Becoming a Flier Hawker: A Quest for Social Proof

Part of obtaining social proof is first getting an audience to look at what you've got and review it. For a recent class event that needed social proofing, I went around soliciting people to attend even though I wouldn't be able to participate in the event myself. It didn't make sense for me to invite my own friends, because I couldn't think of any friends in my admittedly limited social sphere who would be particularly interested, and I didn't think it made much sense for me to invite them when I wasn't even going to be there myself. However, the event needed social proof, so I decided to look for it among those who might be interested.

Although I have in the past been largely indifferent to people who go around handing out flyers, I decided to give it a try. I took 29 flyers and set out to place them.

I started with the Kimball Tower. I figured there would be some nursing students and SFL students, and also all sorts of students taking American Heritage, among which diversity I thought I might be able to find some people who would be interested in the event. I distributed about five flyers there.

Next, I went to the HFAC and passed out flyers to everyone at the slab, where lots of artsy students congregate to study, since I figured people were more likely to be receptive to a flyer if they weren't rushing off to class and sticking the note in a back pocket because they didn't have time to read it. I distributed the majority of my flyers there.

Then, I headed over to the Wilk and passed out the remainder of my flyers where I figured a very broad range of students were to be found. While not everyone there would be interested, I figured that if one person didn't want a flyer and put it down somewhere, there was a chance that someone else who was more involved in the topics discussed at the event would find the flyer and be interested.

With 29 flyers passed out and one "thank you" received from a student at the slab, I went away sticking my new experience as a flyer hawker in my own back pocket. I'm not sure I would choose to hawk flyers again, but soliciting social proof from a broad audience was certainly an experience to be had at least once.