Using Social Media to Market Your Unit!

Here are some points on how to better market your unit through social media and the local press.

1.     Get Permission: There are permission release forms for parents to sign off in order for any child to be shown in any media.  Please be sure to have these signed annually by all Scouts.

a.     Action to include this release form with all parents that join Scouts.

b.     Those that opt out and don’t want their kid shown in anything we will have to know upfront and ensure all leaders are aware of this so we don’t accidentally share their kids’ image.

2.     Showcase Your Events: We can call News 12 to attend our bonfire event, Pinewood derby, Earth Day events, FOR SURE. If we go to the Battleship overnight, or any Cubelos type busy event… we should get some coverage of that.

a.     Outside of attending these events, we can collect all our pictures and use some of the templates in the manual you attached to write up press releases. Usually a quick 1-page summary will do the trick!

3.     Media Potential: Upload all your event summaries to the online paper sites and more!

                a.     Show and explain all the main benefits of Scouting life etc. Especially emphasizing the

          family camping and girls joining.

b.     Ask for all dens to take photos of each event they do together to create a file for each. This way, we have data to pick from when we are finalizing media articles for the newspaper, or blog for our Scouts.  This should be something that caters to the public.

4.     Engage the Community: We need to find some opportunities for the Scouts to interact with community members so we can have articles about “good turns” being done and what our boys/girls are contributing to the towns where they live.

a.     Have a drive for soldier care packages and have pictures taken and an article written up for the news to show, or to attend as the kids are putting them together.  We can have it be pack activity. “Assembly line of kids on tables” putting fun stuff in boxes for them, some kids taping them up, some kids writing addresses on boxes; visually seeing kids doing something in their community.

b.     Have Scouts participate in some sort of leadership activity at their own school or other social activity. Kids like to be involved in social issues and have their voices heard. Talk to the boys and girls about what they can do to make their school and community a better place, and what ideas they may have as mini projects to assist the teachers or others in some small community minded activity. Again, have us write up an article with pictures, and QUOTES from the kids and adults involved.

Thanks to Javier Juarez and Holly for contributing to this article.