What would the NSCAA Convention be without the added excitement (and pressure) of speaking? For the second year in a row, my good friend and peer Ryan Knapp and I presented together. Ryan and I met in 2009 at Tweet – Blowing the Whistle on Social Media and have bantered back and forth on all things digital and social media since.

Follow @ryanknappFollow @vandey01

While last year’s session was focused on social media, Ryan and I broadened the scope in 2012 to include Five Secrets to Successful Soccer Websites.

The idea for this session came about thanks to our work together on the new NSCAA.com. The project began in August 2010 and was a labor of love for the two of us. We just launched the site in November 2011.

Throughout the build, Ryan and I researched sites far and wide to hypothesize what makes successful websites tick. We combined this research into five secrets (aka takeaways) to share. Ryan also posted about the presentation on his blog, be sure to check it out.

Slides from session, Five Secrets to Successful Soccer Websites w/ @vandey01 are up. bit.ly/AxiJlO #NSCAAConvention

— Ryan Knapp (@ryanknapp) January 23, 2012

Click here to download the PDF. (opens in a new window)

Successful websites are:

1. Part of a larger business plan
It’s important that your website is built with your company’s business goals in mind, aka how do you make money? For many companies – especially in the soccer industry – your website is the front door to your business… and you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. Ensure you know what success looks like first, then build your site to support that.

2. Built with the user in mind
There are two categories of users that we recommend you consider. The first is people, both those that use the site for business purposes (team administrators, webmasters) and those that visit it as a user (looking to purchase goods/services, players, parents). The second type of user to consider is a search engine (like Google, Yahoo or Bing). Both find, interact with and use your site differently. Recognize this and build your site to accommodate both.

3. Embrace content
As cliche as it may seem, content has been, and remains, king. By identifying what you want to communicate about your company/brand, how you should distribute this information, and when it will be most effective, you’ll set yourself up for success.

4. Sharable and social
While this may not have always been so in the past, today’s Internet has all but been consumed by social integration. “Being online” continues to evolve as more personal and socially-driven, and websites that embrace feedback, social media sharing and two-way dialogue will find success in this new dimension.

5. Analyzed and adjusted
Would you field a soccer team every weekend without analyzing and adjusting your lineup? No? Well, you shouldn’t do this with a website either. There are a ton of free and easy to use tools that you can use to learn what’s happening on your website. Use this data and tie your website back to your business goals, which you of course identified in secret number 1.

Click here to download the PDF. (opens in a new window)

Where do I start?

Everybody has to start someplace, because websites don’t just happen. Here are some tips to get you moving on the path to success.

1. Find a website you like.
Do a bit of research to find sites that match your company’s vision. If you can’t find an exact match, find something similar. It’s also good to identify what you don’t like in a website as well.

2. Call/email the contact listed on the site.
Usually there’s a link for “About Us” or “Contact Us”. You’ll also often find a link at the very bottom of the site that will take you to the developer directly.

3. Ask around.
If doing the homework on your own is proving daunting, ask around. Chances are that somebody in your social circle has had a part in building, updating, maintaining or using a website they’d recommend.

Click here to download the PDF. (opens in a new window)

What do I ask?

Here are some questions to ask that will help you get a good feeling for the company or web developer you’re considering.

1. Have you had experience building the type of website we want?
2. What will you do if we suggest a dumb idea?
3. When your projects run behind schedule, what is a typical reason?
4. What will the finished product include and what will it contain?
5. What other vendors and/or tools are we expected to obtain?
6. How long will you guarantee your work?
7. What do you consider to be a successful project
8. What is the cost of the website build, and what is the ongoing maintenance?

Click here to download the PDF (opens in a new window).

We hope you find this information useful. For us, giving this presentation was the culmination of a lot of months of hard work, and we were honored to be able share this at the NSCAA Convention.

If you have questions, suggestions or follow-ups, please feel free to write in the comments below or tweet us @RyanKnapp and/or @vandey01.

Since I started with Major League Soccer in the spring, we’ve been working to bring value to our fans, while shining a spotlight on the MLS fan experience, through our social media outlets – Facebook.com/MLS, Twitter.com/MLS, YouTube.com/MLS and Foursquare.com/MLS. We also launched a new fans section on the league site at MLSsoccer.com/fans.

A big shout out to my intern, Sean O’Malley, for his great ideas and hard work, and as always the MLS Insider, Shawn Francis, whose tireless work rate and passion for MLS is unparalleled.

