March Madness Social Media Smorgasbord

March has passed and so has the Madness. My favorite part of the year is sadly behind us. And I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way. The NCAA basketball tournament has been what every college hoops (sports) fan has been hoping. Maybe not if you’re a Michigan State, or even a North Carolina fan, but it has provided us with upsets, overtime wins, record breakings, and something we all hope would happen, a championship winning buzzer beater. That is madness and what this tournament is all about! 

How did all of this reflect on social? I am bringing you a variety of content delivered to us by the official March Madness channels. Enjoy!

 

SOCIAL TIP-OFF

It all started on Instagram on March 1st with this video. Great teaser to start off the most exciting month in college sports.  

 

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…#MarchMadness #🏀

Videozapis objavljuje NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) Ožu 1, 2016 u 3:01 PST

It continued on March 17th on their official Facebook page….simple, yet effective way to get everyone heated for the Madness ahead.

[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/NCAAMarchMadness/videos/vb.176134773759/10154059133408760/?type=2&theater” width=”500″ height=”400″ onlyvideo=”0″]

Enough said. Let’s get this party started!

 

FACEBOOK – 1M

Facebook is the channel on which March Madness has the most followers, little over 1 million. The content on here was what you would ecpect it to be. It wasn’t too flashy, only a few graphic visuals were made and that is ok if you ask me. There was a lot of other content, and maybe it would’ve been too much if they tried to squeeze in something else. You could see it all on Facebook, from photo galleries, to video highlights, game previews and reports, as well as behind the scene footage, historical facts, and cool 360-degree videos and gifs. Something was published almost every hour and it was a variety of stuff to please everyone’s needs. What I liked the most are a the cool gifs and a few short videos they made during this past month…

[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/NCAAMarchMadness/videos/10154095137043760/” width=”500″ height=”400″ onlyvideo=”0″]

 

[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/NCAAMarchMadness/videos/10154122442923760/” width=”500″ height=”400″ onlyvideo=”0″]

 

[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/NCAAMarchMadness/videos/10154122931663760/” width=”500″ height=”400″ onlyvideo=”0″]

 

[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/NCAAMarchMadness/videos/10154128528013760/” width=”500″ height=”400″ onlyvideo=”0″]

 

Also, 360-degree videos were posted pretty often to give fans a close-up look at the action on the hardwood floor. 

[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/NCAAMarchMadness/videos/10154123183993760/” width=”500″ height=”400″ onlyvideo=”0″]

 

One thing I didn’t like about Facebook is one-way communication. I understand that there is a whole million of fans out there, but some of their posts had over 3,000 comments and no reponse. It would’ve made those fans feel much more appreciated if they answered a few of their questions or reacted to some of their comments. 

 

TWITTER – 513K

Twitter has half the fans we saw March Madness has on Facebook, but they have 5 times more content (at least). Well, that is expected considering most of the Twitter posts are live score updates and videos of big plays from each of those games. However, that is not what got me hooked on their official Twitter account. It’s the other stuff, such as visuals with quotes, gifs (again, I know) and lockerroom videos.

 

Honorable mention(s) – take a look at these stats from the end of the Championship game. 380,000 tweets saying “wow”, “whoa” or “omg”. Pretty impressive…

 

INSTAGRAM – 110K

This is my second favorite social platform (after Snapchat) when it comes to sporting events, but it has failed to impress me this time. As I was going through images on NCAA March Madness official account, I realized I already saw a lot of them on Facebook and Twitter. They tried to divert my attention from this with a few other images, such as the ones below, but not enough so I would forget about what’s going on. This is something they could work on in the future. Until then, enjoy what they’ve given us. 

 

 

YOUTUBE – 38K

NCAA March Madness YouTube account has a little over 38K subscribers, but has collected nearly 26M video views. During this year’s Madness, they treated us with a variety of different videos. Most of the videos on theis channel are game highlights and pre- or post-game conferences, but this year they gave us much more to feast on. There are 3 special features that I liked better then others this year:

1. Team confidential – These videos were probably set up to bring the teams closer to the viewers. And they will if you take some time and watch them. They are under 2 minutes long so they will not take up a lot of your time, but you will learn something new about your team or star player. This particular video is about leadership, commitment, and a special bond between North Carolina star player Marcus Paige and his coach and teammates. 

 

2. Must see moments – There are quite a few, but my favorite is Charles Barkley ‘One Shining Moment’ performance. Priceless!

3. Behind the scene – always my favorite type of content because you can find out a lot more about your favorite athletes. I picked only two out of the bunch as my favorite. The first one comes from the University of Oregon Ducks and it shows a special bond that ties these guys together. Their team managers came up with an idea to have their own version of the Avengers within the basketball team. But, there are certain rules. Take a look! 

The second behind the scenes story is the University of Oklahoma Sooners bus ride to Oklahoma City, the West Region playing site. This video closely presents some of the players on their basketball team joking around, eating, sleeping and even freestyling. I am hoping for more of this type of content next year.

 

SNAPCHAT

This was a huge disappointment for me, and I am sure many feel the same way. Well, many of you who live outside the United States. Snapchat and Turner Sports signed a ‘Live Stories’ deal before the tournament started. I thought to myself, ‘can’t wait, I am pumped, I love Snapchat, and I love March Madness, this will be amazing’. Except it wasn’t. The only game that wasn’t geoblocked was the championship game. And seeing the content from that final game made me even more mad because it was simply amazing, and I was angry that I missed out on all the previous stories. Unfortunately, I was too excited to see the story that I forgot to take any screenshots. Shame on me. You’ll just have to take my word when I say it’s unfortunate Live Stories weren’t available worldwide throughout the tournament.

I actually sent an inquiry about this to Snapchat through Twitter, but never received an answer. Shame on you.

ONE SHINING MOMENT

“One shining moment” is a song about the NCAA basketball tournament or March Madness. It is traditionally played at the end of the tournament showing all the March Madness highlights while the winners are cutting down the nets and getting ready to receive the trophy. It is a tradition since the 1987 Championship game and I hope it is one that will never end. 

 

CONCLUSION

It was a great tournament, all sports fan should be more then happy with how things panned out, not only in the final game, but throughout the competition. We all love upsets, we all love when an underdog beats a favorite, and we all love to see people’s reactions to everything on social. And this year, the NCAA succeeded to engage fans with some impressive content, quantitatively and qualitatively. I without a doubt believe that with the type of content they deliver, their number of followers, as well as reach and engagement, will rise each year. 

Article sources:NCAA, ESPN

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