Social Media Day: What We Learned, What Is Next is a blog entry from Chris Freet, Associate AD for Communications at the University of Miami, following UM's highly-successful "Social Media Day" on Friday, Feb. 18. Freet can be reached at
c.freet@miami.edu or via his Twitter account:
http://twitter.com/chrisfreet
As Freet writes, it's all about transparency.
Background: On Feb. 14, we announced that Miami would be the first college athletics program to ‘shutdown’ its official site and communicate solely through social media. We didn’t really ‘shutdown’ our site, as some worried, that was a marketing term … but we did not update a single thing on HurricaneSports.com on Friday, Feb. 18. The biggest initiative was 14 hours of live video chats that combined CoverItLive and UStream. This was a major puzzle to piece together with guests ranging from head football coach Al Golden to former mascot and Hall of Fame curator John Routh. We posted all press releases on
Facebook.com/MiamiHurricanes, Tweeted all updates on
@HurricaneSports and did everything in between on our blog network.
So here is what we learned and what we see next.
After four days of promotion leading up to the first ever Social Media Day at the University of Miami, our entire communications team – staff and students - arrived at 7:30 a.m.
By 8:10 a.m. we had our first problem. Wildly-popular offensive line coach Art Kehoe, who as I tweeted was our ideal leadoff hitter, was in offensive staff meetings and already 10 minutes late for his scheduled 8 a.m. live video chat.
The alternative was Senior Associate AD Blake James, who was a great No. 2 guest but not the “ideal” opener. You see, James has taken the brunt of the complaints related to parking changes at our football games and was thought of as a scapegoat by many fans.
We told our fans that Coach Kehoe was detained in offensive staff meetings and that we hoped he could join us soon.
The response from a commenter logged in as Abel, “Its all good if he is late. Its all for a good cause.”
Score one win for transparency.
After 22 minutes of waiting, James stepped in front of the video camera as the pinch-hitter and we were off.
And quickly the scapegoat became a trusted figure as he announced through the live chat that we planned to open up a preferred tailgate lot at Sun Life Stadium during the 2011 season.
Score two wins for transparency.
Social Media can be a scary endeavor for some. As we announced our plans to ‘shut down’ our official website and communicate solely through Social Media platforms, we received lots of positive feedback, a few sneers and a couple, “you are opening a can of worms.”
The end result was very positive. Our numbers for the day were great (and I will share with any colleagues that are interested), but we have a decided advantage over many athletics departments. Our Director of Athletics and head football coach are very comfortable with Social Media and are willing to answer any question.
Both speak with candor. Neither shies away from uncomfortable subject matter. While we could not come anywhere close to answering the 1,500 or so questions that came through the live chat, we hit just about every subject area over the 65 minutes that AD Kirby Hocutt and football coach Al Golden were in the live video chat setting.
While we hopefully increased fan loyalty with The U, and also made a clear statement about our willingness to be transparent, open and honest with our fans, there were other positive byproducts.
What We Learned
1. There was very little filtering of fan comments needed. Our compliance staff asked us to stay away from anything vaguely related to recruiting and from there we used best judgment. BUT, in no way shape or form were we inundated with swear words or negative comments.
2. Our fans get a bum rap… like many in the sporting world. Give them an open platform and an open ear and you will be rewarded with insightful questions and great feedback. As I tweeted on Friday evening, “As I head to @CanesBaseball, gotta thank []_[] student-athletes, coaches, staff & FANS. Always humbled, inspired & motivated by []_[].”
3. It was a joy to watch student-athletes, coaches and staff genuinely enjoy their time of direct interaction with the fans. Nervousness and apprehension eased quickly, if not immediately, and they all walked off the stage with a smile and a, “that went fast” attitude. We even gave two basketball players and a student intern the unique opportunity to play host.
4. Embrace Reality – The more authentic, transparent and genuine the environment, the better. We don’t have the ability to stream in HD and in this case, that was a benefit. It was okay that the filming was a little rough, that our hosts stuttered on occasions and that our guests laughed at goofy screen names like, “SebastienIsMyHomeboy.” It was real. Fans did not want to see 14 hours of PR or spin, they wanted the exact opposite and we were able to deliver that. (Art Kehoe came in with his whistle around his neck; Offensive Coordinator Jedd Fisch wore his baseball cap, student-athletes came in straight from class and some were in Miami-branded attire, but for the most part, they came as they were.).
5. The Communications staff that I have the pleasure of working with every day loved flipping the switch from working privately on basketball game notes in their offices to communicating in real- time for an entire day. It is a huge culture change and one I have been pushing since my arrival in July. There was no way we could have accomplished this without their buy-in.
6. A few media members and a handful of bloggers covered the event in its entirety and dedicated articles to the quotes that came out of the event. We approached 8,000 views of the on-demand chats on YouTube as well. Many thanked us for the event and a whole new level of access to the ‘Canes.
What’s Next
1. Our AD Kirby Hocutt texted me the next day and asked, “Any way we can do social media day every Thursday from Noon to 7 p.m. leading into our flagship radio show?” Now that is opening up a can of worms, but I would be lying if I hadn’t had similar ideas. It’s clear that our fans want direct access to players and coaches. Our challenge at UM is to provide that in the most authentic way and as often as possible.
2. The lines between Communications and Marketing are becoming blurred more by the day. We chose Feb. 18 as Social Media Day because that was the day of our baseball season opener. It was an event to wrap another event around. We had a 3,800 fans at the baseball game and another 5,000-plus watching our first-ever three-camera live stream at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field. How far away are we from counting our (virtual) attendance as 8,800?
3. At about 3 p.m. in the afternoon on Social Media Day, UStream e-mailed me, said they had noticed our stream and asked for a meeting to create revenue streams, as well as Facebook integration. (We tried to reach UStream beforehand, but to no avail). Now that we have successfully launched an initiative, have some competition and real metrics, we will be able to provide this to multimedia rights holders and potential sponsors. I’m excited to see what doors this opens across all platforms.
4. I knew this going in, but we need to fine-tune our efforts on Facebook and Twitter. We had a dramatic spike of new Facebook “likes” after Social Media Day, but not during it. I would put an educated guess that was because we flooded the timeline with updates of the next guests on the live video chat. Same goes for Twitter, which we have not seen a dramatic increase in new followers.
5. One thing is for sure in the age in which we all work…Change. So what’s next is more change and hopefully that leads to innovation. We greatly appreciated the kind e-mails and tweets that we received from colleagues in the business leading up to and after Social Media Day, but we don’t want to stop there.
We are willing to share anything and everything about our experience. Hopefully, we can pick your brains when you take Social Media Day, or another venture, to a whole new level.