Below you’ll find a list of 10 promotions we’ve run so far. I’d love to hear if you’ve run a similar social media contest or promotion, or if you find these useful and create a similar one let me know!

1. Soccer Almanac Twitter Photo Giveaway

Over the weekend of August 27 and August 28 MLSsoccer.com asked fans to submit there best photos of themselves sporting retro MLS jerseys. One lucky fan won an adidas match ball. Click to learn more and see who won.

2. Soccer Almanac Twitter Trivia

On August 25 and August 26, MLSsoccer.com tested fans’ knowledge of soccer history. By following @MLS and answering trivia questions correctly fans were randomly selected to win team scarves. Click to learn more.

3. #MLSAllStar Twitter Trivia Challenge

During the 2011 AT&T MLS All-Star Game, MLSsoccer.com tested fans’ TV tune-in skills.  By following @MLS and answering All-Star Game trivia questions correctly during the broadcast, three lucky fans won autographed MLS All-Star gear.  Click here to learn more and see who won.

4. Retweet and Follow to Win

During the 2011 MLS All-Star week, from July 25-27, one lucky fan won an autographed adidas ball signed by the 2011 MLS All-Star squad by retweeting and following @MLS. In total three fans received autographed All-Star balls. Click here to learn more and see who won.

5. Foursquare Check-In Special at the AT&T MLS All-Star Hub

The first 50 people to check in at the MLS All-Star Hub on foursquare received an MLS All-Star t-shirt. Click here to learn more.

6. Canada Day/4th of July Twitter Picture Giveaway

In celebration of Canada Day and Independence Day, fans tweeted @MLS a pic wearing #MLS gear at their holiday celebrations with #MLS + #CanadaDay or #4thofJuly tags for a chance to win a scarf. Click here to learn more and see who won.

7. MLS Tailgate Recipe Contest on Facebook

Fans submitted their favorite MLS Tailgate Recipe on Facebook for a chance to be featured on MLSsoccer.com and win an MLS Tankard Set. Selection were based on creativity, originality, presentation and connection to MLS or an MLS club. Click here to learn more and see who won.

8. Twitter Father’s Day Pic Giveaway

Fans tweeted @MLS a pic of theselves+dad/kid in their favorite MLS kits using #HappyFathersDay & #MLS tags. The first 20 were entered to win a scarf. Click here to learn more and see who won.

9. Share Your Father’s Day Story on Facebook

We asked fans, “How has Major League Soccer made your relationship with your dad/kids special?” Fans told us on Facebook, and selected stories were featured on MLSsoccer.com on Father’s Day. Click here to learn more and read the stories.

10. Twitter Fan Pic Giveaway

Fans tweeted their favorite MLS Fan Pics at @MLS with the #MLS hashtag, and the first 1st were 50 entered to win an Official Match Ball. Click here to learn more and see who won.

Written yesterday. Computer died. Posting today.

Our media panel took center stage at the Women’s Football Symposium today, and it’s impossible to recap the entire session – mainly because I was so high on adrenaline the entire time that I’m still trying to process it all. But with a quick reaction, here are five things I learned.

1. It’s pretty cool to have your words translated into so many languages (Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, German, Spanish, French) but I don’t think jokes translate very well. They also take a little while to come through on the headsets so instead of one intense laugh, you get a ripple of giggles.

2. The bright lights of the stage make it impossible to see raised hands for questions from the audience.

3. Eleanor Oldroyd is a simply amazing woman, and a tremendous moderator. My fellow panelists said the same thing. Nothing but rave reviews all the way around about her demeanor, flow, style and knowledge.

4. FIFA and its Member Associations are actively interested in Social Media. There were tons of comments, questions, ideas and conversations about how these new tools can help national team programs cut through the male-dominated sports media and bring attention to women’s soccer.

5. Don’t check twitter on-stage when only 10% of the room actually knows what Twitter is. It just looks like you’re using your cell phone.

A huge thanks to FIFA’s Alex Stone for putting this panel together and getting us so well prepared. You can follow him on twitter @AlexStone7. More notes and thoughtful reactions from the FIFA Women’s Symposium to follow! Right now I’m off to listen to Sepp Blatter’s closing speech.

This is my second day in Frankfurt for the 2011 Women’s Football Symposium (which begins tomorrow) and Women’s World Cup Final (on Sunday). It’s been pretty low key so far and has given me a chance to catch up on time zones and mingle about.

