5 things you need to do when you get stuck in a blizzard – like Duquesne men’s basketball

All of us have been stuck in some sort of a traffic jam, thunderstorm, or even a blizzard. You know how nerve-wracking those situations can be. Now imagine being a part of a college basketball team that just played and won a game on the road, and can’t wait for a 5-hour bus ride home to come to an end so they can get some sleep before classes and practice the next day. Pumped with adrenaline from winning the game, next thing that happens is you get stuck in traffic because of a blizzard, and your 5-hour bus ride turns into a 30-hour trip. You want to hurt someone, right?

Well, this happened to Duquesne men’s basketball team on January 23, 2016. If I had known about their situation, this article would’ve been on our blog a while ago. However, what happened during those 30 hours is worth mentioning because players and staff of Duquesne basketball team used this time not only to connect with each other, but to let their fans and the world know how they spent their time waiting for the snow to stop and their bus to start moving. 

Here are 5 things you should consider in these type of situations…

1. VARIETY OF CONTENT

Most of the content was published on Twitter, which let the players and staff keep everyone informed about how they’re doing in this sticky situation. They knew their families and friends would be worried after they’ve spent X amount of hours sitting on a bus on a highway. They had to ask themselves how much gas they had to keep themselves warm, or how long will it take before they start moving again. Duquesne basketball travel party of 31 gave them a lot more then they expected for sure. They handled the entire ‘blizzard’ situation with a variety of content – it almost seemed like they prepared in advance. Some content was informational, some was entertaining, but in general, it was very engaging. 

2. UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION

Duquesne Men’s Basketball official account, Duquesne Athletics official account and Duquesne Equipment account posted information about what is happening on and around their bus from the moment they got stuck until the bus started moving a whole day later. This was very helpful not only for their close ones to know how they’re doing, but also for all the media to get updates on how the situation is unfolding. Some of these tweets were as funny as they were informative. 

3. ENGAGEMENT

As a former college and professional basketball player, the following has made me laugh really hard because these types of things actually happen within teams, but they are not often revealed on Twitter. Making this content public gives fans insight on what happens inside the lockerroom, on road trips, in hotels, etc. Great content for which they got great engagement. They have only about 3,400 Twitter followers, and their polls received 9,544 and 11,649 votes respectively – impressive! 

4. CREATIVITY

Creativity is very important on social, and it comes in handy when you’re stuck in a blizzard for 24+ hours. Fans would get tired of informational tweets, so they had to post something different to keep their fans coming for more. Duquesne did a great job with this. Just take a look at the following tweets, and you’ll get the idea…

5. REACTIONS ON SOCIAL

You would expect that everyone on the bus would be grumpy and nervous because of the situation they found themselves in. But, they made the best out of a bad situation, showed themselves in a different light, and shared it with their fans and followers. Reactions on social and messages of support were pouring in. 

Even the Major of Pittsburgh (Duquesne University is located in Pittsburgh), William Peduto found time to send a message to Duquesne basketball travel party.

HAPPY ENDING

When the traffic finally started moving, the whole team got to work and cleared the snow around the bus tires before they pushed it out of the snow. Great teamwork!

Even though their trip from hell finally came to an end when they made it back to campus, they continued to share stories with their followers and thanked everyone for following them, praying, and sending messages of support during the last 30 hours. 

They even managed to squeeze their equipment sponsor adidas in their content…

Although Duquesne men’s basketball team now has about 3,430 followers on Twitter, when I looked at their content on there it seemed they deserve more attention because they can get pretty creative at times. On the other hand, competition in the US is fierce, and you need to post original and creative content on a regular basis to attract masses.

This is a great story with a happy ending! We are fortunate enough to have the ability to follow these type of situations. Thank you social media! Thank you Duquesne Basketball!