Over 101 Ways of Publicizing and Promoting CLLs, Laughter Programs, and World Laughter Day As Certified Laughter Leaders we are always looking for ways to effectively promote our services. Here is a list of ideas that may be helpful before, during and after World Laughter Day (the first Sunday in May), and all year long, any time that you want to increase understanding about your services and your profession. 1. Wear your WLT Happy World pin on your clothing or name badge 2. List your professional credential on your letterhead, business card, name badge, desk or door sign. 3. Put your CLL certificate in a frame and put it up in your office (or somewhere visible in your facility) 4. While you are at it, put your WLT Laughter CLUB certificate in a frame and put it right next to your CLL. 5. Host a World Laughter Day event at your facility, workplace, local school, or in your neighborhood. 6. Send your boss a letter for World Laughter Day (and feel free to include some great WLT marketing materials like the full-color brochure and video brochure.) 7. Write a news release about your program 8. Create a flier or brochure about the services in your department, or that you offer in the community. 9. Sign everything with CLL 10. Create an eye catching bulletin board with laughter therapy info. 11. Offer to write an article(s) for your facility newsletter about laughter therapy 12. Make table tents to celebrate World Laughter Day and put them on every table in the cafeteria or in the staff lounge. 13. Share CLL success stories about your clients (this would make a great topic for those articles you ve volunteered to write). 14. Do patient satisfaction surveys (and since they will be great, make sure to 1
share the results with your supervisor). 15. Send notes or cards to other facility staff during their special week (i.e. National nursing week, PT week, OT week, Social work, etc.). 16. Invite your unit nurse or Doctor, and resident s family and friends to some of your CLL programs. 17.Track Outcomes them share this info! 18. Send thank you notes for referrals. 19. Give out small bottles of bubbles with stickers that read Putting the fun back into functional. 20. Call the local newspaper editor to pitch a story idea about laughter therapy. 21. Meet with your facility Marketing person to share resources and ideas. 22. Submit Laughter Website Award nominations and other recognition awards through WLT. 23. Host a workshop at your facility or workplace. 24. Have CLL business cards made (if you can t get them from you work order some cheap at www.vistaprint.com). 25. Write a letter to your legislator about laughter therapy. 26. Volunteer to give an in-service to your facility or workplace about laughter therapy, the benefits of laughter and humor, etc. 27. Post WLT s Code of Ethics in your department, at your sessions, on your website, etc. 28. Write a letter to the editor about what you do and how important it is. 29. Call in to a local talk-radio show to explain about laughter therapy 30. Include information about laughter therapy in your annual holiday letter to family and friends. 31. Be sure to list Certified Laughter Leader or Laughter Therapist on your income tax returns, and anywhere else that asks you to list your profession. 32. Wear your CLL or WLT T-Shirt or denim shirt (and if you don t have them, order a wardrobe of them online). 33. Ask your state s Governor to make a proclamation for World Laughter Day. 34. Be a mentor for a student or new professional. 35. Offer to speak about laughter therapy at a High School Career day. 36. Offer to be a guest speaker at a University CLL course near you. 37. Put in a call for paper to present at a future WLT Advanced Workshops. 2
38. Put in a call for paper to present at a future AATH and ISHA conferences. 39. Make up some Benefits of laughter & humor coloring books. 40. Host a fun outing (miniature golf, carnival) for clients, staff, co-workers. 41. Write a cost benefit analysis for your program and give it to your supervisor or administrator. 42. Do some pro-bono work. Volunteer for some great community programs that need your help. 43. Lobby your local library to acquire resource materials from WLT. 44. Encourage everyone you know who has an interest in laughter to subscribe to World Laughter NEWS. Is it FREE and is only sent electronically. (subscribe@worldlaughtertour.com) 45. Volunteer to speak at a local Lions or Rotary Club about laughter therapy 46. Make Laughter therapy posters and put them up around your facility. 47. Use the Laughter Club Meeting announcement posters. Have them enlarged. Laminate them so you can use dry-erase markers to change the dates. 48. Distribute the A Laughter Club Member Lives Here and the A Laughter Club Member Works Here signs everywhere it is appropriate. This also helps build commitment to your programs. 49. Ask your facility to use a message about your laughter therapy programs, instead or elevator music, for callers who are put on hold. 50. Send an e-mail to all your friends announcing World Laughter Day, and explain what you do, invite them to your event. 51. Call a local TV station and invite them to come to one of your programs (you will definitely want to clear this on with your boss first). 52. Send your boss a thank you letter when you return from a conference or workshop, and explain all of the great things you learned. 53. Start a scrapbook about your program and find a visible place to keep it, like the lobby of your facility or reception area. 54. During your next physical, take a minute to tell your own doctor about what you do (or tell your children s doctor if you haven t had a physical in awhile). 55. Leave a message about laughter therapy on your answering machine. 56. Write a letter to the producers of ER or any other of your favorite medical TV shows and ask them to include a laughter therapist in their show. 57. Contact your health insurance company and ask if you are covered for laughter therapy services. If they say you are not, ask why. 3
