| Effective publicity is essential to the success of any event or 
campaign. Since the power student groups have relies on people, getting 
the word out is one of the most important things you will do.  It 
requires a well-thought-out strategy and plan. Strategic Considerations
VISIBILITY
People should know about your event or campaign even if 
they're completely oblivious to everything else going on at your 
school.
SIMPLICITY
Keep your message short, understandable, and simple.  
People should get a  good idea of what you're doing with just a brief 
description.
LANGUAGE
Don't use jargon, slogans, or acronyms without defining 
them.  A complex issue can be explained in ways that even the most 
apathetic can understand. 
POSITIVITY
Progressive groups are often criticized for over-
emphasizing the negative.  In your publicity (as well as your activism 
in general), balance critique with positive alternatives.
CREATIVITY
Much publicity on campuses is dull, dull, dull.  Be 
creative!  One group put messages about their campaign in fortune 
cookies and handed them out.  Colorful, visual, irreverent, 
interactive, 3-dimensional, eye-catching publicity is more effective.  
But don't let creativity obscure your message.
REPETITION
People should hear or read about your event at least 
seven times.  No kidding.  After the first few times, people who 
might not otherwise come or participate will become interested.
REPUTATION
You do publicity both for your event and for your group in 
general.  There is nothing wrong or shameful about promoting your group 
by clearly listing your group's name, a contact person the time of your 
next meeting, how people can get involved, etc. Publicity Ideas
Personal Contact/Word of Mouth
Personal contact is one of the 
best (and cheapest) means of publicity.  Each of your members can bring 
at least a half dozen people.  Ask professors to announce events in 
class or to let you do so. 
Knowing the Regulations
Most schools have designated areas where 
you can post things and procedures for tabling.  Know the regulations 
and the penalties.  Some schools impose heavy fines for violations and 
may even rescind funding or official recognition.  If you post off-
campus, the local community's laws apply.  This is not to say that you 
must always accept such rules.  If the rules are so draconian that they 
infringe on your freedom of speech you may want to start a campaign  to 
challenge them.  If you are challenging your school's administration, 
you may find yourself the target of politically-motivated selective 
enforcement of such rules.
Poster Design
Keep it short, simple, loud, and eye-catching. Make 
your main message BIG-- people should be able to see it from 20 feet 
away.  Make the rest of your text SHORT-- people should be able to read 
it in one minute.  Keep it visually consistent-- more than one font or 
more than two colors is distracting.  Don't make it too CROWDED--  by 
filling every space on the page.  In fact, leaving blank space calls 
attention to the text.  Pictures and graphics can really add to a poster 
if they are clear and powerful. Don't forget to clearly lay out the 
time, date, and place of the event.
Where and when to poster
High-traffic areas such as dining 
halls, campus centers, etc. are good places.  You will be competing for 
space and attention with every other group on campus.  Don't limit your 
posting to one area of campus or just high traffic areas.  There are 
many good spots to poster where you have a "captive audience" which has 
nothing to do but read your poster.  Bathroom stalls, cafeteria lines, 
and bus stops are a few such places.  On most campuses, bulletin boards 
are cleared of posters regularly.  Put your posters up in remote areas 
several weeks in advance.  Re-poster high-traffic areas several times 
leading up to the event, with a final blitz a day or two before.  (see 
"How to do Leaflet..." in the Bibliography).
Leafletting
Leafletting a busy intersection, mail room or dining 
hall gets information to a large number of people.   Leaflets are good 
for publicizing an immediate and urgent event, like an emergency rally, 
and for distributing info to passersby at demonstrations, or actions.  
One person can distribute several hundred leaflets in an hour.  You will 
need quite a few and should probably make them 1/2,Ê1/3 or 1/4-pageÊsize 
to save money and paper.  In the leaflet itself, ask people to pass it 
on to someone else or post it. Have more than one person leafletting at 
once.  Be ready for rejections, as many people will ignore you, and even 
make snide remarks.
Newspapers
You can put ads in your school newspaper, but the price 
is usually high, and such ads are usually not as effective as posters.   
There are other ways to use your school newspaper for publicity.  Many 
school papers sell much cheaper classified ads.  Many also have 
calendars of what's going on around campus, which list events for free 
or cheaply.  Letters to the editor and even guest editorials are a good 
way to publicize, if you don't make it a completely apparent self-
promotion.  One group ran classified ads that pretended to be a dialogue 
between two lovelorn people flirting with each other.  Everyone read and 
followed the saga.  Some school papers are so starved for news that they 
will even do an article about your upcoming event.  
Radio
Many radio stations, especially college stations, run free 
public service announcements.  Send them an event  notice or find out 
how  to do a PSA tape yourself.  Encourage DJs to play them during their 
shows.
Phone Trees
When you want to mobilize your supporters, a phone 
tree is an extremely useful and efficient tool.  You can start a phone 
tree committee by passing out a sign-up sheet at a general meeting.  
