By Simon Ogus – Email | Twitter | Articles – Facebook
It’s safe to say that it has been quite a long two weeks for Arizona Athletic Director Greg Byrne. He has spent the better part of the that time watching his baseball team win the national championship in Omaha, but he is not taking it easy as he returns to the office this week. Byrne has announced that he will be hosting a Google + Hangout on Friday, June 29th at 9 a.m. PDT (12 p.m. EDT) and it will last approximately 30-45 minutes.
A Google+ Hangout is a live online video chat and can have up to nine participants at one time. If being able to talk to a major conference athletics commissioner wasn’t enough, Byrne will also have Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott on as a special guest for the first half of the event. Scott will be providing updates on the Pac-12 initiatives including the launch of the Pac-12 networks in early August. Three to five invited fans will also be participating in the Hangout as well as Wilbur the Wildcat, the mascot of Arizona Athletics.
The voice of all the major Arizona sports teams, Brian Jeffries will be the moderator. The only requirement to watch the Google+ Hangout is that one needs to be a follower of the Arizona Athletics Google+ page. If fans can’t make the Hangout or aren’t on Google+ yet, then the full video of the hangout will be available on the Arizona Athletics YouTube Channel.
Arizona Athletics also encourages fans to join in as “Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions and partake in the conversation. Fans who are not selected to participate can ask questions adding posts on the Arizona Athletics’ Google+ and Facebook pages or by submitting a question on Twitter with the hashtag #ArizonaHangout,” according to the athletic department’s press release.
Byrne himself is no stranger to social media, so it is not a surprise he is continuing his outreach to the latest social media avenue. He is very active on his personal Twitter account and also sends out a weekly e-mail called “Wildcat Wednesdays” to fans who chose to subscribe.
University of Arizona Athletics Director Greg Byrne has been very active on social media to promote the Arizona Wildcats.
The ramifications of these types of interactions are very widespread. Even just a few years ago, if Athletic Directors or conference commissioners like Larry Scott wanted to promote a message they often had to agree to an interview with a reporter who may not ultimately promote the message they want to convey or who simply doesn’t communicate as effectively as the individual in charge. These new platforms allow the Universities and the people in charge a chance to personally communicate their message, leaving no confusion as to the details.
With the explosion of social media, businesses are constantly in catch-up mode trying to learn the latest trends. While a lot of companies are still trying to master their Facebook and Twitter accounts, the advanced social thinkers are already moving onto Google+, Pinterest and many more venues. It is likely that video chats like Byrne’s will become commonplace in the near future. While Twitter is great to get short messages across to followers, Google+ Hangouts look to be an emerging outlet for communicating longer and more elaborate messages.
Byrne certainly has Arizona Athletics in the forefront of this movement and it will be interesting to see how other schools respond.
(Mandatory Credit: Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE, Tunecore.com and University of Arizona)