Tips and FAQs for promoting Youth Week events

If you are a NSW council official administering events in your area as part of NSW Youth Week, you can promote your events on nsw.gov.au for free.  

nsw.gov.au sees over 26.5 million unique visitors on the website every year, and has dedicated content across the site for young people and their parents. This includes curriculum information, HSC results, school holiday dates, youth justice information, as well as guides on formative life experiences such as getting your first job or moving out of home. 

nsw.gov.au is putting customers at the centre and transforming the digital experience of NSW Government.  It’s making it easier for customers to access the information they need, without having to understand or navigate the structure of government.

Getting access to promote your Youth Week event

To promote your events, you must first request access to the nsw.gov.au content management system (Drupal). 

Once you have received access you can peruse our training materials to familiarise yourself with the process and system.

Preparing your event information

Information about your event gets entered into a template in the nsw.gov.au content management system and is automatically formatted. 

It is best to have all of your event information drafted and handy before you begin entering it into the system. 

You will need:

• an event title (max 70 characters)
• event summary (1 to 2 sentences summarising your event)
• event description
• event organisers details:
  • name
  • email
  • phone number
  • website
• event cost
• age range
• whether the event is wheelchair accessible
• event dates and times (events that have multiple dates or times only need to be entered once)
• event location (this the location name people see)
• council name
• event address (this should be the physical address of the event location)

Entering your event information into the content management system

Here are some tips and instructions to help you with your events for Youth Week:

• watch the video
• Read our quick tips
• Read our in-depth, step-by-step guide

Tips and frequently asked questions

Creating events with multiple dates

You can create events for single or multiple dates.

1. For a single date event, add start and end date as same.

2. For events having multiple consecutive dates, put the start date and end dates in a single block of dates. For example for event from 4 to 5 April, enter it like this:

3. For an event with multiple non-consecutive dates, click the “add another item” button. Next add a block of dates for each day and make the start and end date the same in each block. For example, for event occurring on 7 and 9 April, enter it like this:

4. For events with multiple consecutive and non-consecutive dates, you need to enter each date and time in its own block.

How you can track who has seen your event on nsw.gov.au

We highly recommend using trackable links for the call to action on your event. You can use 2 kinds of links, depending on where you’re sending traffic.

If you’re sending traffic to your own website

Most websites are tracked using Google Analytics or a similar program. If you have access to view these analytics, we suggest using a campaign URL builder so that your system can more easily recognise that traffic has come from nsw.gov.au onto your website. There are lots of free options including:

• GA campaign URL builder
• UTM builder

If you’re sending traffic to an external website (such as Eventbrite) or you don’t have access to your website analytics

To track clicks on URLs without access to an analytics platform, it is best to use a short link. Clicks on these links are tracked and can normally be viewed by logging into the URL shortener’s website. Here are some options (please note some of these require a membership to access tracking features):

• Short URL and Short URL click counter
• Bitly
• Rebrandly

Why you need to add the location twice

Location is a human-readable location of the event. Use location for display purposes on the event details page under the date and time field. Note - you must enter the location as "Online" if the event is online.

2. Geocode address gives the website visitor the exact location where the event will take place. To use this feature, start by typing the name of the venue and suburb (or town). This will generate a drop-down list of suggestions. Select the venue if it's listed. Otherwise you will need to look for the street address for the venue. The precise location shows as a map when you publish the event.

There is no need to add a geocode map address for online events.

Adding your own event image to your event page banner

You can add any image to your event page banner. If you do not have the image for an event, there will be the default Youth Week 2022 image pre-selected.

1. If you do have an image for your event, you can upload it on the Media tab. The image file size must be less than 8 Mb
2. The NSW Youth Week logo and CTA ("Find more Youth Week events") will display automatically.

Note: When accessing the Video Gallery, do not use any images uploaded by other users.

Tips for working with images

• Make sure your event image is in a 3:2 ratio – landscape not portrait
• Try not to have any words on your image as they may get cropped.

If the image appears cropped on your event page, you can edit your image and re-upload it.

 

What you will need: Access to image editing software like Photoshop.

Steps: 

1. Open the image in Photoshop.
2. Check that it is high resolution, aiming for 300dpi
3. Create a new file with 3:2 ratio (landscape, not profile) and a white background
4. Center and resize the image to allow enough space around the image
5. You should choose a background colour similar to your original background colour. You can choose a colour using the eye dropper tool and click on the background of the image. Then, apply the colour to the background.
6. The final result is the image without the text on a purple background. Save the file, export it and select 'great quality'. 
   
