Community Relations 2.0

As I read through the Community Relations 2.0 PDF I couldn't help but think about the vast increase in graphically appealing "edits" or PhotoShop pieces that are posted almost daily on social media platforms by college football coaches (some examples to come).

This line of the article really jumped out at me: "Social Media platforms enhance the power of online communities in four ways: They promote deep relationships, allow fast organization, improve the synthesis and creation of knowledge, and permit better filtering of information."

In the Fall of 2013 I went on a mission to find a member of the UConn student body who possessed the technical skills in PhotoShop and InDesign to create the type of content that I knew we needed to be supplying to our target audience (students, alums, fans, donors, prospective student-athletes, etc). I found myself a gem, and ironically she grew up just about a mile from where I grew up. I was lucky that I found someone who I could really vet through many contacts I had at UConn and from my hometown. She turned out to be fantastic, and she keeps getting better with every piece that she creates.

Here are some examples of things that schools are putting out:

You can see that these really captivate the audience and they really do the four things mentioned in the above quote. 

Here are a few examples of what my student worker (Steph Orts) prepared while she was working for me. (If anyone has a need for similar things to be created I would HIGHLY recommend her).

These are a great way for people to get their messages across to key constituency groups via Twitter and Facebook. They are graphically appealing and they provide meaningful information. It is far better than simply seeing 140 characters on a screen. 

Competition Between Bloggers

As I was reading the chapter on social media I came across this line:

"The dynamics of social media today are rooted in the competition between bloggers to greater influence for their personal points of view, attached to their names and their identities."

This made me think of a well known story within the collegiate football coaching circles of two brothers who started a website in 1999 called FootballScoop.com. Football Scoop is essentially a semi-news driven and semi-gossip driven site that tracks coaching changes as coaches are hired, fired, promoted, retire, etc.

Here is an article that details the split between the two brothers, Scott and Pete Roussell which led to the creator of Football Scoop's first ever competitor CoachingSearch.com. CoachingSearch.

Article on Brotherly Feud

These two men who really revolutionized the tracking of coaching searches and football personnel moves have both created a tremendous brand together, and since their separation they've created two very powerful individual brands. Both have a huge following on Twitter where they have several thousand followers. Football Scoop Twitter has over 57,000 followers while CoachingSearch Twitter has over 40,000 followers. What were once sites followed by coaches and athletic administrators are now followed by fans, the media, and student-athletes.

I have always found this story interesting and reading the social media chapter, especially the quote I pulled earlier really puts this into a different perspective.

Week 2 Blog Post

Well, I'm back. Heading into my 3rd blog post and I'm starting to enjoy it. As I've said in my previous posts I never thought I would be doing this.

I found this week's material interesting. Evaluating this week's material made me think of the following: One buzz phrase that football coaches like to use is that we are in the "information gathering" business and not the information giving business. Coaches love to discover and learn new information in recruiting, in offensive/defensive schemes, in personnel matters, etc but they do not like to let information about their program out.

Information Liquidity - I liked the idea of the "One to Many" concept. It is something that most people deal with every day and never think of it. On any given day I get several emails from different sites from Marriott to CVS and from Infiniti Service to Brooks Brothers. I must say the vast majority of these emails I delete without even opening them, but occasionally I do see a promotion that I open up and click on. I would also think that tweets sometimes could be considered in this model as well. News agencies put out a tweet that may contain an article link that then gets retweeted and passed around the internet. I did find the information about ubiquitous activity very interesting. The advent and evolution of mobile technology in the last 4-5 years has been tremendous. From my own experiences, social media has drastically changed the realm of football recruiting. On Aug 1, 2014 SnapChat becomes a legal method of communication in recruiting. This will allow for a tremendous flow of communication to prospective student athletes on a medium that they use quite frequently and it is incredibly inexpensive for both coaches and the prospects.

Making the Transition to the Social Web - The SnapChat and other methods of social media also are highlighted in the reading about transitioning to the social web. I gave a presentation (at the time I thought it was a job interview, but it was simply a fact finding mission by a university's football program) in which I covered the importance of social media in the recruiting process. I was surprised that a few of the coaches told me that some of my thoughts and ideas were the first they had heard on the topic outside of some basic social media functions.

Digital Marketing & The Vatican

After reading through this week's topic on how marketing strategies may have changed because of the internet, a story I read last fall came to mind.

Was Jesus the Original Tweeter? - Huffington Post

Was Jesus the Original Tweeter? - Washington Times

Now, when you take a step back from whatever your personal beliefs are, it is pretty amazing that the Vatican is connecting the Catholic Church, that is over 2000 years old to Twitter. I think this shows just how powerful the internet and digital marketing is in today's society.

First Ever Blog Post

So I am writing a blog post...for an MBA class. I have to say that I never really thought I would ever be blogging, but here I am.

This is not the first time I have seen or heard the Today Show clip about the @ symbol and the internet, and it was just as entertaining this time as it was the first.

Reading through and viewing the material this week has really allowed me to reflect on the changes to the world of college football recruiting (my experience & expertise as a professional) over the last several years. When I first started out in the field we would mail VHS tapes to HS coaches who would then copy footage for us and send it back in a return mailer that we provided. Shortly after, we shifted to sending DVDs using a similar method. The past 2-3 years has seen a completely drastic shift towards in the internet for our football recruiting film. At first coaches were posting videos to YouTube, but within the past 18-24 months HUDL has become the hotspot for finding these videos.

Here is a link to HUDL's website: HUDL and here is a link to a sample HUDL film of a PSA (prospective student-athlete) whom someone like me would be recruiting: Zach Allen New Canaan HS HUDL.

Twitter and Facebook have also revolutionized football recruiting, especially in our ability to communicate with prospects. It is not uncommon to have DM conversations with prospects, as it is a permissible method of communication. I never really thought I would ever have my twitter handle on my business card, but in today's technological age, it is essential for me to have @DWilcz on my business card.

With all of that being said, I think I fall on the side of the internet making us smarter. Yes the internet in cluttered with quite a bit of nonsense, but it also has endless tools that could make us smarter and more efficient.