Promoting Your Events

• Plan your event as far in advance as possible.
• Double-check for date conflicts with holidays, within the school and with larger university events.
• Consider costs and talk to Resource Management about your budget and rules around spending.
• Seek out venues early, but know that you cannot sign a contract yourself; RM can assist with obtaining procurement signatures.
• Borrow School of Social Work branded items, including tablecloths, photo backdrops and other materials so your event is appropriately branded.
• Consider backup plans for tech glitches or other issues that may arise.

• To secure your meeting and capture attendee information, we strongly recommend using the Zoom registration feature. Rather than promoting a Zoom meeting link, promote a registration link instead.
• Turn on closed captions or hire a live captioner or ASL translator
• Implement the waiting room
• Remind people to mute themselves
• Put the speaker on presentation mode
• Have multiple hosts
• Discuss setting up a webinar format with the school's IT team for events with 300 attendees or more

• Email
• Social media
• Digital signage (16:9 presentation size)
• UB events calendar and School of Social Work events calendar (see below)
• Branded flyers
• Word of mouth (announcements in class, meetings, etc.)

We can collaborate with you to help promote your event through some of the channels listed above. Please reach out to Sarah Watson or Matt Biddle at least six weeks before the event date or registration deadline.

As of fall 2023, the School of Social Work's events calendar is integrated with the UB events calendar system. Events posted here appear prominently on our homepage and other modules throughout the school's website, as well as on the university-wide calendar. 

After you've planned your event, your next step should be to post it here. Once you do, it’s easy to share your event on social media, email and more.

Please work with your office's designated calendar contributor(s) to create a calendar entry. Faculty members may email the Communications Office at ubssw-comm@buffalo.edu for support.

If you are interested in becoming a contributor to submit your own events, contact Matt Biddle at mrbiddle@buffalo.edu.

• Sign in: Sign in within the footer on the link above. Return to the footer and click "Manage" to open the Event Manager Dashboard.
• Create a new event: 
  • Go to "Create an Event" in the side panel.
  • Enter information in all applicable fields, following the template and best practices below.
  • Be sure to enter the School of Social Work's feed keyword (ssw) — otherwise, your event will not appear on our website. 
  • Save/publish your event: After completing and double-checking all applicable fields, click "Submit." If you have permission to publish your own events, your event will now be live. If you do not have publishing permissions, please let Matt Biddle know you have an event waiting to be published. (We review pending events weekly, so sending an email will ensure the fastest turnaround for time-sensitive needs.)
    
• Manage existing events: To update an existing event, navigate to the "Events List," search for your event and choose "Edit Event" under Actions. Make changes as needed, and follow the steps above to save or publish your event.
• Cancel or delete an event: Contact the Communications Team for assistance. 
  • Canceling an event leaves it in the calendar but adds “CANCELLED” to the event name. Only a unit administrator or a power contributor can cancel an event.
  • Deleting an event removes it from the calendar entirely.  Only a unit administrator can delete an event.

• Event Name: Use a concise, eye-catching title that clearly identifies the topic of your event. Generally, you do not need to use "School of Social Work" or specific office/program names in the title, except in cases that may be confusing for wider UB audiences ("Commencement" vs. "School of Social Work Commencement"; "PhD Information Session" vs. "PhD in Social Welfare Information Session").
• Summary: A short overview of the most important or enticing information. 
  • Note: The Summary field appears in lists, but not on the main event page, so you'll want to duplicate this information in the Full Description below.
• Full Description: Check "Add a Full Description" to include additional details about the topic, speaker, format, etc. Be sure to add your registration link here, with a call to action and hyperlink (highlight the link and click the link icon to create a live hyperlink).
  • Register now at [hyperlink]
  • Reserve your seat today: [hyperlink]
• Location & Time: 
  • Location: Choose your location by typing it in or selecting it from the drop-down menu. If it doesn't appear in the drop-down, choose "Add a Custom Location"; we also recommend referencing it again in the full event description above.
  • Date/Time: Select your date, and the interface will update to reveal a scheduler tool. Drag or expand the time block as needed.
    • Repeat Weekly: Allows you to schedule a event that recurs every week on specific day(s)
    • Multiple-Day Options: Once you choose one date and time, a "Multiple-Day Options" button will appear to the right. Choose the pencil icon to select multiple dates and schedule an entire series at once.
• Contact Information: Who should potential attendees contact for questions? Consider whether this should be an individual or an office/department.
• Categories & Feed Keywords
  • Category: Choose "Schools/School of Social Work" and any other topic-specific tags as appropriate (i.e. Sustainability, Personal and Professional Development, etc.).
  • Feed Keyword: Always select ssw for School of Social Work events — without doing so, your event will not appear on our website. Some feed keywords you may need:
    
    • ssw (all school events)
    • ssw-cont-ed (Office of Continuing Education)
    • inclusion-event (DEI-related event)
      
    • UB-in-the-community (events that facilitate interaction between UB and the broader WNY community)
    • UBgreen-event (sustainability-related event)
      
    • alumni-event (events open to alumni)
      
    • Another unit's feed keyword with permission for jointly hosted events
• Speaker Name and Affiliation: Optional field for applicable events.
• Cost: If the event is free, indicate that here.
• Audience: Users can narrow their search by audience, so be sure to select all applicable groups here.
• Campus and Event Format: Check all applicable fields.
• Pictures & Attachments: Attach an attractive photo or your event flyer for additional information. Tips for accessibility:
  • After you upload an image, click the 'T' to replace the file name with a public-facing label (ex: "Baird Point" instead of DJI_0760_1.jpg). This also serves as alternative text for individuals who use a screen reader.
  • Optimize all PDFs for accessibility before uploading them here.
  • Images or flyers should be supplemental marketing materials and should not be the only place where crucial information is contained. Instead, place those details in the appropriate fields above.