Clubs and societies – raising your profile

Introduction How to raise the profile of your student groups. Marketing – ideas and how the Students’ Union can help.

Raising your profile Don’t be shy to sing your praises – there are lots of new people. Good PR can help raise awareness and give people a positive impression. Go the extra mile – try to impress your members. Be fun and inventive. Be ready to tell people about your successes. We get just under 5,000 new students every year, lots of potential recruits. Try doing something for charity or a silly (but safe) stunt. Do things in public, demonstration, training sessions, let people come and try. Most people are intimidated to try, making them feel welcome is often the biggest hurdle.

Marketing tools Print – posters, flyers, cards. Keep it simple. Nothing better than talking. Subtv – JPEG 856x480px Student media Posters and flyers can have too much information. Students are poster blind most of the time. Need to have something that is eye-catching, memorable or ties in with something they want. Go out and speak to people – set aside an hour in somewhere public and give yourself a target of 20 people talked to. Don’t try to overwhelm them with facts and then walk away, try to make friends, have a nice chat and try to get them to see why it would be enjoyable for them. Provide us with the graphic above and we can put it on the screens for you. Can target morning, afternoon, evening and can do set dates.

Marketing tools Website – news, events and messages. Social media – Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. Website – take them through a demo of clubs and societies admin options, mentioning news and events and how they can be used. Messages, remember you can message those interested in the club or society. We can also give you measurement stats if needed. Social media – whatever you create, page or group, be responsive, answering queries quickly. Keep the content varied and regular, nothing worse than an empty social media page. Doesn’t always have to be strictly club or society based, post content or information which might amuse or interest members. Be careful what you post, hard to make people happy, very easy to annoy them and make them unlike you. Don’t be afraid to tweet at us, we will happily retweet or cross-promote.

Marketing guidelines We are here to help, not do it for you. Don’t let sponsors take over. Know the rules around sponsorship. Posters Keep it decent Use original branding We will give you information on anything you need. If you want design and print, we will be happy to sort it and help you get the best price, but nothing comes for free and you face the same costs as any other department in the Union. In specific cases we may offer investment from elsewhere if it is of benefit to the wider student body. All sponsorships should be signed by Student Activities. If you take it upon yourself to sign it, you are personally liable – lots of legal ramifications if it goes wrong and very little we can do to help. Don’t put posters on bare walls. Try to only use notice boards and poster frames where allowed. You are always welcome to go into any of the venues and ask if they could spare you poster positions. Don’t be vulgar – in most cases it just puts people off and doesn’t win you support. Don’t be racist, sexist, homophobic or offensive. The University has very sophisticated social media monitoring software, they don’t miss much! It could affect your future education, be careful! You must not damage the Union or University brand. Don’t stretch it, manipulate it, add to it, colour it or use it in a negative light. Same applies for the University. Especially don’t do it externally, we’re nice, they are not.

Contact Stoke: Mike Lowe – mike.lowe@staffs.ac.uk 01782 294730 Stafford: Karis Lonsdale – karis.lonsdale@staffs.ac.uk 01785 353494