Selection Sunday is a holiday for the basketball faithful… a day where fates are found out and the bracket is born. With all the chatter and excitement surrounding selections, the day is an opportunity for programs to leverage exposure on social media. Any program, large or small, should take advantage of the chatter.
I took a look at the Facebook Pages of all the teams in the tournament and was surprised to find that not everyone took advantage and posted on Selection Sunday (though most did). Of the schools that did post that evening on Facebook, these are the ones that stood out:
After going through all the posts, I think there are several lessons to be learned from Selection Sunday coverage. Here are my four biggest takeaways:
1. With high profile / major events, you need to cross promote.
Several teams posted on their basketball page and not their athletic page (and vice versa). If you are trying to build an audience on a specific page, it is extremely important to cross promote. You don’t want to replicate content all the time, but when there is something that will generate a lot of chatter, you need to make sure you are leveraging your largest audience to generate more engagement.
Additionally, keep in mind that Facebook now allows brands to further their reach by tagging pages. This feature could be beneficial for teams trying to increase their reach (ex, athletic department page should always tag the basketball page).
2. Let your pictures and copy work together.
I saw a lot of posts where the copy and graphics said the exact same thing, making the posts extremely wordy. There is no need to repeat the same information in copy and in graphics.
Remember, short is sweet with everything in social. Omit needless words and let all of your content work together. There’s no need to be redundant.
3. Don’t sell too hard in your first post.
Selection Sunday is an emotional day for student-athletes that have worked so hard to make the big dance. It’s also an emotional day for fans that have followed them throughout the journey. Don’t ruin emotional moments in sports by slapping fans with a hard push towards tickets. Instead, tap into emotion with your first post and follow up later with ticket sales.
Emotion wins, even in the marketing race.
4. Simple is better.
Don’t believe me? See Wichita State or Michigan’s post above.