Now I know I don’t have the on-camera eloquence of my friend Emma Hayes (who called the game for Eurosport last night in England), or the TV personality of Fox Soccer Channel’s Mark Rogondino (who used to do all the WPS broadcasts and is now on the MLS tour of duty), so getting ready for my video intro this morning put me to task. In 30 seconds, tell the delegates why you’re here, they said. Haha… wait, what? On video? Can’t I just tweet them? I’m sure I can get it into 140 characters.

Well in the end I think I did okay, they got a decent sound bite, and we move on. Reminder to self: #dontsweatthesmallstuff

I spent the afternoon having lunch with Alex Stone, FIFA’s Media Relations Manager and my gracious host, and talking with my fellow panelist Velile Mbuli from South Africa. I also met Carol Manana, the moderator for the event, and even learned to speak a little Zulu – sawubona (hello) and kunjani (how are you). That’s about as far as my dense American tongue could get me without much practice. Usala kahle (stay well/goodbye) will take me some time, but I’ll get it :)

Speaking of languages, since I’ve been here I dusted off a bit of Spanish, which I’ve come to realize isn’t so bad – I did have 10 years of schooling after all. And I’ve gotten my German on a couple times too. English is far and away the most common language being spoken here though, so I haven’t had any troubles chatting away.

Apparently on Saturday, our panel discussion will be translated into German, French, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic and Spanish. Very cool! Reminder to self: #talklikeaprofessionalnotasoccercoach (Ryan Knapp will appreciate that reference from our NSCAA presentation about coaches and social media at the convention back in January, when I referred to column A of an excel spreadsheet as the left flank.)

This evening I’m headed to dinner and drinks with all the other folks from our panel, and I’m excited to get to know them better. If you haven’t downloaded the program yet, here’s the link on FIFA.com: http://bit.ly/pWHdlF. Note that the PDF of the schedule is on the right. To be in a room with so many bright minds, with such different backgrounds and experiences, is just incredible.

More to follow from Germany in the days ahead. I’ll be sure to update as often as possible, and if you’re on twitter, follow along with us during the Symposium with hashtag #wfs2011.

I’ll leave you with this photo I just snapped in the main hall: The FIFA Women’s Football Symposium in set-up mode.

Fair warning that this blog post may not be the most coherent – I’m on 1 hour of airplane sleep in the past 36 hours and I’ve just returned from the Women’s World Cup semi-final match between Sweden and Japan.  But I wanted to pop online and share where I am and what I’m up to.

I’m in Frankfurt for the FIFA Women’s Football Symposium.  The schedule of events can be found on the FIFA website here (PDF). I’m honored to have been asked to speak on a panel to discuss new media in women’s football. My participation is an opportunity for FIFA member associations to learn more about how both WPS and MLS actively embrace new media and social communications, and perhaps think about applying some of these learnings/ideas to their own federations and women’s programs.

But my 45 minutes on stage are merely a blip on the Symposium radar. Here’s some info about the event directly from FIFA.com:

Hundreds of representatives from all over the globe will assemble in Germany this week as FIFA hosts the 5th FIFA Women’s Football Symposium.

The event, which coincides with the final week of the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup™, will be held between 15-17 July at the Steigenberger Airport Hotel, Frankfurt.

The last symposium was held at the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup in China and since then women’s football has continued to expand exponentially and is a key driver of growth for the sport of football all around the world.

The 2011 Symposium will bring together over 550 representatives of FIFA’s Member Associations from each corner of the world to discuss the on-going and future development of women’s football.

FIFA Director Thierry Regenass (Member Associations and Development) will introduce the first topic ‘The Structure of Women’s Football in Member Associations’. Other FIFA Directors that will be presenting topics during the three-day event are Mustapha Fahmy (Competitions), Nicolas Maingot (Communication), Niclas Ericson (TV), Thierry Weil (Marketing).

Keynote speakers include Dr Theo Zwanziger (President, German FA), Lydia Nsekera (President, Burundi FA) and Kelly Simmons (Head of National Game, England FA).

Over the two and a half days, the focus will be on a number of key sectors within the game such as ‘Increasing participation and competitions’ and ‘Promoting the game: Communications & Sponsoring’. The various topics will feature interactive onstage group discussions with a diverse assortment of panellists, each knowledgeable in the women’s game.

The FIFA President, Joseph S. Blatter will bring proceedings to a close on the morning of 17 July, with the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final to be held that evening in Frankfurt.

Today already, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many people from FIFA responsible for the development of women’s football around the world. From South America to Oceana, Africa to USA, it’s been fascinating to speak with them and learn about their jobs, successes, struggles and desires. 

