Episode 31 of the DSMSports Podcast w/ Grace Hoy of ASU Athletics

Best Of...Grace Hoy on theDigital and Social Media Sports

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Grace Hoy, Social Media Coordinator for Arizona State University Sun Devils athletics, was the featured guest on episode 31 of the DSMSports Podcast.

What follows are some snippets from the interview. Hear the full episode on www.DSMSports.net or download it on from iTunes Store podcasts

Enjoy...

@njh287DSMSports.net


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Grace's career path:

Got involved in the sports scene at ASU (majored in marketing) after attending an all-girls high school

→ Did an internship with the sports information department during junior year at ASU and an internship the following summer at MTV World in NY

→ Did another media relations internship with ASU during her senior year

→ After graduation, became Social Media Coordinator with ASU Media Relations



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“Treat any internship or experience like a job, take your task seriously, and show initiative.”

“I was doing the internship because I genuinely enjoyed it...The more I progressed, the more I loved it, and the job opened up right as I was graduating.”



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“Social media is great because it's right in the intersection of so many departments...I get to work with media relations, marketing, ticketing, and converse with the fans and get them excited.”

“Social media is great because you can see real-time results, with analytics, and see how something is performing.”



PodcastOn her position at ASU:

“I was lucky I had some background interning for the department, but there was so much more when I started...It's managing our main social media accounts, Sun Devils Athletics, on eight different social platforms, and working with our team SIDs to make sure our team accounts are updated and they fall under a consistent brand strategy and that we have similar messaging.

But we assure each sport is also promoted individually, we cover live events, and try to reach target audiences, and drive revenue generation through ticket sales, as well.”



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“I love that [in social media] you get to interact with all departments...every week, I compile an analytics report to look at how our (numbers) have changed...and I also do a report of all PAC 12 schools to see how well we're poerforming, benchmark to our competitors, and look out for nay posts that stand out.”



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Tools Grace uses:

Google Wildfire, Hootsuite, native Facebook and Twitter analytics, Postano analytics



PodcastOn ASU and Postano:

“When I started, we were just finishing up our social media command center...Postano is key for me and my team on game day...we use Postano to monitor fan content on social media feeds and push posts to the video board during games...we also use hash tag voting and show real-time results of (the polls)...

We also use Postano for a social media hub on our website...we aggregate fan content (from week to week).”

Grace notes Postano IS driving more fan participation and seeing fans sharing excitement when their post is shown on video board at games@njh287

DSMSports.net


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On ASU's venue connectivity:

“Most of our facilities are great...for football, when you have 60,000 people it's tougher, but we are working on upgrades.”

“We get so many selfies from fans in the stadium throughout games, so fans are very active (with no connection problems) at games.”



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Where social media fits into ASU Athletics hierarchy:

“We are our own department of digital media and communications, which falls under one of our senior associate athletic director...it really involves almost every other department we work with...We need all arms.”



Podcast“Unifying the message and the brand voice is

critical...we have 22 sports teams on social media and our own things to promote...in the eyes of the fans, it's one brand, (so) we often come together to help the messaging, themes, and main points we should be pushing. And that's replicated on the main account.”

→ NOTES how both ASU main account and ASU FB account live-tweet updates of the football games; uses Twitter analytics to see how much follower cross-over there is between main account and individual team accounts



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“It's so important to construct messaging for your different demographics...but also have your message be broad enough so it applies to all of them.”

“(Engagement) really fluctuates on the post, depending on who's tuned in...the sport, who the basic season ticket holder is involved, and any promotion we have going on.”



PodcastGrace notes how social media posts are

integrated into emails; analytics behind content is looked at across email, web, and social media to push most successful content across channels

Hoy tells about how segment of football player reading tweets from each other came together from creation of the idea to execution



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“We produce a ton of video content and have good access to the student athletes and try to promote them on and off the field...from their academic achievements to (features) that show their personality...It worked out really well and everyone was on board.”



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“For the most part, teams have their own (social media) rules, but we haven't had student athlete issues on social media. We go through best practices...have a seminar with our freshman athletes...At the end of the day, it's your individual outlet, but you're also a reflection of Sun Devil Athletics and the university.”



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Helpful Tool Add GIF; create a GIF from any YouTube video

Just input the text AddGIF, in the URL of any YouTube video before the YouTube

Example: www.addgifyoutube.com/?v=x12fk53



PodcastOn this football season:

I Am A Sun Devil campaign on social/web over social media to have current + past ASU fans/alums all over the world share content about ASU athletics

Theme for the sports season: “Sun Devil laws,” with themes for each team and each game integrated into social media campaigns, such as “Maroon Monsoon” for football

“The main theme for football is 'leave no doubt'...in addition to weekly themes,” which are featured on the stadium screen and the website social hub.



