With the 1,243 items on your to-do list, raising awareness for your department may be the last thing on your mind. But putting this off could yield a less effective athletic department.
Don’t let this happen.
Here’s 5 things you can do to raise awareness for your sports programs.
Hang a banner (If you’re not already doing this, don’t wait) Purchasing a banner to hang in your athletic fields or stadiums is an easy and inexpensive way to let people know about your athletic website. Just include a short message for your community telling where they can find the latest news for your athletic department, like the one shown below!
Post Photos “A picture’s worth a thousand words” couldn’t be more true when it comes to your athletic contests. Photos from events are most likely to drive people to your athletic site, and keep them coming back.
And good news. Parents love to take pictures. Making an effort to post galleries from athletic events will train your community to go to your site first to find awesome pictures of their favorite athletes.
Take advantage of Social Media I know it’s a pain, but if you want to reach ALL of your community, at this point you have to use Facebook and Twitter to do so.
Relay department news or alerts by posting on your athletic sites’ social media pages, and reach your fans faster than ever. (Even better, posting on VNN sites automatically updates your Facebook and Twitter pages.)
Create a video Creating cool videos to showcase your athletic department is an awesome way to raise awareness while displaying your students’ tech skills. Talk with your media department about having students create a video specifically for your department — you’ll be impressed with the outcome! Check out this video created by students at West Bloomfield high school.
http://youtu.be/Wb5teoWyaas
10 minute rule Setting aside ten or fifteen minutes every week to devote to your online presence – whether your website, Facebook or Twitter – will generate serious results in increasing awareness. Your community will love the updates from your department, and your department will love all the new attention it’s getting.
Want to supercharge your athletic department? We’d love to help. Give us a shout.