Okay, I’m off to bed now for a full day tomorrow. I’m on twitter in the hotel so please feel free to send me a message @vandey01  if you have any questions! 

I work in social media, but when I’m hyper-focused on my job I barely tend to my personal accounts. During these periods, my Facebook wall goes stale, blog traffic falls and Twitter replies die off.

Not surprisingly, when I update my social networks, they come right back to life. It never fails that somebody will respond, comment or retweet almost immediately. (I suppose this may explain why I, like so many others, find gratification in social media – it’s instant, personal and confirming, but I digress…)

How does this relate to business, you ask?

In order to be successful, it’s not enough just to “be there” in social media, just as it’s not enough for me to have an expired Twitter feed.

Setting up a Facebook profile, a Twitter handle, and a blog are great steps toward growth. But engaging your followers with valuable content is crucial to maintaining them, finding new ones and keeping your brand top of mind. Followers desire a brand presence that is worthy of their support and appreciation. In exchange for their support, you need to give them something in return.

So – In the same way I actually have to take the time to post a Facebook update, tweet a message or write a blog to keep my personal social network active, your company needs a real human being to do similar work on your behalf to maintain a vibrant community around your brand.

Here are some characteristics of a good social media manager:
- Deep knowledge of your online community and your company’s products
- Strong knowledge of, and participation in, your industry’s blogging ecosystem
- Insatiable curiosity about your industry, company and products
- Exemplifies the personality of your company
- Has good people and communication skills
- Great technical understanding and can pick up new tools quickly
- Very strong work ethic and integrity

This person may be a new hire but doesn’t have to be. You can often find these qualities within your office already. Just be sure to clearly define and scope job responsibilities because social media marketing is *very* time consuming when done proficiently.

Generally, I’ve found that success in social media takes a combination of content marketing (sharing high-quality, relevant and valuable information) and unique programming (polls, questions, sweepstakes, etc.). Being transparent, helpful, timely and interesting are also key.

Okay, let’s bring it all together – Take the time (or apply the necessary resources) to engage in social media marketing on behalf of your company and your brand, do it well, and you’ll be rewarded with more loyal fans and hopefully paying customers.

In social media, you get what you give. I think I’ll go update my Facebook status now.

It’s been a bit of a whirlwind since presenting, “Social Media for Coaches,” at the 2011 NSCAA Convention in Baltimore with the one and only Ryan Knapp. A huge thank you to the NSCAA Convention Committee for inviting us to give this session, my fellow association members and convention attendees who came to watch, and all of the folks who offered insight and ideas ahead of time.

Special thanks to Mariel Wilner for always offering comprehensive feedback and inspirational ideas, and to Matt Ansbro for going out of his way to let us borrow his 4G wireless hotspot. If you’d like more information about the session, or have follow-up questions, please don’t hesitate to email me or send a tweet to @vandey01. Ryan is available too @ryanknapp.

As a follow-up to the session, I’ve uploaded the presentation which you can scroll through below. You’ll notice that most of the slides are graphic in nature (as opposed to a bunch of text), because we focused more on the discussion at hand than reading off bulleted slides. Ask Ryan what the methodology is called, he’s the king of presentations. And I’ve got to give a shout out to my first Apple Keynote deck, whereby Ryan and I controlled the slides remotely and simultaneously through our iPhones while on stage. A.MA.ZING.

To give the project a bit more flavor outside the classroom, we’ve also uploaded a .PDF that includes our presenter notes. Most of the discussion points are in here, although I will confess we went off track a couple times… I guess that’s why everybody should book their trip to the 2012 Convention in Kansas City now, to catch the real-time fumbles, folleys, feedback and fun. Enjoy!

The NSCAA Convention is the largest gathering of soccer coaches in the world, and this year’s annual pilgrimage will take place in Baltimore, MD from January 12-15, 2011. Create your personalized schedule here.

This year, I’ve been asked to present a session called “Social Media for Coaches”, and I’m honored to have Ryan Knapp, Manager of NSCAA Digital, joining me in the auspicious venture. Our session is slated for:

Thursday, January 13
12:45pm-1:45pm
Baltimore Convention Center
Rooms 314-16

We thought it would be a good idea to put our initial session outline out to the blogosphere to solicit feedback from the social media, coaching and soccer communities. If you have a minute, please check it out below and let us know what you think. Is there anything you think we should also include? Anything we should take out? Suggestions and recommendations are more than welcome. You can email me at soccerscience@mac.com or leave a comment below.

