The vendor required to provide communications, public relations, and digital content support.
- Project management and coordination
• Participate in weekly coordination meetings with the director of communications (typically 1–2 hours per week) to review priorities, assignments, timelines, and approvals.
• Provide brief weekly status updates identifying completed work, work in progress, upcoming deadlines, and items requiring village input and approval.
• Coordinate with relevant village departments and staff to gather information, confirm facts, and align messaging.
- Podcast services (monthly content + post-production publication + promotion)
1. Pre-production: monthly content development
• Develop a monthly episode plan with the director of communications (topics, objectives, target audience, key messages).
• Prepare episode outlines and run-of-show documents, including segment structure and approximate timing.
• Draft scripts and talking points for hosts and village participants, including:
o Opening and closing language
o Segment transitions
o Interview questions and follow-ups
o Key message prompts and approved language for sensitive topics (as applicable)
• Prepare a monthly production timeline with milestones for topic selection, script approval, guest coordination, recording date, and internal review and approval.
• Create guest and participant briefing materials as requested.
2. Post-production: publication, hosting, distribution, and platform support
• Perform basic pre-release checks (file naming, format compatibility, titles, metadata consistency).
• Upload and publish episodes to the village’s podcast hosting platform, including episode titles, descriptions and show notes, tags and keywords, episode numbering, and scheduling.
• Manage and confirm distribution to major podcast platforms (as applicable) and troubleshoot posting and listing issues, including RSS feed issues, artwork and metadata problems, and platform-specific requirements.
• Maintain an episode archive log (release date, topic, links, and assets used) and coordinate updates and corrections if needed.
3. Post-production: promotion and advertising
• Draft and coordinate promotional materials for each episode, including:
o Website post copy (and homepage callouts as requested)
o Community e-blast copy and subject line options
o Social media captions (platform-appropriate variations)
o Suggested graphics, audiogram and video clip guidance (village may produce assets in-house or via vendor)
• Coordinate paid promotion and advertising when authorized by the village, including:
o Recommended audience targeting, budget ranges, flight dates
o Ad copy variations and creative specs
o Basic performance summaries (e.g., reach, clicks, engagement)
- Website support (design assistance + content review + copy writing)
• Provide website design assistance (as needed) in coordination with the village’s website platform and vendor, including review of layouts, page templates, navigation, and usability.
• Review content to be migrated and provide recommendations to update, consolidate, archive, or remove outdated content.
• Assist in reviewing and drafting content for the new website, ensuring clarity, consistency, accessibility, and alignment with village voice.
• Assist in creating a visual display and presentation of the new website for internal stakeholders and public rollout (e.g., screenshots, slide deck, “what’s new” overview, launch messaging).
- Public relations and media support (on-call)
• Provide on-call public relations services, including media strategy and guidance on messaging and public response.
• Prepare and review press releases and public statements, including key message documents and spokesperson talking points, as requested.
• Support response to media inquiries as directed by the village.
- Newsletter and community e-blasts
• Review the village’s monthly newsletter for clarity, structure, readability, consistency, and accuracy.
• Prepare and review community e-blasts, including subject line options, formatting recommendations, and clear calls-to-action.
• Help ensure consistency across the newsletter, e-blasts, website content, and podcast promotion (voice, terminology, and branding standards).
- Crisis communications and public emergency support (on-call)
• Provide on-call crisis public relations services during emergencies and time-sensitive events.
• Work with the director of communications and village staff to develop protocols during a public emergency, including roles, approvals, message templates, and coordination procedures.
• Assist the village with communications during a public emergency, including drafting urgent updates for web, email, social media, and media statements as requested.
• Assist the village with messaging during difficult local circumstances, ensuring communications are sensitive, accurate, and aligned with village leadership guidance.
- Contract Period/Term: 1 year
