How to increase Legion awareness locally

Communication is part of The American Legion's strategic plan for membership growth. The Legion provides a host of PSAs, from youth programs to membership promotions, that you can download for free at http://psa.legion.org so you can deliver the Legion's message. You can also download the Legion's Public Relations Toolkit for free at www.legion.org/publications under Media & Communications for ways to promote post-related efforts.

With ideas from the PR Toolkit, Legion posts can get noticed by newspaper editors and other media. For example, it is important to use pictures and video to highlight the human side of things when submitting a story to a newspaper.

The key to making a compelling story is to make it local and unique and show how it affects the community. When emailing newspaper staff, target the feature or news editor, make the subject line compelling and place the press release in the body of the email and not as an attachment. Additionally, make local news personalities your Twitter or Facebook friends so they can stay updated on what is happening within your post.