I think this could almost be printed off as wallpaper or something similar. I just really like the colors and lighting (the lighting for the shot was what was there, I used no flash). The lines in this photo are also really great.

This is another shot from Orlando. I really like this one. It is almost a silhouette shot, but not quite. I really like the expressions on the faces of the audience members.

I really like this photo. I think it is a good example of rule of thirds and makes good use of the natural light. Although you cannot really see the faces of the people in the picture, I think it's still a nice shot.

Planning a Chairty Event

Now that I am into the phase of my project where all the logistics of my two charity events are starting to come together, I researched different tips on planning an event. I learned the following things that I hadn't even thought about at the beginning of this process:

• Educated those that are attending about your organization. Turn attendees into advocates for your organization. To do this, I'm going to utilize the powerpoint presentation about PHWWO and give some general information about the group at each charity event. I also intend to use the brochure that is being created to inform attendees. On the back of the brochure there is going to be a donation form as well.
• Use social media to promote your event. Of course this is something that I had considered before, but adding information to the event and state that it will be an information session as well as charity event can help. This will encourage people that are not well-informed about the group, to attend the event.

Information obtained during my research came from Tips For Promoting Your Charity Event

Social Media Posting

Since the Potomac Highlands Wounded Warrior Outreach (PHWWO) has both Facebook and Twitter accounts, I researched the best timing to make postings so the outreach is the best.

• When you share a link on your company’s Facebook page, people are more likely to view that link on the weekends or early in the morning
• Pages that post every other day have more followers or “likes”. 
• The Twitter pages with the most followers tweet an average of 22 times per day.  When sharing your website through a link, try to tweet about your page once per hour at most

(This information was gathered from notes from "Science of Timing" webinar by Dan Zarella and HubSpot and a Platinum PR blog post that I wrote in April of last year.) 

I plan to use the program "HootSuite" for PHWWO. This program allows postings to both Facebook and Twitter at the same time and each post can be scheduled. I think the best approach is to have links to articles about PHWWO when posting a link on the Facebook page. The Twitter page can be used to promote the Facebook page by posting links to the organizations Facebook.

Distributing press releases

There are several companies and websites that handle press release distribution. I have been researching the different options that are out there and how much they cost. Since PHWWO is a non-profit organization, the budget for things like press release distribution is little, if any at all.

Some options include:

• PR Web
• PR News Wire
• ereleases.com
• prlog.org

PR web costs money for certain features, the rest have free options. The organization will have to approve which one is used.

Fundamentals of Non-Profits.

This week I have learned several fundamental tips on communications efforts for non-profit organizations.

• It is really important to build a relationship with the media outlets that the organization will use the most, especially since they may have little or no budget.
• I need to build relationships with the local media for the PHWWO. Most of the media in the area already know about them and have covered stories about their events before, so I plan to reach out to the regional media more-so.
• When reaching out about the organization there is a difference in a value the organization has and information about the organization.
• When educating the public about the PHWWO using a value the organization has as opposed to giving out general information may be a better idea. This will get people interested to learn more and contact the group or attend an event.
• When creating a publicity and communications plan for a non-profit, it must first be determined what kind of non-profit the group is. An individual behavior change group or a public will group.
• I think PHWWO is a mixture of the two. Although they are not involved with legislature that affects wounded warriors, they are still educating the public, they are affecting the social perception of helping our nation's wounded and veterans.

All information was obtained from http://www.mediaevaluationproject.org/Paper5.pdf