It’s lunchtime, and you’re craving some Chick-Fil-A or Panda Express. “Great,” you think, “I’m right near the HUB!” As you enter the Pollock Road doors, however, you immediately regret your decision. Students armed with little pieces of paper swarm you as you fight your way towards the stairs and attempt to avoid their pleading smiles and enthusiastic greetings. Minutes later, you reach into your pocket to pay for lunch and have to fight through their papers once again to get to your wallet. Those papers will not make it out of the HUB, and will end up thrown away (hopefully recycled!) with your Chick-Fil-A sandwich wrapper.

If you’re like me, you’ve just about had it with this overabundance of flyers. For a few hours every day, the HUB transforms into a gauntlet of promotions. You simply cannot pass through the building without being bombarded by eager students trying to get you interested in their organization’s latest activity by shoving a piece of paper in your face. I know, because I’m one of them. Yes, I’m part of the very problem that I’m trying to solve.

The organization for which I pass out flyers makes anywhere from 500 to 1,000 leaflets for each event we promote. That’s a lot of paper, especially when you have no idea whether the strategy of flyering is actually effective. I try to take flyers I’m offered at the HUB, if for no other reason than to make the person offering it feel good, but I can honestly say that the vast majority of those flyers end up in the recycling bin.

Instead of killing trees and spending hours harassing other students in the HUB, let’s focus on some other promotional strategies for your organization or event. A few thoughts:

• Facebook events are the new flyers. They’re easy to create and easy for attendees to access and reference. Plus, you know exactly how many invites you extended, and you have at least a rough idea of how many attendees to expect.

• Create and maintain a hashtag on Twitter. When you tweet about the event, use the hashtag, and encourage others to do the same.

• Well-placed posters or flyers, especially in classrooms or by elevators, will draw attention. The same goes for the A-frame signs that can be found in the HUB.

• Stall Stories and The Toilet Paper…what else are you gonna do in there?