The Atlantic Coast Conference's Social Media Footprint

Today we'll continue our look into the Atlantic Coast Conference. We will review their social media presence -- what they do and where they could improve. And I'll plot it all in one spot on a Social Media Report Card.

Then, we'll finish the week out by looking into the 12 member institutions and elevating the best digital features I've uncovered.

You can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

Let's start.

Social Media Exposure

The journey always begins with the conference's weight to social media. There are always stories, teams, and schools weighing in for home page worthiness. But the question I start with is... how easy is it to follow the conference? That doesn't necessarily mean quantity of places. But it does mean exposure to ways to follow the conference.

The ACC offers the ability to follow them in 3 ways (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) which are promoted in a flurry of ways. As you can see below, they give you access at the top of the site, inside the Fan Zone and inside the Digital Network. So it's very easy to stumble onto a way to follow the conference -- I'd almost argue that they should stick to one area in the menu (either Fan Zone or Digital Network... or rename one of them to Social Media!)

Home Page Header

Fan Zone Menu

Digital Network Menu

All 3 roads point to the same places, which we'll check now...

Social Media Roster Depth

Twitter Leads the ACC from a Social Media Standpoint. At a Glance, We See the Twitter Lineup. Shown here and below. It's a powerful statement to not just give us a list, but rather let us see what we get from each of the Twitter Feeds (the ACC, ACC Championships, Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball, and Football). But then again, it can be a lot to take in and digest -- there's a lot going on.

How could this be better? Focus. The more the ACC could simplify, the better impact this could have. This could be done via the ACC Twitter being the only one shown here, assuming that Twitter feed could become the moderator -- retweeting relevant posts from the other 4 and interacting with each one in a playful way. And it could be accomplished by giving us a deep look into one and let us know what we can get in each spot (through a simple description).

Twitter Integration into the Championships Section is World Class. Click into ACC Championship Central (here), and you'll note the Twitter feed on the right hand side of the page. I love this for many reasons. First, elevate Championships. That's the aspirational point for every sport in every conference. Yet few do this section as well as the ACC does it. When you add in a Twitter feed customized for the Championships, you create an engine that is updated in real time during the matchups, year round. Love this.

I'll zoom into the Twitter feed, here.

How Could This Be Better? Bring in two things: 1) a hashtag (#ACCChamp, for example) and 2) leverage experts, media, and school sites to leverage this tag during the matchups. Combine these things and the dynamic section becomes very addicting.

As a whole, Twitter is leveraged predominately to share information -- either features posted to the ACC site or re-tweets of news from school sites. Let's look at a couple of numbers to help gauge activity levels. (Beyond the ACC's 5270 Twitter followers, here)

1. 5.9% of the time that a fan subscribes, they put the conference into a list. That makes 310 lists.
2. The Twitter equivalent of student-to-teacher ratio: Tweets per Subscriber. The conference has tweeted 3,981 times -- or 0.75 per subscriber.

The ACC Taps into the power of YouTube Playlists. They show us that by organizing a slew of videos into manageable bytes, we end up with a very impactful impression. The YouTube page (here) has 385 subscribers -- a metric I don't like sharing because it seems to be against user behavior and thus lowers the potential impact these are making. The beauty of YouTube videos are their simplicity to view and share - to post to your own blog, Facebook page, or to simply share via email or Twitter.

Diving into this page, we see lists for Men's Basketball, Football, the ACC Championships, and special features such as the ACC Hot List. All are updated fairly regularly and seem to carry good content inside.

How could this be better? Make sure these videos are seen. With only 385 subscribers, I believe the ACC should not only post these videos inside the ACC site, but also offer them up to school websites and key bloggers to gain visibility for the goods.

Finally, the ACC on Facebook, here, checks in at just over 12,000 fans. The Facebook page is purely utilized to share information -- missing a chance to tap into some passionate fan energy at each school.

Buzz.

To gauge buzz, I did a quick search for @acc on Twitter. There have been 20 mentions over the past 3 days. Plus a callout for the ESPN ACC Feed as well, which should be good to leverage. After all, ESPN = Playing Under the Spotlight!

Intangibles

Synergy. I'm looking for the total impact the conference has across social media to be higher because the pieces work well together. An ACC Blog has the potential to do just this -- act as the glue that connects everything. Big opportunity here!

Report Card

Strengths: Twitter Integration, Exposure, Buzz

Weaknesses: Intangibles, Fan Engagement

Neutral: Depth of Roster

Hope you enjoyed this tour!

Don't forget, you can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.