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Below are some best practices for promoting your events on the university-wide Vignette calendar system:
- Include as many details as you can when inputting items into the calendar. For instance, instead of just writing "Comic Vic Henley will perform," tell us why we should be interested. Keep it brief, but at the same time be as specific and as detailed as possible. Here is a good example taken from a recent entry onto the Ball State calendar:
"In the mood for some great humor? Then be sure to see Vic Henley on slate tonight in the Student Center Tally. Using his Southern, good ole' boy persona to charm the audience, Vic Henley will share insights on relationships, sports, and more, while keeping the audience laughing out loud. Be sure to see one of the country's fastest rising comedians live at Ball State."
- By default, all calendar items are shared with the university-wide calendar. However, there may be times when you have an item that is not open to the public (such as a committee meeting or an invitation-only event). If you would like this event on your own department or office Web site, make sure to check the "Do not include on university calendar" option at the end of the entry screen for events. That way it will show up on your own calendar, but not get mixed in with the university-wide calendar. In addition, if you choose the event type "department event" then by default the item is NOT shared with the university-wide calendar.
- Make your headlines interesting and specific. Instead of writing, "Top political analyst will speak," try something more specific to help readers decide from the headline if they are interested. For instance, "Impact of Bush's victory discussed by top political analyst."
- Don't forget to carefully proofread your entry. Or, better yet, have someone else proofread it for you. Use the workflow provided in Vignette for doing this. A grammatical or factual error in your entry reflects on your department or organization, and if it is a factual error like an incorrect time or location, your audience might not arrive.
- Don't forget to share your calendar items with other calendars of other university units. For instance, if you are entering a calendar item for an academic department, chances are the college-level site may want that item for its calendar as well. If you are not sure, contact the web editor for that university unit. There is an up-to-date list of web editors kept at http://web.bsu.edu/ur/weblist.htm.
- If you have a photo of a speaker, performer or whatever, upload that into your event article. Photos help improve a reader's interest in an event. To learn how to prepare photos for the Web, consider taking one of the Adobe Photoshop courses taught by Technology Training Support Services.
- Make sure to include related links. For instance, many speakers or performers often have Web sites of their own. Please, feel free to add those links in the "Related Links" section of the calendar and events entry form. This can help people gather more information as they decide whether to attend. You can also add links to related articles or pages in your own site. In fact, it is not a bad idea to include a link back to your own department from calendar listings. This is helpful if people access your calendar listing from the university-wide calendar, instead of the calendar from your own Web site.
- Make sure to fill in all the applicable fields that you can. For instance, sometimes people indicate the date of the event, but forget to fill out the form to include the beginning and ending time. Especially make sure to indicate if there is a cost to attend an event. If this input box is left empty, the cost of the event will default to "free."
- Make sure to choose the appropriate event type for your event. Is your event a meeting, reception, or lecture? There are 30 event types to choose from. Remember though, if you choose the type "department event" then your item by default will not be shared with the university-wide calendar.
- Don't use the abbreviation "BSU." Instead use "Ball State." There is nothing technically or grammatically incorrect about using BSU, but some people looking at the site are not from Ball State and the abbreviated BSU may not be instantly recognizable to someone off campus.
- Make sure to include a contact name and information when you enter your item. Make sure to include the area code with phone numbers because someone outside our area may not know it.
- If you have a reoccurring event, that is an event that happens regularly either daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly, you can use the "Event Reoccurrence" area to post it on the calendar without entering it over and over. For instance, if your area has a meeting at a specific time and date each month (like 4 p.m. on the fourth Thursday), this feature can help.
- If your event will be broadcast on television or radio, there is an entry area to include that information. Make sure to include complete information about the station or channel. For instance, "X event will air on WIPB-TV, Channel 49 (Channel 2 on the Muncie-area Comcast system) and on WCRD, FM 91.3.
