Community is AUS’s public bulletin board that anyone can use, whether it’s for posting announcements or checking out what’s happening on campus. For those who use it for the former, here are 5 tips for making the most out of Community.
1. Use the formatting options: Since last semester, not only can you bold and italicize, but you can also set the size, color, whether or not to use bulleted or numbered lists, and so on. In fact, no other listserv submission form at McGill (that I am aware of) offers this many formatting options.
2. Say it in 30 characters: Only the first 30 characters of the title will appear on the Community home page. This means that the most important part of the title should go there.
3. Avoid overlap between title and organization name: If your organization is called Fabrikam and you are recruiting people, your title should not be “Fabrikam is recruiting!”, since your listing will appear like this on AUS Community:
Fabrikam is recruiting!
Fabrikam
This is quite redundant. Instead, use a title like “Programmers Wanted”, “Looking for Volunteers”, etc.
4. Timing is everything: You are allowed two activations. Remember to use your second one, as your listing gets bumped to the top when you do. And, you don’t have to wait until your first one expires before using the second. As well, you don’t have to activate your listing right after submitting it. In other words, you can submit your listing early, then activate at a more appropriate time. Lastly, don’t forget that the deadline for having your listing posted in the upcoming listserv is Thursday at 5 PM!
5. Categorize your listings correctly: In the past, there were a lot of listings categorized as opportunities, and not much else of others. This is likely the result of Opportunities being the default category (and people were just leaving it as-is). So, I have removed the default, and it seems that other categories are being used more and more. Note that if you are selling or offering something, post it under Happenings if you are doing it at an event, or under Announcements otherwise. Choosing the right category will make it easier for others to discover your listing.
You might be wondering, “I have a dozen of listservs and bulletins to post to, why should I care about promoting my posts on AUS Community?” The answer is simple: as AUS serves more McGill students any other faculty-based undergraduate society, it is definitely worthwhile to take advantage of what Community has to offer.
