GEORGIA TECH BASEBALL

DRIVING SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT

Executive Summary

GEORGIA TECH BASEBALL

DRIVING SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT

The Georgia Tech Baseball program is currently experiencing issues in engaging the undergraduate
student population at Georgia Tech. These issues manifest themselves in low followership on social
media, low social media engagement rates, and, ultimately, low student attendance at home games.
Based on the results of extensive primary and secondary research, data scraping, and analysis, a 3pronged brand ambassador program has been determined to be the most effective solution to the
aforementioned problems. The three types of ambassadors within the program are current Georgia
Tech student athlete ambassadors, alumni athlete ambassadors, and student organization
ambassadors. The brand ambassador program will focus on engaging and encouraging conversation
with and among Georgia Tech undergraduates. These three categories of ambassadors, with their
respective networks and differing ways in which to effectively engage the student body, will provide
Georgia Tech baseball with increased avenues to not only communicate effectively, but to also begin
fostering relationships with current students that will drive boosterism and engagement. With
minimal monetary and time costs to the Georgia Tech Athletic Association (GTAA), brand
ambassadors can provide material value-add with minimal oversight and future innovation required.
This program, if implemented successfully, is expected to increase the proportion of current students
following official Georgia Tech Baseball accounts to 40%, increase social media engagement rates by
50% and increase undergraduate student attendance at games by 20%.

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Table of Contents
Introduction

Research Methodology

Brand Ambassadors

Projected Impact

Conclusion

10

References

11

Appendix

12

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Introduction
Baseball is one of Georgia Techs most successful sports programs. However, this sport has a very
small audience that attends home games. The key to bridging the gap between the success of the
sport and the low attendance is introducing a brand ambassador program which will revamp the
Georgia Tech Athletic Associations social media strategy for its baseball accounts. According to 2015
home baseball game attendance statistics published by the NCAA, Georgia Tech ranks 46th for
average attendance at home games, far behind attendance numbers for schools with similarly
successful Division 1 baseball programs (see Appendix 1).
Brand ambassadors will create a vested interest in the success of the baseball team among social
media followers by developing a relationship between the followers and the athletes on the team.
This, in turn, will lead to more interest from the student body to connect with the baseball team both
through attending the games and engaging online. Implemented as part of a social media strategy,
brand ambassadors will effectively provide the perfect opportunity for students to engage with the
baseball team (MainPath). Jos van Dijck, author of The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of
Social Media, asserts that platforms such as Facebook and Twitter facilitate users desire to make
connections and exchange self-generated content. The rise of social media indicates that interaction
and connectivity are highly valued to the average user.
Connectivity and interconnectivity in social media add significant value to the effectiveness of a
brand ambassador social media program. Once a user engages in a social media platform, they
become instantly connected to a hub of other users, be it friends, family, colleagues, or even just
people who share similar interests, such as fans of a sports team. Each of these connections is also
connected to a hub of other users, leading to a massive network, thus showing the power of social
media. This connectivity is further strengthened by the interconnectivity of social media platforms.
For example, a single Instagram post can be simultaneously shared to Facebook and tweeted on
Twitter. This interconnectivity allows for enormous levels of traffic to be circulated between different
social media sites at an incredible pace (Hesdin). However, this potential for reaching many viewers
and circulating content can only be achieved through interaction on social media. Users who simply
scroll through their social media feed that do not contribute do not expand viewership. Thus,
interaction with the users and creating a conversation is very important. The Georgia Tech Athletic
Association can leverage these concepts of interaction, connectivity, and interconnectivity to more
effectively target and engage the Georgia Tech student body by introducing brand ambassadors.

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The remainder of this report will further explain the research used to substantiate claims regarding
the current state of Georgia Tech Baseballs social media strategy, the brand ambassador program,
and its projected impact.

