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PRSA IPA BLOG GETS NEW HOME!

NewHomeGraphic

It’s been a couple of years since anyone blogged here and there’s a good reason for that!  The IPA Blog of PRSA’s Independent Practitioner’s Alliance has a new home on a brand new site launched in 2018 by PRSA national.  If you’re not a member, after you read about all the cool benefits you’ll want to be!  The PRSA Independent Practitioner’s Alliance section has enjoyed a growth rate of 44% over the past 2 years and that’s due to the efforts of our tireless executive committee volunteers who continue to bring important and timely information to our members that help us grow and thrive!  Let me just touch upon some of the benefits here and encourage you to join us!

The Independent Practitioners Alliance (IPA) Section is made up of more than 280 small business owners and freelance public relations and communication practitioners across the U.S.  The Section, and the Executive Committee members made up of indies like you, help its members grow their businesses by providing relevant and current professional development programming, PR business best practices, and a boatload of other cool benefits like networking, webinars, our annual virtual conference, in-person events, promotion, and a new and active online community!  You can read past blog posts here to get a flavor of our programming, but let’s review the cool stuff you get with a PRSA IPA membership!

Monthly Webinars:1260GRAPHIC

The cornerstone of our section benefits is our monthly 12/60 teleseminars that take place once a month and are recorded in case you missed it or weren’t a member at the time.  They offer a wealth of guidance and information.  Some of our most well attended include “How much am I worth?” Dennis Spring’s sessions on PR salaries and billing rates, Defining Your Brand Strategy/Value Proposition, and Filling Your Client Pipeline without Short-Changing Current Clients’ Needs, and the ever popular, “So you think you want to be an Indie?”   All of these and more are accessible in our recording library.

New Online forum:

This new online forum allows members to post questions, contribute answers, post opportunities and we are finding new ways for new business development and collaboration all the time with this new benefit!  Members love it!

Template Library:

It’s always easier to have a head start, and that’s what the IPA template library is all about. The templates are located in an IPA Library segmented by Agreements, Client Communications and Strategy & Tactics (i.e. useful program management stuff.)  Templates are fully customizable with your personal preferences, logo and branding and many members find them invaluable.  So far we have 9 templates and the list is always growing.

  1. 6-month Press Release Pipeline Planning Template (Excel)
  2. Client Engagement letter of Agreement (Word)
  3. Editorial Calendar (Excel)
  4. Independent Contractor Agreement (Word)
  5. Subcontractor Agreement with Project Scope (Word)
  6. Invoice Backup/time & expenses (Excel)
  7. Proposal Template-1 (Basic) (Word)
  8. Proposal Template-2 (PR Proposal w/ Pricing Menu) (Word)
  9. Story Telling Balance Sheet (Word) New Templates added to Website

Webinars & Special Events:

Several times a year IPA members gather for special events either online – like the virtual conferences we established in 2017, or in-person events both regional via collaboration with chapters and their local indies and at the national PRSA conference.  This is a great source of new business development and a growing priority for development at the IPA EC board level.

Find-a-Firm:

IPA is increasingly focused on how we can assist with collaboration and new business development for our members.  PRSA has re-launched the Find-a-Firm database with the new site which is available outside of the PRSA paywall so your firm can be found.  PRSA IPA is continuing to strategize on how we can promote this via what we do best – PR.

Come join us!  We help each build each other up and we have fun doing it!  To become a member of the IPA Section you must be a member of PRSA and pay an additional fee of $60. Not ready to take the plunge with your checkbook yet?  You can still get to know us through our social channels and we invite you to learn more about us here:

Twitter

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Gina Milani

Past IPA Chair 2015, Member PRSA since 2000, and IPA member since 2010


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