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YAIAA Social Media Plan
Megan Kelly
York College of Pennsylvania
Executive Summary
The YAIAA (York-Adams Interscholastic Athletic Association) is made up of 23 schools
and 20 sports. The purpose of the organization is to have one location to go to in order to find out
information regarding all the sports news throughout York and Adams County, Pennsylvania
schools. The YAIAA is run by Gary McChalicher, Kennard-Dale Athletic Director, Steve
Navaroli, Webmaster, and Blake Knecht, Kennard-Dale Assistant Athletic Director.
The goal of this plan is to outline specific details in how to increase the organization’s
reach through social media. Primarily, develop social media platforms and establish content to
spread news about Central Pennsylvania’s school sports. All of the goals and strategies presented
in this report are to help achieve these objectives.
Our target audience is parents, students, and other schools within this association. By
developing a page on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, the YAIAA has the potential to
establish a community involved in education and sports, as well as, stimulate a discussion on
social media.
The social media plan pitches ideas that can be considered or implemented into the
current workings within the organization. This social media plan outlines a social media analysis,
competitor analysis, audience analysis, goals and objectives, strategies and tactics, a content
calendar, content ideas, and a crisis communication plan.
A major factor within this plan will be the various examples of ways in which the
YAIAA can target specific members of their audience. Facebook Live, video recordings, the use
of images, and curated content will be discussed. There are also ideas that the organization can
use on all relevant social platforms in order to start to develop a cohesive representation of their
association.
It is our goal to improve upon the YAIAA’s current presence on social media while
making the platforms easy to maintain. Examples of various tools that can be used to achieve
these goals and user-friendly operations will be discussed. An overall evaluation and return on
investment (ROI) will also be provided. As time goes on, it will be important to reevaluate this
plan to ensure that the organization stays relevant with main trends and social platforms. This
will keep a following and maintain audience engagement as years go on.
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Table of Contents
Introduction 3 Organization Background 4 Organization Social Media Analysis 5 Competitor Analysis 6 Audience Analysis 7 Goals and Objectives 8 Strategy and Tactics/Social Media Audit 9-10 Content Calendar 11-12 Created Content 13-16 Crisis Communication Plan 17-19 Evaluation 20-21 Conclusion 22 References 23
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Introduction
The YAIAA (York Adams Interscholastic Athletic Association) belongs to the PIAA
District 3, a group of school leagues primarily located in Central to South Central PA. Athletics
in the YAIAA have been extremely competitive within the last few years and continue to be as
time has gone on. Recently, more athletes continue their respective sports careers at a higher
level in college at all three levels Division 1, 2, and 3. Social media use continues to grow in the
YAIAA as more and more people gain interest in the sports and games that are being played in
the area. All of this has allowed for a great competitive atmosphere and the growing interest that
is in the York and Adams County areas. The audience over recent years has been relying on
hearing and reading about local high school sport news through newspaper articles the next day,
but now more people are turning to the YAIAA social media and websites to gain up to the
minute updates and news whenever it is convenient to them. Unlike, other leagues and or
organizations the YAIAA does not utilize the visual content on their website or other social
media outlets. So, their advancement in that department is very minimal. The only visual content
that could be found is a select few pictures here and one GIF on their Twitter page. The YAIAA
does not create much of their own content, but when they do they seem to get a great amount
interaction from their followers.
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Organization Background
The YAIAA has been around for well over 50 years, but an exact established date is
unknown. Located in South Central Pennsylvania, they cover school sports teams throughout
York and Adams County. The YAIAA is run by Gary McChalicher, Kennard-Dale Athletic
Director, Steve Navaroli, Webmaster, and Blake Knecht, Kennard-Dale Assistant Athletic
Director.
The YAIAA has had a few different names throughout their history. In the 1970’s and
1980’s, they were named the York County Interscholastic Athletic Association, then they added
a few schools from Adams County and further transitioned into the York Area Interscholastic
Athletic Association. After adding several more schools from across Adams County, they
became what they are today: York Adams Interscholastic Athletic Association. Some notable
goals and values within the organization, are to make decisions in the best interest of the
student-athletes, make their athletic programs an extension of the classroom, and to develop the
athletes into active and productive members of society through the ideals of education-based
athletic competition.
Their current mission statement is as follows:
“The York-Adams Interscholastic Athletic Association (YAIAA) will provide a positive
environment for student athletes so they may reach their fullest potential with emphasis on
academics, character, and sportsmanship.”
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Organization Social Media Analysis
The YAIAA has an active account on Twitter, as well as, a website. However, other
social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook, showed no account under the
name “YAIAA”. Most of their content on Twitter is not their own, as it is mostly tweets or
retweets from other pages. On their website, the YAIAA has an events page that consists of large
scale events such as a teams championship victory, broken records, or other notable large events
that have occurred. At the top of their page, there is a tabs list where it will direct the user to
schools, sports, resources, standings, etc. This is a common, yet nice feature because it is a clear
and concise path to other resources on the page and will increase the amount of time a visitor is
on the website.
