Top 10 Ways to Publicize an Event on a College Campus

On every college campus, there are numerous student organizations that put on events and try and get as many people as possible to their events. Very often the biggest problem that students and student organizations have is that they have a lack of advertising or marketing for their event. Here are ten great ways to get people to your event.

#1: Facebook Event: Almost every college student has a facebook account and checks it either everyday or at least once a week. Setting up a facebook event is easy and requires little effort. The best way of doing this is to set up the event and then invite all of your friends to the event. Tell everyone involved in the organization to invite all of their friends as well. Then tell your friends to invite all of their friends. Simply put, invite as many people as possible to your event through facebook. Also click on the share feature on the event homepage so that is constantly appears on your friends' News Feeds as reminders about the event.

2. Student List serves: every school has a school list serve that posts school announcements and events which students should receive daily. Email the administrator of the school list serve about your event and ask them to put your event onto the list serve. By doing this, you can send your event message to every student in the school. The only problem with this is that many students don't read the school announcement email and simply delete it. However, since this form of publicity is free, there really is no downside to it.

3. Fliers: Create eye catching fliers and post them everywhere throughout your school. Make sure you read your school's code on conduct containing information about posting policies. Usually you can post fliers on bulletin boards and student announcement sections. Make sure that you post fliers at least twice a week because sometimes your flier will get covered up by other fliers.

4. Posters: You can go to any copy center such as Kinkos and have them blow up your flier. Then post the poster throughout the campus in areas that you are allowed to according to the school. Hang posters and fliers high so that students will see them.

5. Emails: You can email school departments such as the English department or math department telling them about your event if it is education related. Then ask them to post the announcement about the event onto their department list serves for students.

6. Handout sheets: You can create what is commonly called quarter sheets which involve putting 4 of your fliers onto 1 single page by decreasing the size of the flier. Then you can cut out the fliers and hand them out to people walking by. Print a few hundred of these quarter sheets to give out and have members of your organization stand in a central location to give them out to students passing by.

7. Tabling: You can usually reserve a table from your school to put near a food area or dining hall. As students walk by, they can come up to your table and find out information about your organization and event that you are planning.

8. Word of mouth: This involves telling all your friends about your event and spreading the word. Word of mouth about exciting campus events is the best way of getting the word out about your event and it is absolutely free.

9. School newspaper ad or story: Send an email to your school newspaper telling them about your event. Give them quotes and information about the event and sometimes on a slow news day, a reporter might want to interview your organization about the event to write an article about it in the school newspaper. You can also email the school newspaper a flier of your event for them to place an advertisement in the newspaper about your event. Make sure you look into ad rates carefully though and make sure it is within your budget.

10. Student mailboxes: Using the quarter sheet handouts I described previously, contact the mail services on your campus and ask them when they put mail in student mailboxes. Arrange to meet with someone at that time and put these handouts in as many student mailboxes as possible.

Chalking blackboards is another idea but it is not allowed in some schools. This idea involves getting into a classroom with a blackboard early in the morning before the first class starts and writing the announcement on the blackboard. Usually teachers don't use the blackboard so your announcement will stay up in the classroom all day. This technique is really great for lecture classrooms with 100 or more students.