NAA Affiliate Public Relations. Toolkit

NAA Affiliate Public Relatios Toolkit

Itroductio: What is PR? We ve created this Public Relatios Toolkit to help you, our affiliates, raise your local profile through media coverage, cotet geeratio ad social media. Use it as a referece whe writig press releases, speakig with the media, postig to social media or promotig your members ad evets. This toolkit is a guide, ot gospel. It icludes best practices ad strategies i public relatios. Give that PR is always evolvig, so too will this guide. If you ever have questios or cocers about tactics or procedure, we are here to help. 1

2 What is PR? Defiitio Public relatios is a strategic commuicatio process that builds mutually beeficial relatioships betwee orgaizatios ad the public. This is how the Public Relatios Society of America defies the disciplie. For you, this defiitio meas three thigs: 1. Public relatios should be a ogoig commitmet, rather tha radom activities doe at radom itervals. 2. Public relatios should help log-term or strategic goals ad ot be used oly for a quick piece of coverage. 3. Public relatios should coect your orgaizatio to multiple audieces icludig the media, affiliate members ad the public at large. What It s Not While the defiitio of public relatios is always evolvig, what it s ot is more straightforward. Public relatios is ot: 1. Advertisig If you wat a full-page logo of your orgaizatio i the local paper or 30 secods of uiterrupted TV time to say exactly what you wat, that s advertisig, ot public relatios. 2. All about you Public relatios is about mutually beeficial relatioships. There are o mutually beeficial relatioships that are just about oe perso or orgaizatio. 3. Oe-way coversatio Advertisig is a oe-way coversatio. PR is about ope dialogue ad coectig with audieces as much o their terms as yours. 4. Spi Shows like Scadal or House of Cards make may people thik that PR = spi. While messagig is importat i PR, spi is cosidered uethical ad couter-productive by the idustry s best practitioers. What It All Meas to You Now that you have a better idea of what PR is ad what it is t, how does that relate to you ad your orgaizatio? How ca you coect your missio ad work to PR ad how ca PR help improve your work ad missio? 1. Goals Orgaizatio goals should help set the directio of public relatios efforts. Coversely, PR should help your orgaizatio meet its stated goals. 2. Beefits Depedig o your goals, PR ca beefit you i may ways, icludig but ot limited to: a. Icreased membership b. Icreased visibility i the commuity c. Greater busiess opportuity for your members d. Improved relatioships with media ad key stakeholders e. Egagemet through social media f. Higher orgaizatioal morale g. More well-defied orgaizatioal missio ad goals 3. Challeges As with ay ew edeavor, PR will have bumps i the road. You ca expect to ecouter some, or all, of the followig challeges: a. Mixed messages b. Uresposive jouralists c. Lack of stories d. Bad publicity e. Ureceptive audieces f. Difficult iterviews 4. Opportuities The great opportuity that PR presets is iheret i its defiitio: buildig mutually beeficial relatioships betwee your orgaizatios ad the public. PR is a chace to grow your reputatio through third-party validatio while providig these third parties with valuable iformatio. PR should be a wi-wi. This toolkit will help make that happe.

Photo Credit: Mark Hiebert, HiebertPhotography.com Before You Start Before you dive headfirst ito a PR campaig, this sectio will help you better uderstad: What makes ews ad what does the media wat? What you have to say ad who will say it? Basic press collateral. How to coordiate with NAA. 3

4 What Makes News? We all kow a good ews story whe we see oe. The bad oes we usually igore. But what elemets go ito makig ews ews? 1. Timely News is what just happeed, is happeig ow or will happe soo. If somethig is last week s ews, it s irrelevat. Make sure the ews you preset to the media or public is curret or coected to somethig curret. 2. Local For your purposes, all ews is local. For evets happeig withi your geographic area, this is easy to preset. For atioal evets, it gets trickier. A paper i Housto is t goig to care about a shortage of apartmets i Orlado. That is, uless you ca coect what s happeig atioally to be relevat to the local market. 3. Sigificat Is the story importat eough that it has to be covered? Are the lives of your audiece affected by what is happeig? If you do t kow about this, will you be at a disadvatage? 4. Sesatioal I ca t believe that just happeed! These are the ews stories that go viral. The feel-good or shockig stories that you discuss at the office the ext day. 5. Emotioal While ews is iformatioal, it s also there to etertai ad make us feel. A great ews story will elicit emotio of some kid. 6. Weird/Out of the ordiary Dog bites ma is ot ews. Ma bites dog is. These are stories that are usually reserved for the ed of a broadcast ad make you say, I ve ever heard/see aythig like that! What Does Media Wat? The media is ot out to get you. They just wat to do their jobs, which is to brig iformatio of iterest to their audiece. Successful public relatios efforts will help members of the media do their jobs better. To do that, you eed to kow what the media wats from you: 1. Hoesty The media wats hoest commetary o subjects so that the audiece ca make iformed decisios. There eeds to be trust betwee the audiece ad the media outlet. Your hoesty builds this trust ad therefore stregthes your relatioship with the media. 2. No-biased iformatio While ot a outright lie, there are may thigs you ca say to the media that they cosidered biased. The media is ot iterested i promotig your orgaizatio. They wat to share the wealth of iformatio you have built up over years i the idustry. Give the facts ad preset them with NAA messagig but do t preset them as if they are the oly aswer. 3. Iformatio their audiece wats Media outlets would ot exist without a audiece. Every oe has fie-tued its messagig ad focus to appeal to a specific audiece. Discover who that audiece is ad preset your iformatio i a way that egages them. This makes the outlet look good ad deepes their comfort with you. 4. Star quality Like i politics, ame recogitio meas a lot i media. People tue i to see/read someoe they ve heard of. If there is someoe well kow i your orgaizatio or who will speak for your orgaizatio, use him/her whe appropriate. What Do You Have to Say? I real estate, it s locatio, locatio, locatio. I PR, it s message, message, message. With messagig, cosistecy is key. Have key messages, orgaizatioal teets ad positioig writte dow ad easily accessible. This will greatly help your spokespeople kow what to say ad how to say it. NAA wats to help you craft your local messages. We ve icluded i the appedix our atioal messagig poits. They are what we believe o a atioal level, ad will help formulate positioig for your affiliate. We ve also icluded Fast Facts that quickly aswer frequetly asked questios about NAA. Who Will Say It? If you ve ever oticed that the same hadful of experts are always o TV or quoted i prit, you re ot too far off. Media teds to gravitate toward those who are: Media friedly Telegeic Ca provide a great soud bite

It s your job to fid those people from withi or outside your orgaizatio who will speak o your behalf. 1. Iteral spokespeople Usually seior level staff, these are the mouthpieces of your orgaizatio. They are experts i their field/topic ad have deep orgaizatioal kowledge. 2. Exteral spokespeople Third-party validatio always looks good to the media. Idetify friedly allies who are willig to add commetary ad isight to stories. Provide them with messagig ad help shepherd them through the media process. Reporters will be grateful for the additioal, o-biased isight. Spokespeople do ot have to be seior level. They do eed to be willig ad have a iterest to speak to the media. If they are ot comfortable, their performaces will hurt, rather tha ehace, your relatioships with the press. Whe i doubt, refer to the three thigs media gravitate toward. Does your spokesperso possess these qualities? Not all people will be great for all media. You might fid the TV star i your raks is less gifted at a phoe iterview. Play to the stregths of your staff ad spokespeople. Do t be afraid to have multiple faces of the orgaizatio. COMMON ARARTMENT INDUSTRY TERMS These are the official NAA approved terms you should use whe talkig to the media. Press Collateral Reporters ad editors are busy ad ofte workig agaist deadlie (the time by which they eed to tur i a story). The more iformatio/collateral you ca provide them, the easier it makes their jobs ad the more likely they are to ru your story. Some basic pieces of collateral you should always have o file are: 1. Headshots High-resolutio (1MB or larger), digital color photos for ayoe who might speak with the media. 2 Press bios Short (1-3 paragraph) professioal bios for ayoe who might speak with the media. You ca arrow dow what you sed the press from this larger profile. 3. Logos High-resolutio images of your orgaizatio s logo. 4. Stock photos May outlets will look to iclude photos of apartmet commuities i stories about your orgaizatio or your members. Havig some at the ready will ot oly save the reporter time, but give you a chace to preset your orgaizatio as you wat it to be see. What Is Your News? After you ve decided o your messagig, lied up spokespeople to talk ad created media collateral, it s time to actually figure out what you will talk about. What is your ews? While we will get to this more i-depth i the ext sectio, there are two key thigs to cosider whe selectig what to publicize: 1. Would it iterest you? 2. What outcome do you wat to achieve? 5 Use: Ower Residet Apartmet commuity Apartmet Lease (as a verb) Do t Use: Ladlord Teat Complex or Property Uit Ret If the ews you have does t iterest you, it s probably ot ews. Trust your isticts as a cosumer of media ad as a expert i real estate. Will the geeral public or a specific real estate audiece care about your ews? If the aswer is, Yes, you re good to go. If it s, No, sped some time tryig to fid a differet, more appealig way to preset it. You should have some outcome i mid for ay PR effort, eve if it s just to get somethig o the

record. By workig backwards from the outcome you wat to achieve, you ca work to idetify the correct tactic(s) that will get you there. More o this i the ext sectio. Coordiatio With NAA The last thig before you get started is to check i with Laure Bosto, NAA s Maager of Public Relatios. You ca cotact her at laure@aahq.org or 703-797-0678. NAA would love the opportuity to support your PR iitiatives or serve as a soudig board for ideas. We re here if you ever have questios about: Press releases Media alerts Press requests/iterviews Messagig Crisis situatios Collateral FAQs Aythig else relatig to your public relatios campaigs We d also love the opportuity to help expad the visibility of your media coverage. So whe you get that first iterview published, please sed it our way. We ll pass it aroud ad be able to show more people the great work you ve doe. 6

Begiig Public Relatios Strategies ad Tactics You ve created your messagig, lied up your spokespeople ad are ready to start your public relatios campaig. So where do you start? How do you start? To whom do you tell your ews? This sectio will provide begiig strategies ad tactics that will help you: 7 Idetify appropriate outlets to cotact. Select reporters to cotact. Compose press releases. Write media advisories. Distribute press releases ad media advisories.