Research Methodology

Both primary and secondary sources were used to collect information used in this report. The
secondary sources used include scholarly articles, published reports, and web articles surrounding
the topics of social media engagement, interconnectivity, and brand ambassadors. The primary
sources of information include surveys of attendees at Georgia Tech home baseball games and pulling
data through the analysis of official social media accounts for Georgia Tech baseball, comparable ACC
baseball programs, and potential brand ambassadors.
Conducting primary research by surveying attendees at baseball games showed that most attendees
are family and friends of the athletes on the Georgia Tech Baseball team, or in other words, people
with relations to the athletes and with vested interests in the baseball teams success. There were a
minimal amount of students in attendance, all of whom claimed to be there for free t-shirts and
giveaways. Georgia Tech students made up approximately 7% of attendees. In addition, of all
attendants surveyed, only 18.18% followed Georgia Tech Baseball on any social media site. From this
survey, it is clear that there is significant room for improvement in increasing student attendance at
baseball games as well as followership on social media.
Analyzing the social media accounts for the Georgia Tech Baseball team showed that the Twitter
account had the most followers at 15,100, while the Facebook and Instagram accounts had 8,104 and
4,461 followers respectively. Looking at schools with similar baseball programs and normalizing for
the amount of followers they had on their social media site relative to Georgia Techs undergraduate
student body population, it is clear that other schools have a much larger social media follower base.
These results are outlined in the table below:

Twitter Facebook Instagram

Georgia Tech

15100

8104

4461

Florida State University 19829.7

12641.1

4678.9

Clemson University

34365.7

--*

24243.2

University of Miami

30736.7

39197.2

23313.0
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*Clemson University does not have an official Facebook page dedicated to its baseball team

Analyzing the current Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram sites of the baseball teams at Georgia Tech,
Clemson University, Florida State University, and the University of Miami lends the following chart of
engagement.

As seen by this chart, Georgia Techs social media engagement is outperformed by other schools
engagement in nearly all social media sites. Nevertheless, the material difference between other
schools and Georgia Tech is not in the rate of engagement but rather in the volume of followers.
The correlation between social media followership, social media engagement, and attendance is
demonstrated through the table below. Social media followership was observed through the stated
number of followers on each official social media account. Social media engagement was calculated
by averaging the number of likes, shares/retweets, and comments on the 25 most recent posts on each
social media site of the baseball teams (see appendix 3). The data pulled has been normalized to
account for Georgia Techs undergraduate student body size and each number has been adjusted
accordingly.

Adjusted Followership
Twitte Faceboo
Instagra
r
k
m
Georgia Tech

15100

8104

4461

Twitte
r
0.195
%

Engagement
Faceboo
Instagra
k
m
1.157%

5.374%

Adjusted
Attendanc
e

Attendanc
e
Multiplier

1459

1.00

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Florida State Univ.

19830

12641

4679

Clemson University

34366

--

24243

University of Miami

30737

39197

23313

0.168
%
0.193
%
0.205
%

0.919%

6.522%

1906

1.31

--

6.602%

3616

2.48

2.510%

6.567%

3417

2.38

It can be clearly seen that Clemson University and the University of Miami would have the highest
number of followers, high engagement rates, and also more than twice the number of attendees at
home baseball games if they had the same student body size as Georgia Tech. This provides
additional evidence that social media followership and engagement both impact attendance. As such,
student attendance at Georgia Tech Baseballs home games is likely to be positively correlated with
the reach and ability to engage of their social media strategy.

Brand Ambassadors
A brand ambassador is a person that represents an organization or company in such a way as to cast
the brand in a positive light. By doing so, they help to increase brand awareness. Ideally, the brand
ambassador is meant to embody the identity of the brand in appearance, demeanor, values and
ethics. For the purpose of increasing engagement on social media for the Georgia Tech Baseball team
and increasing student attendance at home games, three areas to recruit possible brand ambassadors
have been chosen: current players on the Georgia Tech Baseball team, former Georgia Tech Baseball
players that are playing professionally, and from within student organizations on campus.

