Beavers Athletics High Tech
Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 5:42 pm
http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/20 ... 062809.txt
Ha-ha WOW! Those Beavers are so high tech!!!
CORVALLIS — For those of you reading this story with a newspaper in your hands, chances are you don’t follow your favorite celebrity on Twitter or maintain a Facebook page.
They are part of new media technology captivating the younger generation as fast as a Youtube video link of singing sensation Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent.
Capturing the interest of the younger generation has been a never-ending quest for all forms of the news and entertainment industries, and Oregon State is no different.
The Beavers have been known to have an older fan base, and are scrambling for fresh donors. To help bring in new blood, the athletic department has embraced the latest technology to reach out to younger fans.
“We’ve been aggressive with that,” said Steve Fenk, assistant athletic director for athletic communications. “We started hopping on that already. The Facebook page has really taken off. And Twitter, too.”
The Beavers launched a Facebook page about three years ago, and until recently weren’t using it to their best capabilities.
Ian Frost, a Crescent Valley High grad, was hired to develop and promote the new media for OSU’s social networking. Now the page has more than 11,200 friends.
Facebook is a free-access online social network Web site. Users join networks organized in various ways by cities, region, favorite team or person. This allows them to meet and interact with people with the same interests.
“They are the fastest growing marketing opportunities there are,” OSU assistant athletic director for external operations Matt Arend said of social networking. “When you look at younger people, that’s where they are getting their news, not so much newspapers anymore.”
The Beavers update information about their athletic programs on Facebook. News, photos and videos can be viewed on the site at facebook.com/oregonstatebeavers.
Fans sign up to be a friend of the Web site to view real-time updates and send messages to the Beavers. They can see and meet other OSU friends.
“We really needed to get on the social networking,” Fenk said. “There are a lot of people who get their news on-demand. As an athletic department we are ahead of the curve on this.”
The Beavers also use the information of their Facebook friends to contact them in an attempt to increase the donor base. People from 20 countries are represented on OSU’s page, 92 percent of them are younger than 44 and 58 percent are 18-24, Arend said.
“It allows us a great reach of people beyond Portland and the mid-valley,” Arend said. “This gives us a global presence.”
The communications department’s latest move was to create a Youtube page, youtube.com/osubeaversathletics. Youtube is an online video share Web site.
Fans can watch game highlights, practice clips and listen to interviews of their favorite players. There are more than 50 subscribers automatically e-mailed when a new video is uploaded, but anyone can view them.
Twitter is the latest rage. It’s a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates, known as tweets, to followers. Forrester Research estimates there are up to 5 million Twitter users.
Tweets can be up to 140 characters long and sent to cell phones, e-mail or can be seen through Twitter.com. The Beavers try to send out a tweet at least once a day to their more than 500 followers.
“We are just trying to connect with as many of the younger generation as we can,” Fenk said. “That’s where things are at, or headed. Twitter is the big thing for kids.”
Fenk was on a conference call earlier in the year with people who were tweeting. He started OSU’s site four months ago after learning about it.
It’s so new that Fenk noticed that freshmen and sophomores at OSU like to tweet, while seniors are more into Facebook. The generational gap is that fine.
Another key component to this push is the cost. The Beavers are still doing television, radio and print advertisements but social networking is free and growing.
“We are not doing much extra work,” Arend said of the effort to put it all together. “We took what we are doing already (on the regular Web site) and took it to the social networking sites.”
There’s significant overlap with the information, but it caters to how people want it delivered.
College football coaches, including Southern California’s Pete Carroll and Louisiana State’s Les Miles, are tweeting to the fan base.
“Some college coaches are (tweeting), but I’m not doing it,” OSU football coach Mike Riley said. “I don’t see a need for it.”
When the topic of college sports and connecting to young people comes up, recruiting is part of the equation.
Text messaging is a recent trend, but the NCAA banned coaches from texting players because it became excessive and was a way of circumventing contact rules. Texting is a message sent cell phone to cell phone.
When texting was banned it extended to other electronic means, including message boards and social networking sites. However, it doesn’t stop programs from promoting themselves, which OSU is doing.
“It’s a good rule about text messaging,” Riley said. “It’s very invasive of people. I don’t think we should bother students when they are in school. I hope they keep that rule. I still like old fashioned recruiting of developing relationships.”
Another dramatic step the Beavers are taking this season is an interactive online media guide, instead of the historical printed version.
It’s a cost-saving measure of production, printing and mailing of these books for each sport. Fenk doesn’t have the exact savings yet, but expects it will be drastic.
The Beavers plan to launch their online media guide for football around Aug. 1. with other sports to follow. It will be easier to do the other sports, using some of the same school background information that football uses.
“We are ahead of the curve on this big time,” Fenk said. “It should be a pretty exciting look at our program.”
There will be video pop-ups with players and coaches walking on screen, talking and walking off. Readers will turn the Web page for more interviews and videos.
Another facet to dropping the print version is the ability to update, correct and enhance online guides. Printed guides are obsolete before the first game.
“I like this and I can see the need for that,” Riley said. “People like the Internet to research schools. A lot of times those (printed) guides get left under a stack of books and forgotten. Now we can put out some different things people will like, and save money.”
Fenk plans to do this for one year and tally the final cost savings and fan reaction. He knows older fans want something to hold and read, so a smaller version may be sent out to donors before being totally phased out.
Research shows younger fans and recruits should like how the athletic department updates information. They are the future and the Beavers want to impress them.
“This is one of the more exciting things we’ve done in quite some time,” Fenk said. “We are in uncharted waters. We don’t know where we are going with this. I think we are on the right track. We just want to sell tickets, get people who want to be donors, and connect to people who are not in the local area.”
