A community newsletter may be a good idea, but it won’t be worth much if people are least bothered about it, not showing any interest or not reading it at all. You are putting in a lot of efforts, and all of them seem to be simply going down the drain. What to do then? How to make people take an interest in it?
Well to begin with, people will read your community newsletter if it has something interesting to offer, it is lively and vibrant. Most importantly, it contains content that they might find some relevance to them. You can ask the local people and the town committee to pour in some ideas. It should be good if a person remains at its line of thoughts, you need to gather information. There is no way on earth that information will come running to you. If you plan just to sit back, making no efforts at all, you might as well just pack everything up.
There are many people who are not open; they will not give away information quite easily. To put their thoughts down on a piece of paper, you will have to make some efforts on your own and talk to them, ask them questions, start off an interesting discussion with them. Gather all that you get from them and turn the information or discussion into an article. But before you publish this content, make sure that this runs through their eyes at least once to ensure all you’ve put there is what they said or had in mind.
There is much other community news out there; you can get heaps of inspiration from them. We also can put our request for the copy of their newsletter and when the time comes, you can always return the favor. Check out their pattern, the stories they cover, the demography that is mainly targeted. Gather as many ideas as you can from other community newsletters to make yours interesting. Don’t follow the same pattern as theirs, but at least you will know which direction to head.
Gathering information is not an easy job. You need to be well organized; you need to plan out everything. People need to be well informed about when you need information from them so they don’t miss out on that date. That time will have to come when you need chase them, you will have to remind constantly them that you need information before time. You need to accept all this chasing as a part of your job.
The articles that you produce should be interesting to read, should be short and precise, and all the information clearly stated in them. Your news should contain information about your group; when the next meeting will take place and where, informing your local community members what you have been doing for others, sensational and inspiring stories about committee members and the likes. Make sure you add the activities going around in your community and all those of the other groups. It should also have local news, information, tips and advice. If you have the space, it should have a section for the young ones too.
There are plenty of ideas to add to your newsletter. Just make sure all that you do add is interesting and reach out to every person in the community from young to old.