Current Georgia Tech Baseball Players

Current players on the Georgia Tech Baseball team would be used to help encourage more
engagement on social media among their classmates and peers. Three to four players would be asked
to provide a behind-the-scenes look of what it is like to be a student-athlete at Georgia Tech. It is
important to have the players not only post about baseball happenings, but also give viewers of their
posts a glimpse into their personal lives. The main goal is to create dialogue between the athletes and
their fellow peers and describe what it is like to be a Georgia Tech baseball player. This dialog will not
only give insights to happenings within the baseball program daily or weekly, but will engage peers
by talking about school and other personal interests. The aim is for the players to cultivate friendships
with peers thus creating a vested interest in the student-athletes among their peers and increase social
media engagement and, more importantly, game attendance by their fellow students.
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Former Georgia Tech Baseball Players Playing Professionally
This group of brand ambassadors would facilitate in raising brand awareness for the Georgia Tech
Baseball team by using their social media accounts to help promote the Georgia Tech Baseball
program. Their network would include their own friends, players that are currently still in school
playing for Georgia Tech, and possibly any professors that they may have developed a relationship
with while in school that follow them on social media. Posting pictures or videos of the athlete
wearing Georgia Tech gear, wishing the team good luck on an upcoming game or series, or any post
about fond memories they may have had at Georgia Tech, are some of the ways that would help
promote the Georgia Tech Baseball program. This group could potentially be a great way to promote
Georgia Tech Baseball due to the fact that as their careers flourish and they travel around the country
and meet new people, their network of friends grows and will provide the Georgia Tech Baseball
program more visibility and awareness among social media followers.

Student Organizations on Campus

Recruiting brand ambassadors within student organizations on campus would be a great way to
penetrate the student body. At a school like Georgia Tech, the undergraduate student body is highly
concentrated in student organizations such as Greek chapters, academic clubs, and service
organizations. Students communicate within these groups, through both social media and personal
interactions, and a relatively high rate. As such, gaining direct communication to these groups
through the use of an athletic liaison of sorts provides substantial opportunity to raise awareness
and engage students regarding Georgia Tech baseball. The brand ambassadors within these
organizations would be asked to keep their organization informed about the Georgia Tech Baseball
team through social media posts and talk among their peers. Nearly all Greek organizations on
Georgia Techs campus already have a student that acts as a liaison to the Football program as it
relates to stadium seating and various events. As such, extending the role of students in this position
to include keeping their organization and social media network informed of upcoming Baseball
games and events would be a simple, non-intrusive value-add for GTAA. Additionally, targeted
emails could be sent out to each organizations ambassador based upon the type of organization and
when they meet. For example, if the organization meets socially every Monday night, sending them
an email the night before encouraging them to come out the home Baseball game after their meeting
would be an easy and effective way to encourage attendance and keep the student ambassador
engaged.
Additionally, these student organization ambassadors could be used collectively to encourage interorganizational competitions to further increase awareness of the Baseball program. An example of
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this would be to recruit a number of student organizations such as fraternities or sororities, and have
them compete in a contest against each other. Each organization could pick, or be assigned, a specific
Georgia Tech baseball player. Organizations would be asked to set up a campaign to make their
player the most popular among the student body. The organizations would be asked to create a
campaign to run throughout the season to promote their player on campus and through social media
accounts and the Georgia Tech baseball social media accounts. The culmination of the campaign
could be a Student Organization Night at a game where they all come out and make signs and
shirts to show support for their chosen player and the Georgia Tech baseball team. The winner of the
contest could be awarded t-shirts or some other prize for their contribution to promoting Georgia
Tech baseball. A campaign like this would certainly increase the number of followers of Georgia Tech
baseballs social media accounts, and would potentially lead to an increased number of students
attending games as it again creates an interest in a particular player and the Georgia Tech baseball
team.