Goals

Coaches who attend this session will:

1. Discover how other college, high school and youth coaches are using social media today.
2. Recognize and learn how to overcome common issues coaches face in social media.
3. Be empowered to take the next steps toward using social media effectively.

Outline

I. Introduction

II. Real World Examples from the Youth, High School and College Game

• Gather and Share Information
• Showcase Your Team’s and Players’ Achievements
• Provide Broadcast Platforms
• Best Your Competition – Recruiting
• Manage Your Team
• Maintain a Positive Club/Team Image
• Connect People – Players, Parents, Alumni

III. Coaches’ Tips for Success

• Be Smart
• Understand NCAA Recruiting Rules
• Consider Child Privacy
• Be Transparent
• Set Expectations with Players
• Common Issues and Solutions
• Limited Technical Knowledge
• Fear of Exposure
• Investment of Time

IV. Build Your Roadmap

• Establish Your Goals
• Define (and Find) Your Audience
• Select Your Tools
• Create Value, Not Noise
• Seed and Facilitate The Conversation
• Coordinate the Overall Experience

V. Questions and Answers

Thanks for any ideas you’ve got, we want this session to be as useful, insightful and fun as possible!

Every tweet has its time and place, and I’m writing this blog specifically to address the in-game Tweet. If you work for a sports team, department or league as a PR professional, social media community manager, or “team tweeter”, here are some tips on how to write better in-game tweets to help communicate with your fan base. We’ll address:
1. Pre-Game Basics
2. In-Game Updates
3. Post-Game Follow Up

Introduction

Twitter is succinct and it’s real-time. Fans want expect that their team provide pre-game information, live updates in-game and final game scores. But all too often, here’s where sports teams go wrong. “Quantity over quality” is the current trend. Teams pump out as many tweets in-game as they can muster, often saying things like “Press 1v1″, or even “Jon. Busch.”.

If you know that Christen Press is a standout forward at Stanford University or that Jon Busch is a stellar goalkeeper at the San Jose Earthquakes, you can probably already guess that they’re making some good plays on the pitch, but that’s about it. There’s no context – What was the result of the play? What minute of the game are you in? Who are you playing?

Just because the information on Twitter passes more quickly and in fewer characters doesn’t mean it’s less important. In fact, incorrectly tweeting can be a recipe for total disaster. Every. Word. Counts.

1. The Pre-Game Basics.

Help your fans get the information they need to follow the game properly. Here’s an example of a pre-game tweet:

Things to include:

• Twitter handles of both teams. Fans may want to follow or engage with more dialogue than just yours.
• Additional Twitter resources a fan might want in the game, like hashtags, coaches’ and players’ Twitter handles, etc.
• How long until the game begins, because when is just as important as who, what, why, when, where and how.
• Links to useful information. Help your fans enjoy the game online, and of course encourage them to visit your team website or purchase tickets.

More Pre-Game Tips:

Leave room for Retweets: There is nothing that validates you as a good tweeter more than being retweeted by your followers, however if you make your tweets too long you significantly lower the chances of people retweeting you. Additionally, the more folks retweet your messages, the more likely they’ll follow your team’s Twitter feed themselves. Since Twitter only allows tweets of 140 characters that means your tweet needs to be short enough to still allow [RT @username] to be added to the front of it. Note the graphic below, “Average Word Occurance”, which demonstrates that people are more likely to RT tweets that were originally under 20 words.

Here’s a great resource on the Science of Retweets from Social Media Scientist Dan Zarella, “All About Retweets.”

Post links and *CHECK THEM*: To help your fans find the pre-game info, you may need to guide them to a press release, roster sheet or other link. Use a link-tracking service like http://bit.ly will help you measure how many people clicked that link, but importantly, make sure the link works. There’s nothing more frustrating for a fan who’s actually taken the effort to click than to get a 404 error, and to be frank, little that makes you look worse as a sports team/organization.

2. The In-Game Updates.

This is where Twitter seems to go a bit off track for most folks. I strongly urge all my fellow team employees heed the following advice.

• *Always* start with the time in the game.
• Include the current score.
• Include the Twitter handle of the opponent.
• Include proper #hashtags.

Listen, I’m a fan and I love my teams. But when I have a 20 Tweets coming into my home page every couple of minutes, the last thing I want to do is dig through your blur of incomprehensible messages to try and guess how long the match has been going on for, what the current score is, or for that matter, who the opponent is. Go ahead and add color commentary, but within that, I want expect my sports team to make this information as accessible as possible at all times. Leave the one-liners for the fans.

