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.