Forums can engage with parent carers, raise awareness of their activities and purpose, and foster a supportive and inclusive community for all members using media.
A media channel is any platform or way of communicating where you can share information. The range of media has increased from traditional methods such as television, radio, newspapers, and information shared by post. It now includes digital media including websites, social media marketing, podcasts, webinars and live-streaming.
Media channels
Parent carer forums can effectively use the media to engage with parent carers and promote their activities and purpose through various channels. Below we list some of the methods forums may want to use.
Social Media Platforms
Forums can use popular social media platforms such as Facebook, X, Instagram, and LinkedIn to connect with parent carers and share information about forum activities, events, and resources.
Regularly post updates, relevant articles, success stories, and inspirational content to keep followers engaged and informed. Try to plan forum social media content and posts. Aiming for 1-2 posts a day can increase the amount of interaction the forum page gets. Many platforms have built-in features to allow you to schedule posts.
Website and Blog
Forums can maintain a user-friendly website that serves as a central hub for information about the forum, its mission, current priorities, training, meetings, and upcoming events. Publish blog posts, articles, and testimonials from parent carers to provide valuable insights and perspectives, and encourage interaction and engagement.
Email Newsletters
Forums can send out regular email newsletters to members and subscribers to keep them updated on forum activities, upcoming consultations, surveys, events or training, and relevant news and resources. Personalise the content to cater to the interests and needs of different parts of the parent carer community.
Press Releases and Media Outreach
Forums may want to develop press releases to announce significant forum initiatives, updates, achievements and impact, or training and events. Distribute them to local media outlets, community newspapers, and relevant online platforms. Develop relationships with journalists and seek opportunities for media coverage and interviews to raise awareness of forum activities and issues.
Collaborate with Influencers and Partners
Forums may want to consider partnering with local influencers, bloggers, and organisations that share similar interests and audiences to amplify the forum’s message and reach a wider audience. Collaborate on joint media campaigns, events, or content initiatives to promote each other’s networks and resources.
Visual Content and Multimedia
Forums can create engaging visual content such as infographics, videos, and podcasts to convey forum messages and stories in a compelling and accessible format. Use multimedia platforms like YouTube, TikTok, or podcasting platforms to share stories, interviews, and educational content relevant to parent carers.
Community Engagement Events
Forums often host community engagement events, workshops, or webinars on topics of interest to parent carers. They can use media channels to promote and publicise these events. You may want to encourage participation and interaction through live streaming, Q&A sessions, and interactive polls such as Mentimeter.
Feedback and Testimonials
Forums want to encourage members to share their feedback, anecdotes, and success stories about their experiences with the forum, and its impact on their lives. Feature these in media materials, social media posts, and website content to showcase the forum’s effectiveness and value to the parent carer community.
Using media channels can be time-consuming for forums, especially when using a new platform you are not use to. Forums may want to reach out to their parent carer community to see if anyone has knowledge and skills in this area.
Lots of media platforms have built-in analytics to help forums monitor the effectiveness. By making use of these tools, forums can decide what is the most effective media for them.
Media requests
Parent carer forums work in a space of co-production and partnership. Sometimes this can be a hard, for example when cuts to services are planned. Forums may be asked for comment by media outlets and each forum will have to consider how they manage this.
Forums may want to develop a process for managing media requests and have an agreement on who can speak on behalf of the forum to media outlets. It would be good practice if a forum is going to be making a public statement that the content is agreed by the steering group in advance.
Forums will need to respond carefully to ensure the right balance of challenge while not being overly critical of partners, other groups or individuals. Forums will want to ensure they have evidence to support the statement they make (see collecting parent carer voice). Remember, once a forum has made a statement, it can be referred to by various sources. Forums may want to take a cautious approach, especially if this is something new to the forum.
When asked to make a statement or publicly respond on contentious issues, you may want to get some comms advice or speak to your Contact adviser.
- Intelligent relations: Creating a great non-profit press release
- Charity Comms website: media resources
- Zurich: How to write a charity press release
Do you have any thoughts about this page? Visit our How to feedback page to share them.
Looking for something else? You can find a full list of pages on our Parent carer forum handbook contents page.
Support and resources for forums
Participation and co-production
The purpose of parent carer forums is to work in partnership, collaboration, or co-production with local services.
Read more
Contact Parent Carer Participation Advisers
Parent Carer Participation Adviser's support the forum and provide a sounding board for the forum leadership. Find your forum's named adviser here.
Read more Social Media
Social media can be a powerful tool that forums can use to reach parent carers.
Read moreHelpful videos
Using the media to reach more parent carers and amplify your forum's message
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Using technology to support forum activity
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Presenting your forum
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