University of Texas at Austin — Marketing by Bridging Gaps

This is my first experience being involved in planning events on campus. So generally, “butts in seats” is not my concern. However, with several big events in the works, it’s high time I started making it my concern. My first event isn’t until September 22, so I began by employing some of the tips provided by Mr. Joe McMahon in his recent post.   In the past, the various entrepreneurship clubs across campus have been disjointed and insular.  We all have similar goals.  We all have a passion for entrepreneurship and spreading the message of “yes, you can — and we will help”.  What we don’t share is the same constituent base.  So I’m reaching out to the leadership of these groups, trying to make a super-network of the who’s who of  UT’s entrepreneurial minded crowd.  By connecting the connectors and leveraging each other’s networks, we can have a much more effective (and efficient) marketing outlet than the typical methods.

In an effort to start the trend, I offered to help market the weekly Technology Entrepreneurship Seminar Series hosted by the Chair of Free Enterprise that was kicked off yesterday.  I marketed that event to death.  Shout outs in class (I’m a sweaty palms public speaker), posts to my org’s facebook wall and page, tweets, word of mouth, and fliers.  And…success!  It was a full house.  There was actually a small crowd standing in the back.  Not bad for a Friday afternoon!  In a quick turn around of my paying it forward experiment, the host of the event invited me up to give a shout out for NCIIA and the upcoming Technology Entrepreneurship Society events.

Building the network, one link at a time.