I know DUers are ignoring me but the Walk 4 Health Care is real and in it's FOURTH DAY! KEEP KICKED!

[wndycty]

For those of you who have visited my previous threads and provided K&R support--THANK YOU!

I wanted to give you an update that Dr. Ogan Gurel is in his FOURTH DAY of his Walk For Health Care. He will be walking today from Hamlet, IN to Plymouth, IN. Please SUPPORT THIS WALK by:

1) Following on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/walk4healthcare

2) Joining the Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/inbox/readmessage.php?t=1020368887656&f=1&e=-12#/group.php?gid=113509038713&ref=ts

3) Visit the blog: http://www.walk4healthcare.org

4) Tell a friend, retweet, share on Facebook

5) Help defray costs by either helping us find places for Ogan to sleep and eat and/or providing financial support (links found at http://walk4healthcare.org)

THANK ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE HELPED THUS FAR! Please keep this kicked!

[varelse]

1. kick

:kick:

[wndycty]

2. Thank you!

[midnight]

3. Thank you for your information on this topic.

I'm kicking to keep this visible. There is a bit of information that will take some time to sift through, but want to give Dr. Gurel the support for doing this treck for health care.

[KharmaTrain]

4. K & R...

Threw a couple of sheckles in the kitty the other day...

:kick:

[wndycty]

6. That is awesome, thank you so much. . .SPREAD THE WORD!

:kick:

[peekaloo]

5. Kickitay

:kick:

[Lebam in LA]

7. kick

:kick:

[pleah]

8. K&R

[rumpel]

9. k & r

[wndycty]

10. Thanks for the kicks. . .keep them coming

:kick:

[Gidney N Cloyd]

11. Kick.

[Greybnk48]

12. K&R!

[Just Saying]

13. kick

:kick:

[wndycty]

14. Afternoon kick

:kick:

[redqueen]

15. K&R!

Thanks for this.

[JimWis]

16. K&R - I hope this makes the news.

[myrna minx]

17. K&R n/t

[noiretextatique]

18. sure

:kick:

[chatnoir]

19. K&R

:kick:

[wndycty]

20. Wednesday evening kick

:kick:

[spanone]

21. k&r

[Lone_Star_Dem]

22. K&R!

:kick:

[EFerrari]

23. Kick

[wndycty]

24. Thanks if we can get a few more recs this will be on the front page. . .KEEP IT GOING!

:kick:

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

25. thanks. Kicking and recommending this thread

for universal single payer health care.

[wndycty]

26. THANK YOU FOR PUSHING THIS TO THE FRONT PAGE

CHEERS TO EVERYONE!

[OwnedByFerrets]

27. kick

[anigbrowl]

28. Marketing fail kick :-)

To get more attention, pull some of the info already on the blog, and arrange it thusly:

WHO is Dr Ogan Gurel? (Really, who is he? this isn't even at the top of the blog. Oops!) Tell me in one sentence what makes him different from any other doctor (not including this walk). Include a picture of him. This will massively up your response rate.

WHAT is he doing? OK he's walking, but tell me he's going to DC. This is critically important. Is he doing it alone? Does he want people to join him? Blog needs more pictures. I can't get emotionally involved with a map.

WHERE is he now - well you've got this part down. It might have been better to start in CA but so it goes. tell me the major cities he's going to this week and next.

WHEN does he plan to arrive in DC? Set a target date, this is important because media people want time to prep the story so it coincides with his arrival. Also, when does he start and end each day, put a number on how many hours/miles he walks so people can relate to the effort.

WHY is he doing it? For healthcare, yeah, but what kind? Don't make it too complicated, but he needs to have a few simple goals: single payer, hospitals all painted pink, free medical school - whatever they are, you need to be able to state them in 1 or 2 sentences. Aim high, the more you ask for the more you're likely to get. Want true universal healthcare paid by taxes? Then don't say you're for national health insurance. You will only get a small part of what you ask for in the short term, so ask for the moon.

HOW can people help? You're doing this, but also ask people to blog, call media on the route ahead, come out to take photographs, all that good stuff. Call local politicians and employers. What Joe Blow thinks is slightly newsworthy, but if you get a quote from Joseph Blau III, mayor or CEO of somewhere/something significant that's newsworthy. Journalists are always looking for news and politicians and businesspeople are always looking for good publicity. Forget whether they are Republican or Democrat - scratch their back and your back will get scratched in turn. This kind of thing depends on publicity, so don't be ideologically pure about where it comes from.

Hope these suggestions help for your future updates. One final tip: DO NOT say 'I know people are ignoring this', because I assumed they had a good reason and ignored you too for most of the day. If you tell me it's not interesting, then I'm likely to believe you. Similarly, don't tell me to keep it kicked because I'll assume it's going to sink. Put ONE item of news in the headline, like 'Walk 4 Healthcare, Day 5: Mayor XXXX of town YYYY came out to support me!' Don't ASK for support (at least, not in your title). GIVE information. It works!

[wndycty]

30. THanks for the snarky advice, I will try to take it seriously as I read through it. . .

. . .mention it to Ogan because there probably is some good advice in there. Seriously, we appreciate all the support we can get even if it is snarky. This event was not planned it is something he is doing on a shoe string at the spur of the moment.

