Overcoming the Challenges of Social Media in College Athletics

For anyone who manages one or multiple social media accounts for a brand — regardless of the industry — raise your hand if you’ve encountered any of the following:

• You find yourself struggling to make your account stand out amongst your competition
• You struggle to develop a “voice” for your social media account’s identity
• You fear posting too much or too little content on a daily basis or wonder when is the best time to post content
• You are unsure when to respond to an audience, whether it’s to answer a question, respond to a complaint, or thank them for praise

It’s a safe bet that your hand was raised for at least one of the above!

The collegiate athletics industry is no more immune to any of the above circumstances than any other industry. Depending on the school, it could be more of a challenge to take a brand social…that brand being an athletic department and all of its teams. In the collegiate athletics landscape, it’s expected that not only an athletic department have a presence on social media, but every team will expect to have a presence as well. When you’re Clemson, Oregon, Michigan or any of those big name institutions with a larger department, that’s not as daunting as it might sound. But for everyone else? Guess again! There are plenty of smaller schools with communication teams that might not be more than one or two people at the very most. What if that athletic department offers 15 sports? Or 20? Or more? That’s 1-3 people managing that many Twitter accounts, Instagram accounts, and potentially more.

What, then, are the biggest challenges associated with managing social media content and/or branding strategies at the intercollegiate athletics level and how do we overcome them?

1. Establishing a brand reputation/voice
This one’s probably the trickiest, as it can come off as daunting to be the voice of an entire athletic department, but also convey a different voice for different teams. Is there a right way to go about this? Quite frankly, it should start with a conversation with the leader of any team…the coach. Ask them what they expect from their social media footprint. Odds are they might not be all that invested, but you’d be surprised. As discussed in last week’s post, social media is becoming a vital recruiting tool in collegiate athletics, and if you — the communications director — have the keys to the car in that regard, they’re bound to have a say in the type of content that’s being posted on behalf of their programs. It could be useful to ask them what social media accounts they’re a fan of — other college or pro sports teams would be a good start — and see if you can find a style that’s similar without blatantly copying off another brand. Then again, it’s not as though anyone has a particular trademark/patent on a voice in social media. Be edgy, be formal, be somewhere in between, but be consistent!

2. Content strategy
How often should you post and what should be posting? Obviously there’s the standard, game-day-related content that will flow easily. But what about during the offseason? How about holidays? Should you have something planned for every single account, or could you post something from a main athletics account that can be retweeted/posted from all the others? One of the most important meetings I have each year in my athletic communications department is when we re-establish our social media workflow on game days, solidifying what type of content (graphics, videos, written news/updates, etc.) should be posted on which social media medium knowing that our audience is very different on Facebook compared to on Instagram.

3. Choosing what social media mediums are right for you
It might look appealing to want to have a say in every single social media medium — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Youtube, etc. — but for the smaller departments and one-man bands, that could prove to be more trouble than it’s worth. Sometimes it’s smarter to pick 2-3 of the above and make sure you are posting there consistently and that it’s quality content instead of spreading your department too thin just to say that “Small-Town State is on Snapchat!”. Remember, the most popular schools on Snapchat — the big-name schools listed above — have far more resources than most and are able to have a larger footprint in that regard.

 

4. Access for Others
For smaller communications departments, you obviously can’t be everywhere your teams are at the same time. That is why it makes sense to rely on others — namely coaches or student-athletes — to post on your behalf when they’re on the road. There is some risk involved in letting college-aged students handle a social media account that is an extension of the athletic department — which is an extension of the school — but the reward is offering a first-hand, personal experience of these teams on social media. Plus, it makes “smaller teams” feel equally important/involved when they can contribute to their own accounts. It’s important to review appropriate content guidelines with whomever has access to said accounts, but it could be well worth the extra work.

References
Econsultancy, N. G. (2016, June 07). The four biggest challenges facing social media strategists. Retrieved January 13, 2018, from https://econsultancy.com/blog/67913-the-four-biggest-challenges-facing-social-media-strategists