Three Easy Ways to Make Your Events More Visible

Clemson uses Localist as its centralized calendar system and the web team uses the calendar to dynamically pull event information to websites across academic departments, various units, and locations.There are three easy ways to make sure your events are more visible to your various audiences.

• Use Localist for every event, every time.
• Add an image to your event listing.
• Tag your event properly.

Use Localist for every event, every time.

Calendar feeds have replaced manually adding events to pages. If you don’t add your event to Localist, you’re missing the opportunity to promote it through various webpages across Clemson websites. It’s as simple as that.

Add an image to your event listing

You can upload an image to your event listing and the image you choose is prominently displayed on the calendar and in most of our event feeds. If you skip this step, a tiger paw is added to your event by default.A calendar feed full of tiger paws will not help a site visitor easily differentiate between event offerings. Try your best to add a relevant photo and refrain from using screenshots of event flyers, as this will be hard-to-read and inaccessible.

Tag your event properly

The real power of Localist is the ability to tag events, or what Localist refers to as filters.

Filters include Event Type, Target Audience, Department, and Center/Institute. You can use any combination of filters, but here are a few tips to make sure your events are getting the widest distribution.

• Look through the filters to become familiar with all of the options. CAFLS, Extension and PSA have a lot of options available to them. For example, Cooperative Extension and the South Carolina Botanical Garden are both Event Types. If you have an Extension event at the SCBG, select both. Workshops or Conference/Forum/Symposium might be applicable too.
• You can select multiple options for Target Audience as well. The PSA/CAFLS web team isn’t currently using these options to pull events to pages, but users can filter by these options on the main calendar site. Again, if you want your events to be seen by as many people as possible, don’t skip this step.
• The Department filter has the most options and this is really where you get the bang for your buck. Select as many relevant Departments as possible. For example, an Extension program could include all of the following:
  1. Cooperative Extension Service
  2. Edisto Research and Education Center
  3. Horticulture
  4. Statewide∗

This particular event would be pulled to the overall Extension calendar, the Edisto REC calendar, the Horticulture program team calendar and to all 46 county office pages through the usage of the Statewide tag. Had relevant CAFLS academic departments been tagged, the event would have fed onto their calendars as well.Taking the time to properly tag your events will ensure that they appear across as many webpages as possible.

∗ The Statewide filter should only be used for truly statewide events, for example a 4-H program that is open to all 4-Hers in every county, a field day where growers from all regions may attend or a virtual program that is offered to all regardless of geography.

A detailed tutorial is available to learn how to add events. If you need additional assistance, please contact the PSA/CAFLS web team.