Idetifyig Media Outlets Idetifyig the correct media outlet(s) is the first step i tellig your story. What good is media coverage if it appears i a outlet that does t fit with your goals or match the audiece you wat to reach? A few questios to ask to make sure a outlet is appropriate to pitch: 1. Is the outlet local? Sice most of your PR stories will revolve aroud local issues, make sure the outlet i questio covers that particular geographic area. 2. Does it have a audiece you wat to ifluece? Coverage for the sake of coverage wo t help you achieve your goals. Research a outlet s audiece to make sure it is a audiece you wat to see your story. 3. What is its reputatio? Is it a respected outlet? Is it kow for quality ad hoest coverage? 4. Is it pay-to-play? Some outlets will happily ru your story, if you pay them to. Avoid these if at all possible. They are usually less reputable ad ca ed up hurtig, rather tha helpig, your affiliate s image. That s what to look for. But how do you actually fid outlets that meet these criteria? 1. Iteret search The same way we search for aythig else, a simple Web search ca tur up great iformatio about media outlets i your area, what audiece they reach, their reputatio ad if you will eed to dig ito the expese accout to be covered. 2. Media databases Services such as Vocus, Cisio or Meltwater are great tools for compilig media lists. However, they are t cheap to use ad typically require a yearly commitmet. NAA ca assist with this. 3. Staff kowledge You ad your staff have a wealth of kowledge about local media simply from livig i the area ad beig part of the real estate idustry. Selectig Reporters Oce you have pipoited the correct outlet(s) for your story, you will eed to idetify the correct perso(s) to cotact. Start by idetifyig which reporters or editors are assiged to the beat, or geeral area of coverage, that pertais to your story. Most ofte, these will be reporters who cover real estate or busiess. But, depedig o the story, you may wat to cotact reporters who cover geeral iterest, local ews, law or persoal fiace. 8 PITCH(.) vs. PITCH(v.) I public relatios, pitch is used as both a ou ad a verb. Pitch(.) A writte or spoke appeal created for the purpose of explaiig a ews item or story i order to attract media coverage. e.g.: I m writig a pitch about our upcomig groud breakig ceremoy. Pitch(v.) The act of cotactig a media outlet. e.g.: We should pitch this idea to TV because it has some great visual opportuities. THE AFFILIATE THAT CRIED WOLF Figurig out who would wat to cover your story is oe of the trickiest, yet most importat, aspects of public relatios. If you pitch stories too ofte that are irrelevat to the reporters you cotact, you ru the risk of beig blacklisted from that outlet eve whe you have relevat iformatio to share. Reporters remember who seds pertiet iformatio ad who blasts out ews like a spammer. Do your research ad you ll stay o the media s good side.

As with idetifyig outlets, the Iteret, media databases ad staff kowledge will help idetify reporters ad editors. Other ways iclude: 1. Publicatio websites May media outlets have a About Us or similar sectio o their website where they list their reporters/editors ad what they cover. 2. Social media Social media bios ad cotet ofte provide isight ito what reporters cover or are iterested i coverig i the future. 3. Past coverage Read a reporter s previous articles. Are they writig about your topic area? Have they writte about it recetly? What s their take o the subject? Past coverage offers a wealth of kowledge o what iterests a reporter. I idetifyig the correct outlet or jouralist to cotact, make sure your ews is relevat to what they cover. You do t like telemarketers callig you with irrelevat iformatio. Jouralists feel the same way about the pitches they receive. A top complait of may jouralists is how may stories they are pitched. Some get 500-1,000 emails every day. Make it easier for them to say yes to your story by makig your pitch relevat ad ot wastig their time with stories they would ever cover. Press Release Oe of the easiest ways to tell the media about your orgaizatio, evet or ews is with a press release. Writte properly, it ca be a key piece i your PR strategy. Writte poorly, it ca istatly tur off jouralists ad hider your PR efforts. The purpose of a press release is to cocisely ad precisely aouce ews from your affiliate. It is a formal way to get ews o the record. Whe draftig a press release, always keep the audiece i mid. Make sure to use commo laguage ad explai idustry termiology. The mechaics of writig a press release are more formalized tha a blog or social media post. We ve icluded a template i the appedix that you ca use to format press releases. The basic elemets of a press release break dow ito these compoets: 1. Headlie The first thig a audiece reads. This should be a short (65 characters or less if possible) overview of the release. Headlies should give a reader a idea of what the ews is ad a reaso for them to read it. 2. Subhead Comes directly uder the headlie. A subhead expads o the headlie ad offers a few additioal ad importat details about the ews. 3. Datelie Idicates where ad whe you are aoucig the ews. For example: Arligto, Va. May 2, 2014 9 REPORTER OR EDITOR? Should you cotact a reporter or a editor? For prit, the more specific you ca get the better, so try ad cotact a reporter first. For TV or radio, stories are ofte assiged, so pitchig to a assigmet editor or producer is ofte recommeded. ELDERLY AUNT RULE A rule of thumb is to write a press release usig laguage you would use to describe the ews to your elderly aut. Be careful ot to fill your press release full of idustry jargo or acroyms. Ay audieces outside of the real estate field wo t be able to relate to such writig ad therefore the release wo t have the desired impact. Be clear ad explai the ews i plai laguage that ca be quickly uderstood by everyoe.

10 4. Itro paragraph Also called the lede (or lead), this importat first paragraph should preset the who, what, whe, where, why ad how elemets of your aoucemet. 5. Body The remaiig sectios of a press release should add additioal details to the lede. The body is a chace to tell the story of your ews ad iclude affiliate messagig, rather tha stickig just to the bare-boe details. 6. Quotes Quotes from iteral or exteral spokespeople add isight ad color to a press release. For ay quote drafted, be sure to get the approval of the perso to whom it is attributed. 7. Boilerplate Located at the ed of a press release, a boilerplate is a quick overview or descriptio of your affiliate. The laguage remais the same for each release. 8. Cotact iformatio Whe you put out a release, you wat people to cotact you for more iformatio. Make it easy by icludig cotact iformatio (at least email, phoe ad full website address) i every press release. Other thigs to cosider: Hyperliks Are there relevat materials you ca lik to that provide the reader additioal iformatio? Is there a specific page o your website to which you wat to drive traffic? SEO keywords If your press release will live olie, iclude strategically placed keywords for search egie optimizatio (SEO). These might be the ame of your affiliate, key leaders or terms such as Dever real estate. The closer to the begiig of the press release, the more affective the keywords are. Media Advisory Related to the press release is the media advisory. While the former is a complete tellig of a particular ews item, a media advisory is a quick ad effective way to ivite a media outlet to a impedig evet. See appedix for a media advisory template. Whe writig a media advisory, there is some overlap with the mechaics of a press release. 1. Cotact ifo Placed promietly at the begiig of the advisory, this should iclude ifo for how to cotact you both i the office ad at the evet. 2. Headlie Quick ad to the poit, the headlie must give the reader a reaso to atted the evet. 3. Four W s a. Who is goig to be at the evet ad whom ca media talk to? b. What is the evet about? What is happeig? What is the ews? c. Whe is the evet? d. Where is the evet? 4. Evet Details Aythig else the media eeds to kow about the evet? 5. Outlet-Specific Iformatio a. TV What visual ad audio opportuities are available at the evet? b. Prit Are there additioal opportuities to talk with the audiece? Should they brig a photographer or will pictures be provided? c. Radio What soud (both iterviews ad ambiet) is available at the evet? 6. Other Iformatio a. RSVP Do outlets eed to reply i order to atted the evet? b. Parkig Is there assiged space for media vehicles? Ca TV trucks exted their broadcast trasmitters without iterferece? c. Media guidelies Are there ay people, topics or questios that are off limits? Will media be cofied to a stagig area or allowed to roam the evet? Be very upfrot ad hoest about what media ca/ca t do. d. Story agles With media i a rush, provide some story agles for them. They might ot adhere to them, but it gives you a chace to frame the evet ad potetial coverage. e. Bios If there are importat people attedig the evet, provide backgroud or bio iformatio o them.

