Working with the Catholic media is one of the best ways to make your community known to the world.
Our efforts here at Vocation Promotion recently resulted in a news story as well as TV coverage by EWTN, the world’s largest religious broadcasting network, for one of our communities.
The religious community, the Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, was featured on Eternal Word Television Network on June 13, 2018, which ran a 42-second TV news spot of the sisters’ video (seen above).
About the same time the newspaper National Catholic Register (which is owned by EWTN) carried an online article, “East Meets West in Sisters’ Viral Video Parody of Adele’s ‘Hello’.”
This all happened when we here at Vocation Promotion sent a press release to a reporter whom we know at the Register about the sisters’ video. (The Mercedarian Sisters are one of the religious communities served by Vocation Promotion.)
How do you get publicity for a religious community?
How can you get news coverage by EWTN, or other Catholic media?
To get the best publicity, your press release has to feature a big idea or event. You cannot just cannot write a lot of blah, blah about yourself.
In this case, we noticed that the sisters’ video went viral, with 23,000 views in its first two weeks of showing (YouTube and Facebook views combined). This would be a great springboard, or news hook, we thought.
The video, “‘Hello’ Parody – Mercedarian Sisters & Christ the Bridegroom Nuns,” is a very clever three-minute piece that parodies a song by the famous singer Adele. The video, which features the sisters’ own song, laments the separation of the Eastern and Western churches. The video even features an Oreo cookie.
Now, 23,000 views in two weeks is hot stuff.
When we noticed what was happening, we realized the potential for greater publicity. So wrote our press release summarizing the video, and included the necessary background information, and sent it to the Register reporter.
Thus, what was good publicity in the beginning, with the popular video, was amplified by the news coverage.
This publicity can be carried even further, by letting your own members, friends and benefactors know about the media coverage. So the next step is to mention the media’s coverage in your newsletters and contacts with others.
If you liked this article, see also our post based on this coverage, “11 Commandments of getting publicity with the Catholic media.”
See also our post, “EWTN show skyrockets interest in Visitation Sisters.”
