See online: by
Chris Syme, Owner/Partner, CKSyme Media Group, at
cksyme.com
Syme is a former athletic communications professional, featured presenter at numerous CoSIDA convention and continuing education sessions year-round, and a frequent contributor to CoSIDA.com. Follow Chris on Twitter:
or on her blog/website:
ckyme.com
Social media content can be a puzzle. Finding the right mix of organic versus produced, user-gener
ated versus brand journalism, and fan-centric versus brand centric can be a conundrum. But there’s one thing you’ve got that all your fans want—a look behind the curtain. To fans, games are more than plays and scores. Bringing them in to everything surrounding the game not only increases the excitement le
ading up to the game, but gives them a richer in-game experience as well. Start by thinking of the game as a hub and all the events that surround the game as spokes that make the wheel turn.
Last summer I did a baseline survey for a university athletic department on the social media habits and wants of their fans. The data showed us that fans
wanted improved social media content in three areas: more information from and on the student-athletes, and a better in-game fan experience that included more than score updates and action shots, and a look behind-the-scenes at everything from tailgating to locker room speeches to practices to student-athletes’ classroom experiences. In other words, they wanted a look behind the curtain.
This summer, I had the opportunity to work with Eastern Washington University as we produced the first college football game of the 2014 season:
“College Football Starts Here.” There were a number of micro campaigns within the larger campaign and we thought it would be a good idea to give fans a closer look at what it took to pull off every aspect of the game from Picture Day to the post-game press conference.
Throughout the summer, we chronicled (in images and words) every event that led up to the season o
pener. After the game was over, the team put together a number of content pieces including
a piece on Storify by Sunny Cadwallader and a
Pinterest board that highlighted the total game experience.
Our social media ambassador team (shown below with EWU alum Colin Cowherd) also chronicled the game from their perspectives and added to the larger gallery of images and in-game posts.
We shot several video pieces for the game
including this in-stadium piece that chronicled the players journey from the first day of camp to game time. We
also captured the shooting of the video with images to post leading up to the game. One of the most popular micro campaigns revolved around a metal hashtag (seen in picture below) that social media
ambassadors and the mascot used throughout game day to take pictures with fans and post on social media. Double whammy: get fans to use the hashtag so their social media posts would be shown on the video board between plays.
The result was a huge store of images, earned media, and website pieces that captured the journey to the game and the attention of the fans. Even though
the game social media produced all the normal scores updates and action shots, we wanted to give the fans a deeper look at the game. The result of giving fans a peek behind the curtain was a significant jump in social media interaction leading up to the game. EWU also saw a significant jump in regular game social media interaction around the posts and images that were related to the whole game experience.
Want to give fans something they can only get from you? Pull back the curtains and give them a bigger game experience.