Distributio of Press Releases ad Media Advisories The press release or media advisory is writte ad approved. How should you distribute it? 1. Wire services The classic way to distribute a press release is to put it o a wire. These wire services compaies cotract with etworks of media outlets to provide them ews. Some of the more established/reputable wire services are PR Web, BusiessWire ad Marketwired. a. Beefits These services add validity ad credibility to your ews. Your ews lives olie o a third party s website. b. Drawbacks - They ca be expesive ad ot actually lad your ews where it will make the biggest impact. 3. Blog/website May compaies are shuig the traditioal wire service distributio i favor of postig press releases directly to their blog or website. If you have media ad followers costatly checkig your site for ews, it s a great tactic. If ot, you still eed to make sure the correct people receive your ews. 4. Social media Social media, such as LikedI, Facebook ad Twitter, is a easy way to distribute your ews to a audiece that follows you. 2. Email Those meticulously researched media lists you compiled are perfect for press releases or media advisories. These ews items ca help you build relatioships with jouralists. a. Persoalize it - If possible, sed a idividual email to each cotact. If it s ot possible, use the Bcc optio. Never expose the fact that you emailed multiple ad competig outlets at the same time. 11 SHOULD I TWEET A PRESS RELEASE? Sharig a press release or media advisory via social media seems like a great ad iexpesive way to distribute your ews. However, press releases ad media advisories are, by their ature, formal ad ot very social. Try writig a blog post about the press release or breakig dow the ews ito a series of tweets. Make the ews as shareable as possible if you choose to distribute via social media.

Itermediate Public Relatios Strategies ad Tactics Writig ad distributig ews via a press release or media advisory is step oe i your public relatios process. Hopefully, your ews geerates iterest ad the media cotacts you for more iformatio. This sectio will prepare you for: How to hadle a iterview request. How to respod to a email iterview. How to coduct a phoe iterview. 12 I additio, we will review media relatios beyod the press release, icludig: Pitchig evets or ews. Creatig multimedia collateral. Usig multimedia collateral.

Icomig Press Request It s always excitig to receive a request from a reporter watig to kow more about your ews or askig for a commet o a story. But before you aswer or provide a quote, there are a few questios you should ask: 1. Timeframe By whe do they eed a respose? Are they workig o deadlie? 2. Story agle What type of story are they writig? Do they have a particular agle(s) i which they are iterested? 3. How will your affiliate fit ito the story Are you beig used as a expert to commet o a larger tred, aother orgaizatio s ews or is your ews the ceterpiece of the story? Whe you kow more about the story, you ca pla your messagig. You do t wat your messagig to be all about your affiliate. This will appear biased ad will be of little use to the reporter. But, if you aswer the questios without icludig your messagig, you lose the opportuity to reach a wider audiece. Match what you wat to say to what the reporter wats. Strikig this balace is key to beig icluded i the story. After decidig o your messagig, the ext step is decidig who will deliver it. Who will talk to the press? WHAT IS DEADLINE? Beig o deadlie meas that the reporter has to file the story by a specific time. Make sure you kow whe that deadlie is ad get iformatio to the reporter i plety of time to icorporate it ito the story. Remember, deadlie is whe the fial story must be completed, ot whe you should get them iformatio. 1. Attributig vs. quotig Ofte, your spokespeople are busy or uavailable to draft resposes themselves. I these situatios, it is advisable to speak with them directly, edit their resposes ad the attribute the quotes to them. Of course, this oly works with writte resposes. 2. Soud bites Whether respodig via email, phoe or i perso, preset your aswers i easy to uderstad soud bites. Start arrow with a specific aswer to the questio. If eeded, you ca expad your aswer to provide greater cotext or additioal iformatio. Remember that you ca say o to media requests. Reasos for turig dow a media opportuity iclude: 1. Negative story about your affiliate If the outlet or reporter is clearly biased or you believe your words will be used agaist you, you ca always declie the request. 2. Coflict of iterest The reporter might wat commet about a rival orgaizatio or a former affiliate member. 3. Not i area of expertise Sometimes reporters are t iformed about NAA, your affiliate, your members ad the missio of all three. Their story could be irrelevat to your affiliate ad outside your area of expertise. 4. Not relevat to orgaizatioal goals A story about which apartmet commuities are most decorated for the holidays might seem like a fu piece, but does it advace your affiliate s public relatios or members goals? If there is ay questio about whether or ot you should respod to a media request, please cotact NAA s Maager of Public Relatios, Laure Bosto. She is here to talk through the opportuity, help craft messagig, draft a respose or provide a writte statemet. Laure is also here to support you i your decisio-makig process ad, hopefully, spread the good word whe you do lad that great piece of coverage. Email ad Phoe Iterviews Each type of media request has specific do s ad do ts. For email iterviews: 1. Attribute quotes As metioed above, aswers do t have to be composed directly by the perso to whom they are attributed. Talk through the aswers with the appropriate perso(s), get the message correct ad the 13

attribute to the perso(s) you wat to preset to the media, such as your affiliate s Presidet. Keep the process trasparet withi your affiliate ad iform everyoe ivolved of his/her role. 2. Write i soud bites The first setece of every respose should aswer the questio. Everythig else supports that aswer or adds additioal details. 3. Grammar, spellig, puctuatio Edit, edit, edit! Have several people read over email resposes to make sure there are o copy mistakes or typos. 4. No attachmets Reporters do t wat email attachmets. Uless they specifically ask for them, do t sed them. Iclude everythig i the body of the email. 5. Offer images or other collateral Outlets are focusig more o the images that accompay a story. Offer to supply relevat photos or images, but do t sed them usolicited. Do s ad do ts for phoe iterviews: 1. No eed to aswer immediately If a reporter calls ad asks for commet, buy yourself some time to properly prepare. Ask for their deadlie ad what the story is about. Say that you ll be back i touch with them shortly. BLOCKING AND BRIDGING Whe a reporter takes the iterview to a place you re ot comfortable, blockig ad bridgig helps get you back o track. Ackowledge the questio but aswer with the message you wat to preset. For example, a reporter asks about risig costs of ret forcig out lower-icome residets i your city. A block ad bridge aswer could be: While affordable housig is a cocer, it s importat to remember that apartmet commuities still offer some of the best values i real estate ad allow idividuals ad families opportuities they might ot otherwise have. 2. Preparatio Research the outlet ad reporter to see what types of questios they usually ask. You ca also ask the reporter directly for sample questios, but they are ot obliged to share those with you. 3. Practice Do mock iterviews with other staff members. Have someoe play the role of the jouralist ad aother liste to rate your performace. The more you practice, the less ervous you ll be for the actual iterview. 4. No distractios a. Tur off the computer. a. Do t check email. c. Be i a quiet place where you ca hear the reporter ad he/she ca hear you. d. Use a ladlie phoe if at all possible. e. It s OK to have a set of referece otes if eeded. 5. Body laguage a. Stad up. It gives you more eergy ad presece eve o the phoe. b. Smile. It makes the toe of your voice happier ad more persoable. c. If you move your hads whe you talk, feel free to do so while o the phoe. It will make the experiece feel more atural ad comfortable. 6. Blockig ad bridgig If the iterview gets off track because either the iterviewer is askig questios you were t prepared for or questios that are irrelevat, you ca take cotrol of the coversatio by blockig ad bridgig. Pitchig News ad Evets Beyod composig a press release or media alert, public relatios ad media relatios revolve aroud the pitch. This is a short appeal created to explai a ews item ad covice the media to cover it. Most importat whe writig a pitch is to idetify what makes the ews or evet ewsworthy. 1. Just because somethig happes, does t make it ews Refer to the Before You Begi sectio of this documet. Does your ews or evet meet the criteria for what is ews? If ot, how ca you make it more ewsworthy? 14

