Hello and Happy Holidays! 

Welcome to GMT's monthly e-newsletter for December 2009. We send this e-newsletter on the first Monday of every month to share feature announcements, membership tips, links to recent articles from environmental reporters, new members, and other helpful resources.

You are receiving this as your organization is a member of Green Media Toolshed and you are currently a registered GMT user. Should you wish to opt out of this monthly communication, please see the instructions in section 8 below.

Word Count: 1,433
Read Time: 6 minutes

In this issue you will find:
1. Member Connections
2. Be in the Know – How GMT Tools Can Help Your Group
3. Buzz from the Beat
4. Link(s) of the Month
5. Community Coverage
6. GMT Welcomes 2 New Members
7. Support: Database Do’s and Don’ts
8. Opt out instructions

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1. Member Connections: New Advanced Training on List Building and Distributions; Instant Chat with GMT Support; Meet GMT at True Spin Conference

GMT is holding a new advanced training on media list building and distributions on December 16th. The training will introduce features and strategies for building effective media lists that we don’t have time to cover in the intro GMT & Media Database Trainings. It will also cover best practices for distributing your press release so it has the best chance at reaching the outlet or contact without being stopped by SPAM filters.

Participants will take away knowledge of targeted list structures, the various features available in the media database for efficiently searching and pulling results, as well as a good knowledge of best practices for distributing their news.

Completions of the intro GMT & Media Database training is advised as a pre-requisite for this session.

Hosted by Nina Schwartz
Wednesday December 16, 2009
1:00 p.m. Eastern / 10:00 a.m. Pacific

Registration details are available in the Events Center

For questions or help registering, feel free to contact Nina directly at (202) 659- 7710 x10 or nina@greenmediatoolshed.org.

And don’t forget… that your GMT Support Team is now available for any urgent or quick support questions via Skype:

Connect with both Nina and Michelle on Skype through these addresses:
Reach Michelle at: kohn.michelle
Reach Nina at: Nina.m.schwartz

If you don’t have a Skype account, you can create one and download the free software at http://www.skype.com/.

Join Green Media Toolshed at the True Spin Conference on progressive communications in Denver this January. Our Director, Marty Kearns, will be a speaker and Membership Coordinator, Nina Schwartz will be attending. We hope to have the opportunity to meet you, so please let us know if you will be there.

And don’t forget that you can receive a 10% registration discount as a GMT Member. View the details for getting this discount at http://members.greenmediatoolshed.org/node/23547.

Green Media Toolshed will close for the holidays on Thursday December 24th at 2:00 p.m. Eastern and will reopen on Monday January 4th, 2010.

Nina Schwartz will away during the week of January 4th through January 8th, and will return on Monday January 11th. Please be in touch with her in the next few weeks regarding any membership questions or support needs that need to be addressed before the new year.

There will be no January newsletter but please expect to hear from us in the new year.

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2. Be in the Know - How GMT Tools Can Help Your Group: Newly Released Twitter Guide and Press Room Audit

GMT has recently released two new guides that will help you build your skills with online tools.

The Step by Step Twitter Guide provides you with an overview of Twitter and other tools that will improve your ability to send tweets and reach your target audience on Twitter. The Guide and a complete introduction is available in our Training Center.

We also released the Press Room Audit, which provides members with results from our entire member press room assessment, as well as a sense of how your organization can improve your online presence through your online press room. The Audit was a result of an intensive review of member websites to get a sense of just how many members were using their websites effectively to build relationships with reporters.

The summary and full report are available in the Training Center

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3. Buzz from the Beat: Resources and Reporters for Copenhagen Coverage

Many of our members are either at or closely monitoring the news at the world climate talks in Copenhagen. For those of you in both positions, the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) provides a nice list of government and NGO websites that are covering the climate talks or offering resources on the news and diplomacy beneficial to cover them. SEJ offers a combination of both sources from Copenhagen and others who are covering the debate overseas.

SEJ’s list of resources can be found at http://www.sej.org/library/climate-change/copenhagen-countdown

This is a good resource for a variety of governmental and non-governmental news updates as well as reporters who are covering the events.

One of these reporters is Douglas Fischer, the Daily Climate Editor at The Daily Climate. Check out his four-part special report on the “Consequences of Copenhagen,” which addresses the importance of the meeting from an environmental, technological, and economical perspective.

Fischer’s special report is available at http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2009/11/stakes#

We also encourage you to share your own dialogue about Copenhagen in the GMT Discussion Forum

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4. Link of the month: 11 Steps to Media Relations Planning Success

For those of you looking to improve your communications plans but feel daunted by the process, take a look at these 11 suggested steps from nonprofit marketing expert, Nancy Schwartz. She breaks the planning process down into realistic chunks and offers some helpful tips for getting started -- and finishing.

Her 11 suggested steps are available on her Getting Attention blog

Nancy offers much other advice on other marketing and communications challenges for nonprofits. If you find these 11 steps helpful, we encourage you to also view Nancy's other and past newsletters at http://www.GettingAttention.org

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4. Newsroom Notes section: New Editor at South Carolina Wildlife, regional magazine on outdoors and wildlife

For those of you working on wildlife issues on the East Coast, you may want to consider pitching new managing editor David Lucas at South Carolina Wildlife magazine.

Lucas has become the managing editor of South Carolina Wildlife early this month. The magazine covers outdoors and wildlife conservation issues for the region of South Carolina. Published by the state’s Department of Natural Resources, the magazine reaches an audience of about 60,000 every other month.

Lucas replaced former editor Caroline Foster. You can pitch Lucas at:

David Lucas
South Carolina Wildlife
lucasd(at)dnr.sc.gov
www.scwildlife.com

Get more information on this new magazine as well as more media updates at Vocus' Daily Media Moves blog

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6. Let’s Welcome 2 New Members to our GMT Community

We are pleased to welcome back The Russel Wright Design Center. The Center preserves and protects the home, studio and Woodland Garden of the pioneer designer Russel Wright at Manitoga as a learning laboratory about the importance of living in harmony with nature and the value of good design in everything and for everyone. They offer opportunities for the public and professionals to experience and learn about Wright's philosophy, design ideas, life work and legacy as resources for improving and enhancing their own lives and communities.

The Sustainable World Coalition (SWC) also joins us this December for a new membership term. SWC is a coalition of individuals and supporting organizations who work toward a world that is environmentally sustainable, socially just and spiritually fulfilling. They produce events and educational materials to promote action that restores and maintains the health of the planet and the well-being of humanity.

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7. Media Database Q & A: New Resources in Support Center for Targeted List Building

Do you need some help building and revising your media lists? As many questions on this topic have been reaching the GMT Support Team, we created some new materials that will help you remove duplicates, pass through SPAM filters, best manage your media lists, and more.

These documents are all located in the Support Center, and here are the direct links below:

Remove Duplicate Contacts from your List 

Avoid Getting Flagged as SPAM

Better Manage your Media Lists

Tips to Create a more Targeted Media List

Create Tiered Lists based on Coverage
 

For questions on these materials, please contact Nina directly at (202) 659- 7710 x10 or nina@greenmediatoolshed.org.

View past e-newsletters in our monthly e-newsletter archive section of the GMT Training Center.