More In-Game Tips:

Edit your tweets: Just because Twitter is only 140 characters doesn’t mean that spelling, grammar, and clarity don’t matter. In fact, they matter more because you’re trying to communicate in such a compact space. Before you hit publish, read that tweet over just one more time to catch any obvious grammar mistakes or misspellings (your players’ parents are reading your Twitter too!). It just takes a second and ensures you’re sending out a professional-sounding message – each of your Tweets represents the team, department or league you’re tweeting for.

Use appropriate hashtags (or make up your own): Hashtags create a huge opportunity if you implement them well. For example, they’re perfect for sports because they allow you to be part of focused conversations or track games and events. Recently I’ve noticed folks using #team1vsteam2 for in-game tweets. Here’s a cool resource: http://hashtags.org/ for your hashtagging (new word?).

2. The Post-Game Follow-Up.

Sure, in-game conversation and key events throughout a contest are vital. But there is so much more opportunity to inform, support and engage your fans after a game than I currently see being utilized. I’m finding that once a game has ended, many social community managers tweet out the final score and walk away from their laptops like their job is over. Instead, consider including these things in your Twitter feed as quickly as you can post-game.

• Indicate that the match has ended.
• Post the final score.
• Include the Twitter handle of the opponent.
• List the goal scorers, include Twitter handles of people involved in the match whenever possible.
• Include proper #hashtags.
• Inform if there are playoff or standing implications of the result.
• Provide information about where and when additional bits will become available.
• Post links to photo galleries, press releases, highlight videos and more.

More Post-Game Tips:

Be timely: The immediacy of Twitter is what makes it such a useful tool for sports teams, where fans want to know “what happened tomorrow”. Satisfy their need by posting as soon as that final whistle blows to earn a good reputation and the trust of your fan base.

Write catchy headlines: Ultimately, sports teams want to drive users to a website, get them to purchase tickets or tune into to television coverage (conversion events that are directly tied to revenue). Much of good Tweeting is tied to the ability to write great engaging headlines and get people clicking on your links. But with 140 characters, there’s only room for the set up. Learn to write the types of headlines to get more from less. Here’s a resource I refer to often, 10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work.”

Conclusion

Hopefully you’ve found this blog useful. I’d love to learn more about how folks in sports are using Twitter, and if you think these guidelines are realistic and helpful for in-game messaging.

In all my Tweeting-about, I have found a team who’s Tweet-style I really admire, the Seattle Sounders of Major League Soccer. Have a look at how they structure their messages, both in-game and post-game, for some valuable insight. Happy Tweeting!

Social media is an area that, with minimal financial investment, a bit of elbow grease and a touch of creative genius, just about any college coach can support his/her goals in a meaningful way. Social media allows coaches to gain more exposure for their teams, position themselves as leaders in their respective communities and share all the great things that make their school and their program unique with prospective student-athletes, fans, parents, friends and alumni. It’s also a great way to gather and share information, showcase achievements, maintain a positive brand image and connect people.

I’m delighted to say that in my recent work with university athletic departments, just about everyone I’ve spoken with is interested in learning more about how social media can grow and develop their programs. And not just soccer coaches – I’m talking Division I, II & III football, basketball, baseball, tennis, swimming & diving, track & field, golf, volleyball and more.

I’m writing this post to share some of the work I’ve done and experiences I’ve had with college coaches. Hopefully this information is helpful for coaches, athletic directors or administrative personnel, and can be used as a starting point for people interested in engaging in a social media marketing campaign.

Ask Questions

One of the first things I do when meeting with a coach is to ask questions and learn about his/her program and sport. I like to learn about the community – both online and in person. I ask about the engagement marketing tactics they’re already invested in and what they’re working to accomplish with any current efforts like Facebook pages and Twitter handles. The answers here give me a good sense of what each team’s community is like and where people are interacting already. I also use this time to gauge the coaches’ social media knowledge so that we are on the same page moving forward.

Identify Goals and Strategies

Next, we identify goals – and not social media goals per se, but personal, team and program goals. As you might expect, a coaches’ success is often measured by their wins and losses, so their top priority is generally to win, be competitive in their conference or to at least improve. Here’s an example of what a college coach might say his/her top goal is, and three strategies they might use to accomplish it (Usually coaches want to rush this part because they think I’m in the room to talk about social media. But I can’t help them until we’re both on the same page about what they want. Guided discovery is sometimes necessary.):

Goal #1: Win a Conference Championship in 3 years.
– Recruit higher caliber student-athletes each year for the next 2 years.
– Improve coaching by taking an educational course each year for the next 2 years.
– Develop a comprehensive periodization plan in the next month and follow it consistently for 1 year.

