More Friends
More Media
More Fun 
Evaluate
Monitor
Friends
Campaign
Outreach
Build
Build
Team
Message
Tools
Writing, speaking, graphics, social media, and connecting
Forming your message & creating identity
1.
All about them
2. Hearts then minds
3. Make it simple
4. Make it quick
5. Make it yours
6. All senses
7. Repeat, repeat,
and oh yeah, repeat
8. Test it out
Basic message worksheet
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Topic
Basic/Background info
Audience
Outcomes
What’s in it for me?
Human interest element
The right tool for the job
news release
website
newsletter
flyer
fact sheets
Facebook
Flickr
letter to editor
LinkedIn
Pinterest
blog
Twitter
brochure
guest column
op-ed
YouTube
Go where your target audience is.
Photos;
FAQ; news
release
Friends
Facts;
Programs
Brochure;
Featured
Friend
Our message
Ready to Launch
Staff trained
Stakeholders onboard
Checked for accuracy
Has our “look”
Consistent with our message
Tells people what they can do
Has our contact info
Feed the
machine
Newspaper
Twitter
Keep information
flowing
Evaluate
Adjust
Cable TV
News
& Info
Radio
Facebook
Website/Blogs
“When a dog bites a man no one
cares. When the man bites back-now that’s a news story.”
Timing
Impact/
Significance
Proximity
Prominence
Unusual
NEWSWORTHY?
Human
Interest
Conflict
Olympic Silver Medalist Adopts a Family of Stray Dogs he found in Sochi
So, who cares?
Press releases: yes and no
Yes:
Avoid:
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Keep it short and smart
Think like their audience
Just the facts, ma’am
Understand local media
Think beyond print
Quotes that sound like how
someone would really talk
 Who, what, when , where, how,
why?
 Contact info
Jargon
Burying the lead
Typos
Sounding gimmicky
Library Headlines
• Swansea library cat causes controversy
• More than just books: Arizona libraries add public
health nurses
• New broadband network launched in Otis, will serve
central and western Mass.
• Project aims to let libraries share e-books
FIGHTING 'DIGITAL LOCKOUT'
• Salisbury votes to build new library
• Springfield City Councilor Tim Allen named Library
Advocate of the Year
• Libraries are a tech and reading hub
• Amazon vs. your public library
• Abandoned Walmart is Now America’s Largest Library
• East Longmeadow Public Library offers weekly reading
for children with Bright Spot therapy dogs
• Seeing their way to new skills
“You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take”
--Wayne Gretzky
Celeste Bruno
Communications Specialist
Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners
celeste.bruno@state.ma.us
617-725-1860 X208