Web for Mass Communication- English-Final Project

NCAA Men’s College Basketball
Teams And Players SHOULD Use
Social Media
Caroline Long

What will be discussed today:
Reasons why NCAA men’s college
basketball teams should use social media
Positives from using social media
Positives with NCAA men’s college
basketball players using social media
By adhering to team social media
policies
Negatives with NCAA men’s college
basketball players using social media

Why should NCAA men’s basketball teams use Social
Media?
1. To have a strong media presence
2. To recruit
3. To build their social media fan base
to further engagement with their
fans
4. To go visual

1.To have a strong media presence
Top 10 NCAA men’s basketball teams
Active on several social platforms
Targeting young consumers, alumni
and basketball fans
Social presences are focused more on
consumer-oriented networks:
Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and
Twitter
We see this same trend with business-to-
consumer organizations
Need to be active to reach their audience
Villanova, after a week, had 285 aggregate social
posts across six networks
217 tweets, 32 Facebook posts, 4
YouTube posts, and 32 Instagram
posts
Number one in this category
Villanova has appeared in the NCAA
Tournament 35 times, the 8th highest
total in NCAA history (ESPN)
Kansas has the most followers across the top 6
social networks
Dawson, 2015

Visuals of the top 10 NCAA men’s basketball team social media presence
Dawson, 2015

2. To recruit
Coaches are using social media to check on possible recruits
Most kids in high school are active on social media and it is
a perfect place for coaches to check their activity
Social media and NCAA recruiting go hand-in-hand
Mike Elder, Avon football coach said, “What you put out
there is your brand and how you want to be perceived.
Recruiters want to see what kind of person you are
because they’re making a major investment in you. If
you’re putting the wrong things out there, I can promise
you, that recruiting will end.”
Social media shows a lot about an individual's character, that
is why potential schools keep up with their recruits on
social media sites Patsko, 2015

Example of a coach using Twitter to recruit
Athlete, Justice Alexander, has Tweeted more than 1,100 times in just a year's time
He told the public “College coaches were the main reason I got on Twitter. They would say, ‘Follow me on
Twitter.’ I said, ‘I don’t have Twitter.’ They’d say, ‘Get on there so you can DM me questions.’”
He used Twitter to post a picture of himself with Michigan State football recruits standing with coach Mark
Dantonio
Social media has been used by recruits to
Promote highlight videos to
Contact coaches
Announce verbal commitments Patsko, 2015

Example of recruit making a mistake
New Hampshire HS Basketball Player of the Year Loses Award
After Obscene Tweet
This player was getting recruited by top notch
schools and he lost this award and recruitment
from schools
“Pembroke Academy (Pembroke, N.H.) Pat Welch was named
the Division II Player of the Year earlier this month, but he
was recently stripped of the title after his team won the
NHIAA Division II boys' basketball state title because of an
obscene tweet (Newport).”
The tweet, which contained profanity, was directed at the team
he had just defeated Newport, 2014

3. To build their social media fanbase
First, teams need to have one main name and
logo for all their social networks
Easier for users to find
Need to use the same description and bio
language
Use consistent hashtags
Example:
Duke men’s basketball team uses three different
profile names and descriptions
1. Duke MBB
2. Duke Basketball
3. Duke Blue Planet
○ This makes it harder for users to find one
credible source
Keep it simple
Building a relationship with your fanbase is very
important
“Relationship marketing is a way to establish,
maintain, and enhance relationships with
customers and other partners, at a profit, so
that the objectives of the parties involved are
met (Watkins, 2014).”
On the subject of using social media, Indiana
athletic department’s social media
coordinator, Shana Daniels, said one of the
main reasons for the use is to build a
relationship with the fans (Talty, 2011)
More than 800 million people are on Facebook and 300
million on Twitter.
Watkins, 2014; Dawson, 2015; Talty, 2011

“The Five Best College Basketball Teams Utilizing Twitter “
The most successful universities are leading the way in social media
They are “models” for other teams to look up to in order to gain more fans, recruits and
attention
Their use has changed normal fans into DIEHARD fans
Here are the 5 NCAA men’s basketball teams who are successful on social media networks:
The Five Best College Basketball Teams Utilizing Twitter - SportTechie, 2014

The 5 Most Successful NCAA Men’s Basketball Teams On Social Media
1. North Carolina Tar Heels - In 2014, they had the number one Twitter account in the NCAA
with over 140,000 followers. Today, they have over 260,000 followers on Twitter.
2. Akron Zips- Wanted to replace player’s last names on their jerseys with individual Twitter
handles in an attempt to expand their fan base. Failed but gained more fans.
3. Duke Blue Devils- Second largest Twitter following. Used Google+ to video chat with fans
and answer their questions. In 2013, Duke players teamed up with players on the 2010
National Championship Team to create the DBP Hangout (#DBPHangout). The Hangout
was streamed live on Duke’s YouTube page, which expanded their fan base.
4. Kentucky Wildcats- Most historic and successful basketball programs in the country. Their
coach has over 1.25 million followers. They first launched hype videos on Instagram to
further excite their fans.
5. Michigan Wolverines- Has one of the largest Twitter accounts in college basketball. They
connect with fans directly more than other teams.
The Five Best College Basketball Teams Utilizing Twitter - SportTechie, 2014

Visual On Facebook Fan Pages By States
Yancey
Facebook created a map split up county by county, which showed the users’ likes on
team’s Facebook fan pages.

