Fundraising: How to Grow Your Following Using Social Media and the Fan App
Do you know the saying “time is money”? Well, unfortunately, money also takes time. In 2021, coaches and athletic directors listed fundraising and time as one of their top ten concerns for the year. Fundraising can be dreadful, especially if it’s not in your wheelhouse. How schools fundraise money and the amount of money and time available alters the school’s ability to produce well-developed student-athletes. There are a lot of factors influencing fundraising efforts in today’s sports market. Traditionally, high school athletic programs were limited to generating revenue based on sponsorships using in-venue stand-alone signs and ticket sales. Now, schools have the chance to grow their fan base beyond the confines of the stadium or arena.
Our latest software update released a new tool developed for ScoreVision users, adding another layer to the out-of-venue experience; the new feature is our automated score announcements. Automated announcements pull scores from the game within the cloud and generate graphics with the score, school brand, and sponsor logos. It then sends the update to fans on SV Fan App and Twitter. Schools can send out announcements manually from the sky-box or have them scheduled for each quarter, inning, or half-time. Schools can also download and send the graphics through other social media channels.
But it’s not just our automated announcement feature benefiting our ScoreVision schools. Our SV Capture product also unlocks potential opportunities as videos continue to captivate a wide range of fans on social media platforms.
Video highlights taken from up in the pressbox aren’t the trending videos you see on Tik Tok and Instagram; it’s the up close and personal stellar moments the fans want to see. Indoor arenas may be able to capture this footage with camera equipment, but cameras can be expensive, and so can videographers.
SV Capture takes a standard mobile device and turns it into a simple-to-use video solution for both in- and out-of-venue experiences. The simple technology offers two different video modes, moment and play action. Play action gives you a 2-minute recording in the present, while the moment ensures you never miss a moment with a ten-second rewind. After capturing the clip, you have two options extended to you for distribution. Either post on the SV Fan App or send the video clip to the producer app to display on the video board. In addition to immediate distribution, the highlights save to the cloud so you can download them at any time and share them on social media. You’re probably asking how this impacts your sponsors. I can summarize the impact in one word, followers. Unfortunately, the thing we dread the most also requires us to pay attention to the taboo topic concerning social media followers.
Recently an article published by Athletic Director University shared information about the direct correlation between social media and revenue in athletics at the NCAA Division-I level. They reported that the average program receives $486 per follower. Programs average nearly 200,000 followers across all social media platforms. That’s an additional 200,000 supporters of their program, which directly correlates to ticket sales, merchandising, donor opportunities, and sponsors. At the high school level, engaging content has the power to generate more support from prospective athletes in the area, their families, former athletes, and others within the community. It’s an unavoidable tool in today’s sports market. High schools can no longer sit idle on social media.
ScoreVision continues to develop solutions for schools to generate revenue and grow their sponsorship programs. Our tools offer an in- and out-of-venue experience to increase engagement without hiring a third-party service provider or spending valuable time generating graphics to update fans. Our simple solutions create opportunities for coaches and athletic directors to focus their attention on what matters, athlete development.
Source: Athletic Director University: College Athletics Individual Social Media Rankings
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