Hello!

Welcome to GMT's monthly e-newsletter for March, 2010. We send this e-newsletter on the first Monday of every month to share feature announcements, membership tips, links to recent articles from environmental reporters, new members, and other helpful resources.

You are receiving this as your organization is a member of Green Media Toolshed and you are currently a registered GMT user. Should you wish to opt out of this monthly communication, please see the instructions in section 8 below.

Word Count: 1,723
Read Time: 7 minutes

In this issue you will find:
1. Member Connections
2. Be in the Know – How GMT Tools Can Help Your Group
3. Buzz from the Beat
4. Link(s) of the Month
5. Community Coverage
6. GMT Welcomes 2 New Members
7. Support: Database Do’s and Don’ts
8. Opt out instructions

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1. Member Connections: Learn how to Put Twitter to Work in March Skills Training

Join us for Green Media Toolshed’s March Skills Training, Putting Twitter to Work, on March 25th with our Executive Director, Marty Kearns. Kearns will teach members how to tweet, respond, and listen to online conversation on Twitter.

Participants will learn the how, why, and what of Twitter via case studies, and will know how to tweet, respond and listen via Twitter. It will be a great opportunity for members who want to engage member and press audiences more through social media and create an effective strategy for action.

If you have a Twitter account you can follow us and send questions to @martykearns or @theGMT

Putting Twitter to Work
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
Time: 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. Eastern / 10:00 - 11:00 a.m. Pacific
Presenter: Marty Kearns

Online registration is required. Registration and event details are available in our Events Center at http://members.greenmediatoolshed.org/node/24303.

Also, if you have not already read our Step by Step Twitter Guide check it out at http://members.greenmediatoolshed.org/node/24095

Missed our February Skills Training? On February 11th, Ashley Braun of Grist Magazine gave a good presentation on social media tools and strategy. The recording and additional resources provided by Ashley are now in our Training Center so your staff can access them when convenient: http://members.greenmediatoolshed.org/taxonomy/term/2170

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2. Be in the Know - How GMT Tools Can Help Your Group: Track your Coverage after Sending a Distribution

Many GMT members may distribute their news through our media database, but maybe don’t have an effective plan to reach reporters and track their coverage after the send. The media database is a very effective tool to send news, but it is still critical that you have a comprehensive plan for the pre-pitch, the pitch, and the follow up to reporters who may be likely to cover you.

Three good “next steps” are tracking coverage through free Google News Alerts, using the Job Lists in Vocus, and making follow up calls to reporters. I’ve outlined below some details and suggestions for each of these steps, as well as a training document with great advice from Holly Minch on the coverage process.

1. Google News Alerts: As a first step for identifying reporters who might cover your news and for just keeping in the loop as to what news is getting published about you, your group, your experts, and your key issues, set up Google Alerts.

To set up one or more Google Alerts, please see the directions in our Support at http://members.greenmediatoolshed.org/node/24336

2. Job Lists: A Job List e-mail will be sent to you by Vocus within 48 hours of sending your release. The Job Lists include any media contacts who did not receive your release – for technical, SPAM, or other reasons. You can view these lists in the Media Contact List dropdown menu in the Media Contacts Advanced Search to view a list of people to whom you should do additional messaging.

3. Pitch Calls: Don’t underestimate the value of a pitch call to a reporter. Pitch calls are a great way to catch a reporter’s attention after they’ve seen your press release.

At the True Spin Conference in January, 2010, I had the opportunity to hear Holly Minch offer advice as to how nonprofits can take full advantage of each piece of news coverage and give strategy advice for the planning process before, during, and after the pitch.

I have posted some of her advice in our Get More Press Attention training center section at http://members.greenmediatoolshed.org/node/24232

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3. Buzz from the Beat: Good Reporter for EPA News

Robin Bravender is a Greenwire reporter on the Environment and Energy beats who covers news on the EPA, its policies, and emissions goals. In a recent article from February 24th, Bravender wrote about how reducing pollution from coal-fired power plants and other large industries is at the top of the EPA’s enforcement priorities for the next few years. Bravender is in Vocus and pitchable at the following information:

Robin Bravender
Greenwire, Reporter
Energy/Environment beat
rbravender@eenews.net
(202) 737- 4340 x258
Twitter: rbravender

“Curbing Smokestack Emissions Tops EPA's 2011-2013 Enforcement Goals” is available on the New York Times online at http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/02/24/24greenwire-curbing-smokestack-emissions-tops-epas-2011-20-83812.html

