SocMed: Not just an abbreviation for "Sock Medicine" anymore
Does anyone use the term SocMed or am I the only one? Seems like something people would be using as an abbreviation for Social Media. I don't even know if I've ever actually used that term. Just know that when I was making a note to talk to Mark Riordan at the 12th Man Foundation about Old Hat being their social media consultant, I wrote Soc Med. It saved me all kinds of time. You should try it.
Old Hat and Sock Medicine
Custom Facebook Pages
Okay, so a couple of things about social media then. This article was sent to me by Jessica George in our Greensboro office earlier in the week. It's about athletic departments that are killing it in social media. Take note... not killing social media. Killing IT in social media. Number one on the list was Notre Dame and they highlight the Dame's custom facebook page which was developed by none other than... you guessed it... Old Hat Creative. The page serves as a much more attractive welcome to the ND page and allows you to watch a video, buy tickets, follow ND on Twitter, etc. An added feature was the integration with ND's email database. You can put in your email address and it goes into ND's PacMail system and fans will start receiving the Notre Dame Athletics HTML email blasts that are sent through the PacMail system. Pretty cool. Easy an inexpensive way to increase likes and exposure.
We have done a number of these pages for a lot of clients and this is what I pitched to Mark at the 12th Man Foundation.
Social Media Consulting
Another thing we are now offering is social media strategic planning and implementation. We have a staff of experts that combine for about 978 years (yes, that's an exaggeration) of experience in collegiate athletics. But we have positioned Jessica George in our Greensboro office and Ashley Cross in our Chicago office (opening in August) to serve as social media consultants. For a monthly retainer, they will develop a plan to increase the likes for your Facebook page and followers to your Twitter feed. But what do you do after you have those followers? Well, we can help you there as well. We develop and implement a plan that pushes relevant content out to your fans and then serve as the voice behind your social media.
The problem a lot of departments face is that they cannot afford a full-time person dedicated to social media. But in order for it to be an effective marketing tool, it has to be an interaction with your fans... not just a means for pushing information to them. When you post a link or a message and your fans respond, they want to know they are heard. They want a conversation. That's where we come in. These departments that do not have the time to hire someone to serve as the voice behind their social media can hire Old Hat to serve in that capacity. And in the bargain they get someone that has years of experience working in collegiate athletic departments AND experience working on the technological side of the business through their time at Old Hat. Additionally, they have a support staff of more than 20 people who are immersed in athletics all day, every day that they can lean on to get new ideas for how to use social media as an effective marketing tool.
Development and Fundraising
One mistake we see being made is that development and fundraising departments within athletics aren't using social media and are missing out on great opportunities to publicize fundraising events and get information out there to donors about what their money is going toward. Custom facebook pages for fundraising serve as a great way to increase awareness about what donors' money actually does in helping educate their student-athletes. This is also a great tool for expressing gratitude and appreciation toward donors for what they do (though we advise against calling out specific donors... they don't like that).
Even when an athletic department has the resources to have a social media director, it's rare that this person is used to market the development/fundraising arm. They are there to market the department as a whole and increase attendance at events. Therefore we are working with fundraising departments to allow Old Hat to serve as their social media voice and, in turn, make their fundraising efforts more effective.
Need a little Sock Medicine?
If you're struggling to find the time to manage your social media and either can't afford to hire a full-time individual to run it OR want to have someone with experience of an Old Hatter running it, give us a call and we'll put together a plan for you. We'll increase your likes and then make sure the proper content is getting pushed out consistently and at the right times.