NACMA Recap: ChooseYourOwnTickets.com

I met a couple people at NACMA who asked for some background on our ChooseYourOwnTickets.com site... Be careful what you wish for, here's more than you could ever want to know:

Target

Our primary target was people interested in learning more about tickets but who felt intimidated to call a sales representative on the phone. Our outbound sales team has done a fantastic job at converting prospects when given the opportunity to speak individually on a one-to-one basis, but we needed a way to 1) make people feel comfortable enough to call or 2) replicate the personal feel of a one-to-one conversation online. Our secondary target was a broad mix of all past buyers, alumni and basketball fans in Milwaukee.

Goal

Our bottom-line goal was to break even on our investment with row27 to develop, host and maintain the site. We also wanted to improve our customer service, as measured by 1) fewer general, time-consuming, non-buying questions to our ticket office staff, 2) more calls to our sales representatives from fans with specific, buying questions and 3) fans being more ready to buy when they do call a ticket representative. Lastly, we wanted fans to feel like they were a part of our program and to forward the site to their friends and family.

Details/Logistics

We feel that printing ticket brochures is an antiquated strategy, as it is overly expensive, untraceable and boring. ChooseYourOwnTickets.com was designed to be the complete opposite: fully-traceable, viral, interactive and engaging at a minimal investment.

Created by row27 Studios, ChooseYourOwnTickets.com was inspired by the classic “Choose Your Own Adventure” books, whereby the reader can make decisions regarding how to let the story unfold. Our ticketing microsite is designed in the same fashion, whereby the user is prompted to enter their preferences regarding number of games they would like to attend, where they prefer to sit, how much they would be willing to spend, and so on. The site then presents the best fit based on these preferences, suggesting the person’s ideal ticket package. Potential buyers are then able to purchase the tickets online right away, or are given a number to call if they would feel more comfortable purchasing over the phone.

The language used on the site is intentionally informal, as we wanted to decrease the intimidation factor as much as possible. We want to communicate to fans that they shouldn’t be afraid to give us a call, that we’re not slick used-car-like salesmen, but rather friendly people who genuinely want to help them enjoy Marquette Basketball however they feel comfortable.

ChooseYourOwnTickets is also designed to upsell fans who were originally interested in a smaller plan/package; both the single-game ticket page and mini-plan ticket page give fans the option to learn more about how to get better seats through a full-season ticket package.

Additionally, the site lets people input their information if they would prefer to simply have one of our representatives contact them directly. Fans are also encouraged to share the site with friends and family via Twitter, Facebook and email.

All links to purchase tickets online were tagged with a unique “Came From Code” which allows us to trace all sales that originated from the site. A Google Analytics account was also created to monitor web traffic.

Results

ChooseYourOwnTickets.com significantly out-performed all of our goals. Ticket sales revenue from the coded links alone more than doubled our total investment – a figure that does not include sales from individuals who preferred to call us directly instead of checking out online. We did our best to track call-ins – a conservative estimate of this amount is roughly equal to that online sales. Overall, the site more than quadrupled our investment before accounting for the intangible benefits of improved customer service.

On top of this direct revenue, our ticket office received notably fewer calls from people with the usual time-wasting questions/complaints, and those that did call in were better educated and more ready and willing to buy.

As of February 15, 2011, the site has been visited 19,856 times from 16,689 unique IPs. Roughly 75% of this traffic came during our peak season-ticket sales season, as we averaged about 1,520 hits per week from the site’s launch in mid-August through the end of October. These numbers were aided by the site’s sharing features, as 857 visits originated from either Facebook or Twitter.

Anecdotally, our fanbase’s reception of the site was overwhelmingly positive. We noticed comments (from real fans/student/alumni, not affiliated with our department in any way) on Twitter saying things such as:

- “Coolest website I've ever seen for buying tickets to a basketball game. Way to go @muathletics”
- “So I am pretty much in love w/ Marquette's ticket site: http://chooseyourowntickets.com/ Interactive, customized, awesome.” 
- “Holy cow, the @MUAthletics #mubb ticket website is amazing. Freaking out about it with my co-workers. http://bit.ly/byoJ7c

Since the site’s launch, we only received negative feedback from one person: an elderly woman who called to tell us that she was offended by the inappropriate language on the site, specifically the word, “cool.”

Images

(download)

Using Music to Rock Your Game Presentation

I'm planning out a presenation for NACMA tomorrow with @johncanaday of Banshee Music... Here's our outline plus a handout of our favorite game day songs...

Outline

Choice of music at key points of games can have dramatic effects on arena atmosphere

            Band vs. Canned Music, what's the ratio

Hot Timeouts

            Speed is Everything

            Our job in marketing is to sustain crowd energy throughout timeout

 Try new music

            Chicago Blackhawks – Chelsea Dagger

            Jock Jams was barely cool when it came out

  Social Media

            Engage fans before and during games

            Song of the game

 Research and Testing

            Pandora & SiriusXM for new song ideas

            Get feedback before major launch


Brian & John’s Favorite Gameday Songs 

                                                                                              
PRE-GAME 

GOAL: Build energy and excitement in arena; fun, upbeat and motivational; Good window to play newer & more modern songs

Artist:                                     Song:                         

Arcade Fire                            Ready to Start

Blackalicious                          Excellent        

B.o.B.                                       Beast Mode

Electric Six                             Danger! High Voltage

Empire of the Sun                 Walking on a Dream

Fabolous                                My Time        

Kaiser Chiefs                          Ruby / I Predict a Riot

LCD Soundsystem                 All My Friends

Lloyd Banks                           Start it Up                              

Mute Math                              Electrify

My Morning Jacket                I’m Amazed

Nas                                          Hero

Passion Pit                             Moth’s Wings

Pharrell                                  Number One                         

Phil Collins                             In the Air Tonight    

Saul Williams                         List of Demands

The Soft Pack                         Answer to Yourself    

The Strokes                           You Only Live Once

T.I.                                           I’m Back        

Vampire Weekend                Cousins

The Who                                Eminence Front                    

Yeah Yeah Yeahs                   Zero                               

                               

