Question from STC Canada West Coast Chapter: How do you promote your chapter to the local industry?
Apr 28th, 2007 | By Tom Johnson | Category: DiscussionI received the following question from the V.P. of another chapter and thought I’d post it here (with the sender’s permission) to see if anyone in our chapter has a good answer for her.
I’m the vice president for the STC Canada West Coast chapter in Vancouver, BC, and I’d like to find out more about promoting the chapter to the local industry. Someone mentioned to me that your chapter might be good at promoting itself and I wanted to find out what techniques you’ve used to raise up the profile of the chapter in your area.
Right now, a lot of people get the impression that local businesses don’t know about the STC, the chapter, and the services we might offer.
If you know of any other chapters that are actively involved in promoting themselves to local businesses, I’d love to have their contact information.
If you have a response, type it as a comment below. Thanks,
Tom
Actually, aside from the limited publicity we generate when we look for entries for the FTCC, I’m not aware of any promotions like this since the last time the employer book was done three or four years ago. It was based on a survey of area employers, seeing who employed technical writers.
Based on the variety of employers and position titles that I’ve seen come through our current job postings, and what I see in just one of the major jobsearch websites, there probably are a lot of employers in our area now who have no idea STC exists.
An easy (and free!) way of getting the message out about what STC is and what an STC chapter offers (to members and to the community) is press releases and PSAs (public service announcements).
Press releases and PSAs could include such topics as: chapter-sponsored competitions (e.g., FTCC), scholarship programs, outreach (e.g., English/writing tutoring, resume assistance), internships (e.g., summer student programs now that school is getting out for summer break), upcoming meetings (especially when we have a speaker whose topic would be relevant for folks in other industries but who may use the same tools, e.g., Microsoft Vista/Office 2007, Web development), research, conferences, chapter member achievements, training, and so on.
Most local newspapers have a Monday business section with “Company Notes” and “Community Calendar”, and radio/television stations are required by FCC rules to air PSAs (the rules on this may be different in Canada).
While there’s no guarantee that a press release will be published or a PSA aired, you may get the attention of an editor who may be looking for a local business feature or a piece on an “Everyday Hero” (e.g., community outreach).
Just a thought on ways to get the word out on what STC is. As Becky stated in her 04/30/2007 posting, many employers in our area have no idea that STC exists. And, believe it or not, many of our colleagues in this industry are in the same boat.
We use the list serv for meeting announcements and our Web site to encourage members and non-members to attend. We used to allow non-members to use the list serv and post messages. I believe that is still the rule.
I also added the STC name to a writers’ listing that was handed out at several writing festivals last year. I used my name as a contact and I haven’t received any inquiries.