Articles
Promoting your athletic department online: The Basics
Monday, our marketing director, Romy Glazer, published an article on CampusSuite’s education blog about how to best promote a school’s athletic department online. Below is an except from that article – read the rest on their site here.
Sports and all that surround them are the face of any school. A well-known football team or band program can go a long way to building school spirit, keeping the community engaged, and even attracting new students.
However, it’s not getting any cheaper or easier to run an athletic department. Even if a school runs a top-notch program, all the benefits come from promoting it, which requires a different set of skills. But there’s a secret weapon that many schools have already started using that makes promoting their athletic departments easier than it’s ever been — technology.
At VNN, we’ve built over 1,200 athletic department websites over the past three years, and in that time, we’ve gotten a pretty good idea at what it takes to make the most of an athletic department online, and the basics include getting people where they need to go, making sure they know what happened last night, showing them through photos, and using social media to draw them to your school’s page.
Through a partnership with our friends at CampusSuite, we’ve published those tips and more detail on why they’re so important over on their blog. Check it out at the link below:
Northmont High School- Sharing the System
The Northmont Athletic Department has created a balanced system using both an Athletic Director, Robin Spiller, and an Assistant Athletic Director, Jim Smith. The two work in tandem to keep their department at the highest of standards, while dividing up the work to improve the overall quality of their high school athletic department.
As told to Erika Arora
Shortly after signing with Varsity News Network, Jim and I met up to discuss the future of our department. I am currently one of Northmont’s assistant principals, so my time is very limited. Trying to run a school and an athletic department seemed like too big of a task for one person, so I called up Jim for help.
Northmont has a Five Year Strategic Plan that includes ideas to improve certain areas of our school and a common complaint we received was a lack of Athletic Department information to parents in our community. Attempting to fix this issue on their own, all of our different sports teams started creating their own individual websites, and while a good gesture, when Jim and I discussed, we decided that one concise place to go online was what we needed for our Athletics Department – so we got in touch with VNN.
Knowing what we knew about our teams and the individual team sites that were initially set up, it’s not much of a leap to understand that each sport at Northmont has a coaching philosophy and vision that motivates our coaches to keep information updated and interesting. This meant that while our goal was one website for our entire department, the reality was that it was essential that our coaches had the flexibility to cover their own teams. Editor access in VNN was important for us and we’ve extended this to our most involved parents, too. The difference is that while coaches get access right away, parents but must be approved by either Jim or myself to take an active role in creating content on our site.
Our system is simple: we hire a coach, then Jim gives them a 
“cheat sheet” we created that contains information about creating articles, links, child’s pages, and anything else they might need. It takes around an hour to train each coach. One thing we ask is that they have to have some sort of a vision and set the site up themselves, using any links they want. Learning first-hand by doing the task matters.
While we train coaches initially, the outside help that VNN’s support team provides on a day-to-day level is vital to our success because Jim also teaches, it really helps share the load between bigger questions we need to answer and more technical every day questions that VNN Support can help with.
Before our arrangement could commence, Jim and I still needed to show our website to the Superintendent, who was immediately impressed by the planning and vision of what we were doing. By the time we were finished, we had the buy-in from our entire administration, too. Everyone appreciates how easy the site is to navigate. Onboarding our coaches well was one thing, but having the administration’s support is important too – they are behind what we are doing and it shows in our site’s growing numbers that are always exciting to see (VNN Note: Northmont is cruising – they’ve logged almost 77,000 pageviews in September 2015 alone, and ranked 2nd place in Ohio, and #7 in the overall VNN Network).
If you want to draw people to your site, give them more reasons to visit, and make sure that your posts keep your audience in mind. Connecting your community is top priority, and our site makes sure they have many reasons to connect with us. We have our community recreation programs linked to our site, and a very special “Hall of Fame” link where anyone from the community can nominate someone to be a part of our Hall of Fame. It features current, past, and deceased athletes, and allows the community to have an active hand in shaping what our department memorializes. Google Calendar is a tool we utilize to help with communication as well. It helps us cut down on phone calls and emails because parents are able to check up on their children. Looking forward, we are hoping to get our yearbook staff and students writing the articles for our blog posts which will take our online community to the next level.
Varsity News Network has transformed Northmont’s Athletic Department, and Jim and I appreciate the products and features that are offered. Any time I have a problem, I make a phone call or send an email, and I get a response immediately. We are extremely happy with our new website and system, and this reflects the positive feedback we have received from our community.
Featured Images now Available on Pressbox!
Ever read a box score in the newspaper for your school and wish you had could see how crazy the crowd got during that last touchdown drive? Wish no more. We’ve added images to our score reporting app, Pressbox.
