Lodestone Social Media

Are Your Summer Camps Hurting Your Brand, Your Recruiting AND Your Wallet?Monday, May 23rd, 2011

by Mark Drosos, Lodestone Social Media

Summer camp season is almost upon us. You rely on camps to supplement your income. It’s a business, a livelihood, a recruiting tool, a connection to fans and branding tool for you the coach.

It may be too late to affect this summer’s camp, but NOW is the time to start planning for next year. Today, we will focus on three key factors that every coach should consider in preparation for next summer and next season. They all have to do with your website.

User experience
Social Media and search implications
Registration fee

Before we talk about the three items you need to focus on let’s talk about how people make decision, find and share information in today’s social/digital world. Here are some stats to keep in mind:

87% of people will search online before buying. Using search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing
73% of Moms trust online community/social network recommendations
53% of people on Twitter recommend companies and/or products in their Tweets
40 year + women have more friends than their kids on Facebook
13-18 old demographic on Facebook is over 60 million

Now let’s tackle all three points. The best example I can give is for you is to pull up four sample websites and review them as you read the below points. TCU Women’s Volleyball vs. Baylor Volleyball vs. Michigan Volleyball vs. Minnesota WBB

First let’s look at user experience. You all shop, research and browse online. So ask yourself this question, if you came to all four of these websites which one would you buy from. Which one leaves you feeling good about the team, coaches and camps? If you are paying someone a 6.5-8% fee for this experience do you feel you are getting your money’s worth? If you think your are consider these two points:

What kind of brand message are you sending about your program, camps and you as a coach?
- In our opinion here at Lodestone, TCU has branded their experience, given recruits, parents, fans and campers a feel for what it means to be a part of this program and camp experience. In addition to providing value and benefit content as to why you’d want your child to attend.
- The other colleges we used in this example all of areas of opportunity when it comes to strongly branding their schools, in our opinion. In today’s competitive marketing climate, it’s no longer good enough to be just “good enough.” It’s about being amazing in the eyes of your recruits, your fans and your alumni.

What kind of registration experience/process are you delivering and does it benefit your program?

- Registration on websites vary but the main items to consider are do they leave your site when they pay and is it easy to buy. With today’s technology it should be just like shopping on i-Tunes or Amazon.
- If you use registration companies similar to Thriva/Active, My Online Camps or CampReg the user may actually leaves your website to go make a payment. Not only is this a bad experience but it negatively affects your search engine rank and takes your customer away from the content you want them to check out.
- An example is one of the college’s registration process takes you to another website and from that website you can actually easily find other competitor camp information. See Example Here
- If you want to reduce the number of phone calls and emails you get from parents about camp and free up your time a good spot to start is with your website process.

You all pay fees for these services. You make your livelihood from them. Your brand is tied to them. You should expect more from your providers and the hard earned money you pay them.

The second point we will discuss is Social Media and Search implications. As mentioned above 87% of people use ‘search’ like Google to find information and 73% trust recommendation from social networks. So what does your website do to take advantage of this?

TCU takes advantage of this in multiple ways that give them additional marketing power for search engines and making it easy for their campers to share, market their camps for them.
- Facebook ‘Like’ button to like the camp website
- Facebook News Feed plugged into the website
- Links to Gofrogs.com, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Picasa and more
- Facilities and other tabs use map links to Google with images linked to Google’s Picasa

Most of you don’t have marketing budgets or support for camps. You all have fans and campers but are you providing them with an opportunity to promote your camps? How will you reach new customers? You should expect more from your providers and the hard earned money you pay them to help you do this.

The third point is registration fees. This really comes down to the value you get for your money. Do you currently get some of the above mentioned features? Does your provider build your website for or just create a shell and you have to fill in the blanks? What kind of customer support do you get? What fees do they charge you in addition to e-commerce fees?

With technology advancements today this process should be a lot easier. I would argue set up fees, hosting fees, cancellation fees, etc. are a thing of the past. I’d also add that a sliding scale on registration fees is outdated too. A set fee is more appropriate and provides you predictability for what you will pay for the services.

If you could get the TCU Website vs the other websites for the same or less fees would you? This is your business, your money, your brand. So ask yourself am I getting the most for my dollar? I mean, if you could buy an i-Phone 4 for $100 or a 1980 Brick Phone for $100 which would you choose?

In summary, are these services hurting your recruiting, brand and wallet? Your website is tied to your livelihood, recruiting, community, fans, your own brand and more. Technology has advanced so quickly you should expect more for your money.

