Tag: sports

Way Too Early Vine Predictions

By Guest On April 15, 2015 In Social Media

The social media space has been overtaken by a new phenomenon– Vine.  In case you haven’t heard, here’s what Vine is (according to its iTune description):

Vine is the best way to see and share life in motion. Create short, beautiful, looping videos in a simple and fun way for your friends and family to see.

Vine lets people create six-second videos to embed in Twitter (just like you can do with photos) or share on Facebook. The app itself looks much like Instagram; it’s a community where people can like videos, comment, tag, search, etc.

Six seconds might not seem like a lot of time, but as we have seen in its short life so far, a six-second video is plenty of time for creativity. Proof here.

While it’s still way too early to tell, I think Vine has a lot of potential in the sports space. Here are my way too early predictions for how Vine might be used in the sports industry:

Highlights
This is the most obvious one.  Vine is the perfect opportunity to capture a highlight or great play and immediately share it on Twitter and Facebook. Yes, instant replay in its truest form. Michigan example here.

Promotions + Announcements
The New York Jets posted this Vine about “how Jets chant“. Basically, fans (or their staff) held up signs to spell out the Jets’ cheer. Teams and leagues can execute this simple idea in a lot of ways. For example:

  • Remind fans to use their hashtag.
  • Make an announcement. Who knows? Maybe one day we will see a team make a huge announcement on Vine, like a new head coach.
  • Ask fans to take action with something (perhaps for a recently launched campaign).
  • Have a player make a statement, thank fans for coming to the game, spell out a quotable quote, etc.

History
Check out this Gap Vine highlighting their ads throughout the years. This exact same philosophy can apply to sports. Whether the video walks through old media guides or a photo essay, there are a lot of opportunities for teams to take fans down memory lane.

Capture Emotion
A six-second video is plenty of time to pack a powerful punch of emotion; it all comes down to being at the right place, at the right time. Community managers need to keep their eyes out for teammates celebrating, the agony of pain, overzealous fans, the look of defeat, etc.  Fans love the drama and emotion of sports. It helps to tell the story.

Behind the  Scenes
I’m a big believer in behind the scenes content for teams and leagues across any social media platform. Teams and leagues should focus on giving fans access to something they can’t get anywhere else; if the game / event is on TV, the focus should be on enhancing the second screen experience (not play-by-play). Behind the scenes Vine videos could include:

How To’s
Teams and leagues with a younger audience should consider creating Vine videos that demonstrate how to properly execute a skill, training technique, etc. With just six seconds, it needs to be simple, but the idea is something worth exploring.

& Much More
Of course, people are extremely creative and will blow this list away.  Take what the University of Michigan did to promote their basketball game.  My point is this: the opportunities with Vine are endless.

While it’s too early to tell if Vine is a fad or here to stay, it never hurts to start brainstorming ways your brand can use the application.

 


So, what do you think… will you give it a go?

Duke Athletics + Facebook Engagement

By Guest On May 19, 2015 In Best Practices, Facebook with 3 Comments

According to the Social Media Top 25 rankings, Duke sits at No. 11 for largest following on Facebook (FBS schools) with 407,000+ fans; Ohio State comes in at No 1. with 1.3 million.

In Comparison

I took a look at the last seven Facebook posts from Ohio State and Duke and found that- on average- Duke’s engagement trumps Ohio State’s engagement (despite the much smaller audience). Obviously, looking at a longer date rate could change this, but here’s the breakdown:

  • Last seven posts from Ohio State averaged 720 ‘Likes’, 50 comments & 92 shares.
  • Last seven posts from Duke averaged 2,139 ‘Likes, 98 comments & 170 shares.

Yep, Duke is rocking their engagement level with their fans this month.So now the question is… why? Below are the three things I think Duke is doing right on Facebook to increase their engagement (please note, I’m only looking at the month of January):

1- Photos

Duke is living by the golden rule to not post to Facebook without a photo. Photos generate more engagement than standalone text or a link. As the photo below proves, content does not have to be fancy; it just needs to draw fans in from the noise:

2- Fan-Generated Content

I love fan-generated content for several reasons. First (for the obvious reason), it gives you access to easy and unique content. Second, it requires your fans to take action. And finally, user-generated content fosters a sense of community with fans and rewards those who engage (when you actually use their photos).

Duke is asking its audience to email fan photos each week. From there, they pick three photos to upload to an album. Once the album is uploaded, fans can vote for their favorite picture by ‘Liking’ it (which is a win because it increases engagement). The picture with the most ‘Likes’ is then featured on the Facebook page, as shown below:


My only advice to Duke on their fan-generated content: Create the Duke Fan of the Week graphic within the timeline size constraints. This will make for a better visual when people visit your page.

3- Action Words

You know the saying, “If you ask, you shall receive”? Well, the saying is true for Facebook. The following words are key if you want to increase engagement, trust me: Like, Comment, Share, Why, What

If you’re a community manager, you always want your posts to come across as genuine. But, there are ways to “ask” for engagement without being too pushy… you just have to get a little creative with your copy. Duke does a good job of sneaking in action words with their post. Example:


In Summary

If you want to increase your engagement statistics on Facebook, take a few notes from Duke. Remember that photos are golden, user-generated content fosters community and action words are key.

 

 

So, what is key to engagement on the pages you manage? Share your secrets below.

Thanks for reading! 

 

Criticism & Crazy

By Guest On May 19, 2015 In Social Media with 2 Comments

It’s a very slow trend, but a few athletic departments have started promoting personal Twitter accounts of student-athletes on their various communication platforms. At first, I loved the idea. I’m a firm believer student-athletes should be allowed to use social media. It’s about education, not elimination.  So, why not give fans an inside look into what it’s like to be a student-athlete? Why not elevate the student-athletes who engage responsibly on social media?

But I’ve had concerns lately. It’s not about student-athletes saying the wrong thing on social media (though of course, that is a worry)… I’m concerned about promoting student-athlete accounts for two things they can’t control: Criticism & crazy.

 

1. Criticism

Criticism is a part of life, and sooner or later we all have to learn how to deal with it. The criticism student-athletes face on social media though is not the normal, constructive criticism received from a coach, job review, etc. Irrational fans get on social media after a loss and start name-calling, blaming, etc. Criticism on social media is rarely constructive.

If a student-athlete chooses to be on Twitter or any other social media platform, they have to face the reality that criticism will come. People find student-athlete Twitter handles whether or not the school promotes them, no doubt.

The issue: Do schools want to be the avenue for people to find student-athlete accounts, especially if that person only tweets negativity?

 

2. Crazed Fans, Stalkers, etc.

Social media gives fans a peek inside student-athletes lives like they’ve never had before; it also gives fans direct access to communicate with student-athletes.

Unfortunately, this direct access and peek inside personal lives can lead to not-so-good situations- stalkers, people who take advantage, etc. Again, this could happen whether or not the school promotes the student-athlete Twitter accounts.  

The issue: If an athletic department promotes personal Twitter accounts of student-athletes, and one of those student-athletes gets a stalker via social media, is the school accountable?  After all, the stalker saw the Twitter handle on the athletic department website.

It’s something to think about.

 

Bottom Line

Protecting student-athletes should be priority, so for me, it all comes down to accountability with the athletic departments. If a program promotes personal social media accounts, and something goes array (like a stalker), are the schools accountable?  I understand this isn’t something everyone will deal with, but there is always that chance. Schools need to have a plan in place, just in case.

 

 

 

What do you think? Is promoting the personal social media accounts of student-athletes a do or a don’t?

Thanks for reading!