4. To go visual
Teams need to use captivating pictures,
images and videos to engage with their
audience
With the use of visuals, teams will benefit
the ease of engagement and
instantaneous connection between fans
and their favorite teams
Can lead fans to build a greater loyalty
to a certain team
Social media is no longer just a place to
connect with friends and family
Place for doing business Hipke and Hachtmann, 2014; Thompson et al., 2014
A website is no longer enough
Need to meet people where they are now
That is visual

Continue...
The Carolina Tar Heels used a
snip of this video and put it on
their Instagram page
Made fans who did not make it to the
event feel included
Let fans get to know the team a little
better
Showed UNC cares about their fans
by sharing that moment with them
Youtub
e

Positives with NCAA men’s college basketball players using social media
1. To have a POSITIVE
IMPACT on society
2. To receive POSITIVE
ATTENTION

1.To have a POSITIVE impact on society
First, many colleges now have social media policies put in place for their athletes to
adhere to and they strictly follow them
Most of these policies restrict what student-athletes can say online
First Amendment rights
At public universities the policies could be infringing on students' rights
Not legally able to restrict speech, online or otherwise
Private universities are not bound by the First Amendment protections
These universities are not saying , “Don't have Twitter. Don't have Facebook.Elliot, 2014

Example of social media policy
UGA men’s basketball social networking policy:
Facebook and similar sites: post nothing that
would offend your family, team, or coach,
make private;
Anything you write can and will be quoted
Twitter is only allowed with a signed
agreement with Coach Fox and can be
disallowed at any time
Link to a digital copy of this policy: University of Georgia team policies

Team policies during March Madness
Michigan State University, coached by Tom Izzo, and the University of Kentucky, coached by Jon Calipari,
have been dominating forces in men’s college basketball for years
Izzo bans his players from posting to their social media accounts during the season, which includes March
Madness
Calipari, though, embraces social media as “A way to give fans a behind-the-scenes look at college basketball
life”
Small businesses face this choice when determining their policies about employee social media use
Eric Vidal, director of product marketing, said, "There's no right or wrong answer for how present a business
or team should be on social media. Rather, it's about finding a happy medium that works for yourFallon, 2014

Team policies during March Madness Continue…
Vidal shared 3 lessons teams can take away based on his observations of NCAA social
media strategies:
Establish guidelines. Take the time to put guidelines in place about what is
acceptable to post and what's not.
Be conversational and authentic. March Madness is full of emotion, and players and
coaches aren't afraid to show this passion, either on the court or off it, via their
social media accounts. This aspect of the game helps connect the players to their
fans.
Educate your team about your messaging strategies. In basketball, if the whole team
isn't on board with a play, it's not going to work. Need everyone on board.
Here is the link to check out his advice to business’:
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6167-march-madness-social-media-lessons.html
Fallon, 2014

Continue… to have a POSITIVE impact on society
Builds Relationships
Must be high levels of social media
involvement for relationship
building to be effective
Twitter's two-way dialogic capabilities
on the internet and its open-nature
on the site allows Twitter to be
effective for building relationships
The structural features of social media
allow for such interactions to take
place in an online environment
Personal Branding
The athlete chooses how they want to
be represented
Send the right message out to the
public
Positive information
There are many examples of what not to do,
but there are positive examples of how
athletes can use social media
Watkins, 2014; Gaoi, 2013

Example: POSITIVE impact on society
Boston College basketball team signs 9-year-old
cancer patient
Boston College men’s basketball team
tweeted out to their followers that they
signed a new member to their team
9-year-old Quinn Amsler, diagnosed with
sarcoma was undergoing physical therapy
and chemotherapy
Quinn is an official member of the Boston
College men’s basketball team
○ Able to spend the season with
players and coaches
Positive example on how the team and its members
used social media in a positive way
Boston College, 2015

2. To receive POSITIVE ATTENTION
The media usually focuses on athlete’s negative
uses on social media, but those negative uses
can also be used for positive uses to gain
attention
Social media has changed the traditional way
athletes interact
They can respond to tweets and
comments
Their fans feel closer to them
Social Media can help athletes meet needs such
as:
Duke fans showing some love to Jahlil Okafor who
actively used and uses social media to interact with fans.
Yuan and Shuhua,

Continue… To receive POSITIVE ATTENTION
Sports fans said they use social media not only
for fandom and to find information, they use
it for direct communication with the players
and teams
Sometimes this communication is negative
from fans and the athletes have to be
disciplined
Can’t act in the moment and reply in a
rude manner because that will hurt
their reputation
Even though these are NBA players in this
video, these type of tweets come in by the
thousands to college players, especially if
Excuse some of the language, but when players
receive harsh tweets like these and they reply in
a positive manner, they gain a lot of respect
Yuan and Shuhua,

