Room to Grow: Talitha Koum

View this post on Instagram

TK has World Cup fever! The three year old class learned how to play "soccer" during recess last week and we've got some pretty promising players! You just might be watching them tear up the field in the 2030 World Cup.

A post shared by Talitha Koum Institute (@talithakouminstitute) on Jul 2, 2014 at 12:23pm PDT

One of our first thoughts about Talitha Koum is that the institute is very well known in its circle. The people who are aware of Talitha Koum and what they strive for are so enthusiastic to help and get the word out, but there are still people in the area who are unfamiliar or unsure what they can offer Talitha Koum.

Talitha Koum already has a stable PR effort going. Talitha Koum’s founder, Susan Cowley, owns her own advertising, marketing and public relations firm in Waco, so she is a wealth of knowledge on how to reach our customers.

After the initial meeting, our group thought of a SWOT analysis to get the creative juices flowing:

Strengths:

• Strong relationsip with family
• Strong growth
• Mentors keep in touch
• Experienced and educated staff
• Only MHTC (Mental health therapeutic childcare) that starts at birth
• Interactive facility

Weaknesses:

• Lack of mentors
• Potential loss of instructors
• Website lacks information
• Aren’t widely / fully known
• Not well branded

Opportunities:

• Mentoring program
• Social Media Expansion
• Replicate elsewhere
• Waco’s Christian atmosphere

Threats:

• Big Brothers/ Big Sisters
• Waco ISD
• Awareness
• Misunderstood potential information

Through our analysis and deciding our key publics, we decided to focus on reaching Wacoans over the age of 25 to raise awareness on Talitha Koum and the mentorship programs.

Our group collaborated and though it would be best to start with circulating informational documents around local church communities and hospitals, then move on to revamping some of Talitha Koum’s social media.

Fortunately, Talitha Koum already has a Facebook, Twitter and Instagram so we have room to grow. We decided we would start a weekly hashtag such as #MentorMonday to drive more traffic towards the mentorship program and build consistency.

Along with social media and flyers, we decided to begin an in-house blog to focus on mentors. This blog will be linked on the website and will engage with other nonprofits sand children literacy programs.

We are ecstatic about the amount of opportunities we have. Since Talitha Koum already has a solid base for the PR efforts, we can start building them up to bring the best attention to the institute possible.

Goals for Art on Elm Avenue 2015

By Lauren Kastner

The Art on Elm Avenue group spent some time brainstorming ideas for how to improve the event’s PR efforts. Here’s what we came up with:

Goal: Double event attendance from last year.
Objective: Increase student and vendor participation by 10%.

To increase student and vendor participation, we suggest:

• Partnering with nearby universities (Baylor, MCC and TSTC) to increase student involvement.
• Partnering with participating vendors by hanging flyers near registers.
• Creating a 30 second PSA advertising the date, time and features of the event to raise awareness.

We hope that by getting in touch with art departments at local universities, we can increase participation and gain more art entries from students. We also want to continue recruiting vendors. As we gain more vendors, we will gain increased awareness as well. Our PSA will also feature important information about the event in a fun and eye-catching way.

We hope to recruit more vendors to attend this year’s event.

Goal: Increase community awareness.
Objective: Increase overall knowledge of the event to Wacoans.

To increase community awareness of Art on Elm Avenue, we suggest:

• Sending out postcards to possible attendees, vendors and artists with event details.
• Posting weekly reminders to submit artwork or fill out a vendor submission form on social media.
• Post fliers at popular establishments such as the Waco Farmer’s Market, Common Grounds, etc.

We hope to catch the attention of potential attendees, vendors and artists with visually appealing printed pieces. Our vendors will have printed pieces to display in their establishments (or on their trucks!) to educate the community about this exciting event. To engage potential artists, we would post weekly reminders to submit artwork or become a vendor on social media.

Goal: Improve Art on Elm’s online presence.
Objective: Generate consistent content to promote engagement.

To improve Art on Elm Avenue’s online presence, we suggest posting on online social platforms with increased consistency.

• Increase traffic on Facebook and Twitter by posting twice weekly and following related accounts.
• Consistently use the branding color scheme so all pieces look similar online.
• Engage followers with a Twitter contest to have their artwork exhibited at the event where a winner will be chosen.

Art on Elm Avenue already has a website and social media accounts, but the inconsistency of posts would make it difficult for anyone to truly follow it. We want to beef up the social media action and make accounts that people will want to follow—accounts that publish frequent entertaining or informative posts. Another way to hook followers is to host a Twitter contest. Our idea is that people can post their artwork on our social media sites, then the winner will have his or her art exhibited at Art on Elm Avenue. We would create a consistent brand so all sites look consistent and recognizable.

See you at Art on Elm Avenue 2015!

The Frist Step in Change

By: Hannah Haseloff

In essence the first step to changing anything is to convince people it can and must change. The city of Waco, for example has a reputation as a “has been”, an echo of the great town that once was. But that is not true any more. In fact most would say Waco is up and coming. While it still has far to go, Waco is on the move towards change. Change always requires a shift in perception. As humans, we tend to be stubborn and forever hanging on to that first perception of something even if it has changed. That is where public relations can come in handy. Waco needs help to change its perception and with the help of several good PR campaigns, this can become possible.

There are many things in Waco giving it respectability. Waco has great antique and junk stores gaining notice, a one of a kind zoo, and various historical sites. Waco has two renowned universities and a community college gaining prominence. There are even quite a few programs in place solely for the improvement of Waco. There is even a popular HGTV show, Fixer Upper, based in Waco about a local couple fixing up old houses and reinventing dilapidated neighborhoods. One of these programs is Neighbor Works’ Art on Elm Avenue.

This semester I have the opportunity to work with a group of fellow public relations students, to represent Art on Elm Avenue. Art on Elm is pop-up art exhibition and a community event that offers art exhibits, live musical performances, food, and more. The purpose of Art on Elm is to celebrate Waco’s rich artistic culture and to aid in developing Waco’s urban areas.

Last week a few of our group members got to sit down with Honey Jenkins, the marketing director with Neighbor Works and promotion manager for Art on Elm. She was excited that we wanted to work with them and could not wait to see what we came up with.

Since the actual event takes place after our project is through, we will mainly be involved in the planning of the promotional process. It would have been better if the event took place during the middle of our project so that we would actually get a chance to implement our project and assess how well it went.

Here is the promo video Art on Elm used last year.

I am a little concerned because there is another event that people confuse with Art on Elm, called Waco Arts Festival, which takes place in a week. It is frustrating to have a similar, more established event to be competing with. However, I am confident that my group can help to come up with a great promotional strategy that distinguishes Art on Elm from the Waco Art Test.

Even though Art on Elm is a one-time event, it has the opportunity to make a huge difference and my group members and I are very excited to be working with them.

For more information about Art on Elm Avenue check out these links:

http://artonelmavenue.com

http://www.wacoheartoftexas.com/culture/festivals/art-on-elm-avenue/