Everyone from LSU football coach Les Miles to Mike the Tiger has a social networking account these days.
Having a social media account has become more the norm than the exception, and LSU’s Sports Information Department has been getting into the action.
A new social media campaign has been launched during the last six months to keep up with the changing times.
Every varsity sport at LSU now has some sort of social networking account, and pictures, schedules, in-game updates and anything else of note gets posted.
Jesse Delerno, a student assistant sports information director, said the social media push has allowed the teams to connect informally with fans.
The sports information directors have Flip cameras they use for every sport to film interviews, workouts and any fun events the teams have.
The response from the athletes and coaches has been mostly positive.
“Most of the athletes are excited about it. You do have some that are more camera shy than others,” Delerno said. “They like that it’s very interactive.”
The swimming and diving teams, for example, plan to eventually take cameras underwater and film. Junior soccer goalkeeper Mo Isom has been challenging athletic figures on LSU’s campus to games — like women’s basketball coach Van Chancellor to a game of H-O-R-S-E.
Social media also allows parents of international athletes to see what their student-athletes have been doing.
“It’s great for the parents who aren’t able to come and see their kids perform on a regular basis,” Delerno said. “They get to watch these videos and keep up with what’s going on with the team. … We get a lot of nice feedback from them.”
The coaches have gotten involved as well. Miles, men’s basketball coach Trent Johnson and assistant women’s basketball coach Bob Starkey post frequently to Twitter.
Associate Sports Information Director Jake Terry said each coach is different in social media use. Some coaches hardly post, and others use it all the time.
Coaches with teams in the offseason tend to use the accounts more.
“Coach Johnson uses his almost every day,” Terry said. “Coach Starkey … he’s a tweeting machine.”
Terry said having the coaches interact one-on-one with fans with something like Twitter makes them seem more approachable.
It’s hard to get an accurate account of how effective social media has been so far, Terry said. But he thinks the Athletic Department could see results in the future.
“I think it’s definitely possible that you could see people, whether it’s students or whoever, could come out to the events due to awareness from social media,” Terry said.
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Contact Katherine Terrell at [email protected]