The Final Four is not just a showcase of the best college basketball players in the country. It is also a one-week golden opportunity for the participating schools to showcase their athletic department and university to the entire sports world watching. SportTechie’s Ben Glidden takes a look at how each school is taking advantage of the extra attention this week and breaking down their social media strategy.
Wichita State Shockers
The Shockers are the Cinderella story of the NCAA Tournament. Not many expected the team to make it to the Final Four. But if you picked your bracket with social media presence in mind, Wichita State being in the national semifinals wouldn’t be a shock to anyone.
If you go to Wichita State’s athletic website, you’ll see the hashtag #WatchUs. The icons for each social network are prominently displayed in the top left corner.
Wichita State Athletics Facebook – 15,965 likes
The key to the Facebook page is the high volume of visual content. The social media team puts text on photos to congratulate athletic achievements. When Malcolm Armstead won the Most Outstanding Player award in the west region, a photo soon followed, earning over 200 shares. The Facebook page is also integrated with Instagram so all of the behind-the-scenes photos are displayed. The Instagram channel gets inside the locker room and into the huddle, giving fans a look they wouldn’t usually get to see.
Wichita State Athletics Twitter – @GoShockers – 6,635 followers
The Twitter account isn’t quite as visual. In fact, there isn’t even a header photo at the top of the page. The account does, however, promote a lot of the same photos that the Facebook page features, but they don’t have the same effect on this network. The timeline is a flurry of re-tweets talking about all things Wichita State. A lot of the re-tweets are from notable people like Jim Rome, Kirstie Alley and United States Senator Pat Roberts. It highlights the support the athletic program has been getting over the past few weeks due to the popularity of the men’s basketball team.
Other Social Networks
Sticking with the visual theme, the Wichita State Pinterest presence is impressive. It features everything from interesting game day foods to motivational memes. One of the more unique things was a Social Media Scavenger Hunt, where visual clues were provided on a separate board. YouTube is also featured on the top of the athletics website. The video team makes some cool content and updates extremely frequently.
Syracuse Orange
The marketing team up on the hill has gotten into the social media spirit over the past year by putting hashtags on the football and lacrosse field and by hosting Social Media Nights at sporting events where attendees and twitter users can win prizes and meet up.
The Syracuse social networks are a little more hidden on the Syracuse Athletics site, but they’re there in the top corner.
Syracuse Orange Facebook – 223,644 likes
It’s not as visual as other pages in the sport-social realm. Rather, the athletics Facebook page works to promote the content coming from the main website. Stories about the tennis team’s victory and the lacrosse team’s new national ranking are featured regularly and photos only appear if they feature the basketball or football team.
Syracuse Athletics Twitter – @Cuse – 26,264 followers
The twitter account is not all that different from the Facebook but the medium allows it to more effectively present the content from the main website. On Facebook, a lot of the posts look bland but on twitter it seems normal. And every once in a while, across the timeline, followers will see an advertisement to buy a product on the team shop. Live-tweeting SU sporting events is a prominent part of the account’s function, also. The staff will tweet interesting factoids that you’d only know if you read the lengthy pre-game media guide.
Other Social Networks
This is where SU Athletic excels. It’s not the twitter and Facebook that make the social media presence impressive, it’s the Pinterest and Google Plus. The Pinterest account feeds right into the site’s culture with orange DIY project ideas, orange weddings, New York’s orange scenery, orange pets, little babies dressed in orange, and any other orange thing you might want to see. It has things that make you say “aww”, it has informative information, it has product offers and really caters to all the audiences that might come to the site. The Google Plus use is even more impressive. The athletic office organizes Google Hangouts with athletes and former players, allowing fans to interact and ask questions.
Louisville Cardinals
Twitter exploded during the Cardinals’ Elite Eight game when player Kevin Ware gruesomely broke his leg on live television. Movements like #WinForWare sprouted up and gave the country a reason to root for the Cardinals. The team also got some national attention when president Clinton visited the team in the locker room at the Big East tournament and players posed with him, posting funny “selfies” on Instagram
Louisville Cardinals Facebook – 152,915 likes
It’s all visual for the Cardinals’ Facebook page. A wide variety of graphics on photos are featured all across the page and not just for the main sports. Softball, baseball, tennis, swimming, you name it and the Facebook page has made a graphic for it. The page has embraced the Kevin Ware news, highlighting a post that reads “I’ll be ok… just win the game”, Ware’s words to his teammates as he was carted off the court.
Louisville Cardinals Twitter – @UofLsports – 27,929 followers
Louisville has a lot of different twitter accounts for specific sports and will often retweet those to get them exposure and highlight team achievements. The majority of the content on twitter is driving traffic back to the website with game recaps and other athletic related news stories. But the visual nature of the Facebook doesn’t bleed over onto the twitter. Much like Wichita State, the Cardinals’ twitter account has no header, even though it insists on being so visual.
Other Social Networks
The Pinterest page has a plethora of different boards featuring unique weekly posts like #TimeoutTuesday, #WordyWednesday and #FrameItFriday. And not all boards are athletic related. Campus life, for example, shows the beautiful sights of the Louisville campus. But aside from Pinterest, nothing else really stands out. Rather than promoting a YouTube channel, the athletics website features the internal all-access channel, CardsTV.
Michigan Wolverines
The Wolverines athletic website does things a bit differently. The homepage doesn’t feature social media as prominently as the others, but it covers its accounts more extensively. If you click on the “Social Media” tab, you’re brought to a social media hub that features the Facebook pages from all the different team pages and the main twitter stream. The Wolverines really focus on the individual teams rather than the brand as a whole. In fact, there is no official “Michigan Wolverines” twitter or Facebook.
Michigan Basketball Facebook – 144,460 likes
Having a specific basketball page makes it a lot easier to focus the brand. The page doesn’t have to worry about posting about any other sports, which makes it a lot more interesting. There are a ton of great photos, similar to the other schools. The page has brought its fans to the NCAA Tournament alongside the players. The page even posts great, informative infographics after each game with statistics and quotes.
Michigan Basketball Twitter – @umichbball – 54,571
Whoever runs the twitter account is at the team’s side constantly, which makes for some really cool content. After the big win that got the team to the Final Four, the account posted a photo of a player dancing on the bus ride home. The Wolverines twitter account also live-tweets games. But it takes a quirky approach rather than just stating what happens on the court.
Other Social Networks
That behind-the-scenes access to the team is extended to the team’s Instagram account, another great way to show fans what’s happening behind closed doors. It’s an up close and personal look at these guys who might be considered untouchables. Not many people get to hang out with players on the team but these photos make you feel like you’re right next to them, celebrating the Final Four berth. Michigan Athletics is also on Foursquare, where it leaves tips at its 27 different facilities, giving fans a heads up about what to expect.
(Photos Courtesy of: Clockwise from top left: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images; Darron Cummings/Associated Press; Rob Carr/Getty Images; Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)