HOT TIMEOUTS  

GOAL: Call-To-Action music, Up-tempo and High Energy to sustain momentum & atmosphere

Artist:                                     Song:                         

The Fratellis                          Chelsea Dagger

The Hives                               Tick Tick Boom

House of Pain                        Jump Around

Todd Rundgren                     Bang the Drum All Day

Zombie Nation                       Kernkraft 400

 

OUT-OF-TIMEOUT

GOAL: Maintain fan excitement and energy; enhance drama and elevate the moment  

Artist:                                     Song:                         

Arcade Fire                            Wake Up

Dropkick Murphy’s               Shipping Up to Boston

Franz Ferdinand                   Take Me Out 

Linkin Park                            Bleed it Out

Silverspun Pickups                Panic Switch

Three Doors Down               Duck and Run

Van Halen                              Jump

The White Stripes                 Seven Nation Army

Wolfmother                           The Joker and the Thief  

 

UNDERNEATH PA

GOAL: Varies by message, but good opportunity to capture fan’s attention through music

Artist:                                     Song:                         

All-American Rejects            Move Along

Beck                                        Timebomb

Doves                                     Jetstream

Foo Fighters                          Learn to Fly

The Isley Brothers                Who's That Lady

Kings of Leon                 Crawl

Mute Math                             Typical

Pearl Jam                               Corduroy

U2                                           Desire

White Rabbits                        Percussion Gun

 

BEATS / INSTRUMENTAL

GOAL: Powerful, high impact music beds ranging from goose bump effect to energy boosters

 Artist:                                     Song:                         

50 Cent                                   Ready For War

BirdMan                                 Fire Flame

David Holmes                        $160 Million Chinese Man

DJ Casper                               Cha Cha Slide

Fabolous                                You be Killin Em

Gnarls Barkley                      Crazy

Jay-Z                                       Dirt Off Your Shoulder

Kenna                                     Lock it Up

Nas                                         Hip Hop is Dead

The XX                                   Intro

 

 

NCAA Twitter Followers, September Update

It's been roughly one month since our last Twitter follower update... here are new rankings as of September 16.

Rank School Twitter Name Followers Growth
1 Florida GatorZoneNews 14109 12.5%
2 Kentucky UKAthleticsNews 12991 5.7%
3 Oklahoma SoonerSportscom 10154 10.4%
4 Iowa TheIowaHawkeyes 8982 14.9%
5 Kansas KUAthletics 8477 18.2%
6 Alabama UA_Athletics 8096 19.1%
7 LSU LSUsports 7983 6.3%
8 UCLA UCLAAthletics 6959 8.8%
9 Washington UWSportsNews 6952 8.9%
10 Arkansas ArkRazorbacks 6694 9.0%
11 Georgia Tech GTAthletics 6384 9.4%
12 Nortre Dame UND_com 6301 16.1%
13 Missouri mutigersdotcom 5487 11.1%
14 South Carolina GamecocksOnline 4896 10.6%
15 Tennessee UTAthletics 4790 16.3%
16 Georgia UGAAthletics 4745 19.7%
17 Miami hurricanesports 4645 43.1%
18 Ohio State Brutus_Buckeye 4450 8.9%
19 West Virginia WVUSportsBuzz 4378 9.0%
20 Oregon GoDucksdotCom 4345 8.0%
21 Nebraska Huskers 4248 43.5%
22 Purdue PurdueSports 4067 9.2%
23 Baylor BaylorAthletics 3925 18.8%
24 Wisconsin UWBadgersdotcom 3833 9.8%
25 Mississippi State mstateathletics 3731 11.6%
26 Ole Miss OleMissNow 3723 24.9%
27 Marquette muathletics 3600 12.5%
28 Texas Tech TechAthletics 3590 22.1%
29 Georgetown georgetownhoyas 3279 4.8%
30 UNLV UNLVAthletics 3167 7.9%
31 Oklahoma State OSUAthletics 3117 17.6%
32 Texas A&M Aggie_Athletics 3015 13.4%
33 Arizona AZATHLETICS 2912 12.3%
34 Florida State Seminoles_com 2909 19.5%
35 Arizona State SparkyArizonaSt 2828 12.0%
36 Utah UtahAthletics 2691 15.0%
37 Kansas State kstatesports 2680 15.8%
38 California CalAthletics 2631 15.5%
39 Minnesota GopherAthletics 2589 8.5%
40 Rutgers RUAthletics 2526 9.2%
41 Colorado cubuffs 2523 40.1%
42 Stanford suathletics 2414 15.0%
43 Washington State WSUCougars_com 2324 10.4%
44 Auburn AUAthletics 2317 31.5%
45 Wake Forest wakeforestsport 2251 9.2%
46 Louisville UofLsports 2223 17.4%
47 Hawaii HawaiiAthletics 2113 8.2%
48 Virginia Tech hokiesports 2105 17.3%
49 Penn State GoPSUsports1 2057 22.8%
50 Oregon State beaverathletics 2032 12.9%
51 NC State PackAthletics 1987 17.1%
52 Cincinnati GoBEARCATS_com 1986 8.1%
53 Virginia VirginiaSports 1922 14.2%
54 Syracuse suorangeempire 1878 11.2%
55 Army ArmyAthletics 1851 9.5%
56 Providence PCAthletics 1849 4.1%
57 Uconn UConnAthletics 1844 11.4%
58 USF USFAthletics 1843 15.5%
59 Iowa State ISUCy 1799 30.7%
60 Navy NavyAthletics 1784 10.9%
61 Gonzaga GonzagaBulldogs 1730 10.1%
62 USC USC_Athletics 1708 61.7%
63 Harvard Harvardcrimson 1637 8.3%
64 DePaul DePaulAthletics 1476 6.8%
65 Missouri State Missouri State Bears 1461 8.9%
66 James Madison jmuathletics 1362 12.9%
67 Michigan State MSU_Athletics 1268 17.0%
68 Bowling Green BGSU Athletics 1220 11.5%
69 St. Johns StJohnsRedStorm 1178 6.1%
70 Clemson CU_athletics 1162 47.5%
71 Duke DukeAthletics 1116 9.8%
72 Boston College BCSportsNews 1009 8.7%
73 UNI UNIAthletics 999 11.7%
74 Vanderbilt vucommodores 974 10.3%
75 Seton Hall SHUAthletics 895 6.7%
76 Richmond SpiderAthletics 641 8.6%
77 Vilanova NovaAthletics 569 14.7%
78 Indiana LetsGoBigRed 389 38.9%

