by Kelsey Whaley – St. Cloud State, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications; kwhaley@stcloudstate.edu
and Katie Gwinn Hewitt – Michigan, Associate Director External Communications and Public Relations akgwinn@umich.edu
Rather than always relying on your department’s network drive or a filing system, try switching to a cloud-based suite of applications like the Google Suite. This suite offers multiple web applications with mobile app counterparts, such as Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Forms that can truly make the life of an SID easier. Whether you’re a one-person shop or part of a large department, leveraging the applications that Google offers can streamline your efforts in many ways. Here are a few of the ways these applications can work in your favor.
Google Drive
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COLLABORATION: Google drive offers the ability to share large files (and folders!) with ease. This especially comes in handy when multiple media outlets or opposing teams are requesting a lot of the same items. Need player headshots? Drop them all into one folder and then share that link rather than uploading a zip file to an email 30 times throughout the season. You can also set your settings to “View Only” or “Edit” so that collaborators have (or don’t have) the ability to make changes.
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ACCESS ON THE GO: The Google Drive app is SO CLUTCH when it comes to accessing files things on the go! Whether its a Google doc, Google sheet, a folder with *all* of your team’s photos from the season, or another file shared between multiple collaborators, having the ability to view and edit documents from your phone comes in handy.
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This is especially helpful when traveling! Nothing is worse than having to get out your laptop to send a photo to your phone to post on Instagram. With the Google Drive app, you can have those photos saved in a folder and access them straight from your phone. No laptop or hotspot connection required!
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The Google Drive app also gives access to both Google Docs and Sheets from a mobile device, meaning writing stories on the go in much easier as well. Whether you’re stuck on a bus in the middle of no-man’s land Wisconsin or waiting to board a flight to OKC, Google Drive/Docs/Sheets are there for you!
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Plus, it’s FREE: As long as you have a Gmail/Google account, Google Drive and all its lovely features are available to you free of charge. Even if you don’t, it’s still free. No subscriptions, monthly payments or adds on required. Simply use a school or personal account to login and use. Additionally, the apps are free to download on Apple and Android devices as well.
Google Docs
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AUTO-SAVE: Google Docs automatically saves every version of every change you make, so you never have to worry about your computer crashing and losing all your work. You can also set up “offline” documents, so you can download and work on stories even if you don’t have internet access. This function applies to all apps in Google Drive, including Sheets, Presentation and Forms.
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COLLABORATORS/ACCESS: Having a google doc that multiple people can edit comes in handy at various points throughout a sports season. Does your office utilize intern help? Google Docs are a great way to show interns the ropes when it comes to writing stories and recaps. If you have an intern writing a recap during an event where you’re responsible for something else (stats, social media, etc.), then being able to check in with your intern and see the recap while it’s been written from your own laptop can be a huge help.
Google Sheets
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COLLABORATION: Having a spreadsheet that is easily accessible by multiple people in a department can be a game-changer. Whether you’re using a spreadsheet with hard data or your department leverages the different cells in Google Sheets to create timelines or sign-up sheets, the ability to have tons of data and/or other information stored in one place and readily accessible by others via the web or mobile app is huge.
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ACCESS: Google Sheets is a lot like Microsoft Excel — only you can access it anywhere and anytime. Like Google Docs, Google Sheets has its own app, allowing you to access your spreadsheet anytime, anywhere. It also has the ability to “sync” so to speak with other Google Drive features, such as Google Forms.
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FORMULAS: Like Excel, Google Sheets Formulas can be used to calculate numbers and manipulate data, which is an AMAZING time saver. Rather than calculate the career numbers of your student-athletes yourself (because career slugging percentage is hard), Google Sheets will do it for you using the Average function and formula. Google Sheets can also combine datasets from multiple sheets for easy year-to-year calculations.
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EXPLORE: Google Sheets has an “explore” function that analyzes the data in the sheet and generates pie charts, graphics and tables for organization purposes. These graphs, charts and tables can be downloaded out of the sheet and used in other publications (such as weekly game notes and/or presentations) or inserted into the Google Sheet itself.
Google Forms
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QUESTIONNAIRES, SURVEYS AND BIOS, OH MY: Have a bio form you want student-athletes to fill out every year? Are your coaches constantly asking for new and improved ways to update their prospective student-athlete/recruit forms? Need to set up registrations for athletic events throughout the year? Just looking for a quick, painless and easy way to gather bulk information from a lot of people? Never fear, Google Forms is here!
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Thanks to this new feature, Google Forms allows you to generate several different types of forms, from questionnaires and surveys to quizzes, party invites/event registrations and even order forms for things like t-shirts. You can also custom design them to include your institution’s athletics logo, colors and any other information you find pertinent.
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In addition to collecting answers, Google Forms also allow people to submit larger files, such as photos and .mp4 files.
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Google Forms generates two different results pages: one linked directly to the admin’s original form (which can be edited at any time) and in a Google Sheets document. Both the sheets document and the results page on the form will continually update as responses are submitted. The Google Sheet can also be shared with other members of the department if they want access to student-athlete answers but not the form itself.
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SHARING: Google forms are easy to share. Once the form is finished and ready to be sent out to the public, click the “send” button in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Google will give the option to share the form either via email or direct link, which can be a shortened URL if requested. It can also be shared with collaborators who can have several different kinds of access, including “view only”, “editor” or “administrator”.
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COLLABORATORS/ACCESS: Google Forms is an easy way to ensure the right people have access to forms. Like other files in Google Drive, simply share the form link with specific people rather than the whole department. There is also the option to add collaborators to Google Forms, allowing multiple individuals to edit the form and see responses as they are generated.