Tag: branding

Pac 12 + Instagram

By Guest On April 15, 2015 In Best Practices, Social Media

The secret is out with Instagram… it’s a place where brands should play. The recent numbers, according to Simply Measured, validate the need to have a presence in the space:

  • 90 million monthly active users.
  • 40 million photos being posted per day.
  • 8,500 likes per second.
  • 1,000 comments per second.

Why Instagram?
Instagram is a visual tool that uses photos to tell the story. The rise of brand engagement on Instagram proves that using social media as a branding tool– not a hard sell– is a powerful, powerful punch.  In addition, Instagram is easy to use and requires little resources (except for the access to photos).

Instagram + Sports
In regards to teams and athletics departments, using Instagram should be a no-brainer. The access to behind the scenes photos, action shots, venues, student-athletes, players, etc. makes it extremely easy to generate draculalespectacle.com content on the platform. The content is literally right at your fingertips. While some athletic departments are taking advantage of Instagram, there’s still a lot of room for schools to engage and elevate their presence in the space.

I decided to take a look at the Pac 12 to see which schools have a presence on Instagram– and also– what they are doing well. I found that out of the 12 member schools, only four are engaging on the platform: Cal, Washington, Arizona State and Oregon (if the others are, it’s buried somewhere on their website where I can’t find it and that’s another issue).

With that in mind, below are a few examples of how the athletic departments are using Instagram successfully:

Quote Tiles
Social media tiles work great across multiple platforms– Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.– to evoke emotion, emphasize a point, etc. Washington Athletics does a good  job of adding them to their content mix (as seen below).

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Selling Campus
I think athletic departments have a great opportunity to showcase their campus– it’s a chance to draw in admission applications and prospective student-athletes. If athletic departments want to get really creative, they can have student-athletes and coaches showcase their favorite spots on campus through Instagram.


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Behind the Scenes
This is a broken record we hear over and over again: give people content they can’t get anywhere else. Just like other visual platforms, behind the scenes photos do extremely well on Instagram.

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Results
I love how Cal is using a photo ands text to highlight final scores / results.  Simple, easy and effective. Really, there isn’t commentary that’s needed here.

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These examples only scratch the surface of how athletic departments can use Instagram– user generated content, campaigns, etc. also present huge opportunities for those who want to take their Instagram presence to the next level. In the future, I will explore that more.

 

What other athletic departments have a great presence on Instagram? Please share your thoughts below! 

Thanks for reading! 

Creating Quick Content

By Guest On May 19, 2015 In Social Media

I try to live by a golden rule: Thou shall not post to Facebook without a graphic or photo.

Yes, I’m a firm believer  that content is an extremely powerful tool when it’s engaging, shareable and tugs at the consumer. Studies and statistics have proven that visual content is king. Here’s proof— & more here— in case you need it.

As community managers, there are several hurdles we often face when it comes to creating content. Whether we don’t have enough time, the right programs or a background in graphic design, it’s much easier to throw up a link than to go through the hassle of creating a graphic.  Let me tell you a little secret:
You can create great content on a whim, without Photoshop or any background in graphic design.

Yes! The ability to create share-worthy graphics is right at our fingertips, thanks to the smartphone.  See the picture I’ve created a picture below:

I’m sorry the picture isn’t brand related, but is my cute pup, so hopefully that makes up for it. I also went overboard on the editing (know it can look a lot more professional than this) just to give you an idea of the possibilities. So what’s the secret? For me, it’s the apps below:


My essential apps for creating great graphics are Snapseed, PhotoToaster, Instagram, PicFrame & Instafonts. Once you download the apps, just remember:

  1. They all have different capabilities, so I rarely create a graphic using just one app. Multiple filters from multiple apps can make a pretty interesting graphic.
  2. There’s also no exact science or step-by-step process to creating the perfect graphic from your phone.

I challenge you to download the apps, play around and see what you can create.

 

 

 

I have a lot more thoughts about creating content, especially in regards to sports brands, but we will leave that for another day. Until then, let me know what photo editing apps you can’t you live without below. 

Thanks for reading!