DSC Athletics - A Facebook Snapshot

Being an administrator on the Dixie State College Athletics Facebook page had its advantages before taking this class. I had a working knowledge of Facebook, being an avid user of the medium, but applying different techniques toward a page geared toward the fans of Dixie State sports and the St. George community resulted in mixed results.

My plan to build an audience through page likes actually began this summer after attending the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) conference in Florida. One full day was devoted to social media and how it could promote our athletic brand. So, the wheels were turning on making the DSC Athletics page better before I ever stepped foot into the Hazy building this fall.

When I began my first major push, the DSC Athletics page had roughly 550 likes and very little day-to-day fan interaction. We, as a collective group of page administrators, decided to add more video and pictures to the site of summer practices (especially football) to get the student body and local fans excited about the upcoming season. Just that simple maneuver bumped up of fan interaction.

Before this summer, we did not actively seek out fans or “likes”. One easy thing we did was use the “invite friends” link on the right side of the FB page to reach out to locals and those who have/had been part of the DSC athletic family. In the first week of asking for like and inviting people to our page, we gained over 100 new likes.

One further positive step was having one of our admins also becoming an admin on the main Dixie State College FB page. This allowed us to place news about our upcoming events on a page with over 7,000 followers. That extra exposure brought attention to our page as the central FB hub for DSC sports fans.

But, as you would expect, not everything we tried ended up with bright rays of sunshine and candy cane-colored rainbows. One major failure came between a span of October 6-9. Our FB page became more of a glorified RSS feed with a regurgitation of our website stories, more than a place to highlight “the story outside of the story”. We lost 9 followers in that period. One actually sent me an e-mail saying he was leaving because he got nothing new by being one of our followers. I took that one e-mail very seriously and have worked diligently since that day to make the DSC Athletics page much more interactive and exciting.

Did I meet my expectations of having 900-1,000 likes by the end of the semester, no. Did we get the DSC Athletics FB page out into the public, yes! Is this page a work in process, absolutely - and I cannot wait to see how far we can take this portion of our social media plan.

There are many new avenues I would like to explore on our FB page – including polls, flash pages and advertisements. With an upcoming break from school, I would like to take a good amount of time and refocus our mission statement and goals to further progress the DSC Athletics page. 

Baseline and current FB analytics 

Cain: Is He America?

This year, some would the Republican Party has spent more time trying to whittle down the field of potential presidential nominees, rather than working to improve the economy. Whatever your political affiliation, one person has recently stepped out from the quagmire to become a social media darling.

Herman Cain, despite recent dips in the polls, remains a buzzworthy figure due to alleged sexual misconduct, unique plans to rebuild the nation and his use of social media.

In a presidential election, it is key to get your physical message out by any means necessary. Spurned by President Obama’s groundbreaking use of in the Internet and social media en route to his election in 2008, politicians gearing up for 2012, including Cain, are using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to its fullest extent.

Elements listed below have instilled ideas into the psyche of potential voters in an attempt to swell the social persona of Cain. But as you will see, some of the items meant to engrain the Cain message into the political culture and remain in the front of the electorate’s temporal mindset have opened the door for scrutiny, both philosophically and jokingly.

I AM AMERICA

In a video featuring Mark Block, Cain’s campaign chief of staff, he is seen smoking at the end with a music bumper underneath it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIhkZtadAt8). While the intended message may have been to say we are all Americans, no matter our looks, ideals and habits, the message missed key targets.

Comedians ran with the viral video – including Stephen Colbert on his show, The Colbert Report (http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/400682/october-25-2011/herman-cain-s-campaign-ad). The message received further smearing by the daughters of another Republican nominee Jon Huntsman in a parody spoof (http://www.theblaze.com/stories/jon-huntsmans-daughters-parody-cain-smoking-ad/).

LIBYA: AGREE OR TO NOT AGREE

Cain has spent the better part of six months building a solid reputation of knowledge, and when he doesn’t know an answer, he has been upfront … until very recently.

When asked about his opinion on Obama’s policy in Libya, Cain found finding an answer very hard. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell explains on his show (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45298495#45298495).

THE BOTTOM LINE

Social media has made the world of political elections a new playground. Some believe social media will have more influence than television in this election. Jay Samit wrote in his blog (http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/social-media-make-break-2012-election-campaigns/228367/) that the target audience of political campaigns has changed, the influence of TV compared to the 1960s and 1970s is not as strong today despite a 24-hour news cycle, and the cost of ads on social media are cheaper than commercials on broadcast television.

Even spoofs of videos and comments by candidates like Cain get played over and over on television and the web without costing the campaign any more funds.

Samit explains, “Political messages within social media promise to engage users even more deeply than brand messages.” This means that Cain is getting publicity for his message, even when it is spoofed. The trend is that social media users will take the time to search for what Cain actually meant more than the average broadcast television watcher.

Will Cain become President? Maybe, maybe not. Is his use of social media intriguing, most certainly.

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Miss the score of the last game? What time does women's basketball play? All your answers can be found at www.DixieAthletics.com.

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Dixie State Athletics Duncan, Cantwell highlight Red Storm All-Star football selections

Duncan, Cantwell highlight Red Storm All-Star football selections

 

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Dixie State Athletics Bench leads Dixie State into win column over Minot State #DSCmbb

Bench leads Dixie State into win column over Minot State

 

 

Facebook Plan - Dixie State Athletics Facebook

The official Facebook page for Dixie State College of Utah Athletics! 

MISSION STATEMENT - The DSC Athletics Facebook page serves as the social media hub for information about the Red Storm sports community. Read game recaps, watch interviews and learn about upcoming games on this page. We want this page to be interactive - we want to hear from you!

 

Persona 1) Tyler is a 20-year old student-athlete at Dixie State College. In addition to his team and schoolwork responsibilities, Tyler is a fan of hip-hop music, comedy movies and reality television. He participates in community service activities coordinated by the athletic department. He uses social media to keep up with his family in northern Utah and keep up to date with his emerging friend base in the St. George-area.

 

Persona 2) Fred is a 79-year old retired sports official living in St. George. He volunteers at the school by keeping statistics during baseball games and running the clock for basketball. Fred is interested in keeping up to date with news involving the NCAA, its rules and development of its student-athletes. His interests away from DSC sports include playing golf, watching show at Tuacahn and spending time in the outdoors with his large family.

 

Persona 3) Kelly is a 50-year old grandmother who is interested in everything involving her husband’s former job of firefighting. She is a sports fan, but wants to become a fan of something than her favorite baseball team, the Oakland A’s. Kelly loves to spend time with her family and talk about the happenings in their lives.

 

Persona 4) Sally is a 32 year-old businesswoman that is too busy to attend any games at Dixie State. She has three young kids that dominate her time away from the office. Sally is interested in building her clientele and thinks a sponsorship with DSC Athletics could broaden her demographic. Sally has seen the advertising options offered on the school’s website and in the various sporting venues, but would like to explore advertising in social media.

 

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I am one of four administrators on the DSC Athletics Facebook page, but I have taken the reins to promote our events and our student-athletes. Since the page has already been established, our goal is to enhance the page with pictures, videos and other marketing elements to give our loyal fans a more inside look into the department. We would also like to drive DSC students and Washington County resident to the site to try and make them Red Storm sports fans.

 

We promote our DSC FB page on the school's main athletic web page (DixieAthletics.com) and forward any direct message from the FB page onto our Twitter feed.

 

By the end of the semester, I would like to have 900-1,000 likes (we are at 712 at post time). We would like to for fans to come up to the administration during games and say something about the FB page.