The tone and personality is very friendly and informative, but does not display relatively
good content. The execution is poor and most of the time, the user cannot find the right
information, an important event to them, or it is difficult to find. The consistency of their content
is good because it is mainly of the same three things, scores, scheduling news, and other
statistics. Although, there is consistent content, it is not very well developed and has a lot left to
be desired.
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Competitor Analysis
Primary Competitors:
● Mid-Penn Conference
● Lancaster-Lebanon League
● Franklin-Fulton League
These are leagues or conferences that are in the surrounding areas just west, north, and east of
York and Adams Counties.
Secondary Competitors:
● PIAA District 3
● Berks County League
A secondary competitor that could be looked upon is the PIAA District 3. The YAIAA is a
league in PIAA District 3, but they both cover YAIAA schools and compete for a similar
audience. An emerging competitor could be the Berks County League which is just east of the
Lancaster-Lebanon League. As of February 2018, there have been talks of the Berks County
League joining the Lancaster-Lebanon League. So, that is something to keep an eye on in terms
of developing competitors.
Those primary competitors were only found active on Twitter, except for the
Franklin-Fulton League. Both the Mid-Penn Conference and Lancaster-Lebanon Leagues created
a Twitter in 2015 and most of the posts are tweets of scheduled events, final results, and retweets
from other sources that covered games in that area. There were no Instagram accounts made for
either three of the primary competitors. The PIAA District 3 is the only one to have an Instagram
account, but there has not been a post on there in a few years. Overall, their activity online was
not overly impressive and they are very similar to the YAIAA. Although, if chosen, the
Lancaster-Lebanon League has a stronger presence because of the originality in their posts.
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Audience Analysis
Primary Key Audiences
● Student athletes
● Parents of student athletes
Secondary Audiences
● Alumni of participating YAIAA schools
● Family and friends of students at participating YAIAA schools
● The local community
For an example, we will look at Fawn Grove, Pennsylvania where Kennard-Dale High School is
located. The demographics of Fawn Grove are shown below…
According to these demographics, the primary key audiences we have chosen are the student
athletes, and the parents of the student athletes. The secondary audiences are alumni of
participating YAIAA schools, the family and friends of students at participating YAIAA schools,
and the local community.
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Goals and Objectives
Objective
The primary objective of this social media plan is to develop social media platforms and
establish content in order to spread news about Central Pennsylvania’s school sports. Generating
target audience awareness, and involvement is a key component to this plan.
Goals
● Develop a new website
● Establish presence on social media (Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook)
● Create a public business Facebook page
● Introduce platform to help manage social media posts
● Generate way for athletic directors to have access to all social media platform accounts
● Produce content that will draw in target audience and lead to involvement
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Strategy and Tactics/Social Media Audit
Where Channel/
Environment
What Content/ Sentiment
When Date/
Frequency
Why Purpose/
Performance
Twitter ● Tweets ● Retweets
Sharing posts from schools, news, organizations
● Some likes/retweets
● Little comments
Multiple times a day
Spread news of Central PA sports
● Too many articles ● Few videos
Facebook (N/A) N/A N/A N/A
Instagram (N/A) N/A N/A N/A
Analyzing the current social media platforms and use, there is noticeable action on
Twitter. However, most of the content is curated which is retweeted by the organization. The
content produced on Twitter is professional and related to the organization, but there is little to
no activity from followers. There is also no business Instagram page or business Facebook page.
In order to reach the target audience of parents, students, and schools within the
association, the YAIAA needs to be on all three social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, and
Instagram). Therefore, the organization needs to create a business Instagram and Facebook page.
Instagram will reach more students within the target audience, whereas Facebook will reach the
parents and potential schools within the association. Twitter will reach everyone in the target
audience and can provide more timely information.
Information posted to these social media platforms can be a wide range. For Twitter, the
current tweets are a great start. More timely information like scores, updates, weather delays
should all be posted to Twitter because the information can get out to the audience faster and
they will be more likely to check the already-established page. As for Instagram, more
visually-appealing information like team photos, graphics of the two teams playing, or any
photos from the game would be a good start. Facebook could also see posts with images, scores,
updates, or weather delays. Parents would likely be checking this platform for information, so a
combination of posts from Instagram and Twitter should appear there.
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Retweeting or sharing information from others who might be at games is also good since
it is hard to go to multiple events that occur within the same night. Maybe even doing a
Facebook Live once and awhile for certain games or regular season games can add more
viewings since this specific audience is drawn to video more than anything else.
