, help them add sizzle and spice. Encourage them to rehearse, so they will feel comfortable, not robotic. Talk to them about effective word choice. Active, concrete language will transform mundane stories into compelling, convincing drama (just as spices, eggs, and oil turn bland potatoes into sizzling latkes)!

Click here to read Chanukah unwrapped: Part I.

My team and I are here to help you communicate effectively, increase visibility and loyalty, recruit and retain students, and raise needed funds. To discuss your needs, please contact me at (516) 569-8070 or send me an email.

Wishing you a happy and healthy Chanukah!

Sincerely,

Candace Plotsker-Herman
Creative Communications

Advertising is something you get by paying for it. You create an ad, paying meticulous attention to its content and design. You choose your media outlets, and pay. Your ad appears exactly – and as often – as you want.

Publicity, however, is something you try to obtain. You submit a request for coverage or a story after the fact. The assignment editor decides if a reporter should cover the story or if the submitted material should be published. Your perfectly chosen inter-generational picture may end up on the front page, your Chesed story may appear as a slightly edited feature, or the launching of your smart board program may become part of a larger feature about incorporating technology into the classroom. Your event may even end up on TV. Or, your request or release may be ignored, edited severely, buried in the back pages, or shelved until it is no longer relevant.

So, why try to get publicity that you can’t control instead of paying for a sure thing: advertising? Doesn’t that seem counter-intuitive?

There are two compelling reasons: Cost and credibility.

1. Cost: advertising can be very expensive while publicity can be gained at relatively little cost.

2. Credibility: publicity has more credibility than advertising.

Cost: You pay not only for an ad’s creation but also for each and every placement. Sure, you pay someone to write and submit your releases, but one release can be sent to many outlets – merely by clicking send!

Credibility: People who read or hear about you in the news know that you are not controlling the message. Therefore, they perceive the message to be credible.

The bottom line? Effective publicity is vital. It is simply good sense to ensure that your parents and other constituents including potential parents, grandparents, alumni, neighbors, vendors, and present and potential donors are exposed to positive, consistent publicity about your school.

Let’s create a case study:
Perhaps you’ve heard some suspicious whispers from the cynics:

Sure those kids learn Torah. But, I wonder if they’re prepared to enter the “real” world.
I bet they don’t even know much about the presidential election.

Your job is to convince your constituent groups that your students will be tomorrow’s responsible, savvy citizens.

Click here to read part II, Earned Media.

Should you have any questions about developing and implementing a winning 2011-2012 PR and fundraising plan, or about any of my day school services, please feel free to call me at (516) 569-8070 or send me an email.

Until the next issue, Kol Tuv!

Sincerely,

Candace Plotsker-Herman
Creative Communications

Advertising
Let’s say you decide to develop a low budget ad campaign. At the very least, in addition to your time, you’ll spend the following:
ad creation (two ads): $600 ad placement
2x in a small Jewish paper: $1200
1x in the local Anglo paper: $1200

Your ad might pose the question: do you vote to produce students who can identify Plato, Perry, and the weekly Parsha? Perhaps it will include a picture of your students engaged in learning about the election – entering a “voting” booth, debating, or campaigning.

Publicity
Take the same $3,000. Put $1,800 in the bank (now, that’s a good vote)! Invest $1,200 and pay to have one request for coverage for your “mock debate” and two election feature stories written (at $400 each). Each story would feature a unique focus and be sent with a different picture. In fact, each story could be tweaked slightly and sent to additional media contacts.

Chances are that for less than half the cost of advertising, your school’s commitment to creating solid citizens will be featured in the newspaper, reaching your desired audience many more times than the three guaranteed by your paid ads. You might even be featured on TV or radio. And remember – due to enhanced credibility, one “earned-media” placement can have an advertising equivalency that far exceeds the value of a small ad.

Gaining solid and consistent editorial coverage requires more than simply submitting a press release about a unique event. That is why it is known as “earned media” – you work to earn it! You work hard to know what news each editor needs, you craft pitches and stories in the format they desire, and you cultivate relationships. In an understandable effort to save money, many administrators simply add “monthly press release” to the list of responsibilities for their intern, assistant, or favorite English teacher. This is penny-wise and pound-foolish. If you don’t have the qualified staff or the time to earn the media coverage you want, let me know. I’m a cost effective solution and here to help.