2. Agles, ot spi To preset somethig as ewsworthy, work to discover what agles or storylies will iterest a particular outlet. This does t mea exaggeratig or misrepresetig your ews. That gets ito the world of spi or mischaracterizatio, which is somethig to avoid. 3. It s about the audiece, ot about you Outlets care about what their audiece wats to read/hear/watch, ot about what you wat to say. Do t make your pitch all about you. Make it about how your ews affects/iterests the outlet s audiece. Whe you ve worked out what you re goig to pitch, there are two thigs to keep i mid whe actually creatig the pitch: 1. Keep it short Research idicates you have less tha 10 secods to grab someoe s attetio. Keep pitches short ad to the poit. Place importat iformatio at the begiig. 2. Make it relevat A reporter should kow i the first setece what your pitch is about ad if it s relevat. If it s ot clear, re-write it util it is. Research ad persoalize your pitches for each outlet ad reporter. MAKE IT SHORTER! A great first pitch is aroud 150 words. Whe draftig, here are elemets you ca leave out: 1. Formal greetigs. 2. Log itro seteces. Just get to the poit. 3. Proper ames, titles or orgaizatioal ames. Other ways to make pitches shorter are: 1. Use bullet poits. 2. Lik to additioal details rather tha writig them out. 3. Iclude details i subject lie. Whe you ve created your pitch, how should you pitch it to the media? 1. Email A large majority of the media prefer first cotact via email. Make sure to iclude a descriptive ad cocise subject lie. Sed ay email to yourself first to check if it s properly formatted. 2. Phoe If a pitch is time-sesitive, or you kow a outlet/reporter prefers to be cotacted via phoe, call them. Ask if it s a good time to talk. Get directly to your pitch just as you would i a email. It might feel awkward at first, but reporters will appreciate your directess ad efficiet use of their time. 3. Social media Be careful whe pitchig a story via social media, such as through Twitter. You eed to be certai that a reporter wats to be cotacted that way. Social media ca be a good tool for keepig i touch with people with whom you have a strog relatioship. If/whe you do t hear back from a reporter, it s time to follow up. Here are several ways to be persistet but ot bothersome: 1. Wait Like i a romatic comedy, you ca call too soo. Give the reporter time to read or review the ews before you re-pitch the story. Uless the pitch is very time sesitive, ivoke the rule of datig ad wait at least three days. 2. Short Via email, a great follow up might be simply, Ay thoughts o this idea? 3. Do t call ad ask if they got the previous email If they did ad did t respod, it probably meas they were t iterested. If they did t get it, the you ve just made them look bad. 4. Re-pitch as if it s the first pitch Istead of askig if they got your email, use a phoe follow-up as a ew chace to make a great first impressio. 15

Multimedia Creatig videos, photos, ifographics or other multimedia cotet is a great way to commuicate with iteral audieces ad provide extra value for the media. Several optios for creatig videos are: 1. Log ad polished These are traiig videos, advertisemets, trade show videos or other professioally recorded ad edited pieces. They look fatastic ad showcase your affiliate. However, they ca be expesive, time cosumig ad usually require a outside resource. 2. Short ad dirty Just about ay mobile device ca be used to shoot broadcast-quality video. Just look at how ofte you see iphoe footage o CNN or your local ews. For shorter videos, you ca use: a. Video camera, smartphoe or tablet for recordig. b. imovie or similar software for editig. c. YouTube, Vie, Istagram or other social media platform for postig ad distributio. While the quality of a video somewhat affects its ability to garer coverage, the cotet matters more. Shoot video that appeals to the media outlet you are pitchig. Your videos should add isight ito a evet or story. The same priciple applies to photos. Photos ca be used to: 1. Capture a evet These ca be used to tell the story i real time via social media, or as a wrap up after the evet. 2. Help gai post-evet coverage Sometimes outlets are too uderstaffed to cover every evet they wat. Providig them with photos makes it easier for them to write about your ews. May outlets also have photo-oly sectios to which you ca submit for coverage. If your ews is complex, such as a retal housig survey, a ifographic ca preset that data i a fu, easy-to-digest format. How to use it Multimedia cotet ca be used i a variety of ways to support your PR efforts: 1. Social media What do you see o your Facebook timelie or Twitter feed? Mostly photos ad videos. This is how we express ourselves ad share iformatio. Multimedia cotet will stregthe your social efforts. 2. Blogs A picture is worth a thousad words. Addig multimedia to blogs makes them more iterestig, readable ad adds iformatio ad cotext that the writte word ca t. 3. Pitchig Outlets are strapped for time ad resources. Yet they wat to iclude as much multimedia i stories as possible. You ca provide it for them. Just remember ot to sed aythig usolicited ad othig as a attachmet uless istructed. 4. Marketig ad affiliate collateral While they might ot be used i the momet, multimedia ca add color to future marketig materials. You ever ca have too may photos to choose from. 5. Stregthe coectio to members Your membership wats to feel coected. Usig photos or videos ca build commuity ad stregthe bods betwee members ad your affiliate. LANDSCAPE NOT PORTRAIT 16 Hold a smartphoe i ladscape (horizotal) rather tha i portrait (vertical) whe shootig video or pictures. This is the way that TV or olie video displays best.

Advaced Public Relatios Strategies ad Tactics As you become more comfortable with public relatios, there will be opportuities to provide commet o curret evets ad establish your members as experts i their field. I this sectio, we will itroduce you to the advaced strategies ad tactics of: 17 Live iterviews. Pitchig tred or topic stories. Discoverig editorial opportuities. Developig thought leadership. Trackig media coverage. Extedig the life of media coverage.

Live Iterviews A staple of media coverage, the live iterview ca be oe of the most importat yet erve-wrackig elemets i public relatios. But, like a email or phoe iterview, there are specific tactics you ca follow to prepare that will calm the ervousess ad help you deliver a great iterview. 1. Preparatio Watch the show or segmet o which you will appear. This will give you a sese for camera agles ad physical positioig alog with the host s iterview style. 2. Practice Like ay other iterview, the more you practice the better you will perform. Create a replica of the show s set ad have a staff member iterview you. Film it ad watch it back. Focus o: a. Message What are you goig to say? a. Soud bites How are you goig to say it quickly? a. Body laguage ad positio How will you look o camera? 3. Presetatio TV is a visual medium. How you preset yourself is equally, if ot more, importat as what you say. Presetatio aspects to cosider iclude: a. Proper dress What is the dress style for the show? What style do you wat to preset? Rule of thumb: Dress how you would for a meetig with a importat cliet. RADIO IS LIVE, TOO Suggestios made i this sectio ca be applied to radio iterviews as well. While may people focus o TV whe talkig about live coverage, there are may local radio programs that ca help you reach relevat audieces. May times these programs are more log form ad give you additioal chaces to discuss a issue i depth. 9 SECONDS The average legth of a TV soud bite is ie secods. That s all the time you have to get across your major messages. b. Eye cotact Focus o the iterviewer. You will make a istat coectio ad show the audiece that you are focused ad egaged. c. Igore the camera The audiece does t expect you to talk directly to them. Keep your attetio o the iterviewer. d. Speak steadily Not too fast ad ot too slow. Speak i a authoritative voice. You are the expert ad your toe should reflect that. e. Slow your gestures Movig your hads is fie, but do so at a slower pace tha usual. Make your movemets fluid. Fast, jerky movemets preset as ervous or aggressive to the viewer. f. Liste Egage the iterviewer, ad therefore the audiece, by really listeig to what they ask. g. Block ad bridge The same techiques for a phoe iterview ca be employed if a live iterview starts to veer off track. I advace of ay live iterview, make sure the producer or host has your correct ame, title ad affiliate ame. You ca ask for this iformatio to be displayed o scree, i what is kow as a Chyro. Pitchig Tred or Topic Stories We ve discussed ways to pitch ews ad evets created by your affiliate. A more advaced tactic is to coect your affiliate to curret evets, treds or topics that are already i the ews. Whe decidig what tred or topic you should pitch, ask yourself these questios: 1. What is happeig i the world? What stories, treds or topics are the media already primed to cover? 2. How does a tred/topic relate to what you do? Fid a legitimate coectio/agle betwee what your affiliate does ad the larger story. 3. How ca you add value/isight? What ca you say that a reporter ca t get aywhere else? Oce you have idetified a larger topic or tred that fits these criteria, you eed to tailor the pitch to the specific outlet. 18

Take for example a icrease i local foreclosures. You wat to commet o this tred s impact o the local retal market. A busiess reporter/outlet will care most about the ecoomic impacts of the story, a real estate reporter about the direct ramificatios to the housig market ad a geeral iterest reporter will wat to tell the story of a family directly affected. To help tailor your pitch, offer to provide reporters with examples they ca use i their story. 1. Residets People directly affected by the ews. 2. Experts Bakig or other fiacial experts who ca talk to the ecoomics of the situatio. 3. Owers Have they see a icrease or decrease i available apartmet uits i relatio to the foreclosure rates? 4. A employee Who at your affiliate is best positioed to talk about foreclosures? 5. Study data Are there valid third-party sources that will support your messages? Part of tailorig your pitch is to make it local. Outlets are always lookig for local examples of atioal stories. They are also iterested i what local stories/people have the potetial to go atioal. NAA is here to help coordiate these atioal-tolocal ad local-to-atioal agles. We have a wealth of data ad experts from aroud the coutry that ca aid your pitchig efforts. ARE YOU DOING GOOD? A powerful way to gai coverage for your orgaizatio is to focus o the good that your members are doig i the commuity. Is ayoe coected to your affiliate: 1. Doig outstadig charity work? 2. Sittig o commuity boards? 3. Ivolved i other philathropic edeavors? Lookig for Editorial Opportuities Outlets have two basic types of coverage: what s happeig ow ad what they plaed to cover i advace. For each type of story, there are ways to discover what the media is coverig. 1. Editorial caledars Editorial caledars are listigs of what a outlet is scheduled to cover throughout the year. Be sure to ote lead times, or the cutoff date, for submittig iformatio to be icluded i the story. Depedig o the outlet or sectio, this could be aythig from a few days to a few moths. 2. HARO HARO (Help a Reporter Out) ad similar daily ewsletters iclude iquiries from reporters lookig for story sources. May are o deadlie ad eed iformatio ASAP. Be sure to validate the outlet makig the iquiry. 3. Networkig evets May outlets hold ope houses or etworkig evets with local PR groups. Atted, ask questios about coverage iterests ad itroduce yourself to reporters who you might pitch i the future. 4. Readig the ews Read/watch the ews every day. This gives the best picture ito what outlets are coverig ad helps you pitch the right story at the right time. Thought Leadership Thought leadership is a pillar of successful public relatios. Beyod iterviews or pitchig ews ad evets, thought leadership is a opportuity to establish your affiliate members as respected, forward-thikig experts i their field. It s a chace to showcase kowledge ad gai logstadig credibility. A promiet way to demostrate thought leadership is with cotributed cotet, which ca iclude: 1. Bylie articles Writte to jouralistic stadards, bylie articles help a audiece better uderstad a issue, help them solve a problem or preset a visio of what will happe ext i your idustry. 2. Guest blogs Less formal pieces, these are articles that reside o the blog of a separate, o-media orgaizatio. They are a good way to reach a wider audiece without relyig directly o the media. 19

