episode 63 of the dsmsports podcast w/ chris dion with ncaa social strategy

Best Of...Chris Dion on theDigital and Social Media Sports Podcast

Chris Dion, Assistant Director of Championships and Alliances for Digital and Social Media with the NCAA (and leading social strategy for NCAA March Madness), was the featured guest on episode 54 of the DSMSports Podcast.

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

Enjoy...

@njh287DSMSports.net

Best Of...Chris Dion on theDigital and Social Media Sports PodcastChris's Career Path

Went to school for creative design/photography/marketing → Started working at a grocery store chain [Big Y Foods, based in New England] designing circular flyers

“As I worked my way through the system...I kept seeing Facebook was around, Twitter was on the rise and I kept saying this was a real opportunity for us to grow something, so I launched our digital presence....It wasa big opportunity to have a brand at my fingertips with social launching.

We launched a Facebook before (brand Pages existed)...it was more of a personality where we answered customer questions and looked for problems to solve...



Then...I jumped into Pages (after they launched) and started doing more with that – offers, coupons...I take off our branding initiative...launched Twitter. Foursquare was hot back then...Then ,I end up at a conference...and someone with the NCAA (approached) me (and offered him a position)...So I was recruited to the NCAA on the PR side...I couldn't pass up the opportunity to move to the NCAA.”

Chris then moved into NCAA Championships and Alliances as they were looking to build out their social strategy and he now oversees strategy for 92 championships



(Back to Big Y when they were just a “personal” page)

“We would solicit people to become friends with us...It was so grass roots...A customer would (post) about their Big Y experience...and we would friend them...and (interact) with them as friends in the Facebook environment...It is a customer-focus first company...Social was kind of a new world and were just trying to feel it out...(On Twitter) We were helping people...It was cutting-edge social, then...We were the Southwest of grocery stores.”



On the creative skills he applied at the NCAA to help with messaging

“Creativity is really important to me...When I get bogged down...escaping into some creative work brings me back to life...The NCAA had been so on-point with messaging and crafting their messaging...A lot of my positioning was 'Are we we displaying that correctly? Are we communicating the right message to the right fan?...Are trying to display the right message that we create?”



On where his position lies within the NCAA

“When I transitioned to our Championships department...I started to take a look at what we were saying socially around our sport visually...I am not a sports (savant)...So, for me, talking about sports was 'can we make it look so good, anyone will want to talk about it, anyway?'...What if we just show a great moment? Or talk about a great moment? Or what if we can just make this great moment more beautiful?...We do a lot of great things, we say a lot of great things. Let's pull it all together and make it beautiful and (present it) to the broad audience and start trying to hone who is interested in our content.”



The NCAA is full of awesome stories. Not to mention what happens on the field...There is so much emotion...For a lot of student athletes, this is farthest they'll achieve in their sport and what they put into it deserves to be (hyped)...Our strategy was 'let's carry people in this journey from the start of the season, all the way to the championship and then celebrate the championship like no other.'

Previously, we would jump in on the championship story (late)...and we didn't give people enough time to become invested in the story.”



Helpful Tool: Daycap, a free app to create quick videos, showing photos and videos with the user able to provide voice-over



On day-to-day strategy for his role / department

“You have nearly 350 different schools (in division one)...They've got goals to tell the story o their athletes and their team and coach...So from our perspective, we've got to figure out what part of the story are we going to tell?...So we look at what will be the most consumable storyline for that day, for that moment...it comes down to content curation and creation...”



“A lot of our media is tied up...to partners, but we don't have our own network to show content live like we do in the regular season...Once a game is over, then we're able to tell that story to the finish. A lot of it is coming up with a cadence for the storyline, finding out what assets you have...and then packaging it up with a NCAA bow and brand and then putting it back out to consumers and ans where they exist.”

[Chris describes how each platform has a unique audience]


Best Of...Chris Dion on theDigital and Social Media Sports PodcastOn balancing traffic and attention or NCAA properties vs.

pushing it to the schools' digital and social outlets

“I'm not trying to convert a UNC Tar Heel fan into an NCAA fan directly, by putting more UNC content on the feed...What I'm trying to do is tell the UNC story in the mix o the overall NCAA story. We don't reach out to target specific fan (bases), we reach out to tell the best part of the day...We're all about telling the biggest part of the day.

A lot of that relates to (national rankings)...a lot of it is those standard stories, but we try to tell it in a one-stop shop place.”



On tracking the nationally prominent teams more closely

“Being the official voice of the NCAA, we have to be very conscious about what we say about teams. We don;'t do bubble predictions. We don't talk about which teams could or should be n the tournament...That is for the NCAA Basketball Selection Committee...So we have to walk a really fine line, because we don't want to speculate anything...”