So, what exactly does this mean? When a coach reports their game scores using Pressbox, they can attach photos to their recap, and they’ll automatically be sent to the school’s website, social media, and media contacts. Check it out:
For coaches, Pressbox has always been the quickest way to inform media partners and parents about the latest scores and recaps from the game, and adding an image is one step closer to having the entire community there.
For more information about adding an image to Pressbox, visit our Playbook for step-by-step instructions about adding a feature image to your Pressbox post.
Not a VNN customer yet? Why not schedule a demo with one of our local reps? Fill out the form at varsitynewsnetwork.com/schedule-demo and we’ll make it happen!
Website Best Practices: Three Major Marketing Tips for your Athletics Page
Because when you build it, they gotta come.
1. Set-Up a direct link to your athletic page from your school’s main website.
Schools that set up a direct link consistently get double the traffic in our network. For real.
Here’s Fishers High School out of Indiana– They had 78,000 pages views in August, and 52% of that number came from the little athletics link that you can barely make out on their school’s main site (it’s between guidance and activities/arts):
2. Promote your athletics page on your school’s main website.
Not sure if a mini-link on your school site is enough for you? Think bigger.
Belton (TX) brought in over 8,000 separate visits to their athletics site from their school site with this promo. Just think, if each visitor went to three pages each, that’s 24,000 page views right there.
3. Promote your Facebook Page – people sharing your articles makes a huge difference.
No matter what the blogs tell you about millenials, Facebook is still relevant. It was another secret to Belton (TX)‘s success in August.
Almost half of the Tigers’ articles were shared on Facebook more than 20 times. Other schools had more likes on their fan pages, but even with all those extra people, if they aren’t sharing, you aren’t winning.
The high school that completely transformed the game
Agua Fria High School set out on a mission to simplify the work of their Athletic Director, Ryan Ridenour. Using an entirely new system, they managed to turn their athletic website into a form of electronic journalism. With the help of their Journalism teacher, Chris Morris, students completely run VNN platforms themselves.
As told to Erika Arora
We decided to change the game. We created a Journalism class specifically designed for updating our sports teams and spreading the word through social media. Everything is student produced. The students use social media sites such as Twitter and Faceboo
k to connect the community to the players. We developed the plan so that we could spread our efforts across every event on campus, including student organizations, sports, and clubs. We shine light on those that have moved on to college and/or professional careers, as well as showcasing those that currently attend Agua Fria.
Each student or groups of students are assigned to different teams and departments, and together they work hard to knock out media for viewers. Students have their own professional Twitter accounts to promote articles and drive traffic to the website. Every article includes pictures and visual representations of the article to draw attention to our posts. We keep up-to-date with current athletes, as well as our alumni to ensure different kinds of content. Celebrating our athletes and their achievements is something we pride ourselves in.
The success we’ve gained through this system is completely due to our hard-working student body. We’ve tested out many strategies to see which ones work and which do not. Sending out three or four tweets about each new blog article helps drive viewers to our website by hitting them with information in the morning, afternoon, and evening. The students connect to the people that need to see it so they can spread the word to the community.
It’s student work and that’s what’s selling it. It’s done by their peers which makes it special. The kids feel like they are a part of the school even more, and it offers a sense of accomplishment when they see who read their articles.
Students love it and want to take the Journalism class. We have noticed students going to their advisors asking to get into the class the following semester. When this year’s seniors graduate, we don’t think it will be a problem filling their shoes because of the high demand we are currently seeing to help with our athletic department. Expanding on this idea, we have brainstormed a plan to separate tasks with year levels. Freshman could be in charge of Twitter posts, while Seniors would create the actual article content.
As the AD, I see these students glowing all over campus because people are reading what they have written. Seeing the student’s success is what drives this program forward.
Have a journalism class at your school and think a VNN athletics website might be a great way to get them engaged in real-life sports reporting? Schedule a demo with us at the link below – we’d love to make your school part of the network.
http://varsitynewsnetwork.com/schedule-demo/
Get ready for the 2015 Salt Bowl!
With over 1,000 schools using VNN sites, it’s awesome to see all the different traditions, rivalries, and big matches happening in our network. Going forward, we’re going to be spotlighting our favorites alongside the VNN content you’re already reading.
Starting off, we have Arkansas’ Benton High School and its annual early season showcase the Salt Bowl.
Started in 1999, the Salt Bowl is the annual Saline County rivalry between the Benton Panthers and cross-town rivals, the Bryant Hornets. There’s only 6 miles in between the schools, so it gets heated! The Hornets have had the upper hand in recent years winning 8 consecutive games.
