Creating collaborative social communications on campus
College Sports Information Directors of America
Chris Syme's article kicks off a special edition of the NACDA Athletics Administration Magazine (February 2011 issue) which focuses on social media policy, issues, problems and usage in the intercollegiate athletics industry.
The Athletics Administration Magazine special February section entitled "The Role of Social Media in Intercollegiate Athletics Today" (PDF). It includes:
- Syme's piece (below)
- Social media is as much an opportunity as it is a challenge for Compliance professionals, contributed by NAAC Executive Board Member Dan Bartholomae, assistant AD for compliance at Pittsburgh and NAAC 2nd Vice President Christian Spears, senior associate AD at Northern Illinois
- Social media and its role in the athletics development industry, contributed by Alex Tiseo, NACDA intern
- Social media in collegiate marketing, by Erin Dengler, NACDA Communications with contributions by former NACMA President Mary Pink (Iowa State associate athletics director for marketing), NACMA Executive Committee Member Angie Sit (Oregon assistant athletics director for marketing), NACMA Executive Committee Member Ayo Dixon-Taylor (South Florida assistant athletics director for marketing and revenue development) and Andy Morris (South Florida director of marketing and new media)
Creating collaborative social communications on campus
by Chris Syme, CoSIDA New Media/Technology Committee Chair and former Montana State athletics communications assistant director
follow Syme on her blog: www.cksyme.org
Navigating social media communications today can feel like traveling through a maze at times. New tools seem to pop up everyday, promising more followers and higher conversion rates. Measuring return on investments (ROI) seems elusive and the learning curve can be time consuming. But on many campuses, social media has shown a good return for those who build the right staff and have the right map.
THE RIGHT CREW
The most successful social media teams are collaborative. Athletics communications associates (SIDs) should work with marketing and web teams to find the right formula for success. Most athletics media relations professionals are savvy in the basic elements of social media - policy writing, strategic planning and technological expertise, but most importantly, we write and pitch for a living. We are experts at connecting readers to stories. And that is the basal attraction of social media - connection. Sports communications administrators are the key players in telling the department’s and institution’s story, and they bring that much-needed feel for engagement to the social media staff.
At Montana State, we assembled a social media team based on strengths. By default, two communications associates and the marketing director formed the core. Then, we added a tech-savvy assistant women’s basketball coach and a member of the academic services staff with a strength in technology and professional development. Together, we worked on strategy, policy, tool implementation, metrics and professional development. We routinely circulated blog postings and websites we found, and information on new applications and tools we came across. When it came time to redesign the website to include more interactive features, we solicited input from all the head coaches. It was an energetic environment that succeeded because we had a united agenda.
Social media accounts at Montana State are managed jointly by marketing, media relations and coaches. Each account has an editorial purpose. We jointly plotted those purposes at the beginning of the journey and team members meet regularly to rework and rethink.
For instance, we decided to use our Twitter accounts to broadcast news stories and run game day feeds. We purposed to use Facebook to develop an “inner circle” of highly engaged fans and made it an exclusive place of information and promotions, always with the goal in mind of fan participation. We implemented interactive features such as polls, photo contests and other promotions designed to get fans talking. From the beginning, we knew what the purpose of each social media channel was and developed it on that path. Our sports information staff plays a key role in the message development and operations of those channels.
One of the things athletics directors need to foster is a spirit of cooperation between offices that share tasks. Some of the best social media campaigns I’ve seen originated in the athletics media relations communications office and were happily embraced by marketing professionals who understood the value of a team win. It doesn’t happen everywhere - but it should. There is a lot of common ground between marketing and media relations. We were fortunate at Montana State to have a staff that understands that and doesn’t get territorial in the tasks of putting out the best product.
THE RIGHT MAP
Your social media team needs a map to navigate the social media landscape, and there are two elements that are necessary for a good map: strategy and policy.
Just as your strategic plan is key to your department’s success, your social media effort needs to be guided by good strategy as well. I outlined the first social media strategy at Montana State based on best practices I had gleaned from experts in the field. To help my crew through the process, I developed the “A-PIE” acronym that stands for the four basic elements of social media strategy: Assess, Plan, Implement and Evaluate.
It’s critical to understand the underlying importance that successful strategy emanates from the department mission. As you walk through each step, keep the department’s goals first and foremost. This accelerates buy-in and facilitates seamless integration. Strategy answers the important questions, why are we doing this and what do we hope to accomplish?
(A)ssess - You have to listen first
The first step in any strategy is listening. Where are your stakeholders? How much time are they spending on each social media channel? What kinds of features/information would engage them?
This information can be gathered from a free tool using a survey application such as Survey Monkey (you can ask 10 questions for free; there also is a subscription plan).
