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YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Thoughts on Ways to Engage Students and Fanbase?
« on: August 01, 2015, 11:25:26 AM »
I am a former student that graduated from YSU in May, and I wanted to create an account to comment on this topic.
Something does need to change. I was fortunate enough during my time at YSU to be in a position where I was around the football team quite often (I won't go into specifics for reasons). Most of you know the demographics of fans who attend games at Stambaugh. Students would attend games during the early part of the season but the numbers would drop. Minimal marketing was a factor that played into that.
However, a "grassroots" social media campaign became rampant in the fall of 2013 with ESPN College GameDay. A hashtag was used (#GameDay2YSU) and students across campus participated. That was great. There was a buzz on campus to bring ESPN to Youngstown. We all know what happened that caused ESPN to go elsewhere, but it was close. That was an exciting time on campus. The thing is, it was entirely fan driven. The marketing from YSU and the athletic department were nearly non-existent. It took a huge event like that to get students involved. It is quite possible that ESPN may look to come back this season, especially now that President Tressel is here and Pelini is the head coach, but if it takes an event like that to generate buzz, that's a problem.
The athletic department needs to be more active on social media-Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat specifically. We see posts regularly about the season coming, players, interviews, etc., but a small amount cater to students. The department can create hashtags, contests, anything to get attention. It doesn't take much to get our generations attention (trust me on that). Using social media is cost effective and frankly they are missing out on that opportunity.
YSU's program has a great history and it's important to keep it going with the growing student base on campus.
Something does need to change. I was fortunate enough during my time at YSU to be in a position where I was around the football team quite often (I won't go into specifics for reasons). Most of you know the demographics of fans who attend games at Stambaugh. Students would attend games during the early part of the season but the numbers would drop. Minimal marketing was a factor that played into that.
However, a "grassroots" social media campaign became rampant in the fall of 2013 with ESPN College GameDay. A hashtag was used (#GameDay2YSU) and students across campus participated. That was great. There was a buzz on campus to bring ESPN to Youngstown. We all know what happened that caused ESPN to go elsewhere, but it was close. That was an exciting time on campus. The thing is, it was entirely fan driven. The marketing from YSU and the athletic department were nearly non-existent. It took a huge event like that to get students involved. It is quite possible that ESPN may look to come back this season, especially now that President Tressel is here and Pelini is the head coach, but if it takes an event like that to generate buzz, that's a problem.
The athletic department needs to be more active on social media-Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat specifically. We see posts regularly about the season coming, players, interviews, etc., but a small amount cater to students. The department can create hashtags, contests, anything to get attention. It doesn't take much to get our generations attention (trust me on that). Using social media is cost effective and frankly they are missing out on that opportunity.
YSU's program has a great history and it's important to keep it going with the growing student base on campus.