Promoting your event – some ideas
Events of all types can be promoted using a combination of personal invites and
more general announcements, depending on what is appropriate for your individual
case. The following are meant as suggestions and may not be relevant for all
situations.
If you want to discuss your approach, contact Amy Ryall a.ryall@sheffield.ac.uk
29709

To ensure a good turn-out, invite as many people as possible. As a general
rule, you can invite at least twice as many people as you can accommodate.

Use a combination of personal invites, mail merge emails and more general
promotion via social media, what’s on pages and University announce
messages.
A note about personal invites
Inviting people individually, with an email that you’ve composed especially for
them, can be an effective way of encouraging them to come to your event. If you
have invested the time in writing to them personally, they are more likely to invest
their time in attending something, than if you include them in a generic invite. They
may also think that it’s something they should be interested in as you’ve targeted
them specifically for an invite, which can also play a role in encouraging them to
come. This may mean they see it as a privilege to be invited, rather that something
else to fill up their calendar. Obviously it’s not practical to invite a large number of
people in this way, but thinking about who you really want to attend and using this
method for those people can reward you with a higher attendance.

Invite people as a way of letting them know about your project, even if you
don’t think they’ll come.

Use the University Announce message system to promote to the Faculty or
University, staff and students. These messages can be filtered so you can send
to as many or few staff and students as you like.
https://www.shef.ac.uk/targetedannouncement/user/login.do

Social media is a good way of spreading the word – tag people/organisations
you think might be interested to encourage them to retweet/share
information

Contact the media team early to give them a chance to circulate press releases
(contact details below)
A note about press
The University press team work to specific guidelines as to what is considered to be
newsworthy, so it’s useful to contact them at an early stage in your project to
ascertain whether there is any potential for them to support you in gaining media
coverage, either for your project as a whole or for specific events. Media coverage is
not usually used to promote events, more to report on them so it might be that a
press release generates press interest to cover the story rather than help to promote
it. More details of the University’s media guidelines and how the Media Team can
help are here https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/news/media-toolkit

Use the What’s On, University diary and Faculty Calendar to register events
(see links below)

Invite those in the University Senior Management team (via their PAs, details
below) – even if they can’t come, it may register your project with them.

Posters are useful to put up around the University and beyond

Leaflets/postcards are reasonably cheap to produce

Distribution of leaflets, postcards and posters, both in and around the
University can be done by student ambassadors (pay at Grade 2.1, talk to your
Departmental office about contacting ambassadors)

Don’t underestimate the importance of refreshments. People may be more
encouraged to come if they see it as a pleasant social opportunity, rather than
a chore.

Consider the timing of your event. After work events at the University can
catch people on their way home who might not otherwise come.

An Eventbrite (www.eventbrite.co.uk) registration page can help to give you an
idea of numbers, which is particularly important if you’re providing
refreshments. It will also give you a weblink that you can use on social media
to give more details about the project and remind those that have registered
that the event is imminent.
A note about timing
Promoting your event is all about timing and building in sufficient time in your plans
to design and print posters, promote on social media, tell the University about your
event and send out invitations. Below is a general timeline for a medium-sized event
or launch which might help you think about how you structure activity. Obviously,
timescales do vary, but one of the most common mistakes with projects is to start
thinking about the promotion of events too late, resulting in poor attendance
because people just didn’t know about it in time.
Three months in advance

Decide on a date for your event/launch

Send out personal invites to any ‘important people with very busy diaries’
like the VC, PVCs and their external equivalents.

If you’re having printed material designed, start the ball rolling with this –
contact designers, talk to them about what you want, and agree a timescale
for content and printing.

Employ student ambassadors for later distribution dates
Two months in advance

Send further personal invites to those you haven’t already invited and to
Faculty networking lists and other external partners

Print any print material so that it’s ready to go when you need it.

Start to distribute print materials, posters etc

Start to talk about your event on social media

Send out a press release, either yourself, or contact the University press team
to help.

Employ student ambassadors to help on the day of the event (if you need
them, possibly to welcome guests, direct them to facilities, refreshments etc)
Six weeks in advance

Compose an announce message to the University and/or a Faculty email to
extend the invitation to colleagues. You should send announce messages
three working days before you want them to go out.