After you learn about your stakeholders, assess the state of the union in-house by asking these questions:
- How much time, people and resources do we have available to do this? What do we need in terms of time, people and resources to make it work?
- What is the current duty roster and what will be the new lines of responsibility? Who is best equipped to be the department’s social media manager?
- What is our current information flow? Are we engaging our fans or just pumping out information? (You will need to acquire good engagement skills if you are currently just a news-only source. Social media will stall out in a broadcastonly model.)
- What will we need to change about the way we do business to be successful?
• (P)lan - First Prioritize
Paint a big picture with the information you gathered while listening. Separate your “urgents” from your “laters.”
Next, match your resources (time, money and people) to your urgent priorities. When it comes to this matching exercise, you may find out that you really don’t have the time or money (equipment) to do video, so it could get bumped down to the “later” list. That is the value of assessing: you save yourself a headache by not starting what you can’t do well.
• (I)mplement
The main tool for implementing strategy is going to be an editorial calendar, similar to what communications associates use to schedule publications or feature stories. I recommend using an Excel spreadsheet. The editorial calendar should schedule basic updates for each tool (regular updates should have a purpose, such as a poll each Monday), indicate who is responsible for each application and how much daily time should be allotted for each tool.
To make sure that strategy matches implementation, always keep these five questions in front of the crew as they work on tools:
- What problem/opportunity/deliverable does this tool solve?
- What value does it add to our overall strategy? What will it accomplish?
- What target audience does it serve? (don’t guess — look at the stats)
- Does it fit in our time, resources and people plan?
- How will we measure it? (ROI)
One of the biggest keys to effective implementation is professional development. Since the social media landscape is constantly changing, it’s important for crew members to get ongoing training, whether it is professional conferences such as NACDA, CoSIDA or PRSA, or bringing an occasional trainer to campus for the whole crew. A less costly alternative are webinars. There is a huge selection of these available from companies such as Social Media Examiner. Encourage the crew to establish social media accounts of their own and follow social media curators.
• (E)valuate
When all is said and done, evaluation is a constant. It isn’t something you do once, it’s a commitment to test and see if what you’re doing is working and how to make it better. ROI is the biggest question mark with social media. Yet, most of the research to this point indicates that social media has a much larger ROI than more costly traditional media.
Your social media crew should get familiar with application metrics as a basis for rethinking and reworking the plan. Most social media tools have effective free measuring sticks. Google Analytics can be embedded into websites and blogs, and Facebook has its own extensive metric system. Crew members should learn how to use the metrics and apply them to strategy.
A good strategy is guided by an effective policy.
Why do you need a social media policy? It’s a guide to running an effective social communications program. How are new accounts handled? Who is responsible for monitoring the channels? What are the criteria for eliminating negative posts? What are the community guidelines for each channel? Where are your community guidelines going to be posted? What is social media’s role in crisis communications? What subjects are taboo? Are you going to use branded graphics on your sites?
These are only a brief look at some issues your written policy needs to cover.
Montana State was one of the first collegiate athletics departments to develop a social media policy. We looked at top corporate and university policies that fit our culture. Our campus legal counsel helped as well. The policy can be found at: http://www.msubobcats.com/documents/2010/6/Social_Media_Policy_final_approved.pdf?id=412.
I also wrote a series of blog entries on developing successful policy. They are available here:
http://newadventuresofanoldsid.blogspot.com/search/label/social%20media%20policy
WHAT’S ON THE HORIZON?
Gadgets, applications, widgets ... oh my. Besides the basics I’ve already mentioned, there are some emerging trends we need to watch.
First, make sure your website is mobile-friendly. The best mobile application I’ve seen so far is iHog, from the University of Arkansas. Mobile apps can be pricey, but if your website is clunky for mobile use, you’ll want to do some research. Try to access your website from your mobile device and see if it’s easy to navigate. According to statistics published in February 2010, more people are now accessing social sites from phones than from desktops.
Well-written blogs that engage fans are great for showing fans pieces of athletics they won’t get in the newsfeed. Many institutions now have specialty bloggers. The University of Wisconsin, for instance, has a blog written by longtime Madison media member, Mike Lucas.Blogs should be well-written, published regularly and be engaging.
Location-based applications such as Foursquare, Gowalla, SCVNGR and Facebook Places are popular with the young demographic and are natural venues for promotions. Many institutions are starting to use them to reward fans for regular attendance at events and gain special seating or discount coupons.
Video is now the number one time consumer online. The initial investment is now as inexpensive as a $150 Flip camera. You Tube allows for the set-up of individual channels that can be branded to your website.
Whatever is on your horizon, a good social media strategy needs to be part of the department’s plan. And, athletics communications plays a major role in developing and implementing that strategy.
Calendar
Important Dates