Posted at 01:06 PM in Current Affairs, Industry Events, Marketing, Technology, Web/Tech, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
With the exception of top tier universities, college athletic and sports marketing departments are notoriously lean operations with everyone wearing many hats. But they have access to help. Universities have a stable of willing and able resources right at their fingertips: the student intern. But like any other business bringing on an intern, the question becomes how best to use their time; not only to benefit the school, but the student as well.
Social media marketing, including blogging, user generated video, Twitter, Facebook and other online awareness techniques, has become a key consideration for marketing and promotional campaigns both small and large. It can drive online awareness, build brand/team advocates, spike ticket sales, create fan engagement and more. However, the challenge in executing these programs is creating the content required to sustain relevancy in the crowded social media space.
Interns are nothing new for college athletic departments. But how they should be used is changing. While attending the NACDA conference recently, the social media marketing and technology tracks were packed with assistant athletic directors eager to learn social media tricks-of-the-trade. And that's part of the problem: there are no "tricks" or magical shortcuts to social media. If anything, it's just the opposite. It is a time consuming commitment that requires dedicated resources and planning. Specifically, a content strategy and a resource to produce/gather/organize the content. It may be cheap, but it's by no means free.
Here's an example of a current Internship description for Auburn University. Not to pick on Auburn, but I'm a Gator, so it's understandable. You can see it has no mention of social media. This is typical of what I found with most other universities.
Comparing the overwhelming interest in social media I found at the NACDA conference with the fact that very few university athletic department internships are focused on social media, I discovered a gap. University athletic departments want to use social media, but don't fully understand how to do it themselves, much less teach a student intern how to do it.
The reality, however, is many students today are very media savvy. They understand the technology; the content creation process; the conversational marketing style. What they need is someone to channel that activity towards established branding goals and defined marketing objectives -- something assistant athletic directors are especially good at.
So here are a few suggestions to all you college athletic department internship description writers out there. Start including these activities:
Title: Social Media Marketing Intern
Description:
They great thing about this kind of internship is the department will learn as much from the intern as the intern does from the department.
Posted at 06:04 PM in Film, Marketing, Sports, Web/Tech, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
One of the most powerful features of the Endavo Internet TV platform is the Personal Player. This tool allows members of an Endavo powered video community to get "embed code" they can easily add to their own blogs, websites or social networking profile pages -- extending the reach of your content (and only your content) without losing control; something that proves challenging to those relying on YouTube and other social media sites to deliver their content.
Community members can select the content they want to display in their personal player and pick from multiple colors. It's a great way to build audience for your site from the viewers of your members' web sites, as each personal player is branded with your site's logo and a link back to the main community site. Here's an example of the Endavo Personal Player.
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Posted at 03:11 PM in Marketing, Technology, Web/Tech, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
A new study by Cone (view press release here) provides a glimpse into how social media marketing is perceived by consumers. The results bode well for those of us who've spent the last several years trying to convince brand marketers, agencies and C-level execs on the potential of social media focused initiatives.
The report revealed nearly "60 percent of Americans interact with companies on a social media Web site, and one in four interact more than once per week." When asked about specific types of interactions, Americans believe:
The Cone study went on to explain the effectiveness social media marketing programs seem to have in connecting marketers with hard to reach groups like online males and the highly sought after (18-24) youth market. Additional insight is provided on what consumers feel the role of companies should be within online communities.
It is worth noting the drop from nearly 50% to 25% when the question is "solve problems/solicit feedback" vs. "marketing to." This is important. It means marketers have to understand this is a different medium with a different set of "engagement rules." It's not a static banner ad or a passive tv spot, it's interactive. In these environments it's critical that marketers approach online communities with transparency and a commitment to building relationships beyond the sale. Otherwise you risk alienating a good portion of your potential audience from the start.
Posted at 02:00 PM in Current Affairs, Marketing, News Summary, Research, Technology, Web/Tech, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