Projected Impact
Aristotle once argued that the whole is worth more than the sum of its parts. As it relates to
implementation of a Brand Ambassador program within Georgia Tech Athletics, significant synergies
may be achieved through the collective efforts of the three categories of ambassadors discussed
above. Since the ultimate goal is to facilitate engagement with current students across social media
platforms, the efforts of each category of brand ambassador should complement one another and add
additional value. For example, consider a home game versus the University of Georgia. Current
players post to social media regarding the upcoming game and tag both a student and alumni
ambassador. Suddenly, a single post now finds itself across three different social media profiles. This
provides an opportunity for the respective networks of each ambassador to share the post, like the
post, or even comment. Conversation is then initiated between the ambassadors, eventually
encouraging other players, organizations, and alumni to contribute to the dialogue. As more Yellow
Jackets contribute, word spreads quicker, and awareness and hype for the upcoming game builds.
Additionally, as mentioned above, with the players acting as sponsors to various student
organizations, competitions that are held between the different organizations increases the connection
between the student body and the players. As shown from our initial data, baseball attendance is
driven largely by relationships; developing these, however small, can provide material incentive for
students to come out and see players who they now associate themselves with socially. Additionally,
the synergies from these ambassadors hold the potential to foster boosterism among students. Free
gear is a material incentive to attract students to a single game, but building relationships between
current players, alumni playing professionally, and current students can create allies throughout the
undergraduate body that can drive long-term awareness and, ultimately, attendance. Even as an
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initial impact, the coupling of these three groups of ambassadors will quickly heighten awareness of
GTAAs official social media accounts. Polling from the current undergraduate body indicated that
only 21.5% of students are aware or even passive followers of Georgia Tech athletics on social media.
Seeing their connections (i.e. the ambassadors) tagging these accounts will instantly increase
awareness and followership among current students.
Benchmarks considered to be achievable through successful implementation of a Brand Ambassador
program would include increasing student followership of GTAA social media accounts to above 40%
of the current undergraduate body, increasing student engagement on social media posts by GTAA
accounts (as defined above) by at least 50%, and, ultimately, increasing undergraduate attendance at
home games by 20%. The GTAA social media followership benchmark of 40% is derived by estimates
of both initial and long-term gains created by ambassadors tagging the various pages within their
networks. Increases in student engagement, one of the key products of the initiatives discussed above,
is based upon expected gains from developing a social media model that centers upon facilitating
dialogue throughout GTAAs network of followers. As such, a 50% increase over current engagement
levels would be wholly justifiable, both from a raw increase in followership as well as heightened
levels of boosterism and engagement within students. Lastly, the increase in home game attendance
by undergraduate students of 20% is an estimation of gains from relationship-building with current
players, increasing general awareness, as well as creating incentives for student groups to attend
games.

Conclusion
As highlighted in the data above, Georgia Tech Athletics social media presence lags behind
comparable schools in both reach and engagement. As a potential solution to address these issues,
Brand Ambassadors from the current player, alumni player, and student organization bases can
provide avenues through which to effectively engage undergraduates and foster relationships that
will ultimately lead to increased boosterism and attendance at home games. The three groups of
ambassadors would work in parallel to leverage the reach and effectiveness of their respective social
media presences to initiate conversations with students that both engage and call to action.
Guidelines for each of these categories, as standardized in a sort of operating manual for each
category of ambassador, will serve to maintain continuity, professionalism, and best practices across a
re-engineered social media strategy for Georgia Tech Athletics. As a direct result of successful
implementation of these initiatives, the following can be achieved: an increase in student followership
of GTAA social media accounts to above 40% of the current undergraduate body, a 50% increase in
engagement rates across primary social media platforms, and, ultimately, a 20% increase in home
game attendance by undergraduate students. As highlighted throughout this proposal, successful
engagement through social media centers upon initiating and sustaining a conversation with, and
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among, a target audience. With that in mind, we believe the Brand Ambassadors discussed above will
provide access points to initiate engaging and sustainable conversation with undergraduate students
that will create, throughout the student body, boosterism and relationships with current athletes that
will bring Georgia Tech's level of athletic engagement closer to that of its biggest ACC rivals.

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References
Baseball Attendance Records. Rep. NCAA. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
<http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/baseball_RB/2016/Attend.pdf>.
Hesdin, Farah. "The Interconnectivity of Social Media." Techxb. 23 Apr. 2013. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
<http://techxb.com/the-interconnectivity-of-social-media>.
MainPath. "The Importance of Interconnectivity in Digital Marketing." MainPath Marketing. 15 Sept.
2015. Web. 24 Apr. 2016. <http://mainpath.com/the-importance-of-interconnectivity-indigitalmarketing/>.
Van Dijck, Jose. "Social Media and the Culture of Connectivity." OUPblog. 25 Feb. 2013. Web. 24 Apr.
2016. <http://blog.oup.com/2013/02/social-media-culture-connectivity/>.
Primary Research conducted through analyzing:
Georgia Tech Baseball Social Media Sites:
https://twitter.com/GTBaseball
https://www.facebook.com/gtbaseball
https