1.  Your parades are sparsely attended.

2.  Most people don't even know your club's name, its logo, parade or ball date or time, and some calendars do not have your parade/Ball on them.

3.  Your events are not bringing in anyone you do not already know. Your club schedule or parade schedule is not widely available.

4.  You can make announcements and almost no one plans to attend. Fund raising is hard to do or non-existant.

5.  You don't know what "Social Media", is. You don't have a website. Worse yet you don't think you need one! ( here's a hint, "if REX, and Zulu, has a website, then, where does that leave you?")

6.  Your idea of a "Press Release", is to call or fax, the local TV and Radio stations or newspaper.

7.  You idea of an "Ad Campaign", is to put out 2' x 4' signs on the street corner, or print up 1000 flyers, or have your members bring their friends.

8.  Your "P.R." effort lacks urgency and  doesn't  have a healthy respect for deadlines, or worse yet is too vague, w/ no clear objectives or goal.

9.  Other krewes don't even know about who you are, or worse yet, how to contact you!

10. Your club does not have a public relations person or group or committee and doesn't consider it necessary!

So how's the secrecy thing working out for ya, there slick? No P.R., No Press, No notice, No recognition, No Finances, Fund raising is hard, and your club has no members. For some clubs, it works so well, that they came into existence, they struggle for a year or two and go out of existence, and no one ever knew it! NO ONE KNEW IT!!!! Now that's SECRECY!!!

    Secrecy is a myth your club can't afford to participate in and if you are that myth is in the slow process of taking your club from you! Relying on members to do everything is STUPID!!!! Some things are best left to the professionals. You wouldn't allow a 14 year old to wire your house would you? Then why are you allowing people with just about as much knowledge on the subject, as the 14 year old to handle your public relations? It's your business and you're treating it like you don't care whether you are successful or not!

Public relations to a Krewe or SA&PC is the mother's milk to the club's growth and survival. How you deal with the general public can decide early on what your club will and will not do. This is not just for the krewes, this is for the other businesses out there that does not value the power of communications, and the many sides of financial assistance it can bring.

Financial assistance can come in many forms, and aspects. Money of course is the best way, and many only see this side of the equation. However, other forms are people coming to your website to shop, calling you to join your club, a popular band wants to play for your ball, so bad do they want this, that they are willing to do it for 1/3 the price! Just so they can attend. How about the case where, another krewe in South Dakota, wanted to ride in the New Orleans parade and ended up in Mobile, because they just found it to hard to get anyone to respond. Result, instead of a 12 float parade, a Mobile Ala., krewe ended up with 38 floats in 2006. All due to the krewe responding to a short email inquiry!

We hear it all the time, "We are looking for members", and they have no contact info on the website. Who's winning that P.R. battle? Got a waiting lists? You could have a far larger one, if you play it right.

So here is the correct way to spread the word. First be sure to hire someone in your krewe, club, or group that is at the very least willing to learn the trade. Then buy the organization a good camera and kit, or at the very least hire a photographer. Your historian, or your newsletter person might be just the person for the job.

Make a formal written list of all TV, Radio, major industry websites, magazines and newspapers in a 60 mile radius around you and proceed to call them to introduce yourself and your club. during the contact, be sure to get the person in charge of reporting Culture, Society, and the news desk. For local coverage and local broadcast for 60 miles these are your best bet. However, in the industry you want the word to get out across the gulf coast so others can use it or be aware of the news item. 

The second part is of the procedure is to be sure to study up on the correct structure of a press release. The correct structure is available at this link. Be sure to include at least four pictures with any release, this fact alone will increase the odds almost 10x, that your release will be picked up and carried by a major network for distribution.

The third part is to choose a press release distribution service that can get your written press release out there and distributed far and wide. Because this is the goal of any press release, to spread the word far and wide which will bring potential visitors to you from the world. This should get your web pages rolling the counter on those ads you've posted on your website and those companies sending you some serious bread. Remember this is one of your revenue streams and you can make it pay only if you put the work into it to get the visitors to your website.

The serious P.R. distribution companies are going to cost a bit to much to do more than 12 per year or one a month. These press releases should be reserved for the "Big Stories", your club produces. Don't waste these heavy weight, heavy duty, industrial strength distributing power on small stories that your local stations can deal with. Parties, karaoke shows, and the like are local stories.

A step down, but just as capable is P. R. WEB. This company is owned and operated by Newswire, incorporated one of the big boys. P.R. Web is pretty much a web only company, that caters to websites and their press.          

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