Plan Social Media Tactics

Okay, now we’re ready to talk social media. We’ll address each of these items line by line to see if there’s a way social media can help. For the sake of this blog’s length, I’ll be pretty top-level just to give you a feeling for what’s possible.

Goal #1: Win a Conference Championship in 3 years.

Strategy #1: Recruit higher caliber student-athletes each year for the next 2 years.

Social Media Tactic: Identify what obstacles you currently face in recruiting and use social media to overcome them.

If your school is located in a difficult-to-access part of the country, perhaps you can create a series of videos that showcase the great things about your city, campus or athletic department. This might influence a student to visit campus in person, and we all know that once you’ve got them on campus your chances of a commitment increase exponentially.

Maybe your personality is what attracts players to your program, but with limited opportunities to interact you can’t really showcase that. A public profile like a Facebook or Twitter can allow you to share those parts of your personality that people normally only get in person. Share links to things that interest you, post short video clips, and interact with folks in a way you would if they were in the room with you. This way student-athletes will get a good feeling for the real person behind the weekly phone call.

Maybe your team’s news gets buried under the football program at your school, so the potential student-athlete doesn’t search for all the news and updates from your program. Start a Facebook fan page and post updates regularly. Share real-time score updates, recaps and instant reactions from players. Help people on the outside understand what life is like on the inside, and they’ll be more likely to contact you.

Those are just a few quick examples. The take away here is that by identifying the challenges you currently face in recruiting, there’s almost always a way to build a social media campaign to combat them. Remember to always keep NCAA rules in mind when developing recruiting strategies through social media. Here’s a post I wrote a couple weeks back about social media and recruiting for the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) you might find helpful.

Strategy #2: Improve coaching by taking an educational course each year for the next 2 years.

Social Media Tactic: Supplement your formal coaching education by blogging, sharing and networking.

Soccer in an interesting sport in that coaching education is a key part of the community itself. I don’t know if other sports are quite as hard core about licensing, but I’m interested to learn. Regardless, there are a ton of social media ideas that offer opportunities for growing as a coach, regardless of sport.

First of course, there’s blogging. Sharing your thoughts is not only relaxing and personally rewarding, but also a great way to showcase your knowledge. You’ll be amazed at how other coaches in your sport will interact and engage with your blog, post comments and share their thoughts or ideas. If you’re not quite ready to blog yourself, read other coaches’ blogs and comment when you have something to add. Learning from others in your field is always a good way to develop your knowledge base and meet people with shared interests.

Attending sport-specific conventions is probably one of the best learning and networking opportunities that exist for coaches. But not everybody has the means or time to attend. By Tweeting photos from an event you attend, posting comments and sessions to Facebook, blogging about what you did and learned at the event, etc. you’ll not only be helping others, but establishing yourself as an authority on your sport in the social community. And if you’re not able to go, seek out the coaches who are providing this content for you and engage with them throughout the conference. Talk about good networking!

Get Facebook mobile. When you’re at a coaching course or out on the road recruiting and meet another coach who you believe you can learn from, friend them. Now you’re connected and have an open line of communication to this person in a less formal environment. You can ask questions and share ideas. Building your personal network will become huge as you evolve in your coaching career.

The take away here is that you can improve your coaching by engaging with others. Taking for an annual coaching course is definitely a solid goal, but you can supplement this with networking and sharing ideas with others in your sport every day.

Strategy #3: Develop a comprehensive periodization plan in the next month and follow it consistently for 1 year.

Social Media Tactic: Use social channels to learn about how, what, why, when, where and how others are developing and implementing periodization schedules and use this information to make your plan even better.

I would probably use social media here for learning and research – find out what others are doing to create and develop periodization plans for their athletes by asking questions on a blog, Facebook page, twitter account, and more. I’d seek out videos of presentations that have been done about periodization as well. Social media is a great tool to learn about what others are doing.

By the way, none of these social media concepts are necessarily independent of one another. Once you’ve developed your periodization schedule, for example, consider capturing video footage throughout the year for your team’s YouTube channel, then write about what you’re doing in your blog, and ask for thoughts and feedback on Twitter. Get creative! Now we’re talking comprehensive engagement.

Tactic < Strategy < Goal

Remember, the key to success is to always tie the work you’re doing back to your main goal. Will any of these ideas support your mission of winning a conference championship? That’s ultimately up to you to test, track, measure and decide.