“We love the conversation (about bubble teams, et al.)...the more people that talk about our sports, the better...We know we're not going to change a rabid fan's mind...we welcome the conversation...We also do some interesting things, too, where we...try and do the best job we can why or why not their team may or may not be in a good (place for a bubble team)...We'll display team sheets and let them look at the official resume of their team and let them decide.”



“We don't poke certain fans. We poke certain story lines...Last year, Kentucky was making a run, we're going to talk about Kentucky fans love it and every other team hated it..This year, with the volatility of (the top MBB rankings)...it almost feels like you poke any team that lost, every other team is excited about it...We do it all the same. We carry the same cadence across all our teams...Our strategy (really) is pretty fair.”



On the NCAA brand

“The NCAA brand is really about the student athlete...It's not about hoisting the trophy. It's not about being a national champion. It's really about hard work...and what the student athlete has to achieve to get there...We really try and make sure that ans know that these athletes are more than just dunking the ball or scoring touchdowns. It's about what they go through and their experiences...Part of our strategy is reaching pout to all these institutions and bubbling up stories they're telling at their school...”



“We usually bubble up a lot of that content to national platforms. For a bunch of schools, it's rally important that we're able to offer this broad swath of broadcast media for what their student athletes are doing on and off the court / field...

Everyone is telling thee story what the final score was...we pride ourselves on helping our member institutions tell the best story that they possibly can around the student athletes and what the student athlete experience is like being a NCAA member.”



On communicating with NCAA member institutions

“We're working on a monthly call now...We're working on a social and digital group...Currently, our leads on the social team usually reach out via email...very simple strategy...Some of the top tier programs have enough distribution of their stories...so we don't hear from those guys so often...Your smaller programs seem to really appreciate and they want their stories to be told on the larger platform...And the public seems to respond very well to those smaller schools...It's really a cool opportunity to bring that to life.”



On balancing who the NCAA works with

“We take it as it comes. We try to get to it (all) as fast as we can...Folks know where to send their stories (and) know how to communicate with us...Our team here on the championships side is in daily contact with the membership...(Our team) works to triage those stories...it's a team effort here. It's not just our social staff...[and] we always seem to get the right information on our social channels.”


Best Of...Chris Dion on theDigital and Social Media Sports PodcastTracking which schools they're talking about

“For off-the-court stories, we (take) what comes to us...We don't have enough time to reach out to every school and foster each relationship individually...It's a lot of reaching out and then hoping for a response...but most of the things that come to us, we find a home for them in NCAA social or digital...”

“We have a lot of touch points with the membership...talk to the membership daily...People know where to send the good stuff. If you follow our @NCAA (Twitter handle), it's a great look at what the NCAA is all about. It's a mix of statistics, it' a mix of the best basketball scores, the best field hockey plays...the best stories from NCAA division one, two, and three.”



'Then you look at the March Madness account and it's probably 80% basketball and 20% off-the-court brand stories...that is not because we choose to not put (off-the-court stories) there, it is that there seems to be more of a desire to talk just about basketball...One of the ways we pride ourselves about the brand is we try to mix as much messaging in there, so that the casual fan starts to consume NCAA branding and messaging, without really knowing that they're doing it...We present them a nice story and, before they know it, they're consuming NCAA brand content.”



On the growth of dedicated digital roles in the NCAA athletics departments

“Across the board....it's so awesome to see the work of some of these schools...the investment they've made in student resources, the investment they've made in equipment and hires – it makes me excited. There's more people who get to touch the brand. There's more people who to get touch the messaging of these institutions' messaging. There's more people that get to be creators.”

The more who get to be involved – a) their skill sets get stronger, b) their content gets better. Fans get more informed...I love where we're at right now in college athletics, especially in digital and social. People are [creating] amazing things.”



Tracking the success of digital and social

“We live and die by analytics...I use analytics to help guide my team [and] guide my choices. If something is not working and the numbers show that, there is no reason we shouldn't continue doing it. If it's a resources discussion...we have to make better choices, based on analytics.

It's kind of give and take – we put things out there and wait for things to react...We might craft content a little differently (based on the audience and platform)...



“Fans and teams just want to be a part of the content we put out there (referring specifically to the baseball audience and the College World Series)...each one of our audiences are totally different and when we put together strategies every year, we treat each one of our strategies differently...We tell strategic stories or each and every one of our sports. We're not trying to force everyone into the same box.”



“The fans are part of it, the other part of it is what story are we trying to tell. What is the story o the year What is the cadence of the story? Then what do the fans best react to?...We start with goals...and then we build measurable goals. If you can't measure the success of a good feeling...let's not put good feeling as goals. Let's put things that are measurable...Then we've got an opportunity to say if we've had success or not...”



“Then we work on a strategic story for the year...Then we start to talk about a content mix. What is our content going to look like? What are going to try and find later? Then what are we going to try and innovate? We always try to innovate something new every year...to the best of our ability...

Lastly, our strategy comes down to platform...the last thing we think about it platforms. Goals lead the conversation and platforms comes last.”



“Our measurable goals are really simple. It comes down to audience growth. It's important for us to understand that year-over-year, we're growing....Followers should never be a key goal, but it should be a good barometer of the health of the community...Engagement is number two...What are our video view content engagement?...link engagement, standard engagement...Then, lastly is reach. “



“Reach is something that allows us to compare ourselves to TV or other media. It's one of the ways that allows us to comparatively have conversations that don't understand social...Reach allows us to have a metric that allows to compare it to print, to out-of-home, TV, to radio...It's not a true measure, but it's close enough that we can help people understand what we're trying to do.”



Preparing for March Madness

“We spend so much time planning...one of the ways we do that is with content calendars...shot lists...and daily production content...We don't know (daily results)...what we do know is we have to be ready or every single outcome...The way we do that is we go over a game...and we throw it all on a sheet o paper and then make sure we have (all assets sand content we need)...our March Madness prep started in...September. We turn that dial up to eight or nine in January...Now (February), we're at about ten...



“We're planning with our broadcast partners, with all our corporate champions partners..our media coordination and statistics team...We're not just telling the story from the days the brackets are released, we're telling the story from the first conference tournament...I think you have to be a planner in social...and you have to be prepared to throw that plan out the window.

When you throw that plan out the window, that is when you become a better person in social. Because then at least you have that remembrance of the road you were trying to travel down.”



Share-able Stat: 84% increase in brand tweets during the event for fans not watching the live event/game vs. a 779% increase in brand tweets in the live window for those that are watching the live game/event



The best part about living in New England and the best part about living in Indianapolis

Rhode Island (where he went to school) → “The ocean, which I miss tremendously”

Indianapolis –> “The exploding craft beer scene”

Connecticut (where he from) –? “My UConn Huskies.”



The school[s] with the most ardent fan bases on social

“Kentucky basketball, any Power Five school in College Football, and the Vanderbilt baseball fans are pretty ravage.”



The sport besides basketball and football with the most socially active fan bases

“I'm going to say college baseball, but ice hockey is right behind it.”

[Chris talks about connecting the college hockey story to the NHL has helped college hockey]



The most exciting NCAA championship event that Chris has attended in person

The 2013 Final Four when the UConn Huskies won. That was on my bucket list to watch my Huskies in the Final Four and it just so happened I was working at it, so that was surreal.

If you take that out, I would say my first championship – the women's volleyball championship...I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea what a championship was like. It was baptism by fire [and] it was so much fun.”



Chris's favorite social media platform for the NCAA and why

“Twitter, no doubt. I love it because of the fans' quick reaction. I think there's definitely a place or Facebook and Instagram...I love the quick reactions (from Twitter). I know if something is work or not in one second.”

“We're trying to figure out the best way to do (Snapchat)...We're trying to see if we can work with our institutions to see if we can get (content)...we're dipping our toes into Snapchat.”



The best venue in college athletics and why

“I went to Assembly Hall at IU a few weeks ago...That place is absolutely amazing. It's built or basketball...”



The Division II and Division III schools with the most active fan bases on social

Chris politely declines as his role with championships and alliances doesn't touch D2 and D3 much



The best school athletics name and the best mascot in the NCAA

“I love the UC Irvine Anteaters...Or, as they cheer 'Go Eaters.'

And I am a huge fan of the Oregon State Beavers logo...I absolutely love that orange and black beaver logo; that is just top notch.”



Which Boston team will win more titles in the next ten years – the Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins, or Celtics

“The Patriots. We're not done yet...There is definitely another Lombardi Trophy (in Tom Brady's career).”



Chris's food to get in Rhode Island

“Steamers and clam cakes. No doubt...Steamed clams (with) a bunch of melted butter and clam cakes on a summer day. You can't beat it.”



Chris's Social Media All-Star to Follow

Jessica Smith (@WarJessEagle) → “She is top notch. She gets the overall cause of why we do what we do and she's definitely worth the follow...She is a great friend of mine and...she does great work.”



Where to find Chris and the NCAA on social media

Follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisMDion

For NCAA, visit NCAA.com/social

All platforms → NCAA March Madness and most any sport on all platforms, where NCAA profiles are verified and present



Thanks so much to Chris Dion for joining the Digital & Social Media Sports podcast!

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