3. Letters to the editor Do you disagree with a recet article or opiio? A well-formed letter to the editor ca preset a couterig opiio or preset your side of the story. 4. Op-Ed pieces Op-ed articles address a issue affectig the larger public. They offer a specific opiio ad course of actio, e.g. oppositio to a ew retal tax. Cotributed cotet should: 1. Take a positio If it s ot about somethig, it s about othig. 2. Share kowledge This is a chace to show how much you really kow about real estate ad the retal market. 3. Provide isight Is your take fresh or is it somethig ayoe could write? 4. Be about a topic, ot about you Cotributed cotet is ot advertisig. Ay outlet you wat to be i will ot hesitate to reject your cotet if it appears biased or self-promotioal. Trackig Media Coverage As importat as gettig a iterview or writig a bylie article is keepig track of if/whe it is published. This helps you gauge the success of your PR program, track goals ad aalyze what topics, pitches ad cotet resoate with the media. The easiest ad most cost-effective way to track coverage is to set up Google Alerts. Google will sed you automatic alerts whe it detects a metio of a keyword, e.g. your affiliate ame or ame of a promiet member. Services such as Cisio, Vocus or Meltwater that offer media research also typically provide media moitorig. They will ofte catch more tha Google Alerts, but come at a price. There are also specialized moitorig services if you are geeratig a high volume of TV or radio coverage. ca help publicize your ews or kowledge to a atioal audiece. 2. Share i social Create social media posts highlightig the coverage. Ecourage affiliate members to share through their persoal accouts as well. a. LikedI Make copy professioal i toe. b. Twitter Short ad more casual copy. Iclude reporter s/media outlet s Twitter hadle. c. Facebook Tag reporter ad/or media outlet s Facebook page. d. Google+ Tag reporter ad/or media outlet s Google+ page. e. YouTube Create a video about the coverage. 3. Post to News sectio of website Put the coverage o your ow website with a quick descriptio ad lik to the full article/segmet. 4. Write a blog Add additioal details or more affiliate-focused messagig by writig a blog post about the coverage. 5. Put out a press release Treat the coverage as the ews item ad distribute a press release o a wire service. 6. Add to email sigature Highlight coverage with a quick lik that goes out to everyoe you email. 7. Email to key cotacts Prompt people to actio. Coverage ca serve as a great excuse to check i with key cotacts. 8. Thak the reporter Taggig a reporter i social media or sedig a quick, direct thak you message ca help build that relatioship. 9. Order reprits Order professioal reprits to display promietly i your office. 10. Iteract Ecourage members to write commets directly about the story. 11. Video Create a short video about the coverage. Iterview the perso quoted or who wrote the bylie. Add the video to a blog post, social media post or press release. 20 Repurposig ad Extedig the Life of Media Coverage Public relatios efforts do t stop oce you get media coverage. Your ext priority is to esure as may people as possible see that piece of coverage. 1. Sed coverage to NAA We re here to help promote your affiliate. Our extesive etworks HELPING THE REPORTER Promotig your coverage does as much to help the reporter as it does to help you. Reporters are ofte judged by how may times their stories are read or shared. Aythig you do to help icrease those umbers is oticed.

Social Media Almost all of us use social media i our persoal lives to coect to family ad frieds, gather ews or coverse about curret evets. But how ca you use social media to help with your PR efforts? This sectio will: Review social media policies. Offer a overview of social media platforms. Explai social media do s ad do ts. 21

Policy Attached i the appedix is our NAA social media policy. It outlies acceptable behavior ad practices for NAA social media accouts. You ca adopt it as is for your affiliate or use it as a basis for writig your ow. It s as importat to have a social media policy as it is to have ay other HR-related policy. It sets clear expectatios for staff ad ca help to mediate ay disputes or icidets that might occur. Platforms New social media platforms seemigly sprig up every week. Curretly, here are some of the most popular etworks ad how to best use them to coect to your audieces. 1. Facebook The largest social etwork, Facebook has the potetial to reach a broad audiece. The platform is visually orieted, so posts with images or videos ted to get more iteractio. 2. Twitter At 140 characters or less, Twitter is a way to share iformatio i quick bursts. May jouralists are o Twitter. Followig them ca provide useful iformatio o what they are coverig or might cover. 3. LikedI A professioal social etwork, LikedI is a place to share idustry kowledge ad thought leadership. Cosider joiig ad participatig i groups dedicated to the apartmet idustry. 4. YouTube For sharig video cotet, YouTube is oe of the largest search egies. Videos from YouTube also display promietly i Google search results. 5. Google+ Google+ serves as the social hub for all of Google s products ad platforms: YouTube, Places, Hagouts. It eve itegrates with Gmail. Iformatio o a Google+ profile will populate search results. 6. Piterest A visual social etwork, Piterest users pi or share images ad ideas they fid useful or aesthetically pleasig. The platform ca be used to share images or provide audieces with ideas relatig to costructio or redecoratig. 7. Istagram What started as a photo-sharig platform, Istagram ow allows users to share 15-secod videos. Istagram cotet ca be shared o Istagram or itegrated with most other social media etworks. 8. Vie Vie allows users to create ad share six-secod videos that loop. May compaies have used these to film very creative stop motio how-to videos. As with Istagram, Vie videos ca be shared across a umber of platforms. So, which social media platform is right for you? It depeds. 1. Where is your audiece? Fid which platform the audiece you wat to reach uses most. Make that your primary focus. 2. You do t eed to use them all Pick a couple etworks that you wat to use ad maitai them. Post regularly. Become experts i what works ad what does t. 3. Sig up for the rest Eve if you do t actively use them, it is a good idea to establish accouts o other social media sites because: a. They show up i search results. b. If you ow them, it keeps others from misrepresetig your affiliate. c. If you decide ot to maitai them, be sure to poit visitors to sites you do update regularly. Do s ad do ts What are the best ways to utilize social media ad what practices ad behaviors should you avoid? 1. Do a. Make it social The purpose of social media is to be social. It should coect o a huma level ad ispire others to egage with it. b. Make it iterestig Would you read that post i your persoal life? If ot, why would someoe else? Make posts egagig ad iterestig. Social media allows you to be freer ad more coversatioal. c. Make it visual Social media is shiftig more toward visual platforms. Photos ad videos are prove to icrease egagemet over text-oly posts. d. Make it relevat to the platform You have to iclude liks to articles o Twitter. O Facebook, you ca erase the URL ad still have the article appear i the post. Craft each post to match the uique characteristics of that specific platform. 22

e. Make it timely The average lifespa of a Facebook post is about three hours. A tweet s ca be measured i miutes. Posts should be timely ad focused o what the audiece eeds to kow ow. You ca always post a item multiple times, each with a slightly differet take o the ews. f. Stay o message Fid the voice you wat your affiliate to have i social media ad stick with it. Posts should itegrate greater messagig poits, but do so i a less formal maer. g. Take coflict offlie There will be people who wat to complai about, argue with or berate your affiliate o social media. Offer them a alterative way to cotact you so the issue ca be resolved i private rather tha i public. h. Ecourage staff/members to share Staff ad members ca amplify your social media efforts. Ecourage them to like, share or re-tweet your posts to their persoal etworks. 2. Do t a. Ramble Get to the poit ad make it iterestig. Remember, you have less tha 10 secods to make someoe care. b. Feed the trolls Trolls are Iteret users whose sole purpose is to bash your affiliate or members ad make your life miserable. Do t give them ay ammuitio. Take coflict offlie or just igore them. c. Whitewash disset While it might seem like a good idea to delete ay egative cotet posted to your Facebook page, this is essetially feedig the trolls. By publically showig you made a effort to resolve their issue, you have gaied the upper had. However, if there are abusive, racist, profae or otherwise iappropriate commets, those ca ad should be removed. d. Act uprofessioally Aythig you post from a affiliate accout reflects directly o your orgaizatio. This is ot a place for persoal agedas or vedettas. While social media should be fu, it s ot a place for cotet or materials that do t fit ito the workplace i geeral. 23

Crisis Commuicatios Eve with careful plaig ad executio of a public relatios strategy, somethig ca still go wrog. Whe a crisis occurs is ot the time to craft your respose. You eed to have a basic crisis pla i place before somethig happes. This sectio will ready your affiliate for a potetial crisis by helpig you uderstad: 24 What you eed to do to prepare. Barriers to successful crisis maagemet. Elemets essetial for successful crisis maagemet. Apology strategies to avoid.