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Content Calendar
Week 1
*INCLUDE RAIN DELAYS ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER PLATFORMS IF THEY
OCCUR* CAN MOVE SCHEDULE AROUND DEPENDING ON GAMES*
Platform Day Time Topic
Twitter, Facebook Monday Morning (8am) Sports Schedule for week
Facebook Tuesday Afternoon/Evening (5pm)
Fundraiser opportunities or
article about a game
Twitter Wednesday Morning/Evening (7am or 4pm)
Fun gifs to pump people up for games or to stay relevant
Twitter, Instagram Thursday Evening (5pm) View of a game occurring (switch up sport every so often)
Instagram Friday Evening (8pm) Player of the week
Instagram Saturday Afternoon (2pm) Matchup of the week
Twitter, Facebook Sunday Evening (6pm if no games)
End of week recap
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Week 2
*INCLUDE RAIN DELAYS ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER PLATFORMS IF THEY
OCCUR* CAN MOVE SCHEDULE AROUND DEPENDING ON GAMES*
Platform Day Time Topic
Twitter, Facebook Monday Morning (8am) Sports Schedule for week
Twitter Tuesday Afternoon/Evening (5pm)
Upcoming games to pay attention to
Twitter Wednesday Morning/Evening (7am or 4pm)
Fun Gifs to pump people up for games or to stay relevant
Twitter, Instagram Thursday Evening (5pm) View of a game occurring (switch up sport every so often)
Instagram Friday Evening (8pm) Player of the week
Instagram Saturday Afternoon (2pm) Matchup of the week
Twitter, Facebook Sunday Evening (6pm if no games)
End of week recap
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Created Content
● End of week recap
● Fun pictures or gifs to pump people up for games
● Player of the week (one man, one woman)
● Matchup of the week or that day
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● All games occurring that week with times, locations, schools, sports, etc. (can schedule
ahead of time and would only need to change if rain delay)
● Fundraiser opportunities
● Live-stream games
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Video
Since videos are becoming more prominent in the younger generation, it is important to
implement them into an organization. They can be used to live-stream games through Facebook
Live, advertise your association (like the video below), or used to give information about players
or schools.
● Video link: https://slide.ly/promo/share/5bf0db7176e0dfc5787b241d
Website
We created a new website that is more user-friendly and from the same platform (Wix),
so it shouldn’t cost any more than what is currently being paid for the YAIAA.com domain. This
redeveloped website is purely for a cleaner look and can be changed.
● Link: https://mkelly264.wixsite.com/yaiaa
Logo
We felt that the YAIAA needed a more cohesive logo than just a map with all the
schools. We created one that showcases the YAIAA as a sports organization with one champion.
We added the slogan of “23 schools 20 sports” to emphasize what they are about.
● Cost: $39
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Crisis Communication Plan
It is inevitable that a crisis may occur at times when it is least expected. Regardless, it is
important to be prepared for any situation that may come your way. The steps for a crisis plan
are listed below, but before they are discussed, it is important to distinguish the difference
between internal and external.
Internal: A social media crisis can be initiated on the platform itself due to an insensitive tweet
or inappropriate picture. Occurs within the company.
External: Natural disasters, human tragedies, or something related to the industry can cause
people to reach out to social media accounts. Occurs outside the company.
1. Have a plan in place
Having a plan in place is a great way to get out in front of a crisis and make sure you
have a plan of attack. Practice beforehand so that all personnel know the role they play in a
crisis. In order to have a plan in place and ensure everyone knows what to do, there should be a
random drill as if an actual emergency or crisis occurred. Once it is announced that the crisis is
fake, employees can use the plan that the organization has in place and try their best to deal with
the issue at hand. Having a designated social media team could also help where they could meet
on a regular basis to keep up to date and be prepared. The main goal is to eliminate all confusion
so that there is none when a crisis occurs.
Internal: When implementing this plan it will be aimed towards that individual or individuals
that caused the situation. The social media team will help alleviate the situation through the
company’s social media, while the employee(s) will likely be dealt with the company.
External: This will be larger scale, and this will be handled by the social media crisis team and
the CEO or high up leader of the organization.
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2. Address the situation & own your mistakes
Internal: Address the insensitive tweet or inappropriate picture on the social media platform it
was originally posted on. Put together a well thought out public statement, preferably via a short
online video from someone in the organization who is looked at as a leader. For example, the
CEO. Do not be silent as that is the worst thing the company can do. Apologize for the content
and have whoever made the post take it down, and issue an apology on there account as well.
External: Address the situation on all forms of social media, possibly even hold a press
conference if that situation requires one to be held. Put together a well thought out public
statement preferably via a short online video from the CEO or organizational leader. Keep all
social media accounts up to date with any changes and updates.