Tip of the cap to @hurricanesports for using the rankings to rally fans and build followers-- The U picked up 1,399 new followers since August 10, jumping from 25th to 17th in the rankings. Here are some of their better tweets...

http://twitter.com/hurricanesports/status/20846609156
http://twitter.com/hurricanesports/status/20907971699
http://twitter.com/hurricanesports/statuses/20847330755

And for official Twitter lists organized by conference, visit: http://twitter.com/muathletics/lists

Update: NCAA Twitter Rankings

Thanks solely to the work of @maryzpink and the Iowa State Marketing Department, here is an updated look at the ranking of official athletics Twitter accounts:

Rank
School
Twitter Name
Followers
1
Florida
12,545
2
Kentucky
12,291
3
Oklahoma
9,197
4
Iowa
7,816
5
LSU
7,507
6
Kansas
7,173
7
Alabama
6,796
8
Michigan
6,608
9
UCLA
6,399
10
Washington
6,385
11
Arkansas
6,141
12
Georgia Tech
5,834
13
Nortre Dame
5,427
14
Missouri
4,939
15
South Carolina
4,428
16
Tennessee
4,117
17
Ohio State
4,088
18
Oregon
4,022
19
West Virginia
4,018
20
Georgia
3,964
21
Purdue
3,724
22
Wisconsin
3,490
23
Mississippi State
3,342
24
Baylor
3,305
25
Miami
3,246
26
Marquette
3,200
27
Georgetown
3,129
28
Ole Miss
OleMissNow
2,981
29
Nebraska
2,960
30
Texas Tech
2,940
31
UNLV
UNLVAthletics
2,934
32
Texas A&M
2,659
33
Oklahoma State
2,650
34
Arizona
2,594
35
Arizona State
2,525
36
Texas 
2,450
37
Florida State
2,434
38
Minnesota
2,386
39
Utah
UtahAthletics
2,339
40
Kansas State
2,315
41
Rutgers
2,314
42
California
2,278
43
Washington State
2,106
44
Stanford
2,099
45
Wake Forest
2,062
46
Hawaii
HawaiiAthletics
1,953
47
Louisville
1,894
48
Cincinnati
1,838
49
Colorado
1,801
50
Oregon State
1,800
51
Virginia Tech
1,794
52
Providence
1,777
53
Auburn
1,762
54
NC State
1,697
55
Army
ArmyAthletics
1,690
56
Syracuse
1,689
57
Virginia
1,683
58
Penn State
1,675
59
Uconn
1,656
60
Navy
NavyAthletics
1,609
61
USF
1,596
62
Gonzaga
GonzagaBulldogs
1,571
63
Harvard
Harvardcrimson
1,511
64
DePaul
1,382
65
Iowa State
1,376
66
Missouri State
1,341
67
James Madison
1,206
68
St. Johns
1,110
69
Bowling Green
1,094
70
Michigan State
1,084
71
USC
1,056
72
Duke
1,016
73
Boston College
928
74
UNI
UNIAthletics
894
75
Vanderbilt
883
76
Seton Hall
839
77
Clemson
788
78
Richmond
590
79
Vilanova
496
80
Indiana
280

Also, you can find official Twitter accounts organized by conference here: http://twitter.com/muathletics/lists

 

My 8 Favorite Characteristics of Successful Leaders

By far the most influential* classes I've taken thus far have focused on leadership or organizational behavior. Nothing against accounting -- I love a good balance sheet as much as the next guy -- but listening to influential members of the Milwaukee community talk about their growth as leaders has been the highlight of my educational experience.

Here are eight key leadership concepts I've adopted from class as well as personal experience... 

LEADERSHIP IS HAVING FOLLOWERS
Recognize those who make the choice to follow you and treat them like gold.

EXPERIENCE IS NOT ACCOMPLISHMENT
Your career is not a constant training program. What have you accomplished?

BEST SUSTAINED RATE OF IMPROVEMENT WINS
No matter how good you are, you have to keep improving.

EVERY RELATIONSHIP IS A CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP
How would you act differently if you treated your boss, coworkers like they are your customer?

DO WHAT YOU SAY YOU ARE GOING TO DO
Trust & credibility cannot be earned otherwise.

LEARN FIRST HAND
Know how to ask the right questions and understand the answers.

BE GREAT AT SOMETHING
Distinguish yourself from the pack. What is your competitive advantage?

BE GRATEFUL
Appreciate those that have gotten you to where you are at.

 

*Daily vocab lesson: I originally used the word impactful, but apparently such word does not technically exist. Who knew?

Social Media Analytics: The Next Frontier

Like fielding stats are to baseball, social media analytics pose an intriguing and frustrating new frontier to understanding the impact of our online presence. As with such hardball metrics as RAR or UZR, it's tough to wrap your arms around similarly proprietary analytics tools like Klout or Twitalyzer. Without understanding how these stats/grades are calculated, you can't really get excited about a True Reach of 247 any more than Andre Ethier is losing sleep over his MLB-worst -49.9 UZR/150. Given these limitations, baseball and social media gurus alike are more or less stuck counting errors, both literally and figuratively.