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Social media ROI and benchmarking:

“Increasing our following, our brand affinity, striving to be at the top of PAC 12 Conference (are our goals)...pointing out what types of messaging works, why a medium or post was more popular so we can repurpose it...keeping an eye on what times of day works best, types of links, (etc.)...”



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“A really fun way to interact with (other schools/teams) is through mascot accounts...fans really love (the mascot exchanges on social media)...Especially when it is the Sun Devil, (Sparky's social accounts) allows us to have a little fun with the fans.”

[notes the big popularity of tweets about Sparky's pushups for points at football games]



Podcast“We really push our live streams for (non-

televised) events...That's really great for fans that are elsewhere...We give in-game updates and scores and stats from the league.

“For fans that are local, we focus on coming out to the games in person, but, for non-local games, we engage with fans all over the world (i.e. where are you watching)?...Any way we can connect with them and stay engaged is something we want to do.”



PodcastGrace tells about live-tweeting ASU football's big win on a

Hail Mary pass to defeat USC at the last second

“As soon as that happened, I knew we had to get the clip up right away, so I used Snappy.tv and it became our most retweeted tweet ever...(pushed content to all channels right away and day after)...”We put together a video of fan reactions and used that and made sure we were on top of every social media platform and pushing out as much timely info as we can.”

→ Twitter came first, then Facebook and website, then social media extended thereafter to drive fans to web content, infographic put on Instagram, while also keeping other sports/events in mind, too.



PodcastGrace talks about PAC 12 and ASU's participation in the “It's On Us” campaign, especially how individual Sun Devil teams, notably football and women's basketball, used social media to share personal reasons for supporting the campaign; received national attention.

“It goes back to us highlighting not only what student athletes are doing on the field, but off the field, too...it was great to see them supporting a great cause.”

“Fans really responded to it...it's great to believe in a program that performs well and does good things (too). It was great to see fans really get behind that.”@njh287

DSMSports.net


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Shareable Stat:

34% of respondents in an eMarketer survey said they plan to purchase tickets to a live event digitally soon (computer or mobile)



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Grace's favorite ASU hash tag and why:

#KeepTheCup – Based on keeping the “territorial cup” against rival University of Arizona; applies to head-to-head football and year-long competition across sports



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Coolest celeb/alumnus that interacts with @SunDevilsAthletics:

James Harden → “Before it was 'fear the beard,' it was 'fear the fork.'”



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The biggest social media lesson/epiphany for Grace:

The “Wizard of Oz' theory...Fans follow brands because they want to see the great and powerful Oz; they don't want to see the people creating behind the curtain and that's why the consistent strategy (behind it) is really important.”



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The pro sports teams with the best social media and why:

The @SFGiants are fun and creative and good to follow, according to Grace (despite her being a Padres fan)



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Grace's favorite piece of Sun Devils social content:

The “Who Tweeted That?” feature with the football team.” (which she plans to expand to other teams)

“Getting fans to see the personalities is really cool.”



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The best ASU Sun Devils tradition:

“We have a cool video of Sparky walking through Phoenix and stomping on our opponents' buses and then the (football) team runs out of Tillman's tunnel and the fans go nuts.”



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Best food at ASU:

Grace loved the vegetable korma at the ASU library cafe



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The new[er] social media platform Grace has her eye on:

Apps that take into account consumer tracking and RFID tracking

→ Grace notes the Disney “magic bands” (which uses RFID), which is “really interesting looking at it from a customer experience and data perspective.”



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Grace's favorite AZ sports memory:

“Our first blackout game against Mizzou...there was a monsoon and they had stop some of the plays...People were hyped up and then we won in overtime and it was so exciting. That made me want to work in the sports department.”



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Besides ASU, which football team will win the national championship?

“There have been so many upsets...I think it could go in multiple ways.”

(notes she prefers a PAC 12 team regardless)



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Grace's social media all-star to follow:

Jessica Smith @WarJessEagle:

“She follows what a ton of people are doing. It's really interesting to watch her blog and all the stuff she posts.”



PodcastWhere to find Grace and ASU Athletics on social media:

Follow @GraceHoy on Twitter

@TheSunDevils on Twitter; Arizona Statte Sun Devils on Facebook; @SunDevilsAthletics on Instagram

ASU Athletics has presence on: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Vine, Google Plus, Spotify, YouTube, Tumblr



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Thanks so much to Grace Hoy for joining the Digital & Social Media Sports podcast!

For more info on the podcast, check out DSMSports.net and follow me @njh287
