The column below was written by
Chris Syme, Chair of the CoSIDA New Media/Technology Committee.
This column appears in the February 2013 issue of NACDA's
Athletics Administration Magazine. That issue focused primarily on social media and collegiate athletics. Syme writes about how CoSIDA has been proactive in teaching and guiding its members about social media trends and tactics, social media policy and social media education.
See more of Syme's work
HERE.
Beginning with the 2009-10 academic year and with its new partnership with NACDA at that time, the CoSIDA leadership was invited to contribute to each issue of the
Athletics Administration Magazine. In October of 2009, CoSIDA President Justin Doherty penned the first "CoSIDA Column."
In October 2012, CoSIDA President Joe Hornstein wrote a CoSIDA Column on the CoSIDA/Cryder Rinebold strategic branding study and Director of External Affairs Barb Kowal wrote the November column which focused on the online CoSIDA Resource Library while Academic All-America® Committee Co-Chair Bernadette Cafarelli followed with a December piece on the Capital One Academic All-America program.
Each
Athletics Administration issue is sent to over 10,000 university and athletics administrators, with CoSIDA's voice, thoughts and expertise shared with these key constituents. The magazine is published each October, November, December, February, March, April, June and August.
See the CoSIDA Corner archives HERE.
We all know social media has caught on for everyone, everywhere. What we’re doing with social media in college athletics seems to evolve every single day.
Some universities, however, still feel like social media is a necessary evil.
Afraid of a negative viral event or not understanding its value, they tentatively navigate the social media landscape as though it were filled with land mines. Yet, social media is a must for college athletics, and CoSIDA is at the forefront of helping institutions learn how to use social media to turbo boost a university’s brand.
Recent studies show social media now accounts for nearly a quarter of people’s time spent online. As a result, organizations that continue to ignore the online community or dismiss its influence and conversations are putting their reputations at risk and miss out on important stakeholder feedback.
It also is essential for your department to deliver content that is usable across multiple devices such as tablets, mobile and smartphones.
CoSIDA’s objectives in helping athletics departments navigate the digital space includes helping the athletics community anticipate what’s next on the horizon and what’s trending in our ever-changing, 24/7 communications world of today.
Social media training/education for coaches and student-athletes and emerging trends, tactics and tools are popular year-long continuing education sessions and annual Convention sessions offered by CoSIDA.
CoSIDA helps athletics communicators map the social media landscape with a number of tools. First, we offer cutting-edge continuing education webinars. Recent topics include how to train student-athletes and coaches to use social media, social media crisis and response strategy, video/digital tools for a range of budgets and using social media dashboards. CoSIDA also shows highlight video sessions from its annual convention in a free, on-demand YouTube format at
CoSIDA.com.
All these sessions are open to anyone from the collegiate athletics community. Presenters include leaders from athletics communications, marketing, web management and university communications, along with leading social media experts.
CoSIDA’s New Media/Technology Committee annually tackles a number of projects designed to help the membership acclimate to new trends and solidify strategy for old ones. The committee provides content for the CoSIDA website — open to all — that includes how-to articles, commentaries on new tools and successful case studies of innovative campaigns schools have done in social media.
The New Media/Technology Committee focuses include:
• populating the new CoSIDA.com online resource library with resources such as a list of social media policies, sample training programs for student-athletes, how-to videos and more;
• promoting and moderating a chat group on LinkedIn;
• promoting and participating in the weekly SIDChat, an online discussion of topics and issues facing the athletics communicator;
• promoting The SID Board forum channel where communicators can get answers to their questions;
• working with CoSIDA Convention planners to get the brightest social media stars to present each year.
More Social Media Education
Recently, CoSIDA has sponsored a number of significant research studies on social media. In September 2012, CoSIDA sent out a membership survey — partnering with the Council of Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) — on how colleges are using social media in a crisis that will be published in CASE Currents in March 2013.
The survey, which had nearly 500 participants, assessed how schools are training student-athletes and coaches to use social media and what methods of social media monitoring are being used. The data gathered also will be used to aid CoSIDA in designing continuing education sessions and 2013 Convention programming and will be reported in a series of blog articles.
In November 2011, CoSIDA member Clay Stoldt, chair of the Wichita State University Department of Sport Management, surveyed members to learn how social media technologies are being used and how they are impacting the profession. The survey results (found here) were shared at the 2012 CoSIDA Convention and in a CoSIDA.com online video presentation and provide a baseline for future evaluations of social media use and impact in the athletics communications field.
The CoSIDA.com website publishes content designed to showcase how schools are using social media in addition to timely articles written by the membership on social media tips. CoSIDA also puts out a weekly Communications Watch digital news brief that is loaded with links to articles on social media, crisis communications, brand and reputation management, editing and writing tips, communication trends and more.
As we look ahead through 2013, we need to embrace and master more digital and social media challenges and continue to help train professionals.
For example, the emergence of platforms like Pinterest, Instagram and infographics demonstrate the new importance of using visuals in our PR/marketing efforts. Again, maintaining a positive social media reputation is no longer an optional communications strategy, but instead is a business imperative and has become a daily responsibility for athletics departments.
CoSIDA has distinguished itself as a go-to resource for social media strategy in college athletics, and we are continually looking for the best ways to serve the entire intercollegiate athletics industry.