Social Media Monday: How Florida State Covered Their Matchup Against Oklahoma

It's another Monday - time to do a social media breakdown of the weekend's action. The story coming into this weekend's college football games was definitely #1 Oklahoma battling #5 Florida State. If Florida State wins, they become a legit contender for the National Title. If Oklahoma wins, they solidify their ranking. It's early, but this had the makings of a monstrous showdown -- meaning it also had the makings of a social media juggernaut.

As you no doubt know, Oklahoma won in a pretty tight game, 23-13. This is a delicate time and an important time for Florida State. You want to keep momentum rolling, and not let people stop following the team because they lost a tight game against the nation's top team. Instead use it as a moment to reinforce you've arrived in the elite class.

Let's roll. First, let's check out the coverage at Florida State's Facebook page, here. As you'll see first, they did a fantastic job starting this game. It's a simple post of "Let's go!", paired with a shot of the stadium. If you see this right at kickoff, you can almost feel the social media electricity.

You'll also note the "41 Shares" written above. Now, Facebook has introduced another way of interacting with what we post. This "Sharing" functionality means we can share status updates and like them -- sharing them means we can provide a personal recommendation to read a post/see a picture to our friends. This will have a great effect, as friends will see posts as recommended from people they are connected to. Or, said differently, "Like" is passive, "Share" is active. If you're a geek like me, you can read more about this change by Facebook here.

Now, let's look at what happened during/after the game....

As you can see above, the posts are factual - announcing the score after each quarter. The challenge is that anyone can be factual. And Florida State Athletics can't win at that game -- let ESPN win that one! Instead, FSU could offer more personality and more human emotion in their style. Right now, this is a big opportunity, as they leave it with simply a "great effort". I'll come back to this in a minute, but first want to drive over to Twitter in search of more love and energy...

We'll check out Florida State Athletics on Twitter, here.

As you see above, there were no posts in game from this feed.

There is a post right after the game and one right before, but nothing was posted during the game. And the after game the posting style echoes what we saw on Facebook... "Close, but not there yet."

Many of us approach communication in games in the same way. The challenge in front of us all is to tap into the raw emotion of our fan bases. Emotion doesn't have a filter. In a way, I believe Social Media posts around big games should feel like they came out of a locker room (minus certain words, no doubt). Those of us who work in this space must make people believe. When their beliefs are challenged, it becomes our role to reinforce the vision we share for our program.

Seize the moments that happen, immediately, with emotion!

If you're digging this (thanks), don't forget to tune in again. I'll be back Wednesday with more digital best practices. Feel free to follow along via Facebook (here) or Twitter (I'm @andypawlowski, here)

Thanks.

Andy

Florida State Wants You to Help Design Their Athletics Tee

It's a big deal to wear the jersey.

Why? I think it comes down to being one of the few lucky enough to wear a uniform with your school's name on it - dead center, in front of the world. As a student-athlete, you are a representative of your school -- not just of today but of the past (alums) and the future (recruits). It's a lot of responsibility and it makes an impact on you.

But how can a university make this into a bigger deal for their student body, alumni, and fans? Florida State University developed a way for everyone to play a role.

It all starts on the Florida State Athletics Page, shown below.

Im going to zoom in on that right-hand column of touts, here.




We'll turn our attention to "You Design, We'll Decide." Clicking in takes us here, to the magic. As you will see below, this is your chance to submit a design for the FSU all-sport promotional shirt. (You still have almost a full week to go -- so design away once you finish this read!)

The steps are laid out clearly - download a template, design away, sign a release, and submit.

I'll be interested in following this, because it opens the door for fans to have a voice in how the athletics department presents itself to the world.

But how could this be better? First, I think we need context - emotional context. What do I mean by that? What is the "all-sport promotional tee?" Do the players wear these? Do they sell them? What have they looked like in the past? What if FSU went deeper -- asking players and coaches to provide a brief for what they'd love to see in a shirt. If you're a diehard FSU fan, there's not much more cool than getting a brief from your coach (or players) and then setting out to solve it!!!

Secondly, FSU should make the assets available. Make it easier to design for you by providing high res logos, images, colors, fonts -- anything you can do to allow designers to not have to search around for tools.

Finally, I'd love to see a plan for unveiling these. Maybe it will be at media day - where the designer will be a VIP? Or maybe at the first football game? Giving access to the team(s) for the best designer adds a dimension only FSU can deliver!!!

Great stuff today, with more coming later in the week. Feel free to follow along via Facebook (here) or Twitter (I'm @andypawlowski, here)

Thanks.

Andy

College Hoops: Digital ACC Preview - Team #6 Florida State

We continue our journey through the ACC in search of the best digital program. This is a chance for coaches and teams to share what it means to be a part of their system. To get you fired up about the program. And to make a connection. We last left the story here, talking through #12 Boston College, #11 Miami, #10 Georgia Tech, #9 Virginia Tech, #8 NC State, and #7 Wake Forest.

Let's keep moving.

#6. Florida State

The Digital Scouting Report

Strengths: A YouTube channel, along with highly publicized Twitter and Facebook sites. Lots of ways to follow the Hoops program.

Weaknesses: Hoops Twitter isn't linked to the Hoops section. YouTube channel isn't customizable by sport.

Full Scouting Report

A quick click into the Florida State athletics site, here, gives you quick access to follow the Seminoles on Facebook or Twitter (see images below). Florida State does a good job of leveraging the quickly recognizable logos of Facebook and Twitter. I just wish they weren't rotating images that also had to share space with a FSU Memorabilia Store image. After all, these are your chances to keep bring FSU athletics with you, to build a connection.


You'll also notice in the image above the Multimedia button, which I've selected to show a drop down menu. (Sorry if it is too small!) This menu gives you access to the Seminoles Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube channel.



This YouTube channel (link here) is pretty solid. The school is pretty active, posting over 275 videos. But the challenge, I guess, is that it isn't about quantity but rather quantity of videos you want to check out. This is not customized - so if you want to subscribe for FSU videos, you're getting them all.


The home page also gives you the ability to check out Seminoles Podcasts (image below). I'm sensing a trend, as we've seen many schools serving up a series of interviews with coaches through the season. This is all fall sports (football and volleyball), so I'm guessing we'll get hoops in the winter. But I want to see Coach Hamilton's fall thoughts, now. Or let me subscribe and alert me when I can check them out!


Clicking into basketball, you see that there are some good things going for it -- see the All Access window in the lower-right hand side of the page. Here FSU plays Hoops videos (the most recent is a team video of their offseason trip to Spain). It's pretty solid.


The site also goes very low-fi, allowing fans to submit questions to Coach Hamilton by filling out an online form. I wonder how active fans are here, but I'd love to see this being active in the offseason when we can get some momentum going.

Unfortunately, there is no mention anywhere that you have many ways to follow Seminole Hoops via Twitter. (The previous Twitter feed was for all Seminole Athletics updates). FSU's Men's Hoops Twitter feed is here, with 673 followers. Head Coach Leonard Hamilton's Twitter feed, here has 321 followers. And Assistant Coach Stan Jones is also up on Twitter here with 113 followers. (Come on FSU, hype this!)

Finally, the basketball section gives you access to watch the Coach Hamilton show online through the links below. It's pretty simple, but just makes sense. It seems like most coaches shows aren't on in prime time and it's nice to have that available. I'd just like to see this show taken and split into soundbytes, blog entries, and podcasts that I can take with me to get excited about Seminole basketball!

We'll keep the countdown rolling -- click back Monday for team #5.

Andy