BYC Public Relations PR Brainstorming - How to get the word out?

[Nifty-Chicken]

Oh, totally sorry if I misunderstood!

Yes, I think there is potential for more success (and more fun) going local! There will be an opportunity to tell your personal story and even with a local community / area aspect.

 

[kyeschicks]

I will print tons of papers about BYC and put them on ALL the feed stores I find on Amarillo, TX!!! (I have only got one store yet) Im making a book which im almost done with and I will post a page about BYC, I will let ya know when it comes out

 

[preppy*hippie*chick]

A lot of papers are running columns geared towards saving money period or saving on groceries. Most in my area invite ideas to be submitted. That would be a good in on a local level.

On a larger scale, I think an anti cruelty angle would be excellent. I'm not a complete animal rights activist/tree hugger. I eat meat and all, but I also think PETA does some good work (though a bit overzealous). If people knew what goes on with production/factory animals they would be outraged - I am.

My point is, I'll be keeping chickens for eggs and meat later. I can eat a chicken who had a pleasant life and a humane death in good conscience. I wil NEVER eat mass produced chicken ever again.

It would be super to have a celebrity aligned with this and so many are very passionate about animal welfare. Just a thought!

 

[Farmer Kitty]

I think with this brainstorming we need to come up with facts that could be put together into a press release. Things like:

1. Chickens are good bug/weed eaters.
2. They are good pets(especially with the stress relief) with the added bonus of getting eggs from them.
3. With 3 hens you would probably get 2 eggs a day.
4. Roosters are not needed for a hen to produce eggs-basic to us but, still a belief amoung many.
5. Manure is great in the garden.

Things to help make the chicken argument.

 

[patandchickens]

FWIW, as a sign that urban chickens are indeed becoming trendy, of the four national/international parenting magazines that our local Early Years center gets, TWO of them have run articles on the subject (with obviously a slant towards 'good experience for kids') in the last three months.

Pretty amazing!

Pat

 

[jeremy]

We take our chickens for walks, with little leashes, that usually gets the word out.

No, seriously though. I think word of mouth can be one of the biggest impacting factors. Promoting the relative easiness and huge rewards that you can get from raising these birds. And showing the benefits of your labor. We plan on doing farmer's markets here in the city to sell some our eggs and furthur promote the chicken raising trend. Maybe even bringing a hen along to strut her stuff and entice some passerbys to pick up a dozen eggs or two.

 

[silkieluver_07]

Did the business card idea fall through? I could give this to my egg customers and people who come to get chicks.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

*The chicken can travel up to 9 miles per hour.
*The greatest number of yolks in one chicken egg is nine
*There are more chickens in the world than any other domesticated bird. More than one chicken for every human on the face of this earth.
*Alektorophobia is the Fear of chickens.
*There are approximately 450 million chickens in the United States.
*Chickens make sounds with actual meaning. They give different alarm calls when threatened by different predators.
*The closest living relative of the Tyranosaurus-Rex is the chicken.
*There are more chickens on the planet Earth than there are people. (Please don't make them mad!!!)

 

[Calebs Acre]

I was thinking press release, BUT I have a couple of different angles that I think would be more compelling.

Here in NY, they just featured children visiting animals tonight on the news, so big city is not a bad way to go, but that's not what I was aiming to say. LOL.

If some of the founding members of BYC....spokespeople for the site, so to speak, would put together a "press kit", including experience, small selection of photos, etc. (contact me for more of a description), you could offer the group as "authorities" for news related stories. You know, those people who are called in to make comments whenever a big story breaks? This is the best way to give "authority" and exposure to the site.

John Doe, of www.backyardchickens.com, said, "We are seeing 123% influx of new member from large cities...." or "We've had many threads what our members living in major cities can do to change their zoning regarding ownership of...."

Or, the people who appear via satellite on morning shows to comment on issues. ,You might not get many calls at first, but you never know.

Now, this is going to sound a little odd, but I just thought of it for my area this week. I want to start a website www.libackyardfowl.com, which could be a localized "chapter" of www.backyardchickens.com. In other words, the local site would cover local zoning, local suppliers, local classifieds and local issues, but, link to backyard chickens for the forum and the information you guys have already done so well. This way, people in a specific area have a sort of local "clubhouse", but are still a part of the international family that is backyard chickens dot com. It would be plainly labelled that the site is NOT formally affiliated with BYC, but the links to BYC certainly wouldn't hurt membership, nor would it hurt the search engine ranking. Likewise, if more people did sites for their areas, and BYC could link to those sites, it just might create some pretty strong synergy.

This might help create a stronger local fellowship for events like Chickenstock, etc. I also wanted to see about coming up with local "shows"...perhaps starting with fun shows and if demand permitted, building up to real shows.

Local businesses might be willing to pay for advertising on these smaller sites and you might even create a better network for local lobbying efforts.

There is no reason to do over the wonderful information done on this site, but it would be great for people to be able to go to a site that gives them the information they need to get localized information to help them get started or find answers.

Nancy

 

[Calebs Acre]

I forgot to add, write articles on chickens and the postive aspects and submit them to as many magazines as possible.

AND, on anything a member prints...business cards, care sheets, ads, etc. add a tag line,
"Proud member of www.backyardchickens.com"