58. Contact your local PTA and offer to speak about laughter therapy. 59. Co-treat when possible with other staff, or collaborate with HR, wellness programs, etc., to help them better understand laughter therapy. 60. If you work in a skilled nursing facility learn the documentation vocabulary and then document-- that laughter therapy is helping achieve and maintain standards of care. 61. Join a local coalition for healthcare issues and get involved 62. Make a contribution to the Laughter Arts & Science Foundation at www.laughterfoundation.org. 63. Organize a team of local CLLs for a local charity run or race in your community (and this works even better if you win!). 64. Write laughter messages in sidewalk chalk around your facility. 65. Get personalized license plates that say CLL or LAUGH or whatever you can come up with. 66. Use your laughing keychain on your desk at work (and if you didn t get one, there may still be some available, check the WLT website for details). 67. Get a laughter therapy tattoo. only kidding, that is a bit extreme, but you can always wear our temporary tattoos. 68. Bake a cake to celebrate World Laughter Day with all your co-workers and your clients. 69. Post the latest edition of the World Laughter NEWS in your office. 70. Write clear, measurable laughter therapy treatment goals for all of your clients. 71. Send your referring physicians a copy of your laughter therapy discharge summary to let him/her know what you have achieved with their patient. 72. Have a contest at your facility or workplace to see who can be the first person to correctly guess what the initials CLL really stand for. 73. If you are creative, write a song or a poem for World Laughter Day. 74. Host an art exhibit of your clients and club members art (with their permission, of course). 75. Surf the Internet for related websites, and when you notice one that should include laughter therapy but doesn t, send them and e-mail and offer them some info about laughter therapy. 76. Participate in WLT s Annual Advanced Workshop. 77. Get involved in doing some efficacy research for laughter therapy. 4
78. Put a WLT screen saver on your computer. 79. If you don t already have one, get a sign for above your desk or office door that says laughter therapy. 80. Use your WLT lanyard for your nametag at work. 81. Distribute or post protocols for the groups you do. 82. Hand out laughter prescriptions. 83. Give away special promotional items (stickers, tattoos, balloons, fans-oflaughter, laughing critters, information sheets, etc.) to your facility staff and coworkers for World Laughter Day. 84. Have a laughter/humor resource scavenger hunt at your facility. 85. Gather some CLL promotional materials, one of the things I really like to use is the FAQ full-color brochure. They are only $15.00 for 50, and it is a great summary of the positive benefits of laughter therapy & laughter clubs. Give copies to your Doctor or Program director (or both!). 86. Host an open house at your program 87. Offer a free Power of Laugher seminar for the public. 88. Develop a quiz or crossword puzzle about laughter therapy and give prizes at the end of the week for the best entries. 89. Have a laughter therapy Professional or laughter therapy Student honored for each day of the week by his/her colleagues. Publicize who is named and then have a small luncheon for all the winners to celebrate 90. Plan a balloon arch for the facility entrance or for the cafeteria entrance to hold a banner announcing World Laughter Day. 91. Have all employees in your department wear the same color shirts, or produce shirts promoting laughter, your laughter club, World laughter Day. 92. Purchase several bunches of flowers and distribute to patients and/or coworkers in honor of World Laughter Day. Let them all know that a CLL cared about them. 93. Organize a picnic, potluck dinner, softball game, volley ball, etc. for CLLs in your area around the time of World Laughter Day. 94. Have the facility/workplace/institution s President/CEO invite a group of CLLs to lunch or breakfast as an opportunity to talk with him/her about laughter therapy contributions/challenges in the facility/workplace/institution. 95. Invite a select group of local high school students to shadow you when you do your CLL thing, to gain firsthand experience and knowledge. 5
96. Invite high school guidance counselors to a luncheon with CLLs to discuss the importance of taking laughter to school. 97. Offer to mentor or assist a school student in preparing a project about laughter/humor for a class assignment or science fair project. 98. Invite all laughter therapy staff to a coffee/donut reception in the morning or to a coke/cookie reception in the afternoon to say thanks for their contributions 99. Invite allied health faculty from local college/university to the institution to meet the local CLLs or 100. College/university faculty could invite CLLs to campus to meet the faculty, speak to classes. 101. Contact other professional organizations with which you interact, and ask that your WLD news release be included in their organization s newsletter, and/or that they celebrate by planning a laughter event. 102. Contact your employer s human resource department and ask them to distribute the information in paycheck envelopes or in your employer s newsletter or publication. 103. Contact local radio and/or TV stations and arrange to send information to the program manager or director. Ask if they will announce the celebration of World Laughter Day several times during the week. Offer to be interviewed on a spotlight program. 105. Keep your CLL certification current, so you can keep your membership active in the CLL newsgroup, so you can... 106. Receive e-mail from the CLL newsgroup, get the latest news & information, and access all the archived information stored there for you. 107. Consult the files in the CLL newsgroup specially set up to guide you through the World Laughter Day process, getting a proclamations, etc. 108. The most important way to promote your program is to have great skills, great values, a great cheerful attitude, and great programs that really help people achieve their goals. 6