   
   
   You can then update the hero banner image. In this example, it would look like this:
   
    

Agency tag

Youth Week events are all tagged as::

• Agency = Communities and Justice 
• Audience = Young people
  
  

Online events tips

• If your event is online, tick the virtual events checkbox.
• Enter the location as 'Online'

Ensure you include the web address in the contact details for the Online event

• Website visitors can filter Online events can on the event index page

• Click the check-box so to ensure website visitors can sort all online events by the date of occurring.

• If website visitors search by tge LGA name, the website will display physical events within 150Km. The website will also show online events sponsored by that LGA

Tagging the correct LGA for online events is important

If you want a link to your LGA events on the event list

1. Go to www.nsw.gov.au/youthweek. In the Events Near Me search bar, type your Council name (eg: Bayside) Click Search

2. Pay attention to the URL up the top of the page It should change (very briefly) to: nsw.gov.au/youthweek/events?search=bayside

3. This will then show all the events that are in or near Bayside. You can add this link to your own council websites for extra help for your local residents
   
   

How to view your event as a draft to check it before you publish it

• After entering all the information for your event, scroll to the bottom of the page and click 'Save'.

• Leave the 'Save' drop down as 'Draft'. This will show you a 'Draft' version of your page.

• When you are ready to publish, go to Workbench menu > My Edits. Find your event and click the 'Edit' button to make any final changes

• Change the Change dropdown to Publish and click 'Save'
  
  

What to do if you need help with your event

Take a screen shot of your issue or of the error message you see on screen.

You can email the team at ACYP with your enquiry. Be sure to detail the problem you are having include the link to your event page if it is a saved draft or published.

Email: [e-mail]

How the search logic works

• If website visitors enter a keyword which is in the title or description, the online event will show (as will physical events)
• If website visitors select a category and you have tagged the online event is to that category, the online event will display

• If website visitors select the event type as 'online', online events will appear

• If website visitors enter a date range, online events will show, (if they fall within the start date and end date)

• If website visitors type "online" into the keyword search, online events will display

• If website visitors have not selected the 'online' filter and search by postcode and suburb, only physical events will display. Physical events are sorted by the next occurring events within a 150km radius

• If website visitors select 'online' and also enter a postcode, suburb or LGA, only online events will display. No physical events will display

• If website visitors select 'online' and enter a keyword, online events containing that keyword will display

Physical Events

• If an event has multiple dates (consecutive as well as non-consecutive), the events with these dates will display in the search results.
• If website visitors enter a postcode or suburb into the keyword section, only physical events will display (as long as the 'online' filter is not ticked on the index page).
• Physical as well as online events will display when website visitors enter an LGA in the search bar.
• Physical as well as online events will display when website visitors enter a keyword in search bar.

Youth Week Homepage search

• If a website visitor types anything in the search box, the index page will display with all events filtered as per the input in the search box.

• Website visitors can also click on any of the categories on the homepage. The website will display the events list page. All the events belonging to that category, sorted by date of occurring will display. The category will be pre-selected in filters.

Related Events (Block of 3)

• If there are no events within the same category, the website will display the 3 closest (non-expired) events (even beyond a 150 km radius). When all physical events have expired, the website will then show online events.

• At the end of Youth Week, when only 3 events are active and the user has clicked on 1 of the active events, the website will sort the remaining 2 active events based on proximity. The recently expired event will be at position 3.

• At the end of Youth Week, when only 2 events are active and the user has clicked on 1 of the active events, the website will show the remaining active event (position 1). The recently expired events will be in position 2 and position 3 (sorted by expiry date).

• If the user is viewing the last active event, the events that appear in the related events section will be the 3 most recently expired events. This is regardless of whether they are online or physical and is not based on proximity or category.

• If a website visitor is viewing an online event, the related events will contain online events of the same category as long as the event has not expired. If there are no online events of the same category, recommend other online events of a different category (that have not expired) will display.

• At the end of Youth Week with 3 active online events remaining, if a website visitor clicks 1 of the online events, the 2 remaining online events will appear in positions 1 and 2 in the related events section. They are sorted based on date and time, and position 3 will contain the next occurring physical event that has not expired.

If there are no more online events and a user is viewing an online event, the related events module will contain physical events (regardless of category), sorted by next occurring date and time.

Guide for creating a Youth Week Event

Visit How to create Youth Week events for a guide to creating youth week events

You can download the PDF below for quick tips.

Need any more help?

If you have any questions, or require assistance with anything mentioned on this article, submit a request via the webform.