Continue to promote via social media, using your eventbrite/web page links to
highlight what it is that you’re doing and how to register to come.
Three weeks in advance

Redistribute posters and flyers to remind people that your event is coming up

Continue to promote via social media

If registered numbers are low, send an further announce message (don’t bill
it as a reminder as announce won’t usually accept messages that are
reminders of events that they’ve already send messages about)
One week in advance

Send ‘looking forward to seeing you next week’ reminder emails to those
you personally invited and have agreed to come.

Continue to promote on social media
On the day

Signpost your event well, from the outside of buildings as well as inside. This is
particularly important if you are expecting external guests who may not know
the university.

Send a final reminder Faculty email, particularly if your event is straight after
work hours. Emphasise that you don’t need to have registered to pop in.

Sort out student ambassador posts – welcoming guests and being ‘floating
helpers’ can free you up to talk to people about your project leaving them to
organise practicalities for people. They can also give out postcards for guests
to take away – a reminder of the project and any weblinks, ways to get
involved etc.
Useful contacts/links
Faculty external networking list,
Amy Ryall, External Engagement Projects Officer
contacts with other

organisations in the city, Arts
29709
a.ryall@sheffield.ac.uk
Enterprise social media, general
advice
Faculty calendar
Clare Mills, HRI Co-ordinator
c.e.mills@sheffield.ac.uk
29890
Promoting events to schools
Linda Billam, Schools Outreach Support Officer
l.billam@sheffield.ac.uk
29713
University social media
Andrew Twist, Social and Digital Media Coordinator
a.twist@sheffield.ac.uk
29853
Media team, help promoting
Hannah Postles, Media Relations Officer
your event via local and national h.postles@sheffield.ac.uk
media
21046
Advice for promoting events via
http://www.shef.ac.uk/corporateaffairs/socialmedia
social media
Submitting event information to
www.sheffield.ac.uk/whatson/submiteventinfo
the University What’s On
calendar (public)
Submitting event information to
www.sheffield.ac.uk/diaryofevents
the University diary (internal)
University announce system –
http://www.shef.ac.uk/cics/myannounce
for messages to the whole
University, staff and students.
Can also be tailored to more
specific groups
Keith Burnett, Vice Chancellor
Rachel Frith
r.l.frith@sheffield.ac.uk
Richard Jones, Pro-Vice-
Rita Saddler
Chancellor for Research and
r.n.saddler@sheffield.ac.uk
Innovation
Paul White, Pro-Vice-Chancellor
Nicola Quinn
for Learning and Teaching
n.quinn@sheffield.ac.uk
Nick Agarwal, Head of
Angela Harvey-Watson
Corporate Services
angela.watson@sheffield.ac.uk
Jackie Labbe, Pro-Vice-
Sue Hubbard
Chancellor, Faculty of Arts and
s.hubbard@sheffield.ac.uk
Humanities
Gill Valentine, Pro-Vice-
Gaynor Hague
Chancellor, Faculty of Social
g.hague@sheffield.ac.uk
Sciences
Some relevant Facebook pages/Twitter accounts (not exhaustive)
Arts Enterprise
https://www.facebook.com/artsenterprisesheffield
@Arts_Enterprise
University of Sheffield
https://www.facebook.com/theuniversityofsheffiel
d
Dept of History
@sheffielduni
https://www.facebook.com/HistorySheffield
School of English
@unishefhistory
https://www.facebook.com/UosSchoolOfEnglish
School of Languages and
https://www.facebook.com/LanguagesSheffield
@SheffEnglish
Cultures
Dept of Germanic Studies
@SheffGermanic
Dept of French
@FrenchSheffield
Dept of Philosophy
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Departmentof-Philosophy-University-ofSheffield/157219531002009?sk=timeline
Dept of Archaeology
https://www.facebook.com/groups/160564570652
323/
Biblical Studies
@UniShefReligion
Dept of Music
https://www.facebook.com/tuosmusic
@tuosmusic
University What’s On
@SheffUniWhatsOn
Sheffield What’s On
@whatsonsheffield
Off the Shelf festival
https://www.facebook.com/OffTheShelf
@otsfestival
Music in the Round festival
https://www.facebook.com/musicintheround
@MusicintheRound
Sheffield What’s On
@whatsonsheffield
Sensoria Festival (Music, Film
@SensoriaFest
and Digital)
Showroom Cinema
https://www.facebook.com/showroomcinema
@showroomcinema
Museums Sheffield
https://www.facebook.com/Museums.Sheffield
@MuseumSheffield
Our Favourite Places
https://www.facebook.com/ourfaveplaces
@faveplaces
Social Sheffield
@socialsheffield
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