Jahlil White Lead Student Design and Sales Manager
When I started working on the Panhellenic Order for ETSU, I didn’t know what to expect. Not only was it my first big order for a group of sororities, but it was also my first time working with any sorority. It took me a while (and some help from my amazing director Broc that encouraged me to push this order) to fully get it all under control. That being said, by the end of the summer I created merch and stickers that were so well received they ordered shirts for all the sororities. Here’s how I did it.
Building Customer Relationships
When I first started working on the Panhellenic Order I was very nervous. I had no idea what to do or how to get anything done. Luckily, a lot of the ladies suggested to their council for me to make the order so it made it less stressful. Once they contacted me they gave me a few ideas to work with and I was able to bring them to life.
Communication
I started by making calls, sending texts and meeting with the Panhellenic president and other members of their organizations. This gave me a good idea of what they wanted from us and what we could provide them with.
The first thing that we did was create a few mockups and designs for them and see if they wanted any changes. After we had a few mockups for them they approved of them and started getting sizes from all the sororities and finally we created the order.
Innovative Content
Collecting content from them was fairly easy. Since they had a big committee they were utilizing PhotoCircle, which is an app that allows members to send in photos to a big folder where everyone is able to see pictures and save them! I had a few Rho Gams send me pictures from the photo circle and on top of that ETSU actually took some other pictures as well and posted them on their main social media pages.
Takeaways
What I learned throughout this entire experience was that my university was willing to utilize new ways to get new content and merch. If I’m working with a college, business or organization and looking to get their attention I learned a lot from this one order in order to get their attention. Social advertisement is not dead just not as popular in schools so give them the information in a new way that they like, this could save you from cold calling and getting rejected numerous times.