Big drama last year– the game ended in a 14-14 tie, giving rise to this year’s theme, #Unfinished Business. This year’s game will be held at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, AR with a kick-off tonight at 7:30pm.
For more info on the game, or if you’d like to go – get tickets at the Salt Bowl website — Salt Bowl 2015
Want to get your school featured? Write us on Twitter – @varsitynewsnetwork
Inside VNN: Calling an audible
“Six schools bought in and rolled out our platform to their classrooms. It was working perfectly. And then, we started to grow — and everything broke.”
So how’d we make it?
Find out from Ryan, published in the Upstart Business Journal: http://upstart.bizjournals.com/resources/executive-forum/2015/07/28/why-tapping-into-consumer-behavior-is-better-than.html
Everything Support, Now on Playbook
Ever have a question about something you’re doing inside one of our products and just couldn’t seem to get past it before moving on?
Before, you’d have to call or email our support team – wait for a response, and put what you were doing on hold until it all got sorted out. And, depending on the issue, the time of the day, your schedule, school-wide events, or anything else that might come up, that quick five-minute website update you were working on just became a week.
With the release of VNN’s chat feature, our integrated training tools across the network, and our new webinar structure, we’ve given our support system a big boost so you can reach us anywhere if you want to.
But what if you just want to figure it out yourself?
That’s where Playbook comes in. With Playbook, we now have an online knowledgebase, chock-full of FAQs, written instructions, video tutorials, a customer question forum, and easy ways to search all of it.
Playbook is organized by VNN product – and is for both school-staffers and website admins, but also Alerts subscribers, parents, and athletes. We’ll be adding content for every group who touches VNN, including advertisers who sponsor a school on our network.
Topics on the site will be created in both a question/answer format, and specific tasks. Search the topic you need help with, and Playbook will show you the information you’re looking for. Or, pick the product you’re working in, and Playbook will return all the topics we currently have on file.
Found a bug or error on your site that needs to be fixed? Just fill out the form on Playbook, and a member of our support staff will get in touch, log it, and prioritize. There’s even a place to attach screenshots.
We’re excited about Playbook’s potential to help make your job easier. We’ll be continuing to add more content, videos, and learning from your feedback as our platform grows.
Before you kick the school year back into high-gear, make sure you check it out and add the site to your bookmarks.
https://varsitynewsnetwork.zendesk.com
Not a VNN customer yet? Why not schedule a demo with one of our local reps? Fill out the form at varsitynewsnetwork.com/schedule-demo and we’ll make it happen!
Check-in with Teammate
Introducing Teammate, our new user management tool.
Teammate gives our customers a new view into their athletic department by itemizing all coaches and subscribers in easy to read lists organized by team.
Once in the system, it’s as easy as one click to see all coaches and scorekeepers assigned to all teams.
Or, athletic directors can search by team, view everyone connected to the sport, and understand what their communication preferences are at a glance.
Teammate gives ADs one place to invite new coaches and subscribers to their community within Alerts and Pressbox, view previously sent invitations, review coach requests, approve them, and promote users already in the system who might have become coaches since signing-up.
If an AD wants to know who’s posting articles to their school’s website, Teammate gives them insight by itemizing the number of posts, and alerts sent next to the coach’s information.
As always, Teammate gives our Network the power to manage their department on any device.
Want to check it out? If you’re from a VNN school, sign-in here.
Interested in how to build a department of your own and see how our best ADs stay organized? Download the free Essential Athletic Director Checklist: http://varsitynewsnetwork.com/EssentialADChecklist
How I Work: James Marlow, Lugoff-Elgin High School
As the interim athletic director at Lugoff-Elgin High School in South Carolina, Coach James Marlow is aware that his tenure may ultimately be very short. But at the helm of Demon Athletics, he’ll be leaving the office much better than he found it, using his unique background in English, journalism, and coaching to steadily build LEHS into a digital powerhouse that focuses on community building, improved team promotion, and streamlined information.
as told to Romy Glazer
I wasn’t initially planning to be an AD. I started out as an an English teacher. At the time, I was working in another district, wanted to be closer to home, and ended up getting a job at one of Lugoff-Elgin’s middle schools. I’ve always loved football, and so while I was there, I always had one eye on the coaching openings so I could get back into the sport. Then, a softball position came open, so I interviewed. I figured that I had three years of previous experience, and it would be a good change to get my foot in the door. I went into the interview, and left hired with a coaching position on the football team! The Lord works in mysterious ways. It wasn’t until October that I was called into the AD’s office, and was asked to be the head coach of the softball team, too. And I thought I was getting a raise! Kidding aside, it’s my 5th year there, 22-5, and it’s a passion of mine. We’re building ourselves up, and that’s great.
