SWATA Blog: PR Tips of the Week

TIP #9

Now that you have participated in #NATM2014, don't forget to enter the SWATA PR Contest for a chance to win a free registration to the SWATA Annual Meeting & Clinical Symposia this July in Frisco, Texas!!! Be sure to check out the rules for the contest. The deadline to enter is April 15th.

TIP #8

TIP #7

TIP # 6

Tomorrow begins 31 days of highlighting athletic trainers and the athletic training profession! You can easily be part of the celebration by participating in the following ways:

Change your social media pictures:

Update your email signature line with a simple statement:

March is National Athletic Training Month!

Participate in social media contests and the 6 Word Declaration opportunity!

Send an NATM e-card to friends, family, other athletic trainers and stakeholders!

It really is that easy!!!

TIP #5

Connecting with the media can have a immeasurable impact on the recognition of athletic trainers. Did you know that through the efforts of the NATA PR department, over 30,032,077 total audience was reached just in November and December of 2013? With the recent change in the AP Stylebook regarding proper terminology (which resulted from a decade of effort by the NATA), the media should not be using the term 'trainer' but rather 'athletic trainer':

Athletic trainers: Health care professionals who are licensed or otherwise regulated to work with athletes and physically active people to prevent, diagnose and treat injuries and other emergency, acute and chronic medical conditions including cardiac abnormalities and heat stroke. Specify where necessary to distinguish from personal trainers, who focus primarily on fitness.

Although the NATA is a large organization and has made a huge impact on behalf of athletic trainers, you may ask yourself, "So, what can you do, and would it matter?" The answer is:

THERE IS PLENTY FOR YOU TO DO AND YES IT MATTERS!!!

Follow these 3 simple steps to make a huge difference in your community today:

1. Obtain the contact information of 1 person for your local newspaper, TV news station, and radio station.

It may be easy enough for you to go to the website of your local media and find a contact there.

If you are not sure of where to start, go to www.usnpl.com and start at the top, pick the source of media that you would like (choose from newspaper, TV stations, radio stations, college news outlets, etc). You can then choose the state and then the city that you are interested in contacting.

2. Prepare a news release announcing National Athletic Training Month.

Find a sample news release regarding National Athletic Training Month at the NATA NATM webpage.

A blank press release with instructions can be found at HERE. This is useful if you would like to design your own press release, highlighting any events or efforts that you or your organization is doing to promote National Athletic Training Month.

3. Send the news release to the media contacts that you obtained. It is that easy!!!

Please consider joining in on celebrating National Athletic Training Month!

TIP#4

TIP #3

SWATA Public Relations tip of the week #3! Gear up for#NATM2014 with this great tip! Be sure to stay connected with all SWATA social media. This is one way for you to stay informed about the profession, current injury trends, hot topics in the news, etc. Staying connected is one way that you can be prepared when your stakeholders come to you for advice, questions and concerns.