ShareSigma Theta Tau International, The Honor Society of Nursing (STTI)
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Client: Indianapolis-based STTI is the only international nursing honor society in the world. Through a global community of nurses belonging to 469 chapters in 86 countries, STTI helps members improve people’s health worldwide using knowledge, scholarship and service. Bohlsen Group is STTI’s PR firm of record.
Challenge: For a yearlong celebration of gerontology, STTI planned to publish nine relevant articles by the world’s leading nurse researchers in its official publication, Journal of Nursing Scholarship. With so many simultaneous initiatives, STTI asked Bohlsen Group to find a way to help educate members about its gerontology offerings and encourage participation in the initiatives, while keeping the overall goal of increasing membership awareness in the forefront. 
Solution: At Bohlsen Group, we pride ourselves on being able to see the big picture. We knew we needed to find a way to make these meaty, academic articles appeal to the mainstream public and potential nurse members. Using industry leading software, an international media database, we created lists that focused on “all things gerontology” and the nine article topics of nearly 7,000 contacts, including print, broadcast, bloggers, freelance gerontological writers and syndicated columnists.
We kicked off “Celebrate Gerontology” month by releasing an interview opportunity with gerontology expert Mary Rita Hurley, RN, MPA, Ageing Initiatives director at STTI, to all 7,000 media contacts. We also helped STTI devise a strategy to coordinate our efforts with its internal social media outreach.
Next, Bohlsen Group developed a plan to release story idea tip sheets – written in layman terms from the nine academic articles for JNS – every five to six weeks to pertinent niche media.
Results: Hurley conducted several interviews, including for WSVA-AM (Harrisburg, Va.), Blog Talk Radio’s “VHL Program” and seniornews.net. STTI was invited to answer a Saturday Evening Post reader question. STTI also saw a higher volume of Twitter activity, including an increase in followers during the kick-off month.
From the three tip sheets pitched so far, we have generated requests and results from bloggers, syndicated columnists and senior newspapers throughout the world, as well as niche publications and organizations such as GRAND, EMSResponder, Diabetes Forecast, Health Monitor Network and Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing.