Coverage

[gman]

[FUBeAR]

I'm not knowledgeable in the ways of Twitter or Snapchat. When I reactivated my Twitter account recently, it's filled with tweets that I'm not interested in. Like I said earlier, I need training so that I can limit what I see to what I want to see. I don't want to see tweets from John Doe about his cats.

I’m no Twitter expert, but I use Lists to see what I want to see, when I want see it. You can subscribe to others lists or create your own. You may want to subscribe to a list that someone FUBeAR knows well (you can find “him” pretty easily) created. It’s called “Mercer_Furman_FCS_SoCon_FCS” - It may be a bit too orange-colored for you, but you can use it as a basis to add some of the list members to a list of your own.

To subscribe to/follow other people's lists
Click or tap Lists when viewing someone's profile.
Select which list you'd like to subscribe to.
From the list page, click or tap Subscribe to follow the list. You can follow lists without following the individual accounts in that list.

How to create a list
In the top menu, tap your profile icon.
Tap Lists.
Tap the new list icon.
Select a name for your list, and a short description of the list. ...
Tap Save.

[The Jackal]

Haven't used it in a while, but I'd also recommend an app called tweetdeck, where you can cultivate lists separately by topic (or whatever).

[gofurman]

Do people (those who care) think that our social media communication is robust enough and appropriately targeted? If not, why is that, and what needs to be done to improve significantly? More staff and staff working more smartly? At the other end of the spectrum, even though I mostly dislike billboards greatly, should we do a lot more with modern (digital) billboards (for general publicity more specific than most of the social media messages and info)?

I personally think a billboard would be a good thing. Anyone else?

[apaladin]

Certainly wouldn't hurt. With the electronic billboards you wouldn't think it would cost that much since you are not renting a single space for a month like the old days.

[The Jackal]

Do people (those who care) think that our social media communication is robust enough and appropriately targeted? If not, why is that, and what needs to be done to improve significantly? More staff and staff working more smartly? At the other end of the spectrum, even though I mostly dislike billboards greatly, should we do a lot more with modern (digital) billboards (for general publicity more specific than most of the social media messages and info)?

I think Furman does well enough in its sports marketing. The University, on the whole, I think does a great job. The Furman magazine, for instance, is always worth reading.

There is a generational gap here. I'm in my mid-30s, and know not a single person in my age group that has a subscription to the newspaper or watches the evening news. So, if you are interested in targeting a younger demographic with your marketing efforts, I think you are literally throwing money away on newsprint and television spots.

It varies, but social media and Twitter specifically can be a useful source of news coverage. I follow all of the major news outlets and those sorts of entities who produce news I am interested in knowing about.

I do not know, though, what sort of engagement numbers Furman has on social media. They are smart enough, I think, to put their money to work in areas that provide the best return.

[AstroDin]

The local fish wrap is sadly on the spiral of a slow death. The latest research is now telling us in the marketing biz that the average attention span of a consumer has dropped from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.

I love billboards - I developed several boards for Furman from 88 to 92 - boards made sense back then. Billboards are about location, location, location. They're not CHEAP and the good location is often tied up in a long term contract.

Radio - is interesting - I'm told terrestrial radio is strong.

The GSP Television DMI is 37th - right between Cincinnati and West Palm Beach and Austin, TX. https://www.lyonspr.com/latest-nielsen-dma-rankings/

^^ For what it's worth my advice for Furman marketing - keep doing what you're doing. Have a strategy for all social media channels. Not one strategy for all those channels - every channel is different.

^^ Keep doing podcasts. Again, need a cohesive strategy. BR's podcast is top-notch. I'd like to see Furman Athletics have a weekly podcast show - that peaks inside the sports programs, has a weekly guest, recap segment, what's upcoming, maybe even do a call-in segment.

Rather than pay corporations to run your ads - build your content machine, have credible messengers (coaches and players) and build your channel audiences. People now want to consume when they want to consume it. It's all about giving people choices in how they consume content. The other part of this is the content has to be fresh and relevant.

[The Jackal]

I've always been impressed with ETSU's mid-week press conference approach.

http://www.etsubucs.com/football/news/2 ... ---furman/

This would be comparatively so easy and would have a bit more formality than the "catch me after practice" approach.