3. Monitor the crisis
Internal: The organization should continue to keep everyone up to date on social media. You
should keep tabs on what everyone is saying on social media by looking at relevant hashtags.
Use social media monitoring tools/notifications to stay up to date.
External: Continue to monitor the crisis and release new information when you have it. Keep
tabs on what is being said about the crisis on social media. When monitoring, look at relevant
hashtags. Then post relevant updates via your social media accounts. Listen and respond to
fans/customers.
4. Provide consistent message
Internal: Designate a social media crisis team and have them work alongside the company’s
spokesperson. Have the social media crisis team respond and post on all relevant social media
sites so that everything stays consistent, timely, and accurate.
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External: Designate a social media crisis team, as they will be the ones working to handle the
situation. Have the social media crisis team respond and post on all relevant social media sites so
that everything stays consistent, timely and accurate.
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Evaluation
When evaluating this social media plan, it is important to remember that it should be
constantly updated as needed in order to ensure the organization maintains a following and
engagement from their target audience. After applying several aspects of this plan to the various
social media platforms, it is ideal to analyze what is working and what is not working. For
example, tracking analytics on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram will help in knowing what
attracts more viewers and clicks. This analytical data can give statistics on the number of page
visits, clicks on links or hashtags, and how far the organization has reached potential viewers.
Once a record and analysis of the successes and failures is determined, an adjustment on this
social media plan can follow.
An evaluation on this social media plan allows for a determination of the return on
investment (ROI). This will measure the efficiency of marketing for the organization and
determine if the strategies are working to reach the targeted audience. Evaluating where the
efforts and resources are being used efficiently and not as efficiently will allow for adjustment to
maintain a social media presence. Recognizing any gaps or goals that need to be addressed will
help determine whether the time and resources spent are enough.
In order to validate whether social media’s role in the organization is producing positive
performance, tracking metrics and identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) is crucial. This
will help link the goals and objectives to the social media measurement in order to evaluate how
effective the organization is in reaching these objectives. Again, analytics from Twitter,
Facebook, and Instagram can be used to get statistics on this information.
Looking at engagement, community size, and website data will assess KPIs. The most
important area that should concern the organization is audience engagement. This evaluates
whether the audience is interacting with the content or if what is being produced is enough to
engage an audience and keep them coming back. Tracking the amount of shares, comments,
profile visits, organization mentions, and active followers can all measure the engagement of the
audience.
Another important KPI is community size. This measures how many people follow the
organization and how many people are seeing the messages put out there. This would be
measured in followers, likes, or impressions.
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The unique number of visitors to a website or the referral traffic from social networks can
help measure the website data. This would also include the average time spent on the website,
clicks on links (click-throughs), and the bounce rate, which is the percentage of visitors who
enter and leave the site without viewing other pages. This can be evaluated through metrics
directly on the website or through third-party sites like Hootsuite or Buffer.
Overall, metrics are very important in determining whether the goals and objectives set
are achieved. Measuring the presence on social media, maintaining a public Facebook page,
managing social media posts, producing new content to draw in engagement from followers, and
introducing a new website, can all be evaluated through analytics within the platforms used or on
third-party sites. The information received will assess whether current strategies are working or
if an adjustment needs to be made. Ideally, the analytical software from Twitter, Facebook,
Instagram and Wix will examine this. However, using Hootsuite or Buffer can provide all this
data in one place without having four different sites to collect from.
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Conclusion
In this social media plan we showed how the YAIAA can develop their social media
platforms and establish content to spread sports news throughout Central Pennsylvania’s schools.
This will be possible by improving all social media platforms including Twitter, Instagram and
Facebook. Improving the website to make it more user-friendly will be of great help as well.
Making use of all resource available like Hootsuite, Buffer and different aspects of Facebook
will allow for the scheduling of posts ahead of time. This will help ensure consistency among
posts on the various social media platforms, and keep fans up to date and engaged with the
YAIAA.
In conclusion, we believe that in order for this social media plan to work for the YAIAA
they must follow four main steps. These steps are to maintain a presence on social media
(Twitter, Instagram, Facebook), use post scheduling features on Facebook, Hootsuite or Buffer,
maintain sports news on their website and social media in a timely manner, and maintain the new
website. We believe if they follow this plan and stick to these future steps, then they will have a
successful social media presence, and will continue to grow their fanbase.
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References
Fawn Grove, PA Demographics. (n.d.). Retrieved December 4, 2018, from
https://www.areavibes.com/fawn grove-pa/demographics/
Navaroli, S. (n.d.). Yaiaa. Retrieved December 4, 2018, from https://www.yaiaa.com/
YAIAA. (n.d.). Tweets [Twitter page]. Retrieved December 4, 2018, from
https://twitter.com/yaiaascores?lang=en
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