by Barb Kowal, CoSIDA Director of Professional Development and External Relations
Several months ago, two Texas-based athletic communications from the same conference got together and decided to launch a weekly Twitter chat, aptly called
@SIDA_chat using the hashtag
#SIDAchat.
This Twitter chat takes place each Monday at 9 p.m. Eastern.
CoSIDA caught up with its two members -
Kelvin Queliz, Director of Sports Information at Texas A&M-Kingsville Athletics, and
Don Vieth, formerly at Texas A&M-Commerce and now the Director of Athletic Communications at Northeastern State University (Tahlequah, OK) - to talk about the evolution of
@SIDAchat and what's next for the platform.
You can reach Queliz via email (
Kelvin.Queliz@tamuk.edu) or Twitter -
@iamkevlinq.
Contact
Vieth via Twitter (
@dwvieth) or email (
vieth@nsuok.edu).
How did the idea for @SIDA_chat/#SIDAchat originate?
Queliz: I want to give Don credit; this was his brainchild. He approached me about it when he was at Cameron University this summer. We could participate in the YPSportsChat and other Twitter chats, but we wanted to create something for athletic communicators and help our members hone their skills. The difficulty was in choosing the day - we needed to choose a day that didn't conflict with any other Twitter chats our CoSIDA members might be interested in, and we didn't want to create a chat on a day that was traditionally a time when a lot of events took place.
We contacted all our friends after we created the Twitter account and sent it out the masses. We were fortunate to have a lot of followers early on [currently there are 447 followers of the account]. Next steps- we want to expand our audience.
Vieth: We both were followers of the old SIDChat - which was initiated by Jay Stancil (Union College, Ky.) and ran for a few years. There was not a physical Twitter account associated with that weekly chat, and we wanted to create a new look and a new opportunity. So, the two guys at the opposite geographical sides of the Lonestar Conference - Kelvin at A&M-Kingville, and me at Cameron - got together and launched the platform on Labor Day weekend.
What's been the result?
Queliz: First, we need to grow awareness, and then the participation levels - we were curious as to who our audience was going to be. At first, we handled a lot of the weekly chat moderation. As it grew more popular, we got more creative in getting different moderators. It's important to have people with a different mindset than we have, with a different set of priorities in their job.
We've seen our audience grow when we introduced guest moderators. For instance, we've had a professional athletic communications guy with the Atlanta Hawks serve as moderator. Last week, we had someone with a strong writing slant - Ira Thor - serve as moderator.
What topics seem to resonate the most?
Vieth: It is important to note that we see this as an education conversation every week. We try to avoid the woe-is-me #SIDproblems track - we want this to be a developmental tool for those who follow it.
At first this fall, people commented on the FLSA matters and raised a lot of questions and concerns about that soon-to-be federal overtime law. Then, the injunction happened and it fell off being a priority for the chat participants. Right now, it fluctuates, but regardless what division or affiliation, the February-March experience during the crossover period is an important topic. Another hot button issue a few weeks ago was national signing day and how to handle it for all your sports, not just football coverage.
Queliz: One of biggest benefits we've had so far is the diversity of our participants. That makes for good interaction between new and veteran SIDs. Athletic communicators from all levels of experience email me, DM me, shoot me a text.
Like Don said, we don't want to touch on the same things every week - things happen at the spur of the moment in our business and we want to be flexible every week. One week we can discuss the pros and cons of writing bullet recaps, and then switch to tips and advice on building graphics in the next minute; and the next week we talked about feature writing and AP style.
We are trying to touch on everything. That's part of the learning curve - inviting different voices and making sure we touch on things which affect people in a big way. Also, we bring up topics that our younger SIDS might not be thinking about yet - and they are responding by saying these are "ah ha moments" for them.
How can someone who wants to serve as a @SIDA_chat moderator get in touch with you? And, what's on the horizon for the #SIDAchat?
Vieth: We are always looking at our participants; right now, the majority are up-and-coming SIDs. We have a handful of established SIDs on the chat, and want to increase those numbers. If someone wants to serve as a moderator, they can contact us via the #SIDAchat handle, or DM either Kelvin or I via our Twitter accounts or via email
(see contact info in the opening graphs).
Queliz: We want to grow the chat and are thinking about different ways to deliver the conversation and the learning opportunities. We are kicking around the idea - another of Don's ideas! - to expand this to a podcast that would go out to our participants later each week. That's down the line. Right now, we encourage everyone to jump on Twitter on Monday nights, 9 p.m. Eastern, and join in!