The Colonial Athletic Association Shows Personality in Twitter

Today we'll continue our look into the Colonial Athletic Association with a look into how they connect with social media. What's great and, more importantly, what can the rest of us steal from them? Then, we'll finish the week out by looking into the 12 CAA programs 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.

Twitter is the social media mechanism I most often hear people refer to as "I'm not sure what to do with this." It's tough to get in rhythm, but once you do figure it out you realize that Twitter offers a unique opportunity to share the latest news but to do it with personality.

Hitting the CAA Sports Twitter page, here, you'll quickly pick up that they are active and leverage the #CAA Hash Tag quite well. But as I checked out this page, there was a hint of personality in the feed that I hadn't picked up on many other Twitter accounts.

As you'll note below, the CAA delivers the latest updates, but they also deliver them with a hint of personality. Of passion for the conference. Check this:

"You better be watching this! #CAA Media Day Live is airing our program now hosted by Scott Graham..."

Doesn't this have the feeling of a friend who'd call you up to watch something big? Don't you feel the excitement and emotion... and urgency? That's just it. It doesn't take a lot more time to add some fun, some personality into your posts. But most of us don't take that step. The CAA shows how this can work.

You'll also note that Twitter is used as an entry point into the Conference's Photo Galleries, shown here and below.

So, in sum, the CAA takes the traditional approach to Twitter (using it as a mechanism to share updates) and infuses some of the emotion we're dying to see here!

How could this be better? Leverage Twitpic (linked here). We've seen the emotion in the CAA tone. We've seen the linking out to photo galleries. Let's bring these worlds together -- hitting fans with photos right from their Twitter account. What could be more timely and emotional? It saves fans a click and it allows the CAA to build on this emotional connection via Twitter.

That's it for now... But come back tomorrow as we start elevating the 3 best practices I found through the 12 Colonial Athletic Conference programs!

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.

Andy