So the results are in from our informal survey of Who owns New Media in your College Athletics Program? Leading the way are:

1. Media Relations Departments

2. Marketing

3. AD of Communications

So how is this working for your organization? Do you have a global communications strategy of which social media is a piece or do you even have a social media strategy? As communicators and marketers, we all hate to be reactive but without a strategy, you can find yourself in reactive mode really fast when it comes to social media programs.

Here are some Strategic Questions for Social Media programs:

• What are my outcomes/goals for social media?
• How am I measuring these outcomes/goals?
• Am I just monitoring my own social media or do I have a good process for monitoring it all?
• What are the messages I need to get across, am I messaging the brand and goals of the university and athletic department at all?
• If marketing has the lead? Does your social media have synergy with your other marketing tools? Are you utilizing it around the 4Es of marketing as described by Christopher Graves of Ogilvy PR (Experience, Everyplace, Exchange, Evangelism). Experience is especially important for college athletics.
• Is social media a dominate tool in your communications basket? Have you lost site of other communications tools? Does it link back to other communication vehicles?
• Does the team leading your social media have on a global hat with a global vision/view?