Need Help Getting the Word Out about Your Events?

There are a few things that may help you effectively use the resources we have available to us at Tifereth Israel Synagogue. First, you should take advantage of the vehicles for communications that the synagogue offers to its membership.

The Shofar

Our newsletter The Shofar, which has been published at Tifereth Israel Synagogue for over fifty years, goes out to the entire congregation at least ten times a year. Though it is a vehicle for the professional staff to communicate with the members on a regular basis, it is also the primary communication to the membership from the lay leadership, the auxiliary organizations, and the many volunteers who contribute their efforts to the congregation. For information about submission guidelines and deadlines, contact Office Manager and Shofar Editor Linda Marus by email or by calling 619 697-6001.

www.tiferethisrael.com

Our website is intended as a resource for both our members and non-members. We have been working hard at making this website more comprehensive and responsive to the congregation’s needs and want to help you in every way to develop “content” for the website. Content is text, graphics, and so much more:

Lou Rosenfeld and Peter Morville write, “We define content broadly as ‘the stuff in your Web site.’ This may include documents, data, applications, e-services, images, audio and video files, personal Web pages, archived e-mail messages, and more. And we include future stuff as well as present stuff.”

Wikipedia , collected 1/22/09

Whether you represent a department, a school, a committee, or an auxiliary organization, you are responsible for generating and updating your content on the website. We will, of course, help you in every way we can. We can suggest, edit, and even expand based on our experience and what we have seen work but we have a big website and it is your assignment to make sure that you and your interests are well represented. We cannot emphasize this enough. Please do not allow your area of the website fall out of date, include inaccurate or incomplete information, or just start looking dusty. We want your content on the website to represent the best of your efforts.

Send your website material directly to the Website Content Editor.

Front Page Events

Publicizing your programming and events on the website can be as simple as requesting a listing as a “Front Page Event” (FPE) that appears on the homepage of www.tiferethisrael.com as it draws near.

A FPE is generally an activity directed to a broad spectrum of our congregation and would not be the correct vehicle to announce committee meetings or similar functions. It can provide members with constantly updated information about an event and with a link to make online payments for tickets or for donations.

A FPE is a good supplement to our periodic print and electronic communications but it is not intended to duplicate information already on the website or simply to announce the date, time and location of an event. Add material to your FPEs that will engage your audience and build enthusiasm: links to other website that might relate to your event, books that might relate to the subject, videos that might interest your audience. Be creative and think “outside of the box” to spark interest in your audience!

Use our online form to submit your Front Page Event. If you have any other questions, email the Website Content Editor.

Email Marketing

Tifereth Israel Synagogue continues to invest a great deal of time and effort into email marketing as a tool to help our total communications program. We are clients of Constant Contact, a vendor that hosts a powerful but easy-to-use web-based email marketing program. Using Constant Contact, we have a variety of periodic email newsletters as well as announcements that go out regularly.

If you want your programming to be covered by the synagogue’s weekly flagship email newsletter Coming Events, you should contact the office. If you think your program is particularly attractive to any segment of the synagogue family, you should make sure that those departments also hear from you. For instance, if you think your programs are of interest to young families, you may want information included in the Preschool or the Torah School email newsletters. In that case, contact the school directors for the Preschool and Torah School.

Please be cautious in requesting stand-alone announcements of your events. According to Advertising Age,

In the world of digital marketing, e-mail, like mail, annoys people (54% of them) and bores people (22%) more than other forms of advertising… [But] Whatever else they’re doing, online adults turn to the web first for information on virtually every subject.

Advertising Age, December 1, 2008

You have to carefully strike a balance between informing your audience and being perceived as the dreaded Spam. Place announcements of your programming in the various email newsletters and reserve a stand-alone announcement only if it is truly “late-breaking news” or as a last reminder of an RSVP deadline. You may find it generally more effective to have complete and comprehensive information on the website where people can access it whenever they want.

What Do You Want to Do?

For venues mentioned above, it is useful to consider what the elements of your programming are. We have a worksheet that may help you determine your needs and goals.

Volunteer Management

Often, the success of your event may depend on the quality of your volunteers. There is extensive literature about Volunteer Management, a new field in the ever-growing field of philanthropy. We have read Helen Little’s Volunteers: How to Get Them, How to Keep Them and found the book to be very useful. You read an excerpt from the book at the publisher’s website at PanaceaPress.

If you like what you see, you can purchase the book from Amazon by clicking here or contact Beth Klareich, Programming Director, about copies available at the synagogue.

Remember also that active involvement in your event by a wide spectrum of volunteers also helps creates word-of-mouth. Your own volunteers may be your best advertising.

Is Your Event Newsworthy?

Is your event the kind that might merit exposure outside the congregation in local newspapers or other media? We found some very useful information and created “How To for Press Releases” to help you determine if a press release is appropriate and, if it is, how to prepare it properly.

A Better Mousetrap

Of course, we are here to support you in any way we can and we would like to hear from you anytime if you have suggestions or comments that will make communications at Tifereth Israel Synagogue work better for everyone. Click here to send an email.