So, you’ve had club events in the past, and they didn’t work out. You had the music and the food and the fun activities planned--but nobody showed up. And what good is an event if there isn’t anyone there to enjoy it? So you want to know what to do in the future to make people show up to your awesome events. You know you can’t force them, but you want to know what will draw them. Well, never fear. I have helped multiple clubs organize their events, and I know the secrets…
1. Make it worth credit
If there’s one thing that college students will do (almost) anything for, it’s extra credit. While you can’t force professors to offer regular or extra credit to students who show up to your event, you can point out to them how your club event relates to the subject of their class (if it is quasi-academic), and suggest that they “encourage” students to go. If they don’t catch your drift, you can be a little more explicit. The worst thing they can do is say no, and even if they do, they’ll usually still be willing to encourage their students to go.
2. Post about it INCESSANTLY
Facebook groups are the usual way for college students and groups to communicate these days, which can be great. Everything is in one place. The only problem with college Facebook groups is that EVERYONE posts on them, so posts fall from the top of the feed quickly. So you have to keep posting about your event. Post about it as soon as you know the date, two weeks before, one week before, three days before, one day before, the day of, and the hour of. And enlist other club members to like, share and comment! That will keep your posts alive.
3. Formally invite every Facebook friend (who could go)
Pro tip: When you create an event on Facebook, there’s an “Invite” button in the lower right-hand corner. Click on it, then click “Invite Friends.” Scroll down until you see your Facebook groups in the banner on the left side of the pop-up, then click whichever group contains the friends who could go, and click “Select All” at the top and then “Done” at the bottom. That way each one of them will see a personal invitation, so they can’t not find out about it.
4. Branch out beyond Facebook
Again, Facebook groups are great. But even with your best efforts, it’s hard to keep your posts at the top of the feed, so don’t be afraid to use other platforms. Tweet about it! Post your flyer on Instagram! Talk to people you know in person and encourage them to go! You can even--gasp!--print out paper flyers and post them on dorm walls. So old-fashioned, I know, but paper flyers don’t disappear under a mountain of other posts.
5. Make your advertisements enticing
Advertise the event as something people will want to go to. What will be fun about it? What will they get out of it? If it’s a new experience, perhaps of a new culture, play up that angle. If it’s a party, play up that angle. If they will learn cool stuff, play up that angle. If it’s a de-stressor, play up that angle. But whatever it is, don’t say everything. Leave at least one cool thing as a surprise, so that people will have to show up to find out what it is. For my last club event, I promised my friends the secret to unlimited free food if they showed up, and it worked. Speaking of which…
6. Offer free food
The one college student incentive even more foolproof than extra credit is free food, because let’s face it: even at its best, dining hall food isn’t the food college students crave. If your event is large, you can do a meal, ideally related to what the event is about (like the Middle Eastern food that the Muslim Students’ Association served for their Eid al-Adha party). If no such food exists, serve something like Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets, which never fail. If you’re doing a smaller event, you can just give everybody a few Chick-fil-A nuggets, or you can serve donuts from the nearest donut shop. They’re not a full-fledged meal, but they’re better than chips and cookies.
In any event, no matter what or how much you do, people are going to decide to show up or not. So when they do, thank them for coming--and for letting you know what works to draw a larger crowd! The more people there are, the merrier the event. And don’t we all want merry college club events?