Ha-ha WOW! Those Beavers are so high tech!!!
CORVALLIS — For those of you reading this story with a newspaper in your hands, chances are you don’t follow your favorite celebrity on Twitter or maintain a Facebook page.
They are part of new media technology captivating the younger generation as fast as a Youtube video link of singing sensation Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent.
Capturing the interest of the younger generation has been a never-ending quest for all forms of the news and entertainment industries, and Oregon State is no different.
The Beavers have been known to have an older fan base, and are scrambling for fresh donors. To help bring in new blood, the athletic department has embraced the latest technology to reach out to younger fans.
“We’ve been aggressive with that,” said Steve Fenk, assistant athletic director for athletic communications. “We started hopping on that already. The Facebook page has really taken off. And Twitter, too.”
The Beavers launched a Facebook page about three years ago, and until recently weren’t using it to their best capabilities.
Ian Frost, a Crescent Valley High grad, was hired to develop and promote the new media for OSU’s social networking. Now the page has more than 11,200 friends.
Facebook is a free-access online social network Web site. Users join networks organized in various ways by cities, region, favorite team or person. This allows them to meet and interact with people with the same interests.
“They are the fastest growing marketing opportunities there are,” OSU assistant athletic director for external operations Matt Arend said of social networking. “When you look at younger people, that’s where they are getting their news, not so much newspapers anymore.”
The Beavers update information about their athletic programs on Facebook. News, photos and videos can be viewed on the site at facebook.com/oregonstatebeavers.
Fans sign up to be a friend of the Web site to view real-time updates and send messages to the Beavers. They can see and meet other OSU friends.
“We really needed to get on the social networking,” Fenk said. “There are a lot of people who get their news on-demand. As an athletic department we are ahead of the curve on this.”
The Beavers also use the information of their Facebook friends to contact them in an attempt to increase the donor base. People from 20 countries are represented on OSU’s page, 92 percent of them are younger than 44 and 58 percent are 18-24, Arend said.
“It allows us a great reach of people beyond Portland and the mid-valley,” Arend said. “This gives us a global presence.”
The communications department’s latest move was to create a Youtube page, youtube.com/osubeaversathletics. Youtube is an online video share Web site.
Fans can watch game highlights, practice clips and listen to interviews of their favorite players. There are more than 50 subscribers automatically e-mailed when a new video is uploaded, but anyone can view them.
Twitter is the latest rage. It’s a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates, known as tweets, to followers. Forrester Research estimates there are up to 5 million Twitter users.
Tweets can be up to 140 characters long and sent to cell phones, e-mail or can be seen through Twitter.com. The Beavers try to send out a tweet at least once a day to their more than 500 followers.
“We are just trying to connect with as many of the younger generation as we can,” Fenk said. “That’s where things are at, or headed. Twitter is the big thing for kids.”
Fenk was on a conference call earlier in the year with people who were tweeting. He started OSU’s site four months ago after learning about it.
It’s so new that Fenk noticed that freshmen and sophomores at OSU like to tweet, while seniors are more into Facebook. The generational gap is that fine.
Another key component to this push is the cost. The Beavers are still doing television, radio and print advertisements but social networking is free and growing.
“We are not doing much extra work,” Arend said of the effort to put it all together. “We took what we are doing already (on the regular Web site) and took it to the social networking sites.”
There’s significant overlap with the information, but it caters to how people want it delivered.
College football coaches, including Southern California’s Pete Carroll and Louisiana State’s Les Miles, are tweeting to the fan base.
“Some college coaches are (tweeting), but I’m not doing it,” OSU football coach Mike Riley said. “I don’t see a need for it.”
When the topic of college sports and connecting to young people comes up, recruiting is part of the equation.
Text messaging is a recent trend, but the NCAA banned coaches from texting players because it became excessive and was a way of circumventing contact rules. Texting is a message sent cell phone to cell phone.
When texting was banned it extended to other electronic means, including message boards and social networking sites. However, it doesn’t stop programs from promoting themselves, which OSU is doing.
“It’s a good rule about text messaging,” Riley said. “It’s very invasive of people. I don’t think we should bother students when they are in school. I hope they keep that rule. I still like old fashioned recruiting of developing relationships.”
Another dramatic step the Beavers are taking this season is an interactive online media guide, instead of the historical printed version.
It’s a cost-saving measure of production, printing and mailing of these books for each sport. Fenk doesn’t have the exact savings yet, but expects it will be drastic.
The Beavers plan to launch their online media guide for football around Aug. 1. with other sports to follow. It will be easier to do the other sports, using some of the same school background information that football uses.
“We are ahead of the curve on this big time,” Fenk said. “It should be a pretty exciting look at our program.”
There will be video pop-ups with players and coaches walking on screen, talking and walking off. Readers will turn the Web page for more interviews and videos.
Another facet to dropping the print version is the ability to update, correct and enhance online guides. Printed guides are obsolete before the first game.
“I like this and I can see the need for that,” Riley said. “People like the Internet to research schools. A lot of times those (printed) guides get left under a stack of books and forgotten. Now we can put out some different things people will like, and save money.”
Fenk plans to do this for one year and tally the final cost savings and fan reaction. He knows older fans want something to hold and read, so a smaller version may be sent out to donors before being totally phased out.
Research shows younger fans and recruits should like how the athletic department updates information. They are the future and the Beavers want to impress them.
“This is one of the more exciting things we’ve done in quite some time,” Fenk said. “We are in uncharted waters. We don’t know where we are going with this. I think we are on the right track. We just want to sell tickets, get people who want to be donors, and connect to people who are not in the local area.”
