Social Media in the College Sports scene
Social media is a huge part of college athletics, for the athletes, a team, and as an athletic department as a whole, changing the way we interact in the communications space. It’s now even an essential part for coaches to partake in. Providing a cost effective method, social media can take people to the game, without actually being at the game while presenting information to sports fans and the community. As noted in a study, social media provides “two-way communication with key publics and are impacting organizational transparency.” In the age of limited in-person attendance during the COVID-19 pandemic, social media has become even more essential.
The business of using social media
When running an operation, there are not many things that come free, except a social media account. “In an age of ever-tightening athletic budgets and increasing diffusion of traditional media audiences, social media provides a comparatively inexpensive personal connection with fans, through services already offered by third parties,” writes Dr. Galen Clavio in G. Clayton Stoldt’s “The Impact of Social Media on College Athletics Communication.” Social media allows athletic departments to connect with fans and supporters through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube … just to name a few. 88% of respondents in this study “agreed or strongly agreed that social media offers organizations a low-cost way to develop relationships with members of various strategic publics.”
To show how much time is being put into social media in athletics, Sports Information Directors/athletics communications staff reported that social media makes up 1/4 of their job duties. Having a presence on social media meets fans where they’re already are, while a department can even use social media as a business strategy and even use it to profit and advertise their sponsors — just like the graphic above.
In this study professional communicators had a “general agreement that social media and traditional media compliment one another,” where 77% of respondents agreed to this statement. This is important as traditional news media is usually the ones covering college athletics, besides an athletics communications office. In fact, reporters even use social media to cover an athletic contest. 53.7% of this group agreed that social media has enhanced the practice of public relations, on top of press releases and website management and interviews.
The TV as the thing of the past?
Needing to be in front of a television set to catch a game is starting to become a thing of the past. In, “How Social Media’s Impact on Sports Will Continue to Grow,” they talk about how it’s possible to watch a live stream of an event on Facebook or Twitter. For example, in the Spring of 2020 when the NCAA canceled all winter sports and championships, including basketball and hockey, they used Facebook to premiere/livestream classic championship games to celebrate the Frozen Four when it was supposed to happen. Using Facebook has allowed fans to comment during the replay of the game in one place, where Twitter requires a hashtag.
In 2017, both Facebook and Twitter inked deals with Stadium — a digital television and internet sports streaming site — to broadcast live football games on their platforms, leading to another way that fans can watch the games. Twitter has also been streaming National Football League games, which has allowed fans to see the game from the perspective of a player or a coach. Going back to the study “The Impact of Social Media on College Athletics Communication,” a strong majority of 92% respondents agreeded that social media is more instantaneous which can be important to a sports setting that moves at a fast pace.
High attendance can lead to high caliber interactions
In “What Factors Contribute to Attendance in College Football?”, The Harvard Sports Analysis Collective talks about how schools that have bigger student populations draws in a bigger audience due to the size of their stadiums — Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich. can put up to 107,601 Wolverine fans into “The Big House.” Michigan ranked third in the SkullSparks report (see below), a service a network of 120+ partner teams which is nearing 21K college athletics creatives, coaches and athletics department administrators. To add, in this study it talks about how cities that don’t have a professional sports team can have high attendances, building bigger fan bases. and with Michigan being a “Power Five” school, that can be a positive for the Wolverines. Power Five schools averaged 61,000 fans at home games (these type of itsitutions usually have larger staduims).
Comparing an athletic department social media page interactions in a school that has football to a school that doesn't have football clearly drives up the amount of interactions. In a report done by SkullSparks — a platform that has digital and design in college athletics — they evaluated all social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) of Alabama (football) and South Dakota (non-football). In January 2021, Alabama had 935,000 interactions, while South Dakota had 40,000 interactions, creating a difference of 895,000 interactions. In both cases, Instagram had the most interactions. College football also gets the attention of big-name networks, such as ESPN and ABC.
Does success on the ice lead to more interactions?
Based on results ran by SkullSparks, NCAA postseason entries could lead to more interactions, as shown with this report. For the women’s side of college hockey, five of out of eight teams (#1 Wisconsin, #4 Boston College, #6 Northeastern, #10 Ohio State, #12 Minnesota Duluth) made the NCAA postseason tournament — it could have been very close to six (#3 Minnesota). Although, the weekly ranking polls don’t match these analytics, according to US College Hockey Online where Northeastern finished #2, while Ohio State and Minnesota Duluth finished third and fourth in the polls. Wisconsin won the national championship, so that matches up as they are first in this report. In the March report, the Badgers social media interactions jumped up to 245K interactions, after they brought home the hardware.
As for the men side, eight out of twelve teams (#1 Michigan*, #2 Boston College, #3 Wisconsin, #4 Minnesota #5 #5 Notre Dame*, #7 North Dakota, #10 Quinnipiac, #11 Boston University) made the NCAA Tournament. Although the postseason entires matchup, the polls don’t exactly match interactions. Michigan, Notre Dame, Arizona State, Michigan Tech, Penn State, and Northern Michigan had more interactions, but not that same postseason success or entry to the postseason. Six of these institutions are members of the BIG 10 Hockey Conference, which was built off of presenting every game on television. Arizona State, #6, is opening a new arena, but never found themselves in the rankings. That was introduced in February, the same month that the analysis took place.
*Michigan and Notre Dame were forced to bow out due to COVID-19 protocols.
“Bite-sized” posts
It’s not only athletic departments and teams that run social media. It’s the coaches too. John Calipari — the coach of the Kentucky basketball team — compares social media to the “ESPN Ticker,” which is what runs across the bottom of the screen with different scores. “I’ll tell you why it works,” Calipari said. [People] don’t want large bites. Give me a small bite; make it fast, I’ll see what it is, I’ll laugh and I’ll move on to something else.” Twitter delivers that small bite to followers, as it allows the account holder to only post 260 characters. When something new happens, it’s appropriate to send out another tweet, which happens a lot in sports. A single touchdown in football is worth a tweet, a goal in hockey or a dunk in basketball. Same with an Instagram story. Followers want to see the action, which can help give the experience that they are at the game or if they don’t have time to watch, they follow along that way.
Recruiting
Social media can also be used as a two-way method for recruiting athletes. It’s also a way for coaches and teams to screen prospects, but also connect with them without breaking the rules. In “Coaches, colleges explore new frontiers,” Tim Beckmen — the football coach at Toledo — mentions how many rules there are when it comes to recruiting, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only made that duty tougher with more restrictions from the NCAA. The association implemented a “dead period” at the start of the pandemic, which banned connecting face-to-face, although it still allows them to connect virtually. Schools can even show off their facilities virtually, which can benefit a recruit as they can preview the place before actually coming. It also gives recruits access anytime to see their future home, saving costs for both parties.
Recruiting could be one of the different priorities that a team and an athletic department has to deal with. According to SkullSparks Director Jason Matheson, every team however is interested in maximizing the return on resources devoted to social media where analytics assist in identifying effective strategies and recognizing trends.
