Hello!

Welcome to GMT's monthly e-newsletter for September 2010. We send this e-newsletter on the first Wednesday of every month to share feature announcements, membership tips, links to recent articles from environmental reporters, new members, and other helpful resources.

Word Count: 1,386
Read Time: 7 minutes

In this issue you will find:
1. Member Connections
2. Be in the Know – How GMT Tools Can Help Your Group
3. Buzz from the Beat
4. Link(s) of the Month
5. Community Coverage- Newsroom Notes
6. GMT Welcomes 2 New Members
7. Support: Database Do’s and Don’ts
8. Opt out instructions

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1. What’s Happening @theGMT: Send your topic for fall’s skill building webinars, & get a GMT button.

Got training needs? We’d love to hear them. As we plan our training program for the fall and winter, we welcome your suggested topics for the online webinars and new training content. Please submit your ideas to Nina Schwartz, nina@greenmediatoolshed.org.

GMT Buttons. Although they would look stylish, these are not green buttons with GMT’s logo that you can wear on your jacket. These are rather GMT icons that you can place on your website to indicate your membership (equally stylish for your online appearance). It’s a great way for you to identify other members who also participate in the GMT community, and also show your support for GMT.

Three image sizes and the embed link (note: it is easy to use) are in our member center. http://members.greenmediatoolshed.org/gmtbuttons

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2. Be in the Know - How GMT Tools Can Help Your Group: Go Digital with your story

Documenting a story in digital format can be a very effective way to touch the lives of your audience. Digital storytelling has images, sound, and visual association that gives the otherwise written narrative an emotional dimension.

This summer, JD Lasica contributed an article on digital storytelling on SocialBrite, “Digital Storytelling: A tutorial in 10 easy steps,” that guides you through the process for creating a powerful digital story.

The online tutorial is posted in our training center “Storytelling” folder at http://members.greenmediatoolshed.org/node/24803.

We’ve also included a link to a related story by JD Lasica about how nonprofits should be using storytelling in their work if you need some more background on storytelling before you dive into the digital.

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3. Buzz from the Beat: Put your campaign to the "Customer Development" test.

The idea of putting your new campaign ideas through the customer, or constituent, "development" test, written about by Matt Howes of Arcadia Campaigns, will help you assess the opportunities that your organization has before investing (and possibly wasting) resources to implement a campaign idea. All nonprofits should be thinking about this kind of "pre-marketing" before they launch a campaign to help them complete a thorough planning process.

In his August 9th post on Care2's Frogloop marketing blog, Matt reviews the four steps and helpful online tools to help you most effectively analyzing the potential of an idea for a new project.
Read Matt's post “Pre-marketing: Is there an audience for your campaign?” at http://www.frogloop.com/care2blog/2010/8/9/pre-mar...

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4. Newsroom Notes: Internet Content Syndication Council (ICSC) creates editorial guidelines

When asked about the decline in online news quality, many fingers point to content farms. AOL's Seed and Yahoo's Associated Content are a few examples of content farms, which provide an opportunity for all people to add their content and citizen journalism to the web. The popularity of these services that make news easy to add, and sometimes payable, makes it harder to locate the best quality news on your search results page. The ICSC is hoping that the new guidelines will provide a threshold for the credibility of content to be found and viewed on the web.

Read about the guidelines on Vocus' blog at http://www.vocus.com/invocus/blogSept10.html, or on MediaWeek at http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/d...

Get media updates on Vocus' Daily Media Moves blog at http://www.vocus.com/invocus/movesarchives_invocus...

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4. Links of the month: Get a glob on the Gulf Spill

A glob or a blog; either one can describe the Society of Environmental Journalists’ (SEJ) hourly update resource on the Gulf oil spill. The Daily Glob provides oil spill news, tweets, “spillcam” videos, and links that are aimed at helping reporters enrich their coverage of the event.

This news source will keep you connected with the latest news and who covered it. The Daily Glob Tweets are a good source to find top reporters who are covering the event on Twitter. It can be a great resource if you are feeling overwhelmed trying to piece together the latest news on the issue, and can help you get quick access to the news that reporters are incorporating into stories.

Follow the Daily Glob at http://dailyglob.sej.org/

Read more about the Glob and SEJ at http://www.sej.org/library/government/follow-gulf-...

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5. We welcome 2 new members to our GMT community

Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Warren, Vermont offers over 150 hands-on courses per year in design, construction, woodworking, and architectural craft including a variety of courses concentrating in sustainable design and green building. Operating as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization since 1980, Yestermorrow is one of the only design/build schools in the country, teaching both design and construction skills. Their 1-day to 3-week hands-on courses are taught by top architects, builders, and craftspeople from across the country.

Primary Contact: Contact Kate Stephenson, Executive Director, through her Green Media Toolshed profile at http://members.greenmediatoolshed.org/user/8077. (login required)

The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) protects public health, minimizes climate change and improves quality of life for billions of people as the world’s transportation infrastructure grows.

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6. Media Database Q & A: How can you use the media database to track and report your coverage?

While the media database is primarily used as a list building and distribution system, it has a set of features that offer users the capability for effective tracking of the reporters who have covered them, as well as the building of reports from this information. Here are a few steps that outline how that process works:

1. First, tag reporters who have covered you. You can place a tag in the Notes section of each reporter profile. An example would be, “GMT 8/11/2010- The Guardian, [Article title & link].”
2. Next, use those tags to update your media lists and build tiered lists based on coverage. Tiered lists are separated by reporter priority. You can use the tagging system to maintain an updated list of reporters who have covered you (for example, Tier A), reporters who you've had successful pitch calls with or who are responsive to your outreach but who have not yet covered you (for example, Tier B), and then finally your "wish list" reporters who you would really like to target for coverage but who have not yet attended an event or responded to your outreach for example, Tier C).
3. Create Custom Reports for your Board or media team. You can run searches in the Advanced Search section to find and filter your tagged reporters. If you also log Activities, you can create custom reports based on your Activities tracking in the Activities Section.

The GMT Support Team is ready to assist you with these steps at (202) 659-7710 x10 or x13.

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8. Opt out instructions:
We’ll be sad - but not bitter - if you do.

To opt out of GMT’s monthly e-newsletter, reply to this e-mail with the word "Unsubscribe" in the subject line.

To share feedback about the content and format, please reply to this e-mail and include your thoughts in the body of your message. You can also submit a question to be answered in the next FAQ section by replying to this message.

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View past e-newsletters in our monthly e-newsletter archive section of the GMT Training Center.

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