Social Media affecting College Athletics

If you were to think back five to seven years ago and asked yourself how you found out about  your local college sporting events, what would you think of? Possibly turn on the news and see if they were airing any games? Turn on the radio and see if a Saturday night game was on? I can tell you where you wouldn't look, and that is what we now know so popularly to be Facebook and Twitter.

As mentioned in previous blogs, college coaches are now able to reach more of their recruits faster and easier than ever before. They have discovered social media and the positives that it has on their programs. They are able to update fans about their current conditions whether that be of a player's injury, an unfavored call in the previous game, when the next upcoming game is, or anything else that they wish to share with their devoted fans. College athletic departments have moved to create one if not several Facebook pages for each area of their department so that fans can have a more direct approach to their favorite sporting team or mascot.

Michael Tomko/MEDILL

As athletic departments have transitioned to social media usage, they have learned how to use this to their advantage. As you can see in the graph to the left, many schools, Ohio State in particular, have successfully used Facebook to connect with fans and gain popularity amongst them.
 
While some schools are still resorting to traditional advertising such as radio, paper, and television, many have transitioned to social media to reach a broader audience.  Derek Rucker, an associate professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, said that while traditional advertising may still be the best way to reach a broad audience, the use of social media allows marketers the ability to form an intimate relationship with consumers. “The advantage of social media efforts is that it is not just the brand talking to the consumer, but the consumer has an opportunity to talk to the brand or talk to others about the brand,” Rucker said in an email.

The video above represents what Howard Athletics have done to reach YouTube viewers to associate them with their athletic department. This is one example of how advertisers are able to emotionally connect with their fans and to advertise all the different ways they are online.

By reverting to social media to reach out to their fans, athletic departments have realized this is not for a monetary value, but more for fan engagement with their athletics. Social media is a very inexpensive way to gain valuable information on their fans, to find out what they like and what they do not like. It was found that fans are WANTING more content than the same old boring website and that they are able to keep up with all the updates better and faster than just by traditional media. So not only are athletics pushing the social media onto the fans, the fans are pushing athletics for the social media.

I personally like the idea of more social media in college athletics. It allows me to keep up with what is going on without doing a lot of research. It will be surprising to see what will come out next (although we wont really be THAT surprised since something new is always coming out) and of course I am sure everyone will jump at the chance to connect in yet one more way.

Social Media takes over Super Bowl

Whether you're a sports fan or not, approximately 90 million people look forward to the Superbowl each year. There are many reasons why people plan this party weeks in advance, whether its for the actual game itself, for the socializing, for the food and drinks, or for the famous TV commercials.  The anticipation has since shifted from "whose going to win the Superbowl" to "who is going to have the best commercial."

In recent years, there have since been created social media sites that are specifically designed for the rating of Superbowl ads. USA Today has decided to team up with Facebook to reach even more public voters in construction of their polls. Social media sites are being monitored before, during, and well after the Superbowl to measure what commercials are being talked about. “We’re seeing the Super Bowl, formerly a one-day experience, evolving into more of a campaign,” Tom Arrix states about the sponsors constantly seeking attention. By linking up with Facebook and constantly updating Twitter, they are able to measure whats hots and whats not.

Chrysler gained a lot of social media buzz from this ad.

 One change they did have to implement based on the activity they found on social media sites was the addition of halftime commercials in the voting. In the past they have only voted on the commercials viewed during the game excluding the halftime, but since Clint Eastwood's two minute masterpiece (shown here) of "Its halftime America" had gotten so much attention, Ad Meter was forced to include it, rightly so! This is just one opinion, but it was worth every dollar that was spent on creating this.

Other commercials were not as fortunate to receive such positive responses. General Electric, which composed a commercial on making appliances in America was considered to be the most boring according to voters on NYTimes.com. GoDaddy.com was, shocker here, rated as the most tasteless, while Century 21 came in with the weakest.

According to the USA Today Ad Meter the top five commercials consisted of:
1. Doritos: Sling Baby

Doritos: Sling Baby was voted best Superbowl Ad

2. Bud Light: Weego
3. Kia: A Dream Car. For Real Life
4. Chrysler: It's Halftime in America
5. M&M's: It's Just my Shell

Many viewers may have wondered why they have not been seeing other ads that were once a top pick of Superbowl ads, Pepsi with Brittany Spears being one of them. Company's have figured out a way to reach viewers during the Superbowl that has the same effect of a commercial, but cheaper! 

Advertisers want attention, they want to be memorable, they want to touch the viewers for the entire 30 sec commercial. But, just how everyone talks about the price of each ad, everything comes with a price. Since this discovery, marketing strategies have evolved fully to put equal amount of weight on both broadcast and social-media buzz. Their sole purpose to get viewers to tweet, like, share, or even chat about their spots in the programming. "People don't want to be told what they like; people want to tell you what they like," says Ann Mukherjee, chief marketing officer at Frito-Lay. By using social media to the best of their ability, they are able to get a better reaction, as well as better feedback as to their success, or in some cases, failures.

Overall, I thought all the ads were very good, either making me laugh (especially the E*trade ha) or have that "warm feeling inside." Since that is all I am asking from the commercials, they were a success with this viewer. I did not, however, go onto any social media sites and tweet, share, like, or chat about any of them since I was too involved with people at my place, but I did make sure to find out which one won the most votes, now all they have to do for next year is top this years! Better start planning!