The importance of social media for athletes
CCR CEO Shane Howard talks about the importance of social media for athletes
Youtube

Continue… To receive POSITIVE ATTENTION
Some universities policies have rules
that do not allow their athletes to
Tweet until a certain period time
Could be after the season is over
Could be after a game
Not all schools have the same rules
The Carolina Tar Heels use their social
media before or after games
The point guard, Marcus Paige, uses his
tweets to thank, interact with fans and
Stanley, 2014

There are negatives to NCAA men’s college basketball players using social media
1. Social media can damage the athlete’s
reputation and sometimes get them in
trouble with the school or a higher
authority
2. An athlete’s mistake on social media
can give their university a bad name
in the public's eyes

1. Social media can damage an athlete’s reputation
Kansas State dismissed more than one
basketball player for causing stir on twitter.
Malek Harris and Marcus Foster were two
of those players. Kansas State said they have
very high standards for their players and if
they do not live up to those expectations
they will be dismissed. After this news,
some others began to transfer
The only player left from the freshman class
was Wesley Iwundu, and he caused a stir on
Twitter as well by saying:
“Yea it's over ... I'm gone”
That tweet was deleted later in the
morning and he stayed around
Although Harris got kicked off the team, he was
still able to use Twitter to thank his fans
Corbitt, 2015

Players kicked off their teams for tweets
Redshirt freshman, DJ Gardner, tweeted his
displeasure about Mississippi State
basketball bureaucracy then he was kicked
off the team
One tweet led to the fall of his basketball career
at the university
Thomas de Thaey's played basketball for
NC State and he was not happy with his
playing time so he went on a Twitter
rampage about his coach and was kicked
off

2. Social media can damage a university's reputation
When these players mess up, it
makes their school look bad as
well
Their actions on social media reflect
directly on the school
Their actions on social media also
reflect not only on themselves, but
their whole team and coaching
staff
HAVE to be careful what they post

Former Kentucky men’s basketball player sends risky tweet
Former Wildcat sends out a tweet once
he is in the NBA that made the
University of Kentucky look bad
People can make assumptions that
Kentucky players get special treatment
His tweet could have gotten himself in
trouble and the university
This tweet was seen by thousands of
people
Athlete’s need to be careful what they
tweet to the public Sarkisova and Parham, 2013

Works Cited
Boston College basketball team signs 9-year-old cancer patient. (2015, October 10). Kirotv
Corbitt, K. (2015, April 17). K-State basketball's Malek Harris dismissed; Wesley Iwundu causes
stir on Twitter.
Dawson, M. (2015, March 23). 6 social media lessons from NCAA basketball's top teams.
Elliot, D. (2014, March 27). College basketball social media policy: Just one girlfriend, "not two or three"
Fallon, N. (2014, April 1). Tweeting to Win: 3 March Madness Social Media Lessons.
Gaoi, M. (2013, October). Blog: 9 Social Media Dos and Don'ts for Student-Athletes - Athletic Business.

Works Cited
Hipke, M., & Hachtmann, F. (2014). Game Changer: A Case Study of Social-Media Strategy in Big Ten
Athletic Departments. International Journal Of Sport Communication.
Newport, K. (2014, March 28). HS Player Loses Award After Tweet.
Patsko, S. (2015, February 3). How social media behavior of high school athletes can negatively impact
NCAA recruiting.
Patsko, S. (2015, February 2). How social media, NCAA recruiting go hand-in-hand, from first contact
through National Signing Day 2015
Sarkisova, G., & Parham, J. (2013, March 19). 15 College Athletes Who Got in Trouble Using Twitter -
Thomas de Thaey.

Works Cited
Stanley, Clayton V., (2014) Fans use of Twitter in College Athletics. Sport Management Undergraduate.
Paper 12.
Talty, J. (2011, December 15). How Social Media Affects College Athletics.
The Five Best College Basketball Teams Utilizing Twitter - SportTechie. (2014, January 22).
Thompson, A., Martin, A. J., Gee, S., & Eagleman, A. N. (2014). Examining the Development of a Social
Media Strategy for a National Sport Organisation. Journal Of Applied Sport Management
University of Georgia team policies. (n.d.).

Works Cited
Watkins, B. (2014, January). Building Brand Relationships Online And Offline: A Comparison Of Social
Media And Marketplace Characteristics. American Academy of Advertising. Conference. Proceedings
(Online) (p. 71). American Academy of Advertising.
Yancey, B. (n.d.). How the NCAA Tournament creates March Madness on social media.
Yuan, W., & Shuhua, Z. (2015). How Do Sports Organizations Use Social Media to Build Relationships? A
Content Analysis of NBA Clubs' Twitter Use. International Journal Of Sport Communication, 8(2), 133-148.

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