As time went on, I became the assistant AD. At our school, the head football coach and athletic director are the same position, and when our head coach stepped out, I got the opportunity to step in. Accountability, hiring and for some reason, the unglamorous things you have to do in the job really have become my favorite parts. With that said, technology was important to me – things I could good do well based on my experience in the English department; instant information, instant community organization. That became a huge focus of mine. Getting the community involved was number one. We’ve got a great school, great kids, and making sure everyone knows what’s happening here at LEHS makes a big difference.
Where we started, information was going in every different direction you could imagine. We had one website, and 20+ pages on Facebook and Twitter. With so many places to go, it was so hard to make sure things were accurate. I understand the power of journalism and its ability to get everyone rallied around our activities at the school, but we just needed one place where everyone could go to find the official accurate information. That’s why we created the Demon Athletics website. We’re still in the foundational phase right now, because as with any new initiative, it takes time to build. The trick was to also make sure that we leveraged the communities that have already shown that they care about us. It’s a balance.
I would be lying to tell you that it’s easy to get everybody to buy into the new initiatives we’re working on, especially consolidating our communication. In general, club promotion is a new concept at our school, and before, no one really had the opportunity to do it. For now, I have to bombard my team with information, but it’s OK. Lots of them forget, and can you blame them? We’re all busy people, but the ones who have jumped on board from the beginning are getting attention. Our audience wants information, and the 14,000 page views per month without a full team drives it home to the others that they need to get on board. The numbers speak for themselves.
We’re out in the country. Couple stoplights, couple restaurants, very tight-knit. Our programs are the activity in town, and having the opportunity to set the stage for to the community to rally behind what we’re doing is really special. It’s not a task I take lightly. With our AD and head football coach a combined role, I’ll be sunsetting in this position as soon as we hire someone. I knew that when I started. It might be a short tenure, but in the meantime, I want to make sure our school is pointed in the right direction with a platform they can really to grow from. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that people love to see their kids names published, even if it’s just the results of the ballgame. The fact that you as the coach care enough to champion your team on your personal time gives them a sense of pride and loyalty to what they’re doing. If you show that you’re willing to take the time, you will attract an audience. And it helps elsewhere, including fundraising, attendance and a better culture at your school. Invest 45 minutes to round up info, get it online, and reap those benefits. Promote it, and they will come. I sound so Field of Dreams! But you know, Kevin Costner, right? It’s true.
For more information and to see photos of Coach Marlow’s teams at Lugoff-Elgin Athletics, check out their website: http://demonactivities.com
For more tips on how to build a department of your own, with month-by-month steps to keep you organized, download the free Essential Athletic Director Checklist: http://varsitynewsnetwork.com/EssentialADChecklist
Auto-Post Your Week
We get a lot of email through varsitynewsnetwork.com. Resetting passwords, questions about Pressbox, scheduling demos, it’s all in a day’s work here at VNN. But on occasion, we get a message that not only shows us how awesome our customers are, but also gives us a great way to make our website better for everyone.
This time, it was from Jeff Gibbins at Horry County Schools and Socastee High in South Carolina, who pulled together an weekly update and weather report that posts on their site. It’s a pretty handy plug-in to help planning out your week, and the weather add-on is even better to have during Spring sports when there’s always a chance for rain.
His app got us thinking – could we automate it for everyone? Well, thanks to our integrations with leading schedulers in the industry, figured that it would be easy enough to automatically post the events coming up that week. We created it, tacked on Jeff’s awesome weather report, and now can boast a weekly auto-post feature rolling out this week to the rest of our customers across the network. All they need to do is log-in, click a button, and it’s done. Scroll down to see what it’ll look like, as well as the rest of the bells and whistles our dev team added. Thanks Jeff! You rock.
Curious about other tips to help you work smarter? We’ve interviewed several athletic directors about how they work. Find the whole series under our “How I Work” tag – varsitynewsnetwork.com/blog/tag/how-i-work/
Not a VNN customer yet? Why not schedule a demo with one of our local reps? Fill out the form at varsitynewsnetwork.com/schedule-demo and we’ll make it happen!
Now integrating with OSAA
We’re pleased to announce an integration partnership with our friends in Oregon, the OSAA.
For those of you unfamiliar, schools in Oregon need to submit their schedules to the OSAA to be in compliance with league rules. This integration is going to make it a whole lot easier for our friends in the Pacific Northwest to have a rad school website that stays current, simply by syncing up with the tasks they already need to do.
Member of the OSAA and not a VNN customer yet? Why not schedule a demo with our local rep who lives in Portland? Fill out the form at varsitynewsnetwork.com/schedule-demo and we’ll make it happen!