4. Session Goals
• Discuss Social Media Strategies and Best Practices.
• Exchange ideas to help position your institution to take
advantage of the increased visibility inherent in today’s
social media culture.
• Discuss challenges that Division III institutions face
related to the ever-changing social media landscape
and brainstorm ideas to overcome those challenges.
• Share resources for educating institutions, coaches
and student-athletes on relevant social media issues.
5. Panelists
• Nafeesa Connolly - Simmons College
Student-Athlete
• Kelly Anderson Diercks - Augsburg College
Associate Athletic Director/SWA
• David Kemmy - Roger Williams University
Director of Athletics
• Blake Timm - Pacific University
Sports Information Director
8. Creating a Social Media Policy
Stay on brand
Stick to basic
standards
Target audience
Numerous
platforms
What is the
purpose?
9. Social Media Strategy
Simmons College
College-wide: Broaden the reach of college’s
messaging, reinforce the brand.
Women’s leadership and success
Value of a women’s education
Gender issues
10. Social Media: Simmons College
Simmons Athletics: No social media strategy.
Created 3+ years ago.
Updated twice a week, depending on season.
Promote large events (e.g., rival games, community
service, “Blue Outs,” awards).
Created 2.5 years ago.
Updated every day if necessary.
Instant updates (e.g., game-day scores, wrap ups,
links to website, academic/athletics accomplishments).
Spring 2014.
11. Within or Independent of a
Specific Policy, Does Your
Institution Monitor Social
Media Use?
12. Monitoring
Roger Williams University
• No specific monitoring system in place.
• Communications and compliance staff intermittently
check team Facebook sites.
• Regular discussions with coaching staff on exercising
caution and discretion.
• We are reactive instead of proactive at this point, from
a university and department standpoint .
• 189 million Facebook users are “mobile only” making
monitoring more difficult.
17. How Does Your Institution
Educate Student-Athletes
on Social Media Use?
18. Educating Our Student-Athletes
Roger Williams University
• Hawk Leadership Academy.
– Half-day workshop on social media.
• FROSH Orientation program for all new student-
athletes.
– Presented by upper classmen.
19. Informing Student-Athletes
“A little bit goes a long way”
Beneficial
Social media is “here to stay.”
Applicable in every day life.
Protection vs. Prevention
Can’t hold our hands but can inform us to prevent
situations.
Unlimited Resources
AD
Assistant AD
FAR
Peers
SAAC
Athletics Department
Institution
Professors
21. Ask Yourself
• Is it something I would want on the cover of a
magazine?
• Is it something I would want my mom to see?
• If it was in a commercial aired across the U.S., would I
be proud?
• Does this go against my values or morals?
22. What to Cover
• Pros/Cons.
• Branding and values.
• Real-world cases.
• As a team/department/SAAC, what rules should we
implement.
• How to be yourself.
• Privacy settings.
• How to use social media to your advantage.
23. How Does Your Institution
Use Social Media as a
News Source or
Promotional Strategy?
24. Social Media to Promote
Pacific University
• FACEBOOK
• News Stories and Announcements
• Features
• Photos
• Game Promotions
• TWITTER
• News Stories and Announcements
• In-Game Scoring Updates
• Fan Interaction
• Links to News Stories
• YOUTUBE
• Highlight Videos
• Interviews
• Videos of Special Events
• INSTAGRAM
• Photo Collages
• Instant Video Highlights
25. Social Media to Promote
Pacific University
• DO NOT REINVENT THE WHEEL.
• Use web platforms to populate social media.
• SIDEARM
– Can post stories to Facebook and Twitter at the
same time stories are posted.
• PRESTO SPORTS/D3SCOREBOARD.COM
– Can post to Twitter as you post score updates out of
the “GameDay” screen.
26. Communicating
News/Events
• Burden on communications/sports information staff.
• Still ask them to put out there as much as we can
especially on Facebook pages.