Lodestone Social Media is used by some of the top college brands to effectively – and economically – plan their social media marketing campaign. We highly recommend that you take a serious look at what they can do for your school, no matter the size. You’ll be glad they did. You can click here for more information about Lodestone, and you can also follow us on Twitter at @lodestonesocial

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Using Facebook to Engage with Your Fans, Alumni…and Your Recruits!Monday, February 28th, 2011

by Mark Drosos, Lodestone Social Media

We have heard it hundreds of times in our conversations with athletic directors and coaches. How can we get more people interested in our teams and people coming to the games?

In todays noisy, media everywhere, social connected world the old school methods just don’t work. Posters, Free Pizza Night, Free T-shirt Night, e-mails, Media Guides, radio spots, etc. will not cut through the noise and get you new fans or remind your old ones that you are there.

They will get you what you have always got and do nothing to spread the word to new people. So why not try something new? Something that is relevant! Something that can allow you to target the fans you seek.

That something is using Facebook to target your local fan base, which is what we are helping college athletic departments do across the country. That fan base is not just people who like your college. You have people who may like your sport, like a player or coach, a local business, college students and media. All of whom have their own reasons for wanting to potentially support your team and they are all on Facebook waiting to be engaged.

We look at the local fan base world in three key areas:

Sports Specific Fans
College Organizations
Media/Business Owners

First – Sport Specific Fans

Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter provide you an opportunity to target specific groups of people with ease. Facebook allows you to target demographically, geographically, by interests and behaviors to reach the right people.

Let’s take for example TCU Volleyball and Facebook www.facebook.com/tcuvolleyball a quick look on Facebook showed there were over 50,000 people within 50 miles of the Fort Worth campus on Facebook that stated in their profile they liked volleyball. Not TCU, just the sport of volleyball.

A person may not care about TCU but if they like volleyball and are local you can bet they would come see a game. Either because they want to support volleyball as a sport or perhaps a youth who likes volleyball and see’s your team as a pro sport and something they aspire to become.

So TCU started to target those 50,000 volleyball fans and in one year generated almost 7,000 fans on Facebook. This has resulted in an attendance going from 700 per game average to over 1,300 and a 30% increase in camp registration.

So, use Facebook to find your local specific sports fans and turn them into your fans.

Second – University Organizations Such As Sororities, Fraternities or Groups

I have been on a lot of campuses and I always see the signs in the ground or posters in the student union, game today! I think these are good, but if you look around just about every kid has their headphones on, looking down using their cell phone or engaged in a conversation and usually miss the sign or forget about it later.

Most school groups are looking for ways to connect to the school and some even have charters requiring it. But the once a year swing by the Fraternity House by a coach or an email to the Sorority President is not enough. You need to engage them where they are spending their time.

A good majority of them have a Facebook Page too and with the new changes to Facebook you can post and engage them as your team using your Page as person.

This provides a direct link into the life blood of your college athletic programs, the students! An example of this is San Diego State Volleyball, who follows 18 different programs giving them access to over 15,000 of their followers. Simply congratulating the group on their accomplishments, promoting their events and asking them to come to a game will keep you top of mind and cool! You could even go as far as having contest or special sections and promotions for them via Facebook.

Third – Media and Business Owners

I hear it a lot from Olympic sports or from the non-dominate college in town that they don’t get their fair share of press or support from local businesses. Well with 24 of the top 25 publications failing and major magazines declaring bankruptcy most have moved to social media to get their news out.

The fast pace, media snacking world of social media has left them needing more stuff to talk about. That’s where you come in. Simply emailing or posting your game notes will not get you the press you desire. Just about every local news outlet is on Facebook and/or Twitter. Engage them and the rewards will come.

Take TCU Women’s Basketball for example. After simply following local Fox News and ESPN Dallas and re-posting their articles about sports they had ESPN Dallas tweeting and blogging about their program. They had Fox DFW promoting their Pink Zone game to their viewers.

Then there is local business. Local businesses have flocked to social media to reach the local market because newspaper ads and radio spots aren’t cutting it. Most understand the benefit to promoting local sports and would welcome the chance to cross promote with your team.

If you are not following your local coffee shop, sports bar, pizza shop or even dry cleaner you are missing the chance to create a buzz. You will also find they may give away specials just to your Facebook fans.

To recap, remember if you really want to market your team, find new fans and get more exposure. Use the power of Facebook to target your local market. Focus on ‘Sports Specific’ fans, School Groups and your local media and businesses. Follow and engage them and the rewards will come.

Lodestone is a recommended resource for college athletic departments, and the official social media experts for Tudor Collegiate Strategies. If you want to know more check out this summary video or feel free to reach out to the author at mark@lodestonesocial.com with any questions.

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The 5 Best Practices for Social Media in College SportsMonday, January 31st, 2011

by Mark Drosos, Lodestone Social Media

Social media has created a monumental shift is the way people consume content and engage with your team. It has made some traditional methods of marketing obsolete.

