OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
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We all play a role in creating awareness and visibility for the college.
Below are some helpful guidelines and ideas to get you started.
When in doubt, complete a project request form. This ensures we have all the information we need to create and deliver the best product possible quickly and efficiently.
OSU News & Communications does not write or send news releases for events.
To submit an event, go to the Gazette-Time’s form and create a free account; confirm your account and set up a password. On the submissions page, create your event and fill in all relevant details.
The only exception is if we’re bringing in a nationally recognized speaker and/or the topic is of current interest and part of a larger, national conversation.
Please also let the marketing team know of any events you’re hosting so that we can promote them via social media, CPHHS Tracker and Synergies and support you with any appropriate materials. Please also continue to submit events of potential interest to the OSU community to OSU Today. Events will be compiled and sent to appropriate outlets each week.
To select an event category, start typing a keyword that matches your event – for example, “Art” – and choose the specific category that best fits. There are a LOT of categories; most events will likely fall under the main headings of “Classes/Courses,” “Arts” and “Exhibitions.” From those, you can select more specific categories like “Talks & Lectures,” “Meetings” and “Performing Arts.” You can click “+ Add Another Category” if your event falls into multiple arenas.
There is a box to check if this is a Virtual Event. It will still require you to enter a city – “Corvallis, OR” for most things.
Use the calendar drop-down to select a date for the event, and fill in the start and end times in “9:00 AM / 05:00 PM format.” **You must enter an “End Time.”**
For in-person events, there is an option to enter “Door time” and “last entry time” if needed.
You can also add up to five images in .jpeg format.
For the Event Summary, keep it brief: You’re limited to 200 characters (less than a tweet) so keep it to what the event is, what college or school is hosting it, and what attendees will learn/gain from it.
For the Event Description, you have up to 5,000 characters, which is about a page and a half, but we’d recommend still keeping it succinct ~200-250 words, or about 1,000-1,500 characters. The easier it is for people to pick up on the essentials, the more likely they are to read the whole thing!
You can also add tags to your event though it's unclear what benefit this has.
To finish out the form, it’s important that you include accurate, up-to-date contact information and the event website.
When you add your event URL, you need to select a “Type” for the link you’re entering – this can be “Virtual,” which would be a Zoom link, or “Website,” which would probably work for most other things. You can also link to a Facebook page, a YouTube video, etc.
This information displays prominently as part of the calendar entry, so make sure you’re not putting someone’s personal email here as contact unless they’re OK with it. There is a box for a phone number but it’s not required.
For an in-person event with a physical address, you can see how the location automatically displays in Google Maps.
Once you’ve entered all your information and click “Next Step” to review and ensure it’s correct, you’ll hit “Continue” at the top of the page and it will take you to the page where you choose your payment option. We are going with FREE, so click that option on the right.
If you are completely done and know that your information is correct, click the green “Stay Free, Upgrade Later.” This submits your event, so don’t click it if you’re not really done!
It will take you to a page where you can opt to “Promote Via Email,” with a pre-made email, if you want to spend money on it. Better yet, contact your MarComm team and request a free, branded graphic.
You will receive an “Event Report” email. It may take a while for the event to get into the system, so you might need to refresh the Event Calendar page for it to pop up.
When you log in to the event dashboard you can also access several metrics for gauging the success of your event promotion. (These should pop up for you on your first visit to the dashboard, giving you a quick tour of the features.)
If you have a technical issue with the calendar, the GT contact is Jane Stoltz.
Request a consulting session by submitting a project request. We’ll help you figure out how best to achieve your goals.