Client

American Board For Certification Of Teacher Excellence

Situation

It is my first week at my first job out of undergrad. I am Public Relations Specialist for a small nonprofit that works to recruit and certify public school teachers. Each year we put out a call for principals in states where we operate to nominate one of our teachers for our Teacher of the Year award. That year we select a chemistry teacher from South Carolina named Michelle Gilmer. My boss comes to me and says, “Hey Aaron, this Teacher of the Year thing is happening again. So – you know – promote this.” I say, “You go it, boss.”

Actions

I look up what was done for the campaign last year. I see one of the first steps is to write a press release. I go to write the press release – my first ever press release – and I start thinking, there’s a problem here. No reporter is going to care about a teacher that nobody’s heard of getting an award from an organization that nobody’s heard of. What I need is legitimacy.

I email Michelle Gilmer’s senators, who are Jim DeMint and Lindsay Graham. I say, “Hi, I am from the American Board For Certification Of Teacher Excellence. We are honoring one of your constituents with our Teacher of the Year award because we think she is the best teacher in the entire country. We would really appreciate a public statement of support and congratulations.”

Within 24 hours, I see Jim DeMint has released a public statement really singing the praises of Michelle Gilmer and our organization. I mean they really made this thing sound like it was the Nobel Prize for public school teachers. I think to myself, wow, okay. That worked better than expected.

Lindsay Graham’s people got the South Carolina state capital to host an award ceremony for Michelle, and they got the superintendent of education to personally present her with our award. I did not ask for any of that. They just did that on their own and said, “You’re welcome.”

Result

Eventually, I figure out that they are doing these things because it is benefiting them politically, which is fine with me. Now not only do I have a public statement of support from a US senator; I also have an event, at the state capital, featuring the superintendent of education. Now I can write a press release.

I write the press release and send it to South Carolina news outlets using Meltwater. By the next day, I see the story has been picked up all over the state. My inbox is full of interview requests. Local TV news crews are showing up to Michelle’s school to do her profile story. The campaign is successful beyond anyone’s expectations. Michelle ended up being just one of several people I helped make a regional celebrity during my time there.