In 2010, Facebook topped Google for weekly traffic in the U.S. and a study found that 1/3 of people will check their Facebook page before brushing their teeth when they get up in the morning.

It has created a powerful platform to stay connected with your fans. And, the way people find their news today. Mobile phones and social media allows you to connect with your fans any time anywhere. YouTube is like your own personal 24/7 mobile TV station, allowing you to create a personality for your team and showcase your brand to millions of fans and recruits. More and more, coaches at the college level are wanting expert direction to help them capitalize on this growing opportunity.

With email open rates at less than 2%, 24 of the top 25 largest newspapers failing, Publications like PC Magazine filing for bankruptcy and micro-websites seeing decrease traffic it’s no wonder some of the biggest brands in the world have seen the light that is called social media and shifted their marketing budgets to ensure they don’t lose. Nike recently moved away from micro-sites into building Facebook pages, Gatorade launched a social media control center and P&G shifted 80% of their Soap Opera Media dollars into social media.

All while professional teams like the Pittsburg Steelers and Phoenix Suns have focused on Social Media using their Facebook pages to drive promotions and even create sponsorship packages for their brand partners.

So what does this mean for your Athletic Department or team? How can avoid falling behind? How can you do what the top marketers in the world are doing to increase your attendance, camps, media exposure and sponsorship dollars for your programs along with improving recruiting?

Implement these five best practices and you can create a social media presence that will rival a professional team or one of the best brands in the world.

Think Local
It’s a Relationship not a Microphone
Design and Branding
Content is King
Promotions

In this first of our two-part series, we will discuss two fundamentals of social media: How to ‘Think Local’ and ‘It’s a Relationship not a Microphone’.

Think Local

Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter provide you an opportunity to target specific groups of people with ease. Through Facebook, you can target demographically, geographically, by interests and behaviors to reach the right people.

Let’s take, for example, TCU Volleyball and Facebook at www.facebook.com/tcuvolleyball. A quick look on Facebook showed there were over 50,000 people within 50 miles of the Fort Worth campus on Facebook that stated in their profile they liked volleyball.

In addition to TCU fans they were able to target people who like volleyball as a general interest. By doing so, we helped their coaches generate almost 7,000 fans on Facebook. This has resulted in an 80% increase in attendance and 30% increase in camp registration since they began the campaign.

You can also use Facebook to find your Sororities, Fraternities and School Organization and create a relationship with them. This provides a direct link into the life blood of your college athletic programs, the students! Example of such is San Diego State volleyball who follows 18 different on campus groups giving them access to over 15,000 of their followers.

So in summary, use social media to find, attract and retain your local fans.

2. It’s a Relationship, not a Microphone

One of the biggest pitfalls coaches and athletic department officials fall into with social media is thinking it’s a way to “broadcast” information instead of a platform to engage fans. There is no greater example than with your local media.

Every local, national or regional TV station, radio, blogger and reporter is on Twitter and they all are looking for news to share with their followers. But if all you do is use Twitter as a microphone soon people go deaf and tune out your message.

So here are some simple rules to follow on Twitter to get more out of your efforts.

Keep your follower to following ration at 1:1 or 2:1. Engage with your followers. Share their stories. Be relevant! It is about quality and engagement not about having 1,000’s of followers. For instance, one Division I women’s sports program we researched has over 1,100 followers but only follows 16 people. They have tweeted over 1,700 times but hardly any where re-tweets, replies or relevant stories other than their school’s scores and updates which resulted in only a hand full of people actually re-tweeting or sharing that information.

On the other hand, TCU has a 1:1 ratio and re-tweets or replies to followers regularly. In exchange TCU has had ESPN Dallas, Fox News DFW, local news reporters and radio personalities writing stories about their program, re-tweeting about the program and even resulting in radio interviews for the coach.

So remember it’s a relationship and not a microphone.

In Part two of the 5 Best Practices of Social Media for Sports, we will show you the gas that fuels the engine and focus on Design, Content and Promotions.

Lodestone Social Media is a recommended resource for increasing the use of social media in your sports program. Whether you’re looking to engage more fans, or find creative ways to showcase your program to recruits, the experts at Lodestone are helping to create amazing social media websites for your competition.

If you want to know more about Lodestone, check out this great summary video at http://budurl.com/SocialSports or feel free to reach out to the author, Mark Drosos, at mark@lodestonesocial.com with any questions.

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Dan Tudor

Are Your Summer Camps Hurting Your Brand, Your Recruiting AND Your Wallet?Monday, May 23rd, 2011

Using Facebook to Engage with Your Fans, Alumni…and Your Recruits!Monday, February 28th, 2011

The 5 Best Practices for Social Media in College SportsMonday, January 31st, 2011

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