From this list, elect a phone tree coordinator (usually an officer or a 
steering committee member, because they will most likely be aware of 
what is going on) who is in responsible for triggering the phone tree.  
The phone tree coordinator organizes the information to be disseminated, 
then calls phone tree committee members, who each have a \list of people 
to call with information about the next meeting or event.  For meetings, 
you only notify members of your group; for large public events, you 
could assign each core member to notify 5-10 additional supporters to 
turn out a really large crowd. The phone tree coordinator should be sure 
to check with committee members to see if they made their calls, and be 
prepared to take up the slack.
Chalking
Chalking on the sidewalks is as visible as spray painting, 
and it washes right off.  Groups have used chalked body outlines to 
publicize human rights abuses or oppose military action.  Chalking 
doesn't require any paper and the words can be as big as you like.  
Rules differ from campus to campus on whether chalking is allowed.  
Campus police may harass you if they see you in the act. Try to keep 
your chalking on the ground, as it doesn't wash off as readily on walls 
and the chalk can cause damage if it stays on a long time. 
"Midnight Redecorating"
Midnight redecorating is a term for 
activities done late at night because they may prove unpopular with some 
authorities, such as spray-painting, rubber stamps, Cow chalk (semi 
permanent) or wheat pasting posters.  Spray-painting can be done with 
heavy poster board cut stencils of a slogan or graphic, or it can be 
done freehand.  Stickers placed on phone booths, elevator ceilings, 
water fountains, stairwells, and "University Property" decals are 
difficult to remove.  Note:  we do not advocate indoor wheat-pasting, 
which can seriously damage your group's reputation; outdoor wheatpasting 
is far lest destructive, but still may put you at risk of arrest.
To make stickers, you can purchase 100 sheets of 8 1/2 x 11" sticker 
paper for about $20.  Then, using a heavy-duty copy machine and paper 
cutter, you can make stickers -- usually 3 or 4 per page.
To make wheat paste, mix: wallpaper glue + flour + water; apply with 
a paint brush or wallpaper brush.
To make "spray glue," mix: 1/3 parts Elmers glue + 2/3 parts water in 
a plant spray bottle; apply with rubber gloves.Information Tables
Most campuses designate an area where student organizations can set 
up tables to distribute literature and recruit members. Many activists 
think that tabling is a boring ritual consisting of a stack of 
literature on a table with a person sitting behind it doing homework or 
staring into space. Nothing could be further from the truth. Tabling 
must be active and dynamic in order to yield results.
[Tabling tips adapted from Committee In Solidarity with the People of El 
Salvador Campus Organizing Guide.]Table when you have something for people to do, and not just for 
the sake of tabling.  At the activities midway, it's O.K. to just ask 
for new members, but the rest of the time, try to get people to do 
something specific like sign a petition, buy a ticket for a 
fundraiser, write a letter, or sign up to work on a specific campaign.  
Always be sure to have a sign-up sheet available (see Sustaining your 
Membership and Support Base) to build membership.
Keep a schedule of who is to table, and have a tabling coordinator 
reconfirm them the night before!  Make sure people know where to pick 
up the tabling box in the morning, and where to drop it off (a secure 
place if you collect money) in the afternoon. 
Try to table where there will be a large concentration of people.  
Dining halls near meal time, Student Unions or Centers, and films and 
events attract a lot of people in a short time.
Its best to have two or more people tabling together, preferably 
pairing less experienced people with veteran activists.  Have one of 
them work the flow of people and draw people to other activists 
sitting at the table.
Training is invaluable. Write and distribute sample raps and practice 
with role plays. This gives people confidence and prepares them to 
deal with tough situations.
Display a banner with your organization's name to develop 
recognition, a sign and flyers advertising your next meeting and 
upcoming events.
If you are collecting letters, be prepared with paper, pens, 
envelopes, a box for donations to help with mailing costs. Depending 
on your focus, have a list of US and state legislators or of 
appropriate university trustees and administrators (check with a 
librarian). Collect letters there to ensure that they get written and 
sent.
Be friendly and make eye contact.  Entice passersby by asking a 
brief question to involve the person a dialogue, such as "Do you want 
to help stop ROTC discrimination?"
Know when to call it quits. Don't get caught up with a reactionary or 
someone who just wants to talk. Give them literature, set a future 
meeting, invite them to an event, but don't waste your time while 
other potential activists pass you by.
Clipboards are your friends. They allow you to get out from behind 
the table and ask people to sign up to do something, whether it be 
making a phone call, going to a rally, or joining your campus 
coalition.
Having a VCR and a TV showing an appropriate documentary (at low 
volume!) at your table is a good way to attract people. 
Giving away pins or stickers is a terrific way to build visibility 
and boost morale. 
Do not limit tabling to campus. Tabling in the community will: put 
you in touch with a wide range of people & views, and expose peoplein 
the community to ideas they won't normally hear in the mainstream 
media. By meeting progressive people and activists who might attend 
some of your meetings and events, you build essential links between 
your campus and the community. 
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