Social Media Best Practices
Show people that you deliver professional online results. Let them know about significant meet events. Here's our recommendation for making the most out of social media with AthleticLIVE.
We'll cover two of the most popular social networks in this article: Twitter and Facebook. The general concepts listed here could be applied in creative ways to other platforms like Snapchat, Pinterest, Google+, and more.
Prerequisites
Create social media accounts
If you don't already have a Twitter or Facebook account, create one! It's the best way to interact with people participating in or viewing your meet.
Before the meet
Find or create a Meet Hashtag (e.g. #2017states)
It's important to categorize all of your content with a succinct hashtag that describes your meet. If a person searches by that hashtag, they'll see all of the content you've created next to content other curators have posted.
Often, sites like MileSplit, Athletic.net, or Runnerspace have already created custom hashtags for a meet. Leverage those hashtags to keep all meet posts together.
Post about Performance Lists and Heat Sheets
After a performance list and/or heat sheet has been uploaded to a meet, post and Tweet and Facebook Post with a link to the main meet page.
Don't forget to use the correct hashtag. At-mention 2-3 schools or coaches attending your meet. They may retweet or repost your content.
During the meet
Post about the start of the meet
After the first couple results have been posted, make a post to say that results are now available.
Post about each winner
AthleticLIVE provides a Post Template for the winner of each event. Feel free to copy these posts and modify them to meet your needs. They are for Tweets, but can also be used for Facebook posts.
They work especially well when paired with an @-mention of the relevant school or athlete.
This is a great tool for championships and large invites. Leverage social media be one of the first to let people know about the important events you time.
Post whenever a record is broken
Everyone loves a new record! Make a post whenever a new record is broken. Link to the event or athlete and drive more traffic to your results.
After the meet
Post team scores
Post the top 3 teams in each event. @-mention the team's Twitter account.
Final post with results
End the night with a final link to AthleticLIVE results.
