When you effectively host and promote an event of interest to the campus community, everybody wins. Your attendees gain knowledge, connect or enjoy what you have to offer. You meet your event’s goals for success. And the SUNY Oswego community increasingly becomes a vital place to learn, join and thrive.
Getting people to your event involves effective promotion of what you have to offer. Submitting to the events calendar via Localist is a great first step. But how do you submit something that best captures the attention and interest of your target audience and makes them want to attend?
Just as journalists follow their 5 Ws and an H, these guidelines inform a successful submission. Some of these are required event fields, but others can move an event submission from a mere item on your checklist to something that informs and attracts an audience.
Think of how you can answer these questions:
- Who is presenting/speaking and who is organizing/sponsoring the event?
- What is the nature of the event/what should potential attendees expect?
- When will the event happen? (Note that for recurring/weekly events, you can submit once and add additional dates within one submission)
- Where will the event happen?
- Why should somebody attend? What will they get out of it? (Phrases like “Attendees will learn …” can set expectations and provide a concrete why.)
- How do I register and/or attend?
“A thing well begun,” Aristotle would say, “is half done.” Fractal analysis notwithstanding, first impressions are important. Is the name of your event interesting and/or accurate? In the span of several words, can somebody scanning the Events Calendar figure out what your event is about and why they might want to attend?
Effective events find a kind of Goldilocks zone -- not too much, and not too little. Too little information can underwhelm or leave unanswered questions in the reader’s mind; providing a reason not to go by not accurately describing your event’s why is a common pitfall. But too much information -- a veritable wall of text filled with puffery but little relevance -- is a turnoff for anybody who doesn’t have enough time (which is, well, all of us).
In other words, keep it concise but interesting. Think about what would make you want to attend -- what the reader would gain from attending. That is, after all, why you’re presenting it. But leave filler and extraneous exhortations in your head. Filling it with phrases like “We hope you can come” and “sign up today” just adds more bloat and states the obvious; nobody holds an event they don’t want people to come to. (We hope.)
Want to submit a virtual event but don’t have the Zoom info set yet? It’s better to submit it so that people can mark their calendars than wait. Just submit the details you have, select Virtual under the Experience toggle of the Location section. For the Dial-in Instructions box, simply put in “URL coming soon” and carry on.
Pay special attention to the visual that accompanies the submission as well, which should have square dimensions. Photos of speakers or showing a previous iteration of an event are ideal. Inserting an event flyer is less successful and can create visual load and more work for the reader. These can be inherently hard to read, and remember that many people access the calendar via mobile device, so this creates visual clutter. Moreover digital accessibility is important; you shouldn’t rely on a flyer that can’t be accessed by those who need screen readers. The text you use also supports Google searches, which is another way of supporting and promoting your event.
If you don’t have a visual coming into the submission, don’t worry! Many campus stock images exist under the Choose From Photo Library click box under the photo section. If nothing else, the system will add a stock photo for your event. But choosing a photo you have or in the choosable assets can add distinction to your event submission.
Before you hit that last button to submit the event, read your information one last time. Did you include everything somebody you want to attend absolutely has to know? Also, look for typos or missing words -- this happens to all of us, so a quick review won’t hurt.
And after you’ve submitted the event and have received notice of approval, promote your events other ways, such as email and social media. We all want your well-attended, stimulating and enjoyable events to succeed!
If you have additional content questions about submitting effective events, email Tim Nekritz, director of news and media, tim.nekritz@oswego.edu.