How to Market GBSN Opportunities to Students
As GBSN Ambassadors, University Deans, and Administrators, it can be challenging to market opportunities to students since most of the time, work is not directly related to everyday undergraduate and graduate student life. That is why GBSN is providing its community with tips and tools for marketing opportunities to students.
GBSN understands how busy the network is, especially our ambassadors, which is why we’ve created this simple guideline of tools to hopefully inspire its members to consider other methods for sharing GBSN opportunities with their university students.
Directly Sending Opportunities to Students
- At most universities, there are clubs and organizations that have certain interests in the competitions and opportunities that GBSN provides
- For example, student entrepreneurship clubs at African universities would be interested in the Africa Business Concept Challenge, which is an entrepreneurship-based competition
- By emailing the coordinator of these clubs and directing them to disseminate GBSN programs as they see fit, immediately provides students with the information
- Student unions and student council associations are also beneficial targets for sharing information
Utilizing Career Services
- A lot of times, GBSN is promoting partnerships that provide certificate and badging opportunities that could be useful for students in improving their resumes and CVs. In these instances, the university career service is a fantastic method for sharing information
- For example, GBSN was offering a humanitarian logistics certificate in conjunction with the HUMLOG institute at Hanken School of Economics. A few career counselors reached out asking to share this with their students, as they were discussing non-work experience methods for bulking a resume
Utilizing Admissions Offices
- Admission offices, and sometimes career services on campus, often share scholarship information with students. Though the majority of GBSN scholarship programs are related to competitions, within the network, there have been partnerships seeking specific students to apply for different scholarships.
- More times than not, the admissions offices are enthusiastic about sharing these opportunities with students
Marketing Across Campus
- GBSN understands that sometimes marketing across campus can be challenging, however, we recommend a few easy tricks for getting the word across campus:
- For all of the programs, GBSN creates one page fliers with either QR codes or links that can be shared with students. Therefore, it is easy to print off fliers and ask a graduate assistant, student intern, or volunteer to hang them around campuses
- These aforementioned fliers are also PDFs and can be easily inserted into digital slideshows across campus. In some instances, there are sliding virtual announcement boards, where the flier can be shared
- Most universities share a newsletter, which is another easy method for inputting information about GBSN programs
Marketing Within the Classroom
- One of the most effective ways to share relevant opportunities with students is with professors in the classroom. GBSN understands that lecturers and professors are exceptionally busy, however, if they have time to share the word about a relevant competition or program to students, most of the times the students will listen and consider the opportunity
- For example, if a supply chain professor shares with the class the GBSN Social Logistics Challenge, then because the material is relevant, more students are likely to apply