That said, there are a few crude metrics to better measure social media success. Here are a few of the things we've been tracking over the past several months:

 

Count of followers/fans

Not to belabor this point, but a count of your Facebook Fans or Twitter Followers only tells you so much. While it's cool and fun to see where you stack up against others, quantity of followers does not necessarily imply quality of tweets. The Milwaukee Panthers, with 518 followers, make fantastic use of their Twitter account, interjecting personality and engaging with fans. Other schools, who have significantly more followers, simply use Twitter as an RSS feed.

OK, enough said on ranking Facebook or Twitter accounts, I promise.

 

Count of interactions as a percentage of total fans/followers

The ability to interact and engage with fans is the primary benefit to social media, and therefore a super-critical factor to measure. Facebook insights track interactions for you, as page administrators can export a handy Excel file with comprehensive data. Twitter does not yet offer this service which makes things a little tougher: every week or so, we will manually count the number of times @muathletics is mentioned in a Tweet and add this number to the number of times our Tweets have been RTed -- A highly scientific process to be sure.

Then at the end of each month, we'll take the sum of the interactions and divide by the number of our Fans/Followers as of the last day of the month, to get our interaction rate for that month. Thus far in June, our Twitter followers have mentioned or retweeted @muathletics a total of 134 times, which, divided by our 3044 followers, equals a 4.4% interaction rate for June. Lacking context, of course, this figure means little. When compared to previous months, however, we can begin to better quantify our success at connecting with our fanbase. Our record to beat thus far is 17.3% from November 2009.

Obviously, there are many variables that will skew interactions -- it's a lot harder getting people talking Marquette Basketball in June than it is in March -- but if nothing else, it's a step in the right direction.

 

Growth rate

Quite simply, the percentage increase in followers or fans over the past month. (If you're really nerdy, you can take the second derivative and track the growth rate of your growth rate, but that seems excessive even to me).

Again, variables will impact this stat, as our Twitter followers grew by an average of 12.3% per month during basketball season and only 2.8% per month since.

 

Referrals to the official website

While not the ultimate goal of social media, it is still interesting to see if Twitter and Facebook activity lead to increases (or possibly decreases) in traffic to the primary website. CBS College created a Nielsen account for our department, which provides us access to data on page referrals-- the domain of the page a user linked from to reach GoMarquette.com.

Referrals from our social media pages to our official website have been minimal, though this reflects our primary strategy of interacting with fans rather than bombarding them with links to GoMarquette.com story releases. So while we do not get too caught up in the numbers, it's still something we're keeping our eyes on.

 

Records

Because what's more fun than keeping track of your most retweeted tweet or most liked facebook post? (Be flattered, Villanova.)

 

So in lieu of an algorithm that can perfectly combine and grade interactions, retweets and followers on a 0 to 100 scale (or accurately quantify the suckiness of the LA Dodgers' outfield), the above measurements will have to do for now.

NCAA D-I schools on Facebook... Yes, all of them

Thanks to research from @maryzpink and the Iowa State Marketing Department, below is a ranking of all schools in Division I in terms of their Facebook fans.

