[September 29th, 2015 - Cale's office, Kansas City, MO (4:31 PM)]
I've never been a big social media guy; I have a personal Facebook account for family and friends, and to post personal thoughts from time to time. I also don't have Twitter or Instagram because I haven't had a need for them. Aislin caught wind of this recently, and has been hounding me for the past few days to sign up for both of them.
"You've been coaching for the last handful of years, and you don't have a Twitter or Instagram account?" She questioned, laughing a little. "I'm not a coach, and even I know that part of recruiting student-athletes is putting yourself out there! I mean, is there even an official account for the program?"
Coming from a junior college, I've never felt the need to have social media accounts since players really come to you, instead of the other way around. I also never was one to self-promote, as I've always tried to deflect credit and take more blame.
She made some good points, and had research to back it up. One of her student "underlings" polled a hundred random upperclass students, and only 10% knew there was an official men's basketball Twitter account. Of those same students, only twenty-four had attended more than half of the team's home games in the last season. Additionally, out of the hundred students polled, eighty-six had a Twitter account, and seventy-five of them were interested in following a Coach Jefferson-linked account, provided I signed up for one.
For Instagram, she said that photos of players and coaches at university-sponsored functions; and even while on the road, having a good time was also something that could boost traffic and interest in the program, which could in turn increase attendance and revenue.
"Attendance is always going to be an issue here," I said flatly. "There isn't an on-campus arena and even when this program is at its best, you might draw four, maybe five thousand people for a big conference game."
"Right, but people are drawn to other people that are out there and have a social media presence," she retorted. "It's human nature to be drawn to strong personalities. You're a young, tall, driven guy that can play well with a lot of different demographics. I know you're the strong, silent type, but you can shape how the general public perceives you in the media through these avenues. You don't have to change who you are." Okay, I'm listening.
"We may not be able to influence the general population's attendance too much at this point, but it looks like promoting the program to the students has been lacking in recent years based on what I've seen," she added. "Even though they get discounted or even free admission, they largely don't attend or even really care. That's a problem." She now had my interest piqued, since student attendance has also always been a problem, but seemed to be the more solvable problem at this point.
"It all sounds good on paper, but how am I going to have time to update this thing?" I asked. "I don't have either one, but I do read them from time to time, and some of the graphics and marketing stuff on there is just incredible. I can't Photoshop, or whatever you call it."
Aislin chuckled before going on. "You don't need to do anything except approve anything that goes out on it," she said. "I wouldn't put anything out there you didn't approve of. Just because the account will have your name attached to it, doesn't mean that you have to control it all the time. I have someone that is a graphics wizard that can make it look good."
"Fair enough," I said. "If you indeed have someone that can work Photoshop and make the page look nice and clean, professional, I'm on board. Just remember to clear anything with me first."