Good idea, Jeri. In fact, when I attended the Grand Reveal for the Plymouth Jacket that I worked on they handed me such a press release which I sent to my local paper, largely in the spirit of fun. Imagine my surprise when I was contacted by the paper and they wrote a story about it saying they loved that kind of thing. They asked for a photo and fortunately I had paid to have a photo taken of me behind a cardboard cut out of the outfit, "Pilgrims meet Boardwalk" as I pithily said, and they quoted me. As the editor of the International Organization of Lace's Facebook page I am always seeking photos of group activities and lace demos by the IOLI members, showing what an active, fun group we are so those in search of lace based activities will see us in action. Unfortunately many members do not have Facebook and don't really understand it. I sort of figure that if you do a demo to introduce people to lace it makes sense to post it on Facebook where even more people will see it. I am always happy when IOLI members share this point of view! This week I have been posting photos from the IOLI convention for those at home, like myself, to enjoy. I am grateful to the people who are sending them to me. There are about 1885 people who "like" the page. But, of course, those who are not on Facebook can't see these postings. Devon
Sent from my iPad > On Jul 22, 2016, at 6:35 PM, jeria...@aol.com wrote: > > Response to correspondence generated by Devon Thein in which she refers to supporting young lace artists and CV's (Curriculum Vitae - or, Resumes). We need to make it easier for artists to find us! > > In the past 20 years, I have shared with Arachne members much about public relations, publicity, and marketing in connection with lace. There is little evidence that what I've shared about promoting something like lace has ever been tried. We need people who will pick up this challenge and run with it. I learned how to do this type of work in the 1960s. Now, Universities offer Marketing courses of study. Perhaps some of you have taken these courses and could apply what you learned - to lace. > > Internet technology is moving forward to new capabilities very rapidly. Your Arachne correspondence indicates (to me) that our major lace guilds and museums need to hop on board Meetup.com, Facebook, Instagram, etc. > > Guild and Museum Boards of Directors could create an appointed position that will be held by someone with technological experience and a strong affinity for promoting lace - by writing press releases, etc. By learning how to do this, one could add a new skill to a personal resume. > > In reading your correspondence of the past 2 days about supporting young lacemakers, my reaction was that the Guilds and Museums could write up a basic illustrated public relations story for participants attending Seminars, Conventions and Congresses, write a "Dear participant" letter explaining the press release, and put it in the registrants' packets of information (sometimes called goody bags). > > All a lacemaker would have to do upon arrival back at home would be to attach a personal/local lace-related photo, or several, and mail it to a local newspaper or TV station (or both, though a different story to each would be preferable). Shy or concerned about privacy? Use a nickname, as I do -- for all lace and embroidery correspondence and memberships. In some parts of the world, you do need to establish a safe way for readers to contact you. Meet new people in a public place, like a public library. > > My free local weekly newspaper puts information and photos on its pages about the progress of college students, news about business professionals, announcements of new businesses, and so forth. All these originate as press releases. Would YOU participate in an effort to reach potential lacemakers, if our official Guilds and Museums wrote the publicity information? Though they may not re-act, local TV stations do sometimes offer local "news" of this kind. They need art-related and human interest items that will balance hard news. > > Far in advance, we have descriptions of lace gatherings, which could serve as local press releases. Add something about the local lace group - and pop it in the mail or e-mail. > > You won't get positive results all the time, but if you don't try - you'll get absolutely no results. > > A press release is most likely to be accurate, which is not always the case when a reporter tries to write photo captions and understand the wide variety of skills we are trying to keep alive. > > Is everything about the who, what, when, where and how included? Always ask someone you trust to proofread your press release. Sometimes we become so close to what we have written that we do not see errors, omissions, or typos. > > Jeri Ames in Maine USA > Lace and Embroidery Resource Center - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