Plaig for a Crisis No oe expects a crisis. So, it s early impossible to pla for every sceario that could arise. However, there are several thigs you ca do i advace that will prepare you to hadle almost ay crisis situatio. 1. Idetify crisis team A effective crisis team should be as small as possible. It should be able to make immediate decisios i regard to the crisis at had. Team members should have kowledge of the stakeholder/media ladscape at play. We strogly ecourage you to iclude NAA s Laure Bosto o your crisis team. NAA is here to provide isight ad cousel to get you through ay potetial problems. 2. Icidet respose questioaire This documet will help the crisis respose team collectively determie what makes the situatio a crisis, what the desired outcome is ad potetial solutios. Take the time to fill out this iformatio from the earliest stages of crisis respose. It will help establish a more cosistet ad effective respose. See appedix for sample questioaire. 3. Idetify spokesperso To commuicate a cosistet message throughout the duratio of the respose, it is recommeded that the orgaizatio put forth oly oe spokesperso. Take the time ad effort to trai them. Every six moths, hold a refresher i crisis commuicatios ad practice your respose i the face of hostile stakeholders. 4. Idetify stakeholders Evaluate who is or will be impacted by the curret situatio. Aticipate the extet of that impact. Relatig to each stakeholder group will help assure the public that your orgaizatio is doig all it ca to right the situatio. 5. Messagig Create a media statemet. This will equip you with a respose if the media cotacts you. It will also help the crisis respose team create baselie messagig for your respose. After you ve created a media statemet, create key messages, a iteral Q&A documet ad ay other ecessary commuicatio materials. If you ve determied to proactively issue a media statemet, via a wire or simply posted to the website, ow is that time to do so. 6. Commuicate with employees Employees ca be your greatest asset or your strogest oppoets durig a crisis. Commuicate with employees early ad equip them with the materials they eed to deliver the same cosistet messagig. Although employees are geerally ot authorized to speak o behalf of your affiliate, each ad every employee is a uofficial spokesperso. Make them cheerleaders. 7. Commuicate with stakeholders It should be a top priority to commuicate directly with each stakeholder group. The more persoalized the commuicatio the better. But whe dealig with large or multiple groups, persoal commuicatio is ot always possible. Commuicate via persoal phoe calls or through formal letters or emails. For situatios that impact a large group, post importat iformatio like a media statemet ad steps beig take to resolve a issue to your website. 8. Commuicate with media How to commuicate with the media is best determied o a case-by-case basis. There are times whe a sigle press statemet is all that is eeded or advised. For some situatios, takig your story directly to the media is the best pla of actio. NAA is here to help you make this determiatio. Barriers to Crisis Commuicatios Success I a crisis situatio, employees, key stakeholders ad the public will be watchig your orgaizatio closely. The followig are barriers to successful crisis respose: 1. Lack of empathy A crisis is t the time to be self-righteous or blame others for the problem. Not showig compassio or empathy for stakeholders or the situatio i geeral will doom your commuicatios, regardless of if you are i the right. 2. Commuicatio delay With the advet of istat commuicatio via social media, waitig eve a few hours to respod to a crisis is too log. You do t eed to offer a complete aswer to the situatio at had. But you do eed to at least ackowledge the situatio. 25

3. Failure to aticipate the degree of agry respose Ayoe affected by a crisis will be agry. With social media providig a istat ad ufiltered outlet, you will see much more of it ow tha ever before. Do t take it persoally or respod i kid. Stick to your messagig ad treat each complait with empathy ad respect, o matter how agry it might be. 4. Lack of coordiatio amog groups withi your affiliate or betwee your affiliate ad outside etities A crisis respose must be coordiated ad delivered with a sigular voice. Everyoe must be o the same page ad remai there for the duratio of the crisis. All parties ivolved should kow ahead of time of importat dates ad times, like whe a press release will be distributed or press coferece held. 5. Lack of clarity about the respective roles of key decisio makers There is o time i a crisis for forgettig oe task or duplicatig a secod. Have clear delegatio of resposibilities. 6. Failure to commuicate quickly ad directly with those most affected, especially employees People wat to kow what s happeig. If they do t kow the facts, they are likely to speculate. Those rumors ofte make their way to the public. Give employees as much iformatio as eeded to quell ay speculatio ad do so as soo as possible. 7. Icosistet messagig Competig or cotradictory statemets are the quickest way to lose credibility ad political capital durig a crisis. They udermie trust. This is why it s so importat to clearly defie messagig at the begiig of a crisis. 8. Overestimated readiess Are you prepared or do you just thik you are? The middle of a crisis is o time to fid out that your spokesperso ca t speak or that you do t kow who your key stakeholders are. Prepare ad practice crisis commuicatios. 9. Isufficiet commitmet ad leadership required to respod quickly, compassioately ad coclusively A crisis team must have the authority ad the ability to make ad implemet decisios. They must be savvy eough to do so i the best iterest of your affiliate without alieatig other stakeholders. Essetials for Crisis Commuicatios Success How a affiliate commuicates, the toe, timig ad message, is directly tied to how victims, stakeholders ad the public will perceive you. Effective commuicatio ca help to preserve your affiliate s reputatio after the crisis. The followig are essetials to effective commuicatio durig a crisis: 1. Cador Effective crisis commuicatios is straight ad to the poit. Do t try to hide facts or pait a picture differet from reality. Stick to the facts ad to your messagig. 2. Opeess, accessibility ad trasparecy Ruig ad hidig from the problem will ot make it go away. It will oly make you look worse. Spokespeople must be available ad key stakeholders/media members should have access to them i some capacity. Show, do t tell, what you are doig to fix the problem. 3. Truthfuless Do t lie. It is the media s job to fid out the truth, ad they are good at their jobs. 4. Apology If you have somethig to apologize for, say you re sorry ad mea it. A phoy apology oly adds aother crisis to the situatio. 5. Resposiveess Aswers do t eed to be immediate. But they eed to be timely. A simple respose of, We are aware of the situatio ad are curretly ivestigatig, ca pacify stakeholders while you work to resolve the issue. 6. Egagemet Get ahead of the story by egagig key stakeholders o your terms. Do t wait for them to come to you. This will help you cotrol the terms of the iteractio ad show that you care about their cocers. 7. Clarificatio ad correctio Mistakes happe i the course of a crisis. Keep them to a miimum with proper plaig ad messagig. If someoe does misspeak or a icorrect fact is used, make a poit to correct it publicly. Ow the mistake ad move o from there. 26

Apology Strategies to Avoid Durig Crisis Respose With all eyes o your affiliate durig a crisis situatio, key stakeholders ad the public will be lookig to your affiliate for sigs of regret, or for a apology. Although a direct apology is ot always ecessary, there are certai apology strategies, or deflectios, that are importat to avoid i these situatios. I the ed, they ca do more damage i a already ucertai situatio. 1. Self-Forgiveess Usig the excuse that it s a idustry problem or that it could happe to ayoe. Right ow, it does t matter if that s true or ot. The public wats someoe to take resposibility ad shared resposibility with others i the idustry wo t satisfy that eed. Examples: It s a idustry problem. We re ot the oly oes. Let s ot blow this out of proportio. 2. Self-Talk Apologizig o the basis that it s a rare icidet that wo t happe agai ca lead to loss of trust from the public. Ca you guaratee that it wo t happe agai? Probably ot. Do your best to make right the curret situatio, ad you will gai sympathy i the public eye. Examples: It s a isolated icidet. If we do t do it, someoe else will. 3. Self-Delusio Poitig the figer, or outright deyig that your affiliate is at fault. Eve if your affiliate is ot directly at fault, the public trusts, ad i tur sees more favorably, a affiliate that ca accept its role i the situatio ad do everythig i its power to reverse the situatio. Examples: It s ot our problem. Its ot our fault. 4. Lyig Lyig to employees, stakeholders or the public is perhaps oe of the most critical mistakes a affiliate ca make i a crisis situatio. Regaiig trust ad empathy are primary goals of a crisis respose, ad whe a orgaizatio is utruthful, ot oly is its reputatio impacted egatively durig the curret situatio, but future perceptios will also be forever altered. Examples: It ca t happe agai. It has t happeed before. 27

