UNC Wins NCAA Title, Gives a Clinic On and Off the Pitch

This blog is all about aspiration. We're relentlessly looking around to uncover best practices, and then we look at how we can elevate them. With the goal to contribute to growing the game.

What makes something a best practice?

It's not about the most complex, expensive, dramatic execution. It's about thinking about it from the point of view of your consumer and creating an experience that inspires.

I'm treating the consumer as the Fan. In the case of college sports, in my opinion you have to also include the Recruit in the consumer fold. Sound good? Okay, let's take a look at the North Carolina Tar Heels and how the digital team got down to action before, during, after the NCAA Championship win today. Yep sorry Penn State, we've given you Lions a lot of love lately (here, here and here) so this post is all Tar Heel.

First off, let's look at an obvious place - the athletic website - where we come across a not so obvious post. Within hours (lightening rapid pace) after the team won the title this afternoon, this fan-focused post went up (see image below), inviting fans to a celebration event four days away. It included full-on details down to the date, time, place, guest speakers, and other unique features. This is mind blowing preparation. By being so prepared, UNC's message not only hits fans while it still has their starry-eyed attention, it also shows recruits that the program expects success. It makes players and recruits feel like UNC is a big place to play.

UNC took it's preparation further, with copy ready to post on the athletic website within hours following victory, including a skin proclaiming them NCAA Champs. Check it here (see header banner and side logos):

Now let's move to UNC's channel of choice to connect with the fan: Twitter. The team-specific page gives fans and prospective players a window into the program. The bio description is aspirational and packed with current, relevant reasons why the fan or recruit needs to follow - to not miss exclusive, behind the scenes coverage of their favourite team's pursuit of a national title (see image below). The beauty is that fans can get a look at both the on and off-field components of the program.

Let's work backwards from right after they won the title then work our way back to pre-game tweets. Post-match coverage featured a live Twitter feed which mixed fans with UNC soccer alumni, many of them famous, via re-tweets (a virtual mosh-pit celebration). Pretty cool, right? Check out a screen shot of part of the feed here.

UNC Twitter re-tweets fan and soccer alumni messages to create a virtual celebration.

During the match, the UNC Twitter page is the platform for live updates but at key moments only. During the NCAA Final there were only 10 tweets posted, announcing game milestones like goal details, time checks and score updates. Perhaps if it wasn't a televised game, there may have been more tweets to give a play-by-play feel.

Moving on, let's dive into the pre-game period. Similar to the post-game virtual celebration we just covered above, the UNC Twitter created a sort of virtual pep rally by re-tweeting fan and alumni messages to the team ahead of the big game. Even if the players don't see this (although many players are on Twitter so they most likely do) it creates a sense of unity among fans and former players, spread across the globe. See image here below.

UNC Twitter re-tweets fan and alumni support messages to create a virtual pep rally.

What's more, the UNC Twitter has been meticulous all season long at including a match-specific hashtag (such as #UNCvsPSU) on match day tweets - see image below. Hashtags bring together fans who are following virtually from all over the globe - where some fans are able to meet in the stadium, others unite around a hashtag community to follow the game.

Hashtags enable fans to virtually cluster around a specific event.

These are just a few examples showing how the Twitter page is where it all comes together for UNC. It's the hub that links the player-run Twitter feed to the official athletic website and their team-specific YouTube channel. We'll save the look at the off-field component for another post.

What we can tell already is that the UNC tweets allow us all to get a sense of what it means to be a Tar Heel women's soccer player. It's more than just showcasing the efforts of a star player, rather it shares with us the spirit of the Tar Heel program.

And lastly, not only does UNC use Twitter as a window into the program, it also uses it to extend the window of interest around the big sport moment like an NCAA title.

What do you think, is Twitter an effective way to bring content to fans? What ideas have you seen out there?

Thanks for reading. You can follow along on this blog or get your updates on Twitter @wandarful10.

Source: UNC Twitter, UNC athletic website.