Letting people know about your language celebration is important and helps ensure a lot of people take part.
1 Have a plan
Some organisations have a dedicated communications person but if you don’t then make sure you have a written communications plan that lists:
- Who you want to know about your language celebration event i.e. your local community, council, school, newspaper, local MP
- How you will communicate with them i.e. in person, in your community newsletter, through social media
- What do they need to know i.e. time, place, do they need to register, parking
2 Stocktake
What resources do you already have or can use? Do you have social media channels or a newsletter set up for your community group? Mention your upcoming language celebration in these. Remember it’s great to talk about it more than once.
What sports teams and social groups are there in your community? Make sure you talk to them about the language celebration and ask them to tell their friends. Do you have leaders in your community who work in marketing or the media? They may be able to provide advice on how to promote your language celebration i.e. local library, council, media, businesses, radio.
3 Timing is everything
Make sure you know the deadlines for any free event listings, online or in media, community libraries or radio stations you want to use.
Ensure that you give journalists and editors plenty of advance notice if you want event coverage in your local newspapers or radio stations.
If you want Members of Parliament or other VIPs to attend make sure you contact them early and provide details of the celebration and their role. MPs and VIPs should have a specific role, such as opening the event.
4 Get your message out there
Use as many different ways of telling people about your celebration as you can, and tell people often.
Delegate according to your team’s strengths. Some people in your community will be good at writing so ask them to write articles about the celebration for your newsletter and the local newspaper. Others are good public speakers so ask them to talk to groups of people, like social groups, sports teams and at church, about what you’re doing.
Worried about social media? This is a great opportunity for tech-savvy younger community members to get involved.