On-Demand College Sports Communicators Webinar

Using web and social media analytics to make data-driven decisions

The presenters discussed the importance for athletic communicators and creatives to gather data and insights in real time as it pertains to your web and social media content. They discussed how social media data mining gives you key insights into your audience so you can learn what kind of content they like, when they want to see it, and where they spend their time online.

Panelists
• Sam Knehans –  Sun Belt Conference Senior Associate Commissioner, Chief Communications and Branding Officer 
• Chris Jones –  New York Red Bulls Manager, Digital and Social Content
• Phylicia Short –Queens University (Charlotte) Assistant Athletic Director for Communications / Athletics Diversity & Inclusion Designee
• Moderator: Eliza Kravitz, Georgetown University Assistant Director of Athletic Communications

While many platforms have their own built-in insights, using a social media analytics tool or tools can help you collect all of that data in a single, easy-to-use dashboard; those tools were discussed. Also:

Collecting the Data
What social media data you should be tracking, with tips for smart social media data collection
How to collaborate with on-campus colleagues to deliver data/analytics to support your brand messaging and brand content
Phylicia Short (Queens): Led athletic department effort to partner with the Queens business school as they moved to NCAA Division I to create their analytics strategies; suggested schools work with their campus constituents (business school, analytics, masters programs) to assist in collection of data, and to use tools like Sprout Social to collect the data.
 
Analyzing the Data and Making the Case
How to use analytics to inform and build your social media strategies to help your brand(s) gauge key metrics like reach, followers, engagement, clicks and conversations
Sam Knehans: Ask: To establish your social analytics strategy, ask: What are we using our time on? What content moves the needle? Review of tools the Sun Belt Conference uses. Review your analytics each semester.

Chris Jones - Making decisions based on the data, always asking: Why do we think it worked/didn’t work? How can we learn and improve? Review and refine your strategy often.


Other Resources 

August 2023 - Rival IQ's Higher Education Social Media Engagement Report for all NCAA Division I and Division I Universities and Colleges: https://www.rivaliq.com/blog/higher-ed-social-media-engagement-report/

March 2023 - MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference Session: Social Media and Sports: How Consumption and Fanhood is Changing via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOw5vJ_vy6s

Webinar: Using web and social media analytics to make data-driven decisions

College Sports Communicators is the premier professional and educational association for strategic, creative and digital communicators across intercollegiate athletics in the U.S. and Canada. Known as College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) for its first 65 years (1957-2022), the organization adopted a new name and associated visual identity in 2022-23.

Our new brand identity is a major step in a larger strategic plan to define the association’s evolution and expansion. It is designed to represent our brand promise –- connect and support all communicators in college sports through advocacy, leadership, education, recognition and collaboration.