As we tip off March Madness, the good young people at the Complete SET Agency took a look for the second year in a row at the social footprint of the head coaches at each school. The coaches, especially in the highly visible worlds of football and basketball. At the biggest levels they are well compensated, driven and passionate about their craft, which largely revolves around the lives of very young and talented student athletes. Most are also great storytellers, with tremendous brand potential.
The results remain pretty surprising.
Some of the numbers:
-Of the 68 schools (including the First Four participants) 50 head coaches have twitter accounts (last year it was 51, although several (Texas’ Shaka Smart for one) are dormant, and have not been active for some time.
-Only four coaches, Kentucky’s John Calipari (1.77 million), South Dakota State’s T.J. Otzelberger (the only coach NOT verified btw) who has grown from just over 100, to over 300,000 this year, Kansas’ Bill Self (239,000) and West Virginia’s Bob Huggins (130,000) have in excess of 100k followers, and they are decidedly different, with Coach Cal active and engaged, while Coach Self’s account is pretty much dormant. Coach Huggins tweets are mostly calls to action for charity or general retweets, with not much insight into his thoughts or actions, not greatly authentic. Otzelberger keeps his tweets engaged and relevant, and makes himself one of the must follows as the week starts.
-If you added up ALL the twitter followers of the rest of the field you still do not get close to Coach Calipari’s following to show how active and engaged he is.
–From 40k to 100k followers there are 17 coaches of note (up from just eight a year ago), including North Carolina Central’s LeVelle Moton (over 70k), Virginia Tech’s Buzz Williams (over 75k), Missouri’s Cuonzo Martin (over 50k), Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim (78k), Nevada’s Eric Musselman (25k), Villanova’s Jay Wright, Michigan’s John Beilein, all of whom offer thoughts other than a rah rah and seem to be engaged and understanding in the power of what the medium can do.
-Generally, the head coaches that are engaged seem to have lower than expected numbers, averaging only in the few thousands.
Of the 68 coaches in The Dance, only 11 even had accounts on Instagram.
The dominant one again was Kentucky’s John Calipari, who has both 300,000 followers and is one of the few coaches who looks to engage during the Tournament. NCC’s Moton is second at over 43k, with Virginia Tech’s Williams with just over 8,000 Texas’ Smart (6,400), adding a mix of fun pictures that gave those followers a good look into his personality. Of course there is no way to adequately track any blind accounts coaches may have, or the ones assistants may be using to promote the successful march madness run of their school to followers and recruits.
Overall the lack of massive engagement still signals opportunity. While perhaps many head coaches see it as not just a chore but as a distraction and one with a tough upside, it is a way at least to measure the pulse of what is out there and to help drive key messages at the right time. Many may rely on larger team or athletic department accounts to do their listening and messaging for themselves. It does not have to be always, but it helps to tell the story to a passionate core group of fans.
There is also a great opportunity to drive philanthropic and business opportunities if done right. A paid tweet once, when there has not been any activity for a few months (as has happened in the past few hours with some select coaches) rings really hollow and probably won’t drive interest. However a series of call to action posts for causes like Coaches vs. Cancer for all engaged coaches, including pictures can be a massive driver in buzz and interest.
For sure there are probably pratfalls to be avoided, including recruiting engagement issues. However for such a passionate group of fans, especially around this time of year, it would seem the immediacy of twitter could be great fun and a way to connect that coaches are missing. This is not unlike the lack of CEO’s and professional sports owners that have shied away from the platform as a way to engage.
Those who do it do it well and very effectively to interact. Many choose to sit on the sidelines.
How to grow the engagement? The rules for anyone remain clear. Be strategic, be authentic, and be consistently engaged, even if it is just retweeting positive thoughts. Think before you post, or just follow along. Ask for help from those in the know as to how to effectively and strategically grow one’s followings as well.
For those heading into March Madness, if CBS and Turner, and the NCAA chose to push the following, it would certainly go a long way. Talking about how Calipari or Va. Tech’s Williams engage as part of the flow of conversation would drive interest, and for those disruptor programs on the way up, using the limelight combined with the social helps the program at this time of year. It certainly would not hurt to give an edge.
Sure social isn’t for everyone. However of you are going to do it, taking the time to work with a staff member to do it right makes great sense, and can help create authentic binds that go way beyond the game.
As we tip off in Dayton and then in the afternoon Thursday, follow some along and see what you get. They certainly are amazing storytellers and brand ambassadors these coaches, and many remain undervalued and enduring assets, just check twitter to see.
