One of the things I love about the fall is not only the pumpkin spice latte that is offered at Starbucks (coffee is a major food group), but also college football.
Going to three schools where football was pretty dominate (Florida, SC, and Tennessee) and now at Louisville, it is just one of the main things we can enjoy being on a college campus. It’s a great sport and wonderful opportunity to show school spirit, pride, and loyalty to your team.
However, we can look at some of the lessons from college football now and apply them for social media practices. In life, you can observe and look at other industries to get inspiration from and be able to apply it to your own practices and perspectives.
- You can’t always be perfect: Teams lose games – there has to be a winner in a match for sure and it is really difficult to win all of the time. That’s what makes us human, so we have to be aware that we have to do our best and there are times where the planets are aligned and it doesn’t work out. If you want some cases to look at, look at the upsets from this weekend in the football. The point you have to consider here with this is not only how you deal with the loss at the moment, but what you do afterwords is what counts. This can be applied for PR mistakes or crisis situations – your actions after this happens really does tell a lot about your character (which is the next point).
- Your actions define your character and personal persona: Players and teams have personas – how we engage and interact with others on the field and off the field is present and defines how we are portrayed among our audiences (in case the fans for football). Look at how Louisville QB Teddy Bridgewater is compared and talked compared to Johnny Maziel from Texas A&M? Two different people and players – and their personas are quite the opposite.
- Teams (or companies) have to moving forward after dealing with challenges: If you want a team to look at here as well, check out USC. They fired Lane Kiffin a few weeks ago, and they have had to redefine what they stand for and the Trojan mindset. It’s been interesting to see how they have done this, but you can see it clearly on their Instagram account. Same goes with PR and social media. Companies have lost leaders whether they were fired or not, so the new leadership has to reestablish the culture and vision for others to follow and believe in again. How you engage with your communities, clients, and fellow colleagues does contribute to how you are perceived and your own persona brand. It’s not just about what you know, but how you behave and interact with others that also needs to be part of the equation.
- People are going to love [or hate] you because of who you are, no matter what: This is true in life, both in football as well as other sports. This was probably one of the main lessons I learned as a track and field athlete. In PR and social, this is the case as well. Whether it is bloggers and fans who go online to blast a team’s performance at a game (similar to what we have seen this past weekend’s matches) or troll on social media platforms for brands – there are always going to be these people who will not like you because of what you stand for. On the flip side, there are going to be those that love you and who are loyal to you as well. Embrace them, engage in conversations, and form these proactive relationships. This is one of the great things that happens both in life and in athletics – these people are your biggest supporters and will stand by you.
In summary, I think there is a lot we can learn from college football and apply it towards PR and social media practices. There are going to be teams that will succeed this year and there will be those that will be marked with challenges. In order to succeed, you have to put forth the time and effort to accomplish these goals for your team, community, and university.
In many ways, some of the best lessons I learned that have helped me become the person and professional I am today was from athletics and competing in track and field. Hard work ethic, handling challenges and obstacles, and looking at how I present myself online and offline were just some of the things I learned as a student-athlete.
Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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