quinnipiac athletics social media campaign
The purpose of Quinnipiac Athletics’ website and social channels is to promote the success and support of university’s athletic programs to alumni, parents, and supporters.
Winning a NCAA Championship certainly helps drive more engagement to the social channels and the website. However, there’s plenty of room to increase its impact with specific social media initiatives. The QU Athletics Instagram currently has 10,000 followers and 11,000 on twitter, for a smaller (non-power 5 school – these numbers are great). Other MAAC schools like Rider, Siena, and St Peter’s have around 7,000-9,000. The 21 varsity teams do a great job promoting their brand/athletic identity on their personal and individual team accounts, however, the generic Quinnipiac Athletics account could do better in promoting their overall athletic brand.
When you look at other NCAA Division I schools like Ohio State University (415K) or Texas Tech (104K) the engagement is large and effective. It is important to note that there are schools like Penn State (65.4K) or Providence (18K) that Quinnipiac could easily reach or surpass with the right strategy.
The goal of this campaign proposal is to show the potential growth and success this account can have when following specific/targeted social media strategies.
social media audit
GOAL: what quinnipiac athletics does well
consistent branding
fun/sporty voice
engaged audience
When analyzing the audit for Quinnipiac Athletics social platforms, it’s quite impressive the overall following on each account 10,000+ on all three main sites. For a non-power five school it’s evident the following is there.
All three platforms remain consistent in branding (using the same hashtags, colors, graphics/athletics branding). On both Instagram and Twitter there’s a playful and sporty voice behind the posts – nice hashtags and fun language. You feel a part of the team and fanbase. All three have platforms do get a large # of likes, retweets, and comments.
PENALTY: what quinnipiac athletics can improve on
disengaged with their audience
targeted marketing
repetitive (retweets & shares) from individual teams
The account does very little interacting with its audience. It could be seen as more beneficial if they did more interactive polls, games, etc.
There must be a larger focus on catering to specific audiences on specific platforms. We know certain age groups prefer certain platforms. Quinnipiac Athletics should really focus its language and content on the specific age group on that specified platform.
user personas
Logan Smith, 38
A QU Men's Hockey Alumni - now lawyer living in NYC. He is extremely passionate about his work but also loves staying involved with Quinnipiac. He's found it harder to come back to campus due to work. He has tweet notifications on for QU Athletics so he can stay up to date with games, events, and news at QU. He's looking for a more interactive and engaging community.
Josh Turner, 22
A senior at QU studying Communications. He is a member of the Men's Soccer team. He's an avid social media user and has a large following on Instagram. He follows QU Athletics on Instagram and shares and likes their posts quite often, but wishes they we're more creative and engaging with the posts they create.
Claudia Alves, 52
A retired school teacher and mother of triplets, all who play on the Women's Basketball team at Quinnipiac. Living on the other side of the country doesn't make it easy for Claudia to stay updated with all the news around QU Athletics. She wants to make sure she's informed with all the latest news around QU WBB & QU Athletics on Facebook, her only form of social media.
As you begin to analyze the followers on Instagram, Facebook, and X/Twitter you notice the demographics and user habits are different on each one. In order to find success on each social platform it's important to cater each post on each site to its designated audience.
However, across all three sites your content should be catered to athletic parents, Quinnipiac alumni, current/prospective students, and athletic supporters.
target audience analysis
campaign strategy
Quinnipiac Athletics' social media needs to focus on SMART social media marketing goals for the FY25. Quinnipiac Athletics needs to focus on Increasing Brand Awareness, so this is more than just spitting out content. It's about being strategic in posting content on social platforms where it will be seen by the target audience. An example of this is measuring the total number of followers on each platform. Setting a measurable and attainable goal of a 2% follower increase each month.
Our second goal is Improving Follower Engagement. This can be measured by likes, shares, reposts, tags, and comments. Interactions and conversations with users will only help drive more traffic. It will also explain how much interest your content is truly peaking to your followers. An example of this would be calculating the use of a hashtag by followers (created from your channel). Focus on having that hashtag be shared 60 times over the span of 2 months.
The last goal is Building Brand Reputation, meaning creating a positive and well-known college athletic social media community. This can mean anything from responding to positive/negative comments, being transparent about all news (good or bad), and encourage user feedback/interaction. A measurable goal for building brand reputation would be tracking how many comments and/or likes your accounts respond to or interact with. Responding to at least five comments a week is a simple, yet really effective goal to create.
key messaging + unique selling points
It's evident that Quinnipiac Athletics has national prominence thanks to the successes of it’s varsity athletic programs.
So why not build a social media campaign around Quinnipiac's most winning year in its school's history? Title the social campaign "Winnipiac." This means that all content published on the general athletics and team accounts includes the comment #Winnipiac when discussing successes. Using consistent language not only creates and builds on brand awareness but also drives engagement (allowing users to use the hashtag as well).
In addition, Quinnipiac Athletics has a strong history. More than 20 coaches/athletic staff were alumni of Quinnipiac. That's an incredible selling point for Quinnipiac, reminding users how dedicated and strong the Quinnipiac Athletics culture truly is. Highlighting those individuals in posts and sharing throwback images/videos of QU Athletics throughout the years will be beneficial in creating an online community.
#BobcatNation is currently the consistent brand hashtag for all of Quinnipiac's athletic posts. However, if that's going to be the key messaging then it's important to utilize this slogan across all channels (in live videos, captions, comments, and other social media outreach).
content creation + management
Social media websites, specifically Facebook and Instagram track a lot of data, with each over 2 billion users. Which makes advertising to the targeted audience on these platforms simple. In terms of Facebook advertising, utilizing post boosts will be beneficial. Facebook allows you to boost your content from the post and serve your ad to different people based on your ad's optimization. For Instagram, using stories ads will be highly effective. You can create ads that will cut between your users' followers' stories. Most users don't notice the ad and will be engaged and familiar with Quinnipiac Athletics.
social media sample posts
social media content calendar
campaign evaluation
With over 10,000 followers across all three platforms the potential for growth on Quinnipiac Athletics' social pages is certainly evident. To grow brand awareness, it's imperative to create an effective social media campaign that focuses on engaging followers and enhancing brand reputation. Creating SMART goals such as growing followers by 2% every month or interacting with at least five users a week will create more traffic and recognition.
It's imperative to create separate strategies for each platform. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram all have different audiences, so making sure each audience is being catered to correctly is instrumental. Advertising and promoting #Winnipiac and the history of Quinnipiac Athletics will create so much momentum around the social pages.
Quinnipiac Athletics is at a great starting place, but there's so much untapped potential.