[anigbrowl]

31. I know. I just wanted to make sure it got your attention!

the 'who what when where why' questions are basically the skeleton of a press release and any media contacts you make. Journalists are always bored and underpaid, so to get their attention you need to pre-write the story for them, even if you're just chitchatting on the phone.

so basically the way to do a press release (which you should be putting out every day to papers in towns ahead of his route, as well as all places he has already passed through) is to have a short first paragraph that answers all 5 of those questions with a single sentence for each, and then a short paragraph for each of the questions with a bit more detail. Most of this information will stay the same from day to day, so you can recycle a lot of it.

don't feel shy about 'marketing' it, even though it was an individual spur of the moment thing. A big snowball (which is what you want) needs a lot of hands to roll it, and in this case the intent is altruistic so it's not like you're trying to bullshit people into buying something they don't need.

Leave Dr Ogan to do his walking, but practice focusing your DU message for a couple of days and start emailing the same info to the local media. Call ahead to relevant websites, newspapers and talk/news radio stations in the area and get the name and email address of the person it should go to. Don't send it to the general mailbox, it will go to the bottom of the pile. Get the person, tell them in 20 seconds what it is and ask if you can send the press release. Send it a little later, and then later call back again to ask if they got it OK and if there are any questions you can help with.

It's a fair bit of work for one person. Try and rope in a few more people in your area, throw up a post in the craigslist volunteer section, and so on. Get a few extra hands on it and after a few days you'll have a little publicity machine.

[wndycty]

34. You mean like this?

Dr. Ogan Gurel to Walk for Health Care from Chicago to Washington DC
beginning Saturday, June 27

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL, Thursday, June 25, 2009—On Saturday, June 27, 2009 at 8:00 a.m., Dr. Ogan Gurel will leave Chicago’s Daley Plaza en route for Washington DC to launch the Walk for Health Care, a nearly 700-mile journey by foot, aiming to draw attention to the very real stories of hardship and inequity that persist in our health care system. Dr. Gurel plans to meet people along the way and share their stories via his blog, Facebook, and Twitter. He hopes to arrive in Washington DC on Sunday, July 26. For more information on the Walk for Health Care visit walk4healthcare.org, join the Facebook group (The Walk For Healthcare) or follow on Twitter @walk4healthcare.
-snip-

http://files.me.com/wndycty/gp1fx1

Which yielded this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnw6K0qRv2U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaaM4VHFyVA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGicqC7BEps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6_79S0pJ-Y

Despite your implication that we are stupid and naive we are getting excellent interest from the media, even working with a few national outlets, I am just trying to ramp up the excitement here on DU. But since you think I am stupid and naive and unable to generate press (19 year PR veteran and I get results) I will let you have your fun a teach me how to do PR. I might be inexperienced on building a successful blog, but I know what I am doing when it comes to media relations. Thanks anyway.

[anigbrowl]

35. Well, awesome. I'm just perplexed why you're not putting that in your DU updates

That's great stuff. I don't think you're stupid or naive, but since you didn't include any of that information to begin with when you posted here, I had no way of knowing that you were experienced and ahead of the curve with your PR efforts. Why wouldn't you give the same information to DUers that you would to the media?

[wndycty]

36. You mean like this?

DU, I NEED YOUR HELP, my friend Dr. Ogan Gurel is WALKING from Chicago to DC for HEALTH CARE
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5932701

Or this?
1st day of Walk For Health Care receives EXCELLENT local (Chicago) media but we need your help!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5944592

[anigbrowl]

38. I meant in every message. This thread is the first one I saw about it.

I don't follow particular people closely and I only read maybe 20% of the threads I see on a good day, and I don't read every day. So if I'd seen those I'd have been better informed, but this 'I know you're ignoring these but here's day 5' thread is actually the first one I've seen on the subject, and the lack of information was confusing. That first paragraph in the press release is great, why not just include it in every day's DU update.

[wndycty]

39. So I have done 4 posts on this subject and the only one that got any traction. . .

. . .is the one that didn't follow your guidelines. What does that tell you?

Additionally, you see one of the threads (the one I posted in frustration, yet has been the most responded to) and assume that I haven't shared the necessary information.

I sincerely do appreciate the advice you gave it is good, but here is some advice for you for when you dispense advice in thte future don't assume that the folks you are giving advice to are ignorant or naive. This campaign was a rush a job and over the next month it is safe to assume that we will be constantly revising the blog, press releases, strategy, etc. so your advice was welcome and some of it has already been implemented, however you can provide the same advice without treating the recipients of such advice as if they are idiots. A lot more people might listen to you.

[spin]

29. K&R

[Richd506]

32. kick

[sandyd921]

33. That's great! K & R!

[dhpgetsit]

37. K&R

[chknltl]

40. Done, KnR

[meowomon]

41. K&R

[Senator]

42. K&R

[democracy1st]

43. K & R

[Peace_Sells]

44. kick

[Ken Burch]

45. K&R

And FWIW, I never meant to ignore you.

[tomm2thumbs]

46. Keek

[avaistheone1]

47. Thanks for doing this.

Health care is a human right. I appreciate you bringing attention to the cause in this way.

[kimmylavin]

48. Not ignoring! :)

Paycheck cleared, and I sent a donation.
Think this is a great idea!

And think you're pretty great for trying to get the word out! :hi:

[wndycty]

50. Thank you so much we really appreciate this!

:kick:

[Enthusiast]

49. K&R

[Buzz Clik]

51. k&r

You're not on my ignore list ... yet. :evilgrin:

[Delphinus]

52. Cool!

Will do what I can. Thanks for sharing.

[Christa]

53. K for Health Care nt