[free-sklyarov] just a small idea

[Peter]

The idea behind it is to show the public that there is the interrest
of a large group. I didn't say that we should stop sending individual
letters. The idea of an central "Press-Office" is very good.
My experience from other countries shows that 'official statemants'
from a large group have always much more power then letters from 10
individuals. I also didn't say that we should send the same latter 10
times to the same Office or person. That is not how public relation is
working and that is exactly what we need: professional public
relation. The goal is to wake up the media but the media will not
react off 10 individual letters. There are certain rules for public
relation and getting recognized. We should take them to our advantage.
Peter


Free Dmitry Sklyarov
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On Monday 30 July 2001 09:52, you wrote:
> I think that writing individual letters is not very effectful.
> Instead, we should come up with one letter which we can call a press
> release or protest letter of the Free-Dmitry Community.

Everything I've always heard about effective activism is just the
opposite:
that when companies or elected officials receive a bunch of copies of
a
single form letter, they tend to DISCOUNT it.  What really gets their
attention is individual letters from distinct parties.  Two letters
that are
just duplicates with different signatures show that at least those two
people
were committed enough to sign their names and pay for a stamp...but
two
separate letters show a higher level of commitment and carry more
weight.

That's not to say mass mailings are useless.  We should do exactly as
you
say: come up with a consensus letter, have local parties to gather as
many
signatures as we can, and send them all in on the same day to make a
dramatic
statement.  However, we must ALSO do the individual letter-writing
effort, or
we reduce ourselves to the same level of credibility as all that junk
mail
you throw away every day without even opening it.  It serves its
purpose, but
it's no substitute for personal communication.

It's probably also not too soon to start thinking about setting up a
speaker's bureau.  At least in my area, our Big Media have mostly
ignored us,
and the only reporters I've seen have been from things like trade
papers.
That's good, and we need to keep in contact with those people--but
eventually, maybe Real Soon Now, even, the big news organizations are
going
to notice us.  When they do, we should be ready with press packets,
people
who are willing to go on talk shows and give interviews, and so forth.
We
should have lists of contact names and phone numbers for people who
are
prepared to do that, so when a reporter or professional society asks
for a
spokesman, we can seize the opportunity.

--

What I wrote above is hereby dedicated to the public domain and may be
freely
used, in whole or in part, with or without attribution.

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