[Affirm]

Do people (those who care) think that our social media communication is robust enough and appropriately targeted? If not, why is that, and what needs to be done to improve significantly? More staff and staff working more smartly? At the other end of the spectrum, even though I mostly dislike billboards greatly, should we do a lot more with modern (digital) billboards (for general publicity more specific than most of the social media messages and info)?

I personally think a billboard would be a good thing. Anyone else?

I would imagine not "a billboard" but instead about 12 different locations around Greenville. I realize that would be expensive, maybe too expensive. Electronic billboards that change advertisers every few seconds, not a stationary print billboard. Not something that stays up for more than 4 or 5 days at most. But before someone jumps on me about my sales/marketing knowledge, I will say, I don't know. I do know a lot of people work for Furman and care for Furman who are way smarter than I am. But I do want Furman to succeed, so I feel like making comments and suggestions.

[gman]

Do people (those who care) think that our social media communication is robust enough and appropriately targeted? If not, why is that, and what needs to be done to improve significantly? More staff and staff working more smartly? At the other end of the spectrum, even though I mostly dislike billboards greatly, should we do a lot more with modern (digital) billboards (for general publicity more specific than most of the social media messages and info)?

I personally think a billboard would be a good thing. Anyone else?

I would imagine not "a billboard" but instead about 12 different locations around Greenville. I realize that would be expensive, maybe too expensive. Electronic billboards that change advertisers every few seconds, not a stationary print billboard. Not something that stays up for more than 4 or 5 days at most. But before someone jumps on me about my sales/marketing knowledge, I will say, I don't know. I do know a lot of people work for Furman and care for Furman who are way smarter than I am. But I do want Furman to succeed, so I feel like making comments and suggestions.

I drive around Greenville a lot. I cannot remember the last time I noticed a billboard.

[cavedweller2]

Mobile billboards are needed. Create large purple dronelike dirigibles. Have them fly around Greenville in sequence with this painted on them:

FU ALL THE TIME

That should get some attention.

[Affirm]

Do people (those who care) think that our social media communication is robust enough and appropriately targeted? If not, why is that, and what needs to be done to improve significantly? More staff and staff working more smartly? At the other end of the spectrum, even though I mostly dislike billboards greatly, should we do a lot more with modern (digital) billboards (for general publicity more specific than most of the social media messages and info)?

I personally think a billboard would be a good thing. Anyone else?

I would imagine not "a billboard" but instead about 12 different locations around Greenville. I realize that would be expensive, maybe too expensive. Electronic billboards that change advertisers every few seconds, not a stationary print billboard. Not something that stays up for more than 4 or 5 days at most. But before someone jumps on me about my sales/marketing knowledge, I will say, I don't know. I do know a lot of people work for Furman and care for Furman who are way smarter than I am. But I do want Furman to succeed, so I feel like making comments and suggestions.

I drive around Greenville a lot. I cannot remember the last time I noticed a billboard.

For the annual cost of all those ugly billboards (I greatly dislike all billboards), we might be able to hire 2, 3, or more new sports marketing staff that would enable us to give a lot more emphasis to our social media efforts. Even if they are Furman students doing it 15 hours per week during the school year. But it needs to have good planning, direction, evaluation, oversight, so at least 1 of the new staff would need to be an additional FT staff dedicated to social media. I realize (at least expect) we already have at least 1 FT staff who has social media as a major emphasis of their job. Need more.

[fufanatic]

I think overall Furman does a really nice job with social media. Especially considering it appears they have one full-time person that oversees the operation and then probably rely on someone on each team to also assist with individual account coverage. But the graphics are top-notch - clean, colorful, good info. Appreciate the highlights, the individual plays from football. Some of the individual team accounts are hit or miss, but it's understandable because social media is one of a thousand different things that each coaching staff is thinking about. And to be honest it needs to be done by someone with a little bit of experience and a clear plan with goals and objectives. One voice is necessary, and a content calendar is a virtual must at this point. Exactly what Astro laid out.

[Fred Garvin]

Hire some strippers......

[gofurman]

It says "Furman" outside the Well arena on the mobile billboard there.