Patriot League Best Practices: American U's Visual Social Media Directories

Just get them there already?

That's really the style I think most of us are told to do when it relates to Social Media. If fans click to your website, make it really quick and easy to get them to your Facebook or Twitter page. For the most part, that feels like good advice. (Assuming you don't want them on your website) But often times that attitude causes us to miss a chance to build our brand -- specifically, what it stands for in the mind of our consumer.

American University gives us an example that drives this home.

Hit the American University home page and click onto the Stay Connected Button at the bottom of the page....

(Shown here).


Diving in takes us to the Stay Connected (Social Media) home of American U. Side note, this page really provides a wealth of ways to stay in touch with the program whether you're a fan or an alum. (or a recruit?)



But the learnings come home when you dive deeper into this layout. First, join me by clicking into the Twitter button, shown below or here.

And, as a parallel path, Click into Facebook, shown below or here.

As you'll notice by clicking into either Social Media area, you get a list of all the ways to follow the University, as a whole or by sport. I know it's a tough topic for many programs -- should we go for a bigger number and have one way to follow us or should we go deeper and have many. That's a topic for another discussion, but for now I just want to call out the consistency American U drives in the image-driven layout above.

You'll also note that there is a representative image of each program above that serves as a backdrop for the buttons. The message we receive feels personal and planned. It feels consistent and united. Well done.

But, How could this be better? I'd love for those images to be dynamic. Update them with a glimpse/hint of what you might find beneath. Could the Facebook images update based on the top fan photo of the month? Or based on the last game highlight? Could the Twitter images connect with top Tweets of the month? Or with fan activity? The unity is fantastic in style. Now we simply need to feel the energy that comes with the quantity of ways to connect.

Thanks for hanging with me. Come back tomorrow as we continue rolling through a week of best practices in the Patriot League.

Don't forget, you can follow along on Facebook (here) or on Twitter: I'm@pawlow34.

Andy