• Value of team pages for targeted audiences.
• Awareness of what student workers should/should not
be posting.
• 93% of marketers are using social media for business
use.
27. Social Media: Simmons College
Sending and Receiving Information.
Website.
Facebook.
Twitter.
Blogs.
Collaboration between athletics and campus
communication departments.
28. Interaction with Coaches
Personal accounts.
No interaction (friends, following, tagging, posting)
until at least final season is over.
Professionalism.
No conflicts of interest.
Team-related accounts.
Anytime.
Important information communicated via
telephone (call/text) and email.
29. Social Media with the Team
Official Facebook page
Parents
Alumnae
Students
Campus
Facebook group (private)
Team
Facebook group (secondary)
Team, coaches, recruits
Updates
Game day
Memorable moments
31. Recruiting Challenges
• Difficulty in keeping track of things from a compliance
perspective.
• PSAs communicate freely this way.
– Our coaches should be on board with them.
– A lot of confusion on part of Division III PSAs.
32. National SAAC Position on
Legislative Changes
2012: Text messaging
Support
2013: Social media
Opposed
33. What Resources are Available
to Institutions Seeking to
Provide Education Related to
Social Media?
34. Resources
• People
– Janet Judge
– Chris Syme - CKSyme Media Group (former SID, sports
specialist)
• Other
– FieldHouse Media - Fieldhousemedia.net
– CoSIDA - cosida.com
– Mashable - Mashable.com
– The Complete Final Social Media Sizing Cheat Sheet
• http://bit.ly/1bKlLv
– NCAA programming bit.ly/NCAAprogramming2014
BLAKE
Pacific has athletics social media policy, which is more educational in nature than setting policy.
Divided into “guidelines” and “best practices”
Educating student-athletes on social media use more effective than relying on policy.
Athletic department guidelines are meant to complement university’s “Acceptable Use Policy”
States are beginning to pass laws limiting discipline for social media use and monitoring
KELLY WILL CHIME IN
NAFEESA
Had a discussion with my SID and found that Simmons doesn’t have a social media strategy for athletics. This presentation can be used to start that conversation about the dept having a stategy. My SID and I discussed some thing that are key to any social media strategy, which are:
Stay on institution’s brand
Simmons: Visual Identification System
Promoting events use specific material
Proper names
Correct photos
Language
Covering institution’s numerous Twitter handles
Stick to basic standards and social media practices
Our goal with Simmons College social media is to broaden the reach of our messaging as well as to continue to bolster and reinforce our brand. We are currently on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, YouTube and Vimeo. We've been on Facebook and Twitter since 2008. Our best practices are available here: http://www.simmons.edu/offices/marketing/docs/Social-Media-Guidelines.pdf
NAFEESA
DAVE
KELLY
NAFEESA
Conversation with SID suggested again, we have no strategy which means there’s no rules or guidelines to whether or not coaches monitor. However, some coaches may check their players’ social media pages (this is just a guess not a fact)
BLAKE
DAVE
NAFEESA
Something about it being something the entire institution values, it’s easier to get depts. On board because it aligns with the mission of the school.
Simmons emphasizes professionalism, etc.
Communications student, receive this education right off the bat so I’m more fluent than someone who isn’t focused on this
KELLY
NAFEESA
Golden Rules to ask yourself
NAFEESA
As a team/dept/saac, what rules should we implement?
BLAKE
It is important to cross-promote what you do across all social media channels
DAVE
NAFEESA
Talk about how I’ve collaborated both depts. To better communicate about athletics,
In the Loop
Magazine
Newsletter
NAFEESA
Something about coaches and their “personal coaching accounts”
KELLY WILL CHIME IN
NAFEESA
DAVE AND KELLY
NAFEESA
DAVE – Janet Judge
Blake – Chris Syme, Fieldhouse, CoSIDA, Mashable, the complete final social media sizing cheat sheet
NAFEESA – NCAA programming