Hey everyone! I hope you’re excited for VeganMoFo. There’s not long to go now! Don’t forget, you have until the 21st October – this Friday! – to sign up for this year’s event. Sign up here! For those of you who have signed up (or are about to!) we have prepared a media alert for you to share. This is so that you can alert local and international press sources as to what is going on – and get some recognition for your MoFo’ing efforts!

Here’s what to do:

1. First things first, sign on up for VeganMoFo 2016
2. Think & go Google search: What are the local media avenues in my community (state, country, district, town, county, area, favorite blogs, online news sources, etc.)? Is there an alt weekly? Is there a monthly, city-wide cultural magazine and/or website? Where do you see local food & dining news? For example, someone in Portland, OR, would send this to Eater PDX (and there are a ton of Eater sites out there!), Willamette Week, Portland Mercury, Oregonian FoodDay, Oregon Public Broadcasting, Portland Monthly Magazine and a bunch of their favorite culinary-focused blogs. Plus, the huge local vegetarian outreach group, Northwest Veg, other vegan-friendly events that have caught their eye, and maybe, The Kitchn, Serious Eats, and so on. Someone in the UK might send the alert to VegFest UK or one of the vegan magazines in the country! If you’ve been involved with media outlets/events, who are your contacts? Do you have friends that work in PR? Are they relevant and could they help get the word out? Do they like vegan cookies?  Is there a VegFest? Basically, find out their contact email/fax (right?! You can totally send faxes for free online these days in case you actually want to do that). Take note that there is typically a contact specifically *for* media alerts and press releases and calendar info with the bigger outlets. Go cover your ground and spread the word! These days, there are many vegan companies who post through social media (Facebook, Instagram, etc) and you can also send this alert in a message to them if you like – look for local vegan groups and pages, perhaps shops that regularly post vegan “news” articles, and anyone else who you think might be interested!
3. Edit and download a personalized or general copy of the official VeganMoFo Media Alert, as linked below.
4. Save the (ideally revised) Media Alert as a PDF with a clearly marked file name, for example “Media Advisory: VeganMoFo, The Vegan Month of Food Writing Returns November 2016″
5. Next, copy/paste the Media Alert content into the actual email message from title down. I like to do this, it doubles your chances of being read. At the top, if I know who it’s going to well, I’ll often include a little note in a different font and color and sign it, like “Hey Darleen, I’d love for you to take a look at this news! I’ve got a whole month of xxx in store and daily updates! Let me know if you would like more information or photos for a story” (or something a little less lame then that, but I hope you get the point).
6. Make sure you’ve attached a copy of the Media Alert PDF (or Word Doc or whatever you prefer) to the email itself.
7. Press send and let that baby fly, preferably one at a time, but one big blind BCC can do in a pinch (sorry, old college marketing professors, it’s 2016 and I’m busy!)

And here’s how to do it! There are two versions of our shiny, official Media Alert all ready to go below:

OPTION 1) We’ve got the official Media Alert ready to be personalized right this way and copied below. It is super important to make sure you personalize the red area! 

OPTION 2) Here’s a straightforward Media Alert to share as is.

So, get sharing, and get preparing for Vegan MoFo 2016!