Overall Rankings
Rank School Page Title/Link Likes
1 Ohio State Ohio State Athletics on Facebook 292,062
2 Kentucky Kentucky Athletics on Facebook 127,147
3 Wisconsin Wisconsin Athletics on Facebook 103,998
4 Oklahoma Oklahoma Athletics on Facebook 102,313
5 Iowa Iowa Athletics on Facebook 93,499
6 Michigan State Michigan State Athletics on Facebook 83,838
7 Syracuse Syracuse Athletics on Facebook 66,434
8 West Virginia West Virginia Athletics on Facebook 63,498
9 Arkansas Arkansas Athletics on Facebook 52,510
10 Nebraska Nebraska Athletics on Facebook 51,560
11 Alabama Alabama Athletics on Facebook 47,691
12 Florida Florida Athletics on Facebook 47,096
13 South Carolina South Carolina Athletics on Facebook 44,821
14 Penn State Penn State Athletics on Facebook 43,652
15 Tennessee Tennessee Athletics on Facebook 42,683
16 Washington Washington Athletics on Facebook 39,777
17 Cincinnati Cincinnati Athletics on Facebook 38,680
18 Oregon Oregon Athletics on Facebook 37,495
19 Minnesota Minnesota Athletics on Facebook 35,750
20 Oregon State Oregon State Athletics on Facebook 35,504
21 Arizona State Arizona State Athletics on Facebook 34,228
22 LSU LSU Athletics on Facebook 26,662
23 Kansas Kansas Athletics on Facebook 25,539
24 Duke Duke Athletics on Facebook 25,269
25 Louisville Louisville Athletics on Facebook 23,691
26 Texas A&M Texas A&M Athletics on Facebook 23,546
27 Texas Tech Texas Tech Athletics on Facebook 23,204
28 University of Utah The University of Utah Athletics 23,078
29 Missouri Missouri Athletics on Facebook 22,094
30 North Dakota University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux 21,822
31 Marshall Marshall University Athletics 20,876
32 Florida State Florida State Athletics on Facebook 19,997
33 Iowa State Iowa State Athletics on Facebook 19,600
34 University New Mexico New Mexico Lobos 19,107
35 Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Athletics on Facebook 17,743
36 Mississippi State Mississippi State Athletics on Facebook 17,686
37 Virginia Virginia Athletics on Facebook 17,369
38 Boise State Bronco Sports 17,107
39 Nevada Nevada Wolf Pack 13,092
40 James Madison JMU Dukes  12,210
41 NC State NC State Athletics on Facebook 11,810
42 Illinois Illinois Athletics on Facebook 11,666
43 Pennsylvania University of Pennsylvania 11,456
44 Marquette Marquette Athletics on Facebook 11,379
45 Georgia Tech Georgia Tech Athletics on Facebook 10,859
46 Gonzaga Gonzaga Bulldogs-Official Site 10,702
47 Washington State Washington State Athletics on Facebook 10,257
48 UConn UConn Athletics on Facebook 9,801
49 California California Athletics on Facebook 9,580
50 Rutgers Rutgers Athletics on Facebook 8,904
51 North Dakota State North Dakota State Bison 8,463
52 Akron Akron Zips 8,250
53 Northwestern Northwestern Athletics on Facebook 8,133
54 Air Force Academy Air Force Academy Falcons 8,026
55 Mississippi Mississippi Athletics on Facebook 7,933
56 Montana www.MontanaGrizzlies.com 7,799
57  Southern Illinois Saluki Athletics 7,763
58 Army Army Black Knights 7,631
60 Idaho Idaho Vandals 7,278
59 Rhode Island University of Rhode Island Rams 7,278
61 USF USF Athletics on Facebook 7,271
62 Baylor Baylor Athletics on Facebook 7,017
63 Purdue Purdue Athletics on Facebook 6,853
64 Memphis Memphis Tigers 6,743
65 Southern Methodist SMU Mustangs 6,732
66 Navy Navy Athletics 6,529
67 Georgia Georgia Athletics on Facebook 6,236
68 Missouri State Missouri State Bears 6,178
69 Western Carolina Western Carolina University Catamounts 6,169
70 Northern Iowa UNI Athletics 5,999
71 UTEP UTEP Athletics 5,924
72 Loyola Marymount LMU Lions 5,877
73 Jacksonville State Jacksonville State Gamecocks 5,532
74 Illinois State Illinois State University Athletics 5,406
75 Indiana Indiana Athletics on Facebook 5,371
76 Eastern Kentucky EKU Colonels 5,341
77 Auburn Auburn Athletics on Facebook 5,303
78 Siena Official Siena Saints Page 5,180
79 Kansas State Kansas State Athletics on Facebook 4,998
80 Houston University of Houston Athletics 4,898
81 Southern Mississippi Southern Miss Athletics 4,808
82 Wake Forest Wake Forest Athletics on Facebook 4,802
83 Texas Christian University Super Frog 4,716
84 UCLA UCLA Athletics on Facebook 4,650
85 Middle Tennessee Blue Raider Athletics 4,642
86 Vanderbilt Vanderbilt Athletics on Facebook 4,630
87 North Carolina North Carolina Athletics on Facebook 4,519
88 Georgia State Georgia State University Athletics 4,492
89 Eastern Illinois Eastern Illinois University 4,441
90 Cal State Northridge Matty Matador 4,436
91 Delaware Delaware Cockpit 4,434
92 Stanford Stanford Athletics on Facebook 4,421
93 Charlotte Charlotte 49ers 4,367
94 Chattanooga Chattanooga Athletics Department 4,361
95 Tulsa Tulsa Golden Hurricanes 4,342
96 Boston College Boston College Athletics on Facebook 4,304
97 Fresno State Fresno State Athletics 4,282
98 Milwaukee Milwaukee Panthers 4,273
99 St. Johns St. Johns Athletics on Facebook 4,215
100 Towson Doc Minnegan 4,160
101 Arizona Arizona Athletics on Facebook 4,001
102 Hawaii University of Hawai'i Athletics 3,812
103 Xavier Xavier Musketeers 3,790
104 Troy Troy University Athletics 3,767
105 University of Wyoming Joe Wyoming (Mascot Club) 3,727
106 Miami (OH) Swoop Redhawk 3,695
107 Indiana State Indiana State Sycamores 3,686
108 South Dakota State Jackrabbit Nation 3,679
109 Murray State Murray State Racer Athletics 3,674
110 Colorado Colorado Athletics on Facebook 3,641
111 Villanova Villanova Athletics on Facebook 3,598
112 Texas State Texas State Athletics 3,534
113 San Diego State University San Diego State 3,469
114 UC Davis UC Davis Athletics 3,416
115 Richmond Richmond Spidey 3,369
116 Lipscomb Lipscomb Bisons 3,259
117 North Florida University of North Florida Ospreys 3,236
118 Central Arkansas University of Central Arkansas Athletics 3,205
119 Colorado State University Colorado State University Athletics 3,178
120 Louisiana Tech LA TECH Athletics 2,995