Other recent headlines include:
EPA Will Need Increased Climate Funding as Regs Ramp Up, Jackson Says, Feb. 25th
EPA Chief Goes Toe-To-Toe With Senate GOP Over Climate Science, February 23rd

We encourage you to share dialogue about reporters you know and others that you would like to find in our Discussion Forum at http://members.greenmediatoolshed.org/community/discussion

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4. Link of the month: Community Media Workshop's Media Alert Generator

This online form from Community Media Workshop provides you with key fields to fill in for a media advisory -- everything from contact information to the headline to the 5 W’s and the How of any alert. You can simply just click the "preview/print" button to see the prepared alert on the screen.

This tool isn't as focused on building skills, but can really help a beginner bang out their first few press advisories and establish a template to use in the future. So, if you have an intern or other staff member who needs to build their media advisory writing skills, they can use this resource to get started.

http://www.newstips.org/forms/create_a_release.php

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5. Newsroom Notes section: Snapshot of BusinessWeek Enviro Writer; Kayak Magazine Launches in Northern California

John Carey, a senior correspondent at BusinessWeek, is a good contact for environment, energy, health, science, and technology pitches. According to Vocus, Carey writes on new trends in those fields and looks for something “unusual … breaking news or a trend that other people haven’t written about.” Carey adds, “The main thing is that there should be sort of a bigger picture to the story and not just an individual company or an individual idea.”

Carey is in Vocus and pitchable at the following information:

BusinessWeek / Washington, D.C. bureau
John Carey, senior correspondent
(202) 383-2214
john_carey(at)businessweek.com
www.businessweek.com
Preferred Pitch: e-mail
Attachments: accepted
Deadlines are on Tuesdays and Wednesdays

California Kayaker is a new magazine launching April 1st that will cover all things kayaking in Northern California. According to Vocus, it will feature information on kayak racing, touring, equipment, and also kayak fishing. Peter Donohue will be leading the quarterly publication, and is pitchable at the following information.

California Kayaker
Peter Donohue
(650) 868-8653
peter(at)calkayakermag.com
www.calkayakermag.com

Get more information on this new magazine as well as more media updates at Vocus' Daily Media Moves blog at http://www.vocus.com/invocus/movesarchives_invocus_com.html

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6. Let’s Welcome 2 New Members to our GMT Community

As You Sow is dedicated to ensuring that corporations and other institutions act responsibly and in the long-term best interests of the environment and the human condition. As You Sow engages and challenges corporations through direct dialogue and shareholder advocacy, refines economic arguments to move them toward responsible practices, and provides grants to nonprofit organizations primarily focused on toxics reduction, remediation and prevention and environmental education.

Community Coalition on High Speed Rail ensures that planning, financing and implementation of high speed rail on California’s peninsula and throughout the state is "done right" for the communities that live there.

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7. Media Database Q & A: New Instructions for Adding a New Media Contact and Getting Automatic Updates on your Media List

New Media Contact Instructions:
GMT members have the ability to submit new record requests to be added to the media contact database. There are a specific set of steps that all members are required to use to make sure that the submission goes to the Research Team, and that no incorrect or duplicate records are added. This protocol is for the benefit of all members who want to efficiently research accurate information and fine tune their media lists.

A new set of instructions on how to best add a contact are now available in the Support Center as an easy reference for you when you find a new contact whom you would like to include in the system. These directions can be found at http://members.greenmediatoolshed.org/node/24334

Automatically Update your “Living” Media List:
The easiest way to keep your list updated in Vocus is to save it as a Living List. A Living List receives automatic updates when a contact has moved outlets or has been removed from the database.

The benefits to Living Lists include:
1. Saving staff time both finding those updates and manually changing your list.
2. Getting word of new reporters who have replaced old contacts through the Living List e-mail updates.
3. Knowing that your list is being well-kept in the system and is in "ready to use" condition, save for any additional edits you would like to make.

When hearing about these benefits, members often ask me how they can change the mode of a current, non-Living List, to be a Living List. I’ve shared these steps with all of you in the Discussion Forum so that you can take advantage of this excellent feature to best manage your media lists.

Read about these steps and post additional questions to me at http://members.greenmediatoolshed.org/node/24327.

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8. Opt out instructions:
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View past e-newsletters in our monthly e-newsletter archive section of the GMT Training Center.
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