I’ve written before about the need to increase our membership in our “roving band of do-gooders” known as the Rotary Club of Montgomery/Rocky Hill. It’s easy to say but actually quite hard to do. Most people you run across tend to either (a) not be the slightest bit interested in any type of community service or (b) not willing to commit any time to community service. Rather than waste time trying to convince these types of people join Rotary, we should focus our efforts on those people who have a favorable disposition to Rotary in general or our club in specific.
In sales, this would be known as a “qualified prospect” (please note my sales training consists primarily of watching the “coffee is for closers” scene from the movie Glengarry Glen Ross) But where does one find qualified prospects? One way is to have the prospects find you through compelling and effective public relations.
A big shout out to Maria Kauzmann and Norman Silverstein who frequently help us promote our activities in the Montgomery News. I’ve run into several people over the last few days who saw me “in the paper wearing that ridiculous hat”.
Beth Desai has just taken on the role of Public Relations chair with the specific emphasis on creating posts for our Facebook page. The overall goal will be to create a stream of posts which shows the club in action. Sometimes the posts will direct people to our website which is being kept up to date and spiffy looking by our dedicated webmaster, Matt Romanoski.
The overall goal of public relations will go beyond reaching out to the community when we want them to participate in our events (e.g. Run With Rotary or Flags For Heroes) and better answer that question that “qualified prospects” may have which is ”What exactly does the Rotary Club of Montgomery/Rocky Hil do?”. Studies of successful use of social media show that the key is to provide frequent engaging posts rather than sporadic lengthy dissertations.
If you have any ideas on how to help promote the club via Facebook (or other means), let Beth or Matt or myself know. Lisa Youngberg has been particularly helpful in providing them with some historical context. You can help too – if you are on Facebook, make sure to “Like” the Rotary Club of Montgomery/Rocky Hill page. And then like, comment, and share some of the posts.
Let’s not keep Rotary a secret.
Rotarically Yours,
Zoltan Nagy
President
Rotary Club of Montgomery/Rocky Hill (NJ)
Zoltan Nagy
President
Rotary Club of Montgomery/Rocky Hill (NJ)