121 UC Santa Barbara UCSB Athletics 2,940
122 Louisiana-Monroe ULM Warhawks 2,932
123 Northwestern State Northwestern State Demons 2,894
124 Texas-San Antonio UTSA Athletics 2,841
125 South Dakota USD Coyotes  2,836
126 University of South Dakota Usd Coyotes 2,820
127 Stony Brook Stony Brook Athletics 2,818
128 Butler Hink the Butler Bulldog 2,738
129 Radford Radford University Highlanders 2,661
130 Temple Temple UniversityAthletics 2,657
131 Providence Providence Athletics on Facebook 2,653
132 Portland State Portland State Vikings 2,625
133 George Washington George Washington University Colonials 2,596
134 George Mason George Mason Athletics 2,583
135 UC Irvine Peter Ant 2,548
136 Austin Peay Austin Peay State University Governors 2,460
137 Clemson Clemson Athletics on Facebook 2,460
138 Hofstra Hofstra Pride 2,411
139 Montana State Champ Bobcat 2,392
140 North Carolina A&T North Carolina A & T Athletics  2,369
141 Kent State Fans of Flash 2,250
142 Albany Ualbany Athletics 2,203
143 Davidson Davidson Wildcats 2,177
144 Colgate Colgate Raider Nation 2,156
145 Santa Clara Santa Clara University Bronco Athletics 2,138
146 Wichita State Wichita State Athletics 2,133
147 Appalachian State Yosef Mountaineer 2,116
148 Boston University Boston University Athletics 2,097
149 Buffalo Victor E. Bull 2,096
150 USC USC Athletics on Facebook 2,094
151 Longwood Longwood Lancers 2,090
152 Oklahoma State Oklahoma State Athletics on Facebook 2,072
153 Denver Denver Pioneers 2,068
154 Pepperdine Pepperdine Athletics 1,996
155 Florida Gulf Coast AZUL The Eagle 1,993
156 University of Northern Las Vegas UNLV Athletics 1,993
157 Virginia Commonwealth VCU Athletics 1,964
158 Niagara Niagara University Purple Eagles 1,937
159 Marist Marist Athletics 1,936
160 Southeastern Louisiana Southeastern Louisiana University Athletics 1,918
161 Wright State Wright State University Athletics 1,886
162 St. Bonaventure St. Bonaventure Athletics 1,830
163 Charleston Southern Charleston South University Buccaneers 1,777
164 Harvard Harvard Crimson 1,750
167 Bowling Green BG Warriors 1,737
165 High Point High Point University Panthers 1,737
166 UC Riverside UC Riverside Athletics 1,737
168 Long Beach State Long Beach State Athletics 1,735
169 Coastal Carolina Chauncey Chantideer 1,683
170 Elon Elon Phoenix 1,681
171 UNC Greensboro Uncg Spartans  1,675
172 Oakland Oakland Golden Grizzlies 1,668
173 Ball State Ball State 1,652
174 Utah State Utah State University Athletics 1,595
175 Northern Arizona NAU Athletics 1,594
176 Eastern Michigan Eastern Michigan Athletics 1,589
177 Vermont Vermont Catamounts 1,584
178 Belmont Belmont Bruins 1,578
179 Rider Rider Athletics 1,559
180 Georgetown Georgetown Athletics on Facebook 1,526
181 Pacific Pacific Athletics 1,499
182 Sam Houston State Bearkat Athletics 1,485
183 Hampton Hu Athletics 1,469
184 Kennesaw State OWL Nation 1,462
185 Youngstown Youngstown State Athletics 1,455
186 Morehead State Beaker Bird 1,433
187 Weber State Weber State Athletics 1,384
188 Brown Brown University Athletics 1,362
189 Delaware State DSU Hornet 1,360
190 Columbia Columbia University Athletics  1,309
191 La Salle La Salle Athletics 1,305
192 North Carolina-Wilmington UNCW Athletics 1,301
193 St. Francis (PA) Saint Francis Athletics 1,269
194 Western Michigan Western Michigan University Athletics 1,240
196 Samford Samford University Athletics 1,224
195 Utah Valley UVA Athletics 1,224
197 Central Connecticut State CCSU Blue Devils 1,176
198 Saint Louis SLU Billikens 1,149
199 Wofford Wofford Terriers 1,142
200 Lamar Lamar Cardinals 1,141
201 San Jose State San Jose State Athletics 1,128
202 Quinnipiac Quinnipiac University Athletics 1,127
203 Hartford Howie Hawk 1,119
204 Saint Mary's Saint Mary's College Gaels 1,112
205 Alabama A&M Alabama A&M Athletics 1,106
206 North Texas Mean Green Sports 1,098
208 SIUE Edwardsville SIUE Cougars 1,085
207 SIU-Edwardsville SIUE Cougars 1,085
209 Cal State Bakersfield CSUB Roadrunners Athletics 1,063
210 Monmouth Monmouth University Athletics 1,049
211 New Hampshire UNH Athletics 1,026
212 Lehigh Lehigh Athletics 1,020
213 Arkansas-Little rock UALR Trojans 999
214 Cal State Fullerton CSUF Athletics 962
215 Sacramento State www.jointhegreenarmy.com 952
216 Green Bay Green Bay Phoenix 944
217 Jacksonville Jacksonville University Athletics 933
218 Eastern Washington EWU Athletics 922
219 Tennessee Tech Golden Eagle 921
220 FIU FIU Sports 918
221 Northeastern Paws Northeastern 897
222 American University American University Athletics 886
223 Detroit Tommy Titan 862
224 Evansville University of Evansville Athletic Dept. 776
225 IUPUI IUPUI Athletics 767
227 Florida Atlantic Gofau Owls 765
226 North Carolina-Asheville UNC Asheville Bulldog Athletics 765
228 Furman Furman Paladins Fan Way 747
229 Texas-Pan American UTPA Broncs 716
230 IPFW IPFW Athletics 712
231 Western Illinois Western Illinois Athletics 659
232 Mount St. Mary's Mount Athletics 634
233 Creighton Official Creighton Athletics Page 632
234 Fordham Fordham Athletics 560
235 UMBC UMBC Athletics 533
236 USC Upstate USC Upstate Athletics 530
237 UMKC (Missouri at Kansas City) UMKC Athletics 523
238 McNeese State 1,000,000 McNeese Sports Fans 505
239 Seattle Seattle University Athletics 503
240 Toledo Toledo Rockets 466
241 Princeton Princeton Tigers 448
242 Prairie View A&M Prairie View Panthers 399
243 Duquesne GODuquesne 390
244 Manhattan Official Manhattan Jaspers Athletics Page 386
245 Sacred Heart Sacred Heart University Pioneers 379
246 Canisius Canisius College Athletics 372
247 Cleveland State Cleveland State University Athletics 336
248 Coppin State Coppin State Athletics 311
249 Mercer Mercer University Athletics 209
250 Maryland-Eastern Shore Harry the Hawk  123
251 Holy Cross Holy Cross Athletics 106
252 Illinois-Chicago The Fury 97
253 Charleston College of Charleston Athletics 48
254 Dayton Dayton Flyers Athletics 18
255 Texas A&M-CC Islander Athletics 11

