Sports and Social Media

Social media has become a huge platform when looking for news and updates on sporting events.  Twitter is a great place to find updates to games, as well as breaking news in the sports world.  Recently, NBA basketball has begun.  There are too many teams to try to follow if you are a true basketball fan. What teams are playing well?  What players are breaking records?  You can typically find these answers on your Twitter timeline.

One Twitter account that does a great job is SportsCenter.  I follow SportsCenter in order to get quick facts about what is going on in the numerous games.  I get a quick synopsis of who won the major games, what players are injured and other news relating to the variety of sports.  I have always grown up watching sports, especially the Cleveland Cavaliers.  With this account, I am able to stay current on everything in sports while having a busy college schedule.

Personally, I think the Twitter account is very clean and organized.  The information posted is to the point and gives the basic information you need.  In addition, there is typically a picture with a comment to help you put a name with a face if talking about a specific player or team.  What I really like is you get the news you desire without having to dig for the information.  If something greatly interests me, then I have the option to look up more information through the Internet.  Overall, there is a great deal of information regarding sports.  By following social media accounts, one can follow the news revolving around the various sports and teams.  

Engagement

As I continue to read Measure What Matters by Katie Paine, the idea of engagement has been brought up in numerous occasions.  Engagement can have many definitions while taking into account a variety of components.  For example, engagement can mean the number of retweets of a Twitter account, the number of comments on a blog or the number of times the site is actually visited.

Katie Paine explains there are different levels and intensities of engagement.  These include lurking, casual, active, committed and loyalist.  In my opinion, many consumers fall within the first two categories.  I definitely fall under the category of lurker.  When utilizing Facebook, I may like the specific page of a business.   I may have heard good things about the company or are interested in what the company has to offer.  By doing this, a relationship has been formed.  However, with this relationship I have no commitment or loyalty to the company or brand.

Another category that I fall into is casual engagement.  Many people partake in this category by following an account on Twitter or subscribing to a blog.  An individual has passed the lurking stage and is interested in the brand.  Again, no further expectation is involved.  The downfall with this stage is most relationships end here.  I am guilty of this habit.  I follow an account on Twitter but don’t do anything past reading the occasional tweets.  I become passive in my engagement which ends the relationship.  Overall, engagement is a hot topic in social media.  In order to properly measure engagement, one must understand the various types and levels.  By gaining this understanding, a business can implement a strong social media strategy.  

Barrett Suspended

Twitter has become a tool that allows individuals to get breaking news fast.  Many times I get this information straight from my phone.  This past weekend, I was scrolling through my Twitter timeline in the morning.  I read that J.T Barrett was arrested for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated.  For those who are not college football fans, Barrett is a quarterback for The Ohio State University (OSU) and recently was given the starting position.  Because of the arrest, Barrett will be suspended for the next game.

I was not expecting to read this news when I woke up in the morning, especially on Twitter.  It was Halloween weekend and the Buckeyes had a bye week.  This means that the team probably had extra free time to enjoy the holiday since they weren’t forced to travel or play in a game.  Every college student needs that time to relax and enjoy life.  Relaxation can range from staying in and watching a movie to going out and partying.

Personally, I think Barrett should have been a little more careful while enjoying his night.  He chose to go out and enjoy the night.  There is nothing wrong with this, but it’s the choices that were made that are the problem.  There had to be people willing to give him a ride back to his intended location.  On top of getting pulled over, he legally shouldn’t be drinking.  This does not set a good example for kids who look up to college athletes.  Coach Urban Myer gave him the chance of starting quarterback in the game last week.  Barrett executed well, but he will not receive this opportunity in the upcoming game.  Yes, everyone makes mistakes.  However, we sometimes need to think about the outcomes of our decisions.  Even though it is only one game, the suspension impacts Barrett, the OSU football team and the loyal fans.  Overall, OSU fans were not expecting to find out about the arrest and suspension of J.T. Barrett when waking up Saturday morning.  

Creating a Video

Once again for my social media class I am trying something a little different.  I had filmed videos before but never really took part in the editing process.  For a project, we had to create a short how to video.  The topic of the video was pretty much open to interpretation, which was really nice.

I decided to create a video on how to feed the ducks on the campus of Ohio Northern University.  Feeding the ducks is an activity that I really enjoy.  Some people don’t think about this simple activity, but I always find myself over by the pond.  In addition, the video had to be around a minute so I wanted to stay away from topics that were complicated.  Before the filming of the video took place, I wrote an outline of the script and tried to figure out the best way to shoot the various scenes.  It was a gorgeous day in Ada, so I chose to shoot every scene outside and enjoy the fall day.  I ended up being the focus of the video, so my roommate helped to shoot a few scenes and added a little commentary.  For the most part, I was able to shoot many scenes and add them to the appropriate parts of the video.

Once I had all the video clips and photos that I needed, it was time to sit down and edit the video.  This was definitely a new process for me.  I used the iMovie app to help piece together the video clips.  It actually wasn’t too difficult. After spending a few minutes playing on the app, I found it fairly simple to use and navigate.  I was able to create a fairly smooth video without much difficulty.  I think the hardest part was getting it uploaded to YouTube.  I couldn’t figure out why the upload kept failing, but after a little googling I found the source of my problem.  I eventually got the video uploaded successfully.  Feel free to take a look at my YouTube video and leave any comments below.  Overall, creating and editing the video was not as hard as I thought it would be and I ended up enjoyed this small project.  

Measurement

The next book we have started reading in class is Measure What Matters by Katie Paine.  This book focuses on using measurement as a tool to help a business grow and flourish.  There are a variety of guidelines and steps needed in order to properly execute this process. 

Measurable is a word that has numerous elements associated with it.  First, the campaign needs to have goals and objectives that can actually be measured.  These goals should have a final outcome that should and can be reached.  In addition, a deadline or date needs to be set in order for a timetable to be established.  Personally, I think a date is great because it helps to visualize the specific plan and possible help motivate change.  If able, establishing a budget and target audience will allow an individual to measure progress more effectively.  All these elements will allow the goals and objectives of a campaign to be properly measured. 

When creating goals and objectives, it is important to not have mixed objectives.  An example given in the book deals with target audience.  If you don’t specifically say the target audience, like seniors or children, then it will be hard to measure the outcome of the goal effectively.  In order to avoid this problem, one should create a separate objective for each specific audience or population.  Overall, creating goals and objectives can be very difficult but are important in order to properly measure a campaign.