Click here to read part I, Advertising Vs. Publicity.

Should you have any questions about developing and implementing a winning 2011-2012 PR and fundraising plan, or about any of my day school services, please feel free to call me at (516) 569-8070 or send me an email.

Until the next issue, Kol Tuv!

Sincerely,

Candace Plotsker-Herman
Creative Communications

Surely your beginning weeks of school yielded a host of great pictures. Now what? You know of course, that a single picture can tell many stories. Yet, pictures are often filed either under one category, or more often, under one date. To exacerbate matters, those doing the filing often don’t understand some basics about digital photos, design, and printing.

Recently, I worked with two schools to develop end of year reports. One simply referred me to a huge file of low-resolution pictures labeled “school activities and class room photos, 2010-11.” The file reminded me of great Aunt Bessie’s huge tote bag – it held everything but the kitchen sink and the daily search for the house keys could take twenty minutes. The second administrator knew exactly where to find early childhood picture that epitomized the wide-eyed wonder of exploration, the middle school picture that demonstrated collaborative learning, and the high school picture that displayed the school’s Zionistic philosophy.

The days of filing pictures away in shoeboxes have passed. Invest a few minutes now to learn how to organize your picture files strategically. The dividend? A huge favor for yourself, your marketing professional, your designers, and printers! You may earn publicity that would otherwise escape you.

Filing
I suggest that you file pictures in multiple categories:

1. By date: i.e. October, 2011
2. By event: i.e. Succah Hop
3. By theme: although sorting by theme is more challenging and time consuming, it can be very helpful in the future. Certainly all the pictures of the event can be filed under a genral chag category. Think more strategically and when you need specific pictures, you won’t have to search hard to find them. If guests attended the Succah hop from a school for developmentally disabled children, some of your pictures should be filed thematically under Chesed. A shot of a child and teacher hanging up Succah decorations together might be used to show close student and teacher interaction. A picture of a child benching lulav with her grandfather could document family involvement.

Thematic Sorting Quiz
Where would you store the following pictures?

1. A teacher bending over a student – both looking at a computer screen featuring a page from Bar Ilan software?

A. Close teacher-student interaction
B. Judaic Studies
C. Computer Studies
D. “PR: Our students use cutting edge technology to help them access ancient texts.”
E. All of the above

2. Three children engaged in building a wooden Chanukia – balancing different parts of the Chanukia.

A. Hands-on experiential education
B. Collaborative learning
C. Science
D. Crafts
E. All of the above

Similarly, grandparent involvement can be shown not only through your “Grandparent Day pictures,” but also through other pictures taken throughout the year that feature grandparents engaged with students, teachers or administrators. Through adroit filing, you’ll be able to access those pictures prior to meeting with a future grandparent honoree or a potential family whose grandparents have expressed clear interest (or – as the case may be – defiant opposition).

Storage Advice
Graphic designer Miriam Steinberg, who works with schools and institutions across the country, cautions that you must keep an original untouched copy of the photo in the highest resolution available to you. Although you may need to crop out certain people (perhaps a child whose parents won’t allow you to use her picture or a teacher you just fired), keep the original photo. Do not convert the file format without first checking with your designer. “It’s best to let your graphic designer make decisions about how large the photo should be, how it should be cropped, and what file format is best for the job,” explains Miriam. “Your input is very important, but take advantage of your designer’s eye for looking at things a different way and the fact that they have tools at their disposal that can do a much better job.”

I asked Judah Harris, a photographer who often works with schools for additional advice. He asserts, “There is a vital need for protecting your digital photos which can be accomplished by redundancy – making copies of your organized picture collection in multiple places. Recommended are at least two external hard drive sources, in addition to your computer hard drive, and an additional burning to DVD every three months.”

He also suggests that you edit your picture files as soon as your download them from your camera, saving only the best photographs that are likely to be used in the future.

Click here to read part II, Low-Res / High-Res A, B, C’s.

If you have any questions about laser-targeted PR feel free to contact me at (516) 569-8070 or send me an email.

Until the next issue, Kol Tuv!

Sincerely,

Candace Plotsker-Herman
Creative Communications