And while we're at it, here they are ranked by conference... 

Rankings by Conference
     
American East Facebook Title Likes
Stony Brook Stony Brook Athletics 2,818
Albany Ualbany Athletics 2,203
Boston University Boston University Athletics 2,097
Vermont Vermont Catamounts 1,584
Hartford Howie Hawk 1,119
New Hampshire UNH Athletics 1,026
UMBC UMBC Athletics 533
Binghamton    
Maine    

   
ACC Link Likes
Duke Duke Athletics on Facebook 25,269
Florida State Florida State Athletics on Facebook 19,997
Virginia Virginia Athletics on Facebook 17,369
North Carolina State North Carolina State Athletics on Facebook 11,810
Georgia Tech Georgia Tech Athletics on Facebook 10,859
Wake Forest Wake Forest Athletics on Facebook 4,802
North Carolina North Carolina Athletics on Facebook 4,519
Boston College Boston College Athletics on Facebook 4,304
Clemson Clemson Athletics on Facebook 2,460
Viginia Tech    
Miami    
Maryland    

   
Atlantic 10 Facebook Title Likes
Rhode Island University of Rhode Island Rams 7,278
Charlotte Charlotte 49ers 4,367
Xavier Xavier Musketeers 3,790
Richmond Richmond Spidey 3,369
Temple Temple UniversityAthletics 2,657
George Washington George Washington University Colonials 2,596
St. Bonaventure St. Bonaventure Athletics 1,830
La Salle La Salle Athletics 1,305
Saint Louis SLU Billikens 1,149
Fordham Fordham Athletics 560
Duquesne GODuquesne 390
Dayton Dayton Flyers Athletics 18
Massachusetts    
Saint Joseph's    

   
Atlantic Sun Facebook Title Likes
Lipscomb Lipscomb Bisons 3,259
North Florida University of North Florida Ospreys 3,236
Florida Gulf Coast AZUL The Eagle 1,993
Belmont Belmont Bruins 1,578
Kennesaw State OWL Nation 1,462
Jacksonville Jacksonville University Athletics 933
USC Upstate USC Upstate Athletics 530
Mercer Mercer University Athletics 209
Campbell    
East Tennessee State    
Stetson    

   
Big East Link Likes
Syracuse Syracuse Athletics on Facebook 66,434
West Virginia West Virginia Athletics on Facebook 63,498
Cincinnati Cincinnati Athletics on Facebook 38,680
Louisville Louisville Athletics on Facebook 23,691
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Athletics on Facebook 17,743
Marquette Marquette Athletics on Facebook 11,379
UConn UConn Athletics on Facebook 9,801
Rutgers Rutgers Athletics on Facebook 8,904
USF USF Athletics on Facebook 7,271
St. Johns St. Johns Athletics on Facebook 4,215
Villanova Villanova Athletics on Facebook 3,598
Providence Providence Athletics on Facebook 2,653
Georgetown Georgetown Athletics on Facebook 1,526
Notre Dame    
DePaul    
Seton Hall    

   
Big Sky Facebook Title Likes
Montana www.MontanaGrizzlies.com 7,799
Portland State Portland State Vikings 2,625
Montana State Champ Bobcat 2,392
Northern Arizona NAU Athletics 1,594
Weber State Weber State Athletics 1,384
Sacramento State www.jointhegreenarmy.com 952
Eastern Washington EWU Athletics 922
Idaho State    
Northern Colorado    

   
Big South Facebook Title Likes
Radford Radford University Highlanders 2,661
Charleston Southern Charleston South University Buccaneers 1,777
High Point High Point University Panthers 1,737
Coastal Carolina Chauncey Chantideer 1,683
North Carolina-Asheville UNC Asheville Bulldog Athletics 765
Gardner-Webb    
Liberty    
Presbyterian    
Virginia Military    
Winthrop    

   
Big Ten Link Likes
Ohio State Ohio State Athletics on Facebook 292,062
Wisconsin Wisconsin Athletics on Facebook 103,998
Iowa Iowa Athletics on Facebook 93,499
Michigan State Michigan State Athletics on Facebook 83,838
Penn State Penn State Athletics on Facebook 43,652
Minnesota Minnesota Athletics on Facebook 35,750
Illinois Illinois Athletics on Facebook 11,666
Northwestern Northwestern Athletics on Facebook 8,133
Purdue Purdue Athletics on Facebook 6,853
Indiana Indiana Athletics on Facebook 5,371
Michigan    

   
Big XII Link Likes
Oklahoma Oklahoma Athletics on Facebook 102,313
Nebraska Nebraska Athletics on Facebook 51,560
Kansas Kansas Athletics on Facebook 25,539
Texas A&M Texas A&M Athletics on Facebook 23,546
Texas Tech Texas Tech Athletics on Facebook 23,204
Missouri Missouri Athletics on Facebook 22,094
Iowa State Iowa State Athletics on Facebook 19,600
Baylor Baylor Athletics on Facebook 7,017
Kansas State Kansas State Athletics on Facebook 4,998
Colorado Colorado Athletics on Facebook 3,641
Oklahoma State

Ranking the most-liked Facebook pages in the NCAA

At the risk of appearing to be a bigger geek than what has already been firmly established, I took some time this evening to assemble a list of the official Facebook fan pages of BCS Conference schools. As with the ranking of Twitter accounts, the numbers below reflect the schools' general athletics page.