Overcome Challenges

It’s important to note that it’s not like you just come up with an idea, snap your fingers and make it happen. First, there has to be a plan. Then, coaches have to execute on that plan. So far in my work I’ve consistently seen three main barriers to engagement, and here are a couple ways to help overcome them.

Challenge #1: Lack of Computer Skills

Regardless of experience, education, sport, success, etc., many coaches lack the hardware and software expertise they would need to create podcasts, videos or social profile pages. For example, I’ve had coaches tell me amazing ideas for video campaigns, but they don’t have a video camera, can’t edit the files on their computers, and don’t know how to begin uploading them to the Internet. Another example is that a number of coaches have asked me what the difference is between a personal Facebook page and a Facebook Fan page and which one they should be using for their programs. The answers to these questions are not difficult, they just take specialized education, which coaches are just not frequently exposed to.

Solve: Athletic Department Education Sessions

In-house educational training sessions will help you and your fellow coaches develop knowledge you might otherwise not have the time or ability to learn on your own. Ask each coach to lead a session in an area they’re familiar with, get your marketing and ticket sales staff involved, or one of your current student-athletes might see it as a great Public Speaking/Communications class project. Maybe one program has a great Facebook page or an awesome blog. Ask that coach to present about what he/she has done to create their social media program and how it’s impacted their recruiting, alumni relations and more – Always remember to bring it back to the main goals of your program.

Challenge #2: Not Enough Content, Fear of Exposure

A frequent concern I hear is that coaches don’t feel that they are interesting enough for Facebook or Twitter, and that nobody really wants to know “what I had for breakfast.” Coaches are also frequently concerned with posting things about themselves or their programs that would expose them to criticism by the media or help their opponents gain a competitive advantage.

Solve: Develop Content Plans

By developing individualized content calendars, you can build a plan around what you’re going to post and when you’re going to post it. Identify what you are doing each month throughout the year and build a theme around it. For example, if you’re a soccer coach, the theme in January might be recruiting, February is lifting, March is signing letters of intent, April is spring training, May is graduation, etc. The idea is to identify what is interesting/sharable during various periods throughout the year.

You can get even more detailed by determining what content is pushed through which channel based on the communities you’re invested in. For example, if you’re recruiting during the month of January, you might blog about the cities you’re visiting, post photos of your travels on Facebook, check into restaurants you’re eating at on FourSquare, post updates about the weather and field conditions on Twitter and upload a video from your trip onto YouTube. In February, since the theme is lifting, you might blog about the periodization schedule and lifting routine, post photos of the weight room to Facebook, check into the gym before each session on FourSquare, post updates about how great the training sessions went on Twitter and upload a video of the strength and conditioning coach talking about your program on YouTube. An excel spreadsheet works great for developing this plan.

Challenge #3: Investment of Time and Resources

A social media campaign takes time, energy and honest enthusiasm. Between recruiting, traveling, games, practice, lifting, family, friends, and all the other things that go on in our busy lives, coaches are already stretched for time. We’re interested in initiatives like social media, they often get pushed to the back burner because we’re not convinced that they make a powerful enough difference to invest all that time and energy in. Or, we find ourselves doing the same thing over and over again without asking ourselves if its working or not.

Solve: Measure Success

In order to see how far we’ve come, it’s important to establish where we started. By recording quantitative metrics like Facebook fans, Twitter followers, and website visitors, you can see the return on your investment of time and resources. Recording qualitative results like comment length and engagement, discussion topics, photo and video content, you can get a better feeling for how an external audience perceives their program. Maybe you can even get a fun little contest going in your athletic department – get creative! Once you learn what kind of content brings people to your social profiles and encourages them to interact with you and your program, you can tweak your content plan a bit to give them more of what they want.

Summary

In sum, social media can really be a great tool for college coaches to invest in, but it’s important to identify your goals, create a plan around those goals, learn how to do it well, measure the results and then adjust as needed. We as coaches have to take responsibility to do it ourselves, social media engagement isn’t just going to happen for us. Make it a priority and the results will happen!

To wrap things up, I’ll leave you with a few cool examples of social media use in college athletics:

• Marquette Asks Fans For Help With Social Media Ticket Campaign
• Six Reasons Why I love the Utah Women’s Soccer Show Your Scarf Campaign
• Wildcat Wednesday with Greg Byrne
• Learn about the 2011 Ute Gymnasts
• NYC Bars Partner with College Alumni Programs

Good luck!