The ReThink Media WFH Challenge
The coronavirus has wreaked havoc on our healthcare system, economy, and lives. For the lucky ones, it has meant an extended time working from home, wondering when we can resume our former routines.
But in the midst of cancelations, you don’t need to push pause on your professional development. ReThink Media has pulled together a host of actions you can take to use this time of social distancing to level-up your communications skills and your professional profile (and no, we aren’t just talking about learning Zoom etiquette).
We are introducing our Work From Home Challenge: an opportunity to brush up on your communications skills, hone your strategy, and put your best foot forward (all while wearing your slippers). You could break these tasks into one a week for a really quick and light lift, or you could tackle a whole bunch of them on a particularly quiet day.
Do you have other skills you’d like to pick up during this time? Reach out to us @rethink_media and let us know.
Strategic Communications
- Work on your organization’s crisis communications plan. Read more about that here and here.
- Organize your content to respond to upcoming events. Learn more about how we organize content before a crisis or big news event.
- Brush up on how to generate news coverage for your upcoming report release.
- Engage your elected officials. Here are some tips for the best ways to do that.
- Plan for post-November 2020 Elections: Here are some ways nonprofits can safely engage during a transition time.
Media Relations
- Learn some of the best ways to engage and build relationships with journalists with this post.
- Write a pitch three different ways to reframe your issue for different outlets. Read some tips to do that here.
- Remind yourself what it means to be on-the-record, off-the-record, on-background, and not-for-attribution.
- What’s the deal with news embargoes, anyway? Learn more about this strategy.
- Rewrite the staff bio on your website. Have recent media hits to add? New projects to describe? Learn more about what journalists are looking for in those bios.
- Read MuckRack’s State of Journalism.
Op-Eds
- Draft that op-ed you’ve always been meaning to write. Here is some of our top op-ed advice.
- Pitch the op-ed. Here’s everything you need to know.
- Promote your now-published op-ed. Here are some tips.
- Update your Twitter bio. Here are some things reporters are looking for when they’re searching for experts.
- Refresh your avatar and/or cover photo. Here’s some inspiration.
- Follow 5 reporters who cover your issue. Here are some ways to find the right reporters, or reach out to us for ideas about the best ones for your issue.
- Build a Twitter list of top reporters who cover your issue(s)—or subscribe to ours. Learn how to use Twitter lists more effectively in your work.
- Introduce yourself to a new reporter on your beat. Here are some tips to build relationships with journalists.
- Write a Twitter thread to respond to a story.
- Run a Facebook Live session to engage your audiences during this time of social distancing. Learn how to do that here.
- Refresh your avatar and/or your cover photo.
- Make sure your organization’s Facebook page is up to date.
- Update your LinkedIn profile. Is your job title up to date? Have you included your job description so people know what you do? How dusty is that headshot looking?
- Make sure your organization’s LinkedIn page is up to date.
- Connect with experts and journalists in your field.
- Write a recommendation for that former intern you appreciated.
Webinars
- Attend upcoming ReThink webinars, including “The Social Psychology of Messaging,” “Building Resilience and Fighting Compassion Fatigue,” “Your Digital Media Tool Kit,” and more. Reach out to us for registration information.
Are there other skills we should be adding to this challenge? Let us know @rethink_media!
