I got this e-mail from a frustrated Student Affairs Coordinator in Florida:
“How do you keep from feeling as though NOTHING IS WORKING, when you follow all the steps and STILL staff and faculty AND STUDENTS do not participate and even go so far as to say (1) “No one told me,” or (2) “I never read those e-mails anyway.”?
When I responded to her frustration, she said…
“It is not only MY frustration. Even SGA has frustration with the events they plan and the fact that, especially, faculty and staff do not attend. Or, if they do come they just grab the free food and leave.”
She was responding to a newsletter where I shared “10 FREE promotional strategies to make your campus event a success…”
- Send a memo to professors, asking them to announce the event before their class.
- You have mail. Send out a campus wide email, announcing your event and details.
- Contact the leaders in the student government and the leaders of campus programming, clubs and organizations. Ask them to pass the information along their members.
- Write an article to be inserted in the school newspaper. Ask for the feature to run a few days in advance for optimal results.
- Launch a white board brigade. Have a group of volunteers write the details on every class’ white boards, listing the event, the time, location and details.
- Tune into the campus radio station by asking them to conduct an interview with the speaker. Most speakers are happy to do a brief telephone interview.
- Think majors. Contact all related majors (and speech teachers). Letting them know a topic in relation their area of study is being discussed.
- Mark the date by adding your event to the campus website calendar.
- Invite high school students to your event. It’s a great way to reach out to the community, while getting prospective students on campus.
- Text message your event details to a dedicated phone list.
I encouraged her to really ‘road test’ these tips, see if things improve and give me some feedback. I’m hoping she’ll jump in, confess it was she who tossed out the desperate plea for help, and let us know what’s working and what’s not.
I talk with student leaders, campus activities planners and student affairs coordinators across the country, and I’ve already added a few more to the list. Please comment and add yours.
- Screen Savers. Have it installed on the library computers, in the computer labs, or anywhere else there are computers used by students, faculty or staff. Send it to your committee and your friends for their personal computers.
- Campus TV. Hey, we mentioned campus radio but left out the TV monitors all over campus. Post a bulletin, get interviewed, host a show, run a PSA or make it news. Just get on the air!
- They gotta go! EVERYBODY goes in there eventually so why not advertise your event on the back of bathroom stalls doors and right at eye-level for the guys. Talk about a captive audience!
PEACE.
Rick
Please give it some consideration if any of these topic areas fit your future student activities planning.
- Academic Enrichment & Study Skills
- Career and Job Fair Programs
- Diversity, Black History, Women
- Finances and Money Matters
- Graduation & Commencement
- Orientation & First Year Experience
- Sexual Assault Awareness Programs
- Student Leadership Programs
- Professional Development Courses for Educators
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About Rick: Rick Sherrell is liaison, representative and friend for the professional campus speakers and trainers at ProSpeakersBureau.com. In his entrepreneurial life he has been a writer, editor, speaker, trainer, marketer, coach, consultant, event planner, broadcaster, fundraiser and innovator. |
I have shared the list with SGA, all clubs/organizations on campus, and the Career Center. The only thing not tried — yet — is the back of the doors in the bathrooms! We are still experiencing the “no one told me” response. . .I am less inclined to be civil when that response comes at me but hope springs eternal that students will realize that what we are telling them IS FOR THEIR OWN BENEFIT. I have taken to putting “IMPORTANT MESSAGE. . .READ THIS!” in my subject lines, as well as highlighting things in RED!
Often times the VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE isn’t as important as people think so we don’t read. My subject line would read: FREE FOOD . . . .
If food is what draws them, use it to your advantage. However,don’t put the food out first, put it out last. Obviously, you want to offer something to drink,(coffee, etc). That would give you an opportunity to interview folks AFTER the event and discuss what they actually learned from the program. People often come thinking their voice won’t be heard anyway, so this will help them to understand what they have to say of value. If all else, fails, then use the backs of the bathroom stalls. (:-)
As an Accelerative Learning Instructor I realize that part of the problem is Information Overload!
Teachers and students already have too much to read, not enough time and poor learning strategies to take in what is required of them. And yet another thing competing for their attention typically goes ignored. The suggestions that are listed in the article and I find that the ones that have most effectively served me in working with colleges that I’ve served are…
#1 – Contact the Professors. Once they have buy in, they can offer extra incentives such as extra credit for attendance of the event. I’ve even had professors bring an entire class to my Study Skills sessions with excellent results.
#3 Contact Leaders – for me this was student organizational leaders and once they get excited, the interest and turn out increases as a result of their viral marketing to their peers through social networking.
#7 – Think Majors – for my area of expertise I’ve targeted reading English and communications departments, those studying pre-law and librarians with great success. I articulated the benefits to them for attending my whole brain study sessions and their support with getting the word directly to the students made a big difference!
#9 – Invite High School Students – this one works with the College Prep Department that recruits students for college enrollment. I’ve even been booked to present at high schools that feed those particular colleges to get them prepared for the college experience. And the college paid for it! Many colleges have summer “college prep programs” designed just for high school students and there is a continuous demand and turn over.
#10 – Text Messaging to announce the event. This is an amazing phenomena and it works.
My own suggestion – I always get to the campus extra early to set up and I take a couple of hours to hang out on campus and make friends with the students and invite them to my sessions personally. It also keeps me connected with their experiences and challenges. A little personal contact and a lot of enthusiasm has filled plenty of my sessions as a result of showing up with a smile and making new friends on the fly. In the end, nothing beats the human touch and a friendly face to make the connection. With the many media competing for everyone’s attention, it’s important to remember that we are always our own best advocates!
Smiles,
Millicent
Another great FREE idea is to put the details of your event on the student activities, student government and/or club voicemail. Anyone who’s calling in gets the up-to-date info even though you don’t answer. Just make sure that if three are any last minute changes, someone changes the voicemail!