Rank School / Link Likers
1 Ohio State 292062
2 Kentucky 127147
3 Wisconsin 103998
4 Oklahoma 102313
5 Iowa 93499
6 Michigan State 83838
7 Syracuse 66434
8 West Virginia 63498
9 Arkansas 52510
10 Nebraska 51560
11 Alabama 47691
12 Florida 47096
13 South Carolina 44821
14 Penn State 43652
15 Tennessee 42683
16 Washington 39777
17 Cincinnati 38680
18 Oregon 37495
19 Minnesota 35750
20 Oregon State 35504
21 Arizona State 34228
22 LSU 26662
23 Kansas 25539
24 Duke 25269
25 Louisville 23691
26 Texas A&M 23546
27 Texas Tech 23204
28 Missouri 22094
29 Florida State 19997
30 Iowa State 19600
31 Pittsburgh 17743
32 Mississippi State 17686
33 Virginia 17369
34 North Carolina State 11810
35 Illinois 11666
36 Marquette 11379
37 Georgia Tech 10859
38 Washington State 10257
39 UConn 9801
40 California 9580
41 Rutgers 8904
42 Northwestern 8133
43 Mississippi 7933
44 USF 7271
45 Baylor 7017
46 Purdue 6853
47 Georgia 6236
48 Indiana 5371
49 Auburn 5303
50 Kansas State 4998
51 Wake Forest 4802
52 UCLA 4650
53 Vanderbilt 4630
54 North Carolina 4519
55 Stanford 4421
56 Boston College 4304
57 St. John's 4215
58 Arizona 4001
59 Colorado 3641
60 Villanova 3598
61 Providence 2653
62 Clemson 2460
63 USC 2094
64 Oklahoma State 2072
65 Georgetown 1526
66 DePaul*  
67 Maryland*  
68 Miami*  
69 Michigan*  
70 Notre Dame*  
71 Seton Hall*  
72 Texas*  
73 Viginia Tech*  

*These eight schools either do not have an athletics Facebook page or cannot easily be found via their official website or Google.

A couple notes of interest...

- The average Facebook page has substantially more fans people who like this than the average Twitter account has followers. This is not surprising, as Facebook claims to have 400 million* active users while the more youthful Twitter recently shared that they have a paltry 105 million registered users.

*Side note: this figure is so large it's easy to gloss over the ridiculousness of it, but 400 million people is roughly the population of the United States, Canada and France combined.

- There are fewer sport-specific Facebook pages than Twitter accounts-- to be expected given the nature of the two social networks.

- Two schools, Pittsburgh and Mississippi, have incorporated a sponsor's logo into the profile picture.

- Whether it's a coincidence or a concerted effort to share best practices, Big XII schools have some really cool landing pages. Ex: OklahomaKansasTexas A&MTexas Tech or Oklahoma State.

As always, if you notice anything's off, give me a shout @brianbowsher or @muathletics.

Ranking the most followed Twitter pages in the NCAA

The good folks over at LSU have been doing some pretty cool work in the social media realm lately, including ranking NCAA D-I Men's Basketball and Football coaches on Twitter in terms of followers. 

Thanks to a perfect storm of factors, including (1) a new student worker looking for something to do on a spring Friday, (2) a legitimate interest in measuring our progress in social media and (3) not wanting to be outdone by this guy, we have joined in the fun and compiled a listing of the general athletics Twitter accounts* of all 73 schools belonging to BCS Conferences.

*Many schools have established separate Twitter accounts for individual sports or individuals, therefore their general athletics account is either not-well-followed or nonexistent. Marquette Athletics places its Twitter eggs in the general @MUAthletics basket, hence our choice for ranking schools based on this category of account-- ya know, whatever is going to make us look the best...
The top Twitter accounts amongst BCS Conference schools (apologies in advance to our friends at "non-negatively connoting synonym for 'mid-major'" institutions)...
 
Rank School Followers
1 Kentucky 11604
2 Florida 10956
3 Oklahoma 8177
4 USC 7369
5 LSU 6986
6 Iowa 6984
7 Kansas 5964
8 Washington 5811
9 Arkansas 5462
10 UCLA 5332
11 Alabama 5297
12 Georgia Tech 5164
13 Notre Dame 4667
14 South Carolina 3910
15 Ohio State 3814
16 Oregon 3749
17 West Virginia 3726
18 Texas A&M 3659
19 Tennessee 3442
20 Purdue 3408
21 Georgia 3280
22 Wisconsin 3141
23 Baylor 2955
24 Mississippi St. 2938
25 Marquette 2935
26 Georgetown 2886
27 Northwestern 2832
28 Oregon State 2536
29 Texas Tech 2339
30 Mississippi 2303
31 Oklahoma State 2228
32 Arizona 2173
33 Minnesota 2156
34 Texas 2148
35 Rutgers 2096
36 Florida State 2068
37 California 2001
38 Kansas State 1830
39 Washington St. 1817
40 Stanford 1807
41 Wake Forest 1804
42 Providence 1723
43 Cincinnati 1697
44 Colorado 1631
45 Louisville 1556
46 Virginia Tech 1554
47 Syracuse 1551
48 UConn 1516
49 USF 1451
50 NC State 1437
51 Arizona State 1423
52 Virginia 1409
53 Auburn 1353
54 Penn State 1312
55 DePaul 1281
56 Nebraska 1238
57 Missouri 1201
58 Miami 1101
59 St. Johns 1029
60 Michigan State* 908
61 Duke* 883
62 Boston College 831
63 Vanderbilt 799
64 Seton Hall 787
65 Iowa State* 675
66 Villanova 404
67 Clemson* 218
68 Indiana* 190
69 Illinois*  
70 Maryland  
71 Michigan*  
72 North Carolina*  
73 Pittsburgh*  
 
*These schools in particular have placed a greater emphasis on promoting accounts for individual sports or personalities, though many others amongst the 73 do the same.
Again, it's really tough to make apples-to-apples comparisons between schools who have different social media strategies, so draw your own conclusions from the above data. Still, it's useful to have some perspective of a general rank amongst the rest of the NCAA to see how you're doing.
 
In addition to charting followers, we've been tracking a few other metrics to measure our success with social media. Why, that smells like a future post...
Data updated March 22... Sorry, Florida. 
And again March 24... Apologies, Iowa State.