Social Media

At Game Day Communications, we have been helping clients with social media – how to use and engage their fan base. We thought Twitter Madness would be a good research project to share with our clients.

We decided to launch the sportswriter/blogger competition after we researched the men’s coaches who were using Twitter. We created a bracket for them and it was clear Coach Calipari was running away with his Social Media usage. Coach Calipari has over one million fans on Twitter and about 200,000 Facebook fans.

We also decided to take a look at the writers. I researched to find the “big guys” (ESPN, FOX, CBS, SI) then I decided to find bloggers. I found about 100 different writers that use Twitter and about 40-50 of them are specifically college basketball. I decided to edit the field to the top 32 writers/bloggers that use Twitter.

The most prominent statistic that you can't see from just looking at their account is how interactive they are. You have your ESPN tweeters and the "big guys" but then you have your Greg Doyel (CBS), Andy Glockner (SI), Peter Robert Casey and Jeff Goodman (FOX). These are four great writers you should follow who are for the most part agenda free and interactive. They do this because they love to write about basketball. You can tell the writers that care about what they do, they are the ones who tweet 900 times over two days about a couple of tournament games (Glockner).

Social Media is important. It is the future of news and sports coverage. It needs to be embraced by the writers. The ones who are embracing it now are the trend setters and as a fan I would like to thank them.

Quick list of writers worth following:
@greggdoyelcbs
@Peter_R_Casey
@aglock
@goodmanonfox
@chrisdenker
@JamesonFleming

Here is our complete Twitter Madness bracket: http://bit.ly/c5PMWZ

Madness

March Madness has been madder than ever this year. So many upsets that you would not have dreamt of. Can you imagine a Final Four with Butler, Northern Iowa, UK and St. Mary's? Me either....

I am hoping for a Final Four of Tennessee, Kansas St, West Virginia and St. Mary's. Now I have my reasons for this. (Full disclosure I am a big UT fan and I can't root against them) Tennessee is one of the most solid teams left in the tournament. They beat Kansas and UK. They should be able to handle OSU but it will be a close game. I also think they match up well against a Butler or Kansas St.

UK is scary the rest of the way. They should have destroyed Cornell but they had trouble scoring in the second half. West Virginia's D is much better than Cornell so it will be interesting if John Wall can get his looks against a larger defender like Ebanks or Butler.

My bracket is ruined so here is my new bracket for the rest of the way:
UNI < UT in the Mid West
Butler < Kansas St. West
UK > WVU
Duke < Baylor

Final Four:
UT < Kansas St.
UK > Baylor

Championship
UK>Kansas St.