VeganMoFo

If you’re reading this, I bet you’re gearing up for VeganMoFo 2014! It makes sense. Since we’re here, you’re over there, and I’m right inside this here blog with a fuzzy marketing comm. degree to dust off, I’d like to help ya spread the word about our big month ahead!

Because seriously, outreach is KEY and we all know it can be quite a productive month, you & your piece of the internet deserve a little time in the spotlight!

First, let’s share some of my recent eats from Beyond Sushi, because you’ve got some legit reading ahead.

Here’s what to do:

1. 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, in Portland, OR, I’d 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 my favorite culinary-focused blogs. Plus, the huge local vegetarian outreach group, Northwest Veg, other vegan-friendly events that have caught my eye, and maybe, The Kitchn, Serious Eats, and so on. 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* press releases and calendar info with the bigger outlets. Go cover your ground and spread the word!
2. Download a personalized or general copy of the official VeganMoFo press release (I’ll get to this below!), generously assembled by VeganMoFo’s own Amey of Vegan Eats & Treats (Thanks again, Amey!!).
3. Save the (ideally revised) press release as a PDF with a clearly marked file name, for example “Media Alert: VeganMo, The Vegan Month of Food Writing Returns September 2014“
4. Next, copy/paste the press release 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 Jojo, 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). 
5. Make sure you’ve attached a copy of the press release PDF (or Word Doc or whatever you prefer, but this is getting crazy talk) to the email itself.
6. Press send and let that baby fly, preferably one at a time, but one big blind BCC can do in a pinch (but don’t tell my Writing for Marketing teacher at Emerson that I actually said that).

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

OPTION 1) We’ve got the official press release ready to be personalized linked right here and copied below. It is super important to make sure you personalize all the red bits! If not, you look like a noob, and no writer potentially ready to put your name in lights and spread the word about veganism is gonna let that fly.

OPTION 2) Okay, if you don’t want to personalize it and are just thinking this is far too annoying to open and add some text to (I feel ya), but you’ve got some contacts and simply want to help,  please know that A) We still heart you! and B) Go for it and pass the info from this link right here along, using the instructions above.

Thank you!!!!

Now, let’s get back to pondering thematics and/or bloggy and social media whims, as you please.

P.S. And tell my teacher I didn’t go on hiatus to NYC and posted this 30 days ago, sheesh.