Appedix ad Checklists This sectio provides at-a-glace resources to assist i your public relatios efforts. We have icluded: NAA fast facts. Talkig poits to help with messagig. NAA social media policy. PR checklists. Templates for press releases ad media alerts. Crisis icidet respose worksheet. 28

NAA Fast Facts NAA was fouded i 1939. NAA s members represet all facets of the multifamily housig idustry: apartmet owers, maagemet executives, developers, builders, ivestors, property maagers, leasig cosultats, maiteace persoel, suppliers ad related busiess professioals throughout the Uited States ad Caada. NAA s missio is to serve the iterests of multifamily housig owers, maagers, developers ad suppliers ad maitai a high level of professioalism i the multifamily housig idustry to better serve the retal housig eeds of the public. NAA is a federatio of more tha 170 state ad local affiliates. NAA is comprised of over 63,000 members represetig more tha 7 millio apartmet homes throughout the Uited States ad Caada. Members i good stadig of ay affiliated associatio are automatically cosidered members of NAA ad etitled to NAA beefits. Doug Culki has bee NAA s Presidet ad CEO sice 1999. NAA Messagig Poits O the shift from homeowership to retig: Oe third of Americas ret their homes. More people are choosig to ret because apartmets offer freedom, flexibility ad a diverse set of optios to fit their desired lifestyle. Today s apartmet residets rage from youg professioals to couples with ad without childre, ad empty esters who wat to dowsize. It has become a desired lifestyle for all walks of life. I may cases, the care ad maiteace of a sigle family home is o loger desired. The America Dream is chagig. Owig a home is o loger the right or desired choice for may. The umbers show that demad for apartmets is o the rise. Accordig to The State of the Natio s Housig report released i Jue of 2013 by the Joit Ceter for Housig Studies of Harvard Uiversity, 2012 saw a icrease of 1.1 millio reter households. 2012 also marked the secod cosecutive year of double-digit percetage icreases i multifamily costructio. Accordig to The State of the Natio s Housig report released i Jue of 2013 by the Joit Ceter for Housig Studies of Harvard Uiversity, it is estimated there could be as may as 7 millio ew leasig households by 2020. May apartmets are beig built i a urba core or strategic locatios close to shoppig areas, busiess districts, ad rail or trasportatio systems. This saves professioals time they would have otherwise spet commutig from the suburbs. Milleials, i particular, like these urba areas. With oe third of Americas leasig their homes, ad the umber of apartmet residets icreasig, the demad for quality housig will cotiue to icrease. More Americas will fid themselves livig a lifestyle more appropriate to their eeds ad desires. O retal housig affordability: For the first time, more tha half of all U.S. reters sped more tha 30 percet of their icome o ret, accordig to the most recet Harvard Uiversity s Joit Ceter for Housig Studies report. This is due, i part, to the umerous regulatory barriers our idustry still faces whe buildig ew retal housig specifically affordable housig. The apartmet sector did ot overbuild durig the housig boom, ad the built early othig for two years after the market crash because o fiacig was available. The fiacial collapse virtually shut dow ew apartmet costructio. Costructio is ow icreasig, but it still remais below the levels eeded to meet risig demad. Uecessary buildig regulatios, outdated zoig codes ad geeral oppositio to apartmets raise costructio costs ad thus the rets for residets for those apartmets that do get built. These must be reduced i order to provide a greater, more affordable supply of apartmets. 29

There must be greater icetives to ivest i existig affordable housig, such as more geerous tax breaks for maiteace ad improvemets or exemptio for certai local buildig code requiremets. Cost-effective rehabilitatio projects will provide residets with safe ad affordable housig that may ot otherwise be possible from a ew costructio stadpoit. The developmet of more micro-apartmets could icrease the affordable supply i highdesity, high-cost areas. May cities ad tows have specific zoig laws that iclude miimum square footage requiremets for livable uits. Reevaluatig these specificatios would provide urba residets with more affordable housig optios. Micro-apartmets are particularly popular amog Milleials. Risig rets are a temporary situatio i a highly cyclical market caused by factors outside the idustry s purview. Whe adjusted for iflatio, rets are actually lower tha they were 10 years ago, accordig to Reis ad NMHC. America s affordable housig shortage is a icome problem. It s ot that retal housig has gotte so expesive, but rather that the icome of too may reter households is too low to afford rets that the market ca reasoably offer. NAA ad its affiliates are dedicated to providig residets with safe ad affordable housig, ad look forward to cotiuig to work with policymakers at all levels of govermet o sesible ad effective strategies to meet this eed. O housig fiace reform: The burstig of the housig bubble exposed serious flaws i our atio s housig fiace system. Yet those shortcomigs were largely cofied to the residetial home mortgage sector. The Govermet Sposored Eterprises (GSEs ) (i.e., Faie Mae ad Freddie Mac) very successful multifamily programs were ot part of the meltdow ad have actually geerated over $10 billio i et profits to the govermet sice beig placed ito coservatorship. More tha just performig well, the GSEs multifamily programs serve a critical public policy role. Ufortuately, eve durig ormal ecoomic times, private capital aloe caot fully meet the idustry s fiacig eeds. The GSEs esure that multifamily capital is available i all markets at all times, so the apartmet idustry ca address the broad rage of America s housig eeds from coast to coast ad everywhere i betwee. NAA urges lawmakers to recogize the uique eeds of the multifamily idustry ad to retai the successful compoets of the existig multifamily programs i whatever succeeds them. We believe the goals of a reformed housig fiace system should be to: 1. Maitai a explicit federal guaratee for multifamily-backed mortgage securities available i all markets at all times; 2. Esure that the multifamily sector is treated i a way that recogizes the iheret differeces of the multifamily busiess; ad 3. Retai the successful compoets of the existig multifamily programs i whatever succeeds them. O tax reform: Lawmakers are callig for reform of the atio s overly complex tax code to foster ecoomic competitiveess ad ecoomic growth. The apartmet idustry supports tax reform that promotes ecoomic growth ad ivestmet i retal housig without ufairly burdeig apartmet owers ad reters relative to other asset classes. Cogress should eact pro-growth tax reform that protects the flow-through etities that domiate the apartmet idustry. Tax reform legislatio must: 1. Protect Flow-Through Etities. The multifamily idustry is domiated by flow-through etities (e.g., LLCs, parterships, S Corporatios, etc.) istead of publicly held corporatios. This meas that the compay s earigs are passed through to the parters, who pay taxes o their share of the earigs o their idividual tax returs. Accordigly, Cogress must ot reduce corporate tax rates fiaced by forcig flow-through etities to pay higher taxes by subjectig them to a corporate-level tax or by deyig credits ad deductios. 30

2. Maitai Curret Tax Treatmet of Carried Iterest. Certai lawmakers have sought to reig i high-flyig hedge fud maagers by proposig to elimiate capital gais treatmet of a carried iterest ad taxig it as regular icome istead. This proposal would affect all ivestmet parterships (ot just hedge fuds), 48% of which are real-estate related. Commercial real estate has used a carried iterest structure for several decades, ad it is ot a tax loophole. Raisig taxes o a carried iterest is bad for the etrepreeurs ad small busiesses that eed capital to iovate, grow, build ad create jobs. 3. Retai the Deductio for Busiess Iterest. Efforts to prevet compaies from overleveragig are leadig to calls to scale back the curret deductio for busiess iterest expeses. Ufortuately, reducig this deductibility would greatly icrease the cost of debt fiacig ecessary for large-scale projects, curbig developmet activity. 4. Protect the Low-Icome Housig Tax Credit (LIHTC). The push for a simplified tax code is threateig this major fiacig icetive for low-icome housig developmet. Ay dowsizig of the program would exacerbate the shortage of affordable retal uits, which Harvard Uiversity estimates to be 5.3 millio uits. 5. Retai Curret Estate Tax Legislatio. Policymakers should retai the estate tax compromise cotaied i the America Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which calls for a $5.25 millio exemptio (idexed for iflatio), 40% top rate ad retetio of stepped-up basis rules. O disparate impact liability: The apartmet idustry is committed to equal housig opportuity for all without regard to race, religio, color, sex, atioal origi, hadicap or familial status. I the 45 years sice Presidet Johso siged the Fair Housig Act ito law, istaces of overt, itetioal discrimiatio are far less commo ad more likely to be idetified ad remedied. However, o Feb. 8, 2013, the U.S. Departmet of Housig ad Urba Developmet (HUD) issued a fial rule that marked a sigificat expasio of the Fair Housig Act. The rule implemeted the act s Discrimiatory Effects Stadard, which established uiform stadards for determiig whe a real estate practice or policy violates the act. More importat, the fial rule also recogized that, as part of the act, liability exists uder the disparate impact theory. Disparate impact is whe a busiess practice or policy statistically demostrates a discrimiatory effect, regardless of whether the discrimiatio was itetioal. HUD s rule establishes a three part burde-shiftig test to determie liability for discrimiatio: 1. The chargig party has the burde of provig a challeged practice caused or predictably will cause a discrimiatory effect. 2. The respodet the has the burde of provig that the challeged practice ca be supported by a legally sufficiet justificatio. 3. The burde shifts back to the plaitiff to prove there are other practices that ca be employed that have a less discrimiatory effect. At issue for apartmet owers ad maagers is that uder the ew rule, seemigly eutral ad commo busiess policies, such as occupacy limitatios, crimial backgroud screeig ad Sectio 8 voucher policies, amog others, could trigger discrimiatio claims despite o itetio of siglig out a particular group for adverse treatmet. The HUD disparate impact rule is uworkable ad puts housig providers at risk of iadvertetly violatig the Fair Housig Act for legitimate multifamily practices that esure safe ad decet housig for residets. O immigratio reform: Immigratio policy directly impacts the apartmet idustry. It s a sigificat driver of growth i retal housig demad. Immigrats also play a importat role i buildig ad operatig apartmet commuities, ad they make up 22 percet of the costructio workforce. 31

