Using Social Media effectively in your athletics department

When looking at the application of social media and athletics development, it is important to note one trend that is emerging amongst internet followers–they follow people, not companies or organizations. If one looks at the top 20 twitter accounts with the largest amount of followers, only one is a company (@cnnbrk), and there are only six organizations in the top 40.

What can be deduced from this information is that people are interested in using social media to track their friends, family and other personalities, not necessarily corporations or businesses. When applying this knowledge to athletics development, it is important to recognize those in the athletics department with the largest name appeal and following. For instance, @UKCoachCalipari has 1.1 million followers. The official University of Kentucky account (@universityofky) has only 2,800 followers.

In addition, many coaches are now hosting their own sites, such as Tom Izzo at Michigan State and Nick Saban at Alabama. While the main purpose of these sites may be recruiting, there does remain a possibility to utilize these sites and personalities to raise funds for the athletics department. In some cases, the person does not even need to be real. The University of Wyoming has created a Facebook page for Cowboy Joe, their official mascot. To date, the page has garnered ~1,200 friends and followers.

Simple links stating, “Give to Athletics” or “Facility Expansion” can serve to increase the awareness of mission of purpose of each fundraising arm. Using the departments largest personalities can at times be a challenge, but everyone can stand to benefit from a personal appeal from a celebrity personality.

Taylor Wood

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