Without a robust labor force that icludes immigrats, the apartmet idustry s ability to meet the growig demads for retal housig could be compromised. Immigratio policy is a federal resposibility with atioal security ad ecoomic implicatios. I the absece of cogressioal actio, state ad local immigratio laws have created a burdesome patchwork of compliace obligatios for apartmet compaies. Comprehesive immigratio reform legislatio should provide for: 1. Stregtheed iterior ad border eforcemet; 2. A improved employmet eligibility verificatio system; 3. Amply sized temporary programs; ad 4. A practical process for eared legalizatio. Temporary visa programs, such as the H-2B Program, should be desiged to meet labor demads whe local labor markets are iadequate without cappig participatio by idividual idustries. The E-Verify employmet verificatio system must be accurate, efficiet ad protect employers agaist liability whe actig i good faith. NMHC/NAA are ecouraged by the Stadards for Immigratio Reform, aouced by House Republica leaders, for recogizig the critical importace of immigratio reform to our atio. We urge seators to cotiue to support the compoets of S. 744, bipartisa, comprehesive Seate immigratio legislatio ad remove the arbitrary cap o temporary work visas for costructio. NAA Policy o Social Media ad Other Public Iteret Commuicatios NAA believes social etworkig ca be a valuable tool ad ackowledges that it is oe of the fastest growig ew uses for the Web. We recogize that these sites are beig utilized by NAA employees ad provide this policy to remai curret with evolvig techologies tools. The term social media ecompasses all forms of commuicatio through which users create profiles, share iformatio, ideas, persoal messages ad other cotet. Examples of popular social media sites iclude but are ot limited to: Facebook, Twitter, LikedI, Istagram, YouTube, Yelp ad persoal blogs or websites. NAA s social media policy icludes rules ad guidelies for compay-authorized social etworkig ad persoal social etworkig ad applies to all levels of the orgaizatio. The bottom lie employees eed to follow the same compay stadards olie as offlie. Procedures 1. Rules applicable to all social media use, icludig both authorized social etworkig ad persoal social etworkig: a. Privacy does ot exist i the world of social media: Assume your thoughts are i the public domai ad ca be published or discussed i all forms of media. Have o expectatio of privacy. A employee who is usure whether somethig is appropriate to post should cotact Huma Resources prior to postig. b. Protect cofidetial iformatio: Do ot post cofidetial or proprietary iformatio about NAA o ay platform. This icludes iformatio about fiaces, persoel matters, services, curret, former, or potetial members/customers, compay strategy or ay other iformatio that has ot bee publicly released by NAA. Sharig this iformatio, eve uitetioally, may result i discipliary actio up to ad icludig termiatio, or legal actio agaist the employee or NAA. c. Protect copyright: Employees caot post ay images or other cotet from aother source uless they are sure they are i the public domai or the ower has grated permissio. 2. Authorized Social Networkig (social etworkig i a official capacity for NAA): For some employees, completio of their job duties requires the use of social etworkig. a. All authorized social etworkig must be doe from a official NAA accout o the site o which it s takig place. Employees should ot share the logi iformatio for these accouts with staff who are ot authorized by their job resposibilities or supervisors to perform authorized social etworkig. b. Employees represetig NAA have a resposibility to be truthful, accurate ad accoutable ad to always reflect the NAA brad ad NAA values. Do ot egage i ame callig or other behavior that will egatively reflect o NAA s reputatio or could potetially damage NAA s busiess relatioships. 32

c. Cotet should be reviewed for grammatical ad spellig errors prior to postig. d. Ay errors brought to NAA s or the employee s attetio should be corrected promptly. 3. Persoal Social Networkig: Employees use of persoal social etworkig should at o time ad i o way iterfere with the executio or quality of job resposibilities. a. Employees are prohibited from usig NAA logos, trademarks, photographs, images or other copyrighted or itellectual property belogig to NAA. b. If you choose to idetify yourself as a employee of NAA, please be aware that some may view you as a spokesperso for NAA. Because of this, you should state that your views expressed are your ow, ad ot those of the compay, or of ay perso or orgaizatio affiliated or coductig busiess with NAA. A sample of a appropriate disclaimer is: The commets that follow this disclaimer are mie ad mie aloe ad do ot reflect the opiios of NAA, or should they be costrued as such. Those with leadership resposibilities, by virtue of their positio, must be especially coscietious of this. c. Please respect the privacy of co-workers ad the opiios of others. Before sharig a commet, post, picture or video about aother employee or customer, coset is required. actio whe it lears of violatios of this policy or other compay policies (such as but ot limited to the harassmet or ethics policy) takig place o social etworkig sites. c. NAA reserves the right to access ay compay computer or other commuicatio devices owed by the compay to moitor user activity, icludig social etworkig. d. Remember that all employees are subject to NAA s IT Policy while usig a compay computer or other compay-owed commuicatio devices. These guidelies will cotiue to evolve as the social media ladscape chages ad othig i this policy should be costrued to prohibit employees from egagig i social media. Violatio of this policy may result i discipliary actio up to ad icludig termiatio, ad/or legal actio agaist the employee or orgaizatio. Privacy ad Moitorig: a. Employees should have o expectatio of privacy i iformatio they post to social etworkig or other Iteret sites, whether the sites are publicly available or uder various privacy settigs. b. While NAA geerally will ot seek to lear the cotet of a employee s persoal Iteret postigs, it does reserve the right to ivestigate a employee s postigs usig ay legal meas, as may be ecessary to esure eforcemet of compay policies, to ivestigate ay possible legal violatios, to esure safety ad security of its employees ad visitors, or to ivestigate other miscoduct. Compay maagers may also lear of iappropriate iformatio posted by employees from other employees, or because they iadvertetly leared of those postigs through other meas. NAA will take appropriate 33

CHECKLISTS What makes your ews ewsworthy? Timely Local Sigificat Sesatioal Emotioal Weird/Out of the ordiary Do you have proper collateral ready for media? Headshots Press bios Logos Stock photos Are you pitchig the correct outlet? Outlet is local It has a audiece you wat to ifluece Outlet is kow for quality ad hoest coverage Outlet is ot pay-to-play Are you pitchig the right reporter/editor? Do they cover the area/topic of your ews? Are they local? Are they the proper type of cotact (reporter vs. editor)? Is your ews relevat to them? Is your press release fialized with all the eeded iformatio? Headlie Subhead Datelie Itro paragraph Body Quotes Boilerplate Cotact iformatio Hyperliks SEO keywords Is your media alert fialized with all the eeded iformatio? Cotact iformatio Headlie Four W s Outlet-specific iformatio Other iformatio Whe to say No to a press request? Negative story about your affiliate Coflict of iterest Not i your area of expertise Not relevat to orgaizatioal goals For email iterviews: Attribute quotes Write i soud bites Triple check grammar, spellig, puctuatio Iclude everythig i body of email (NO ATTACHMENTS!) Offer images/other collateral For phoe iterviews: Take your time before aswerig Prepare Practice Have o distractios Stad up Smile Block ad bridge For TV iterviews: Dress properly Make eye cotact with iterviewer Igore the camera Speak steadily Slow your gestures Liste Block ad bridge Give producer ame, title, affiliate ame Have you exteded the life of your coverage? Sed your coverage to NAA Share i social media Post to News sectio of your website Write a blog Put out a press release Add to email sigature Email to key cotacts Thak the reporter Order reprits Iteract Create videos about the coverage Is your pitch good? It s ewsworthy It s ot just about you It s relevat It s clear ad cocise It avoids jargo It s short It s i the appropriate format Are you ready for a crisis? Idetify a crisis team Make a icidece respose questioaire Idetify the spokesperso Get your messagig ready Commuicate with your employees Commuicate with stakeholders Commuicate with the media Avoid crisis commuicatio barriers 34

Social media Do s ad Do ts Do: Make it social Make it iterestig Make it visual Make it relevat to the platform Make it timely Stay o message Take coflict offlie Ecourage staff/members to share Do t: Ramble Feed the trolls Whitewash disset Act uprofessioally 35

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Natioal Apartmet Associatio 4300 Wilso Blvd, Suite 400, Arligto, VA 22203 Laure Bosto, Staff Writer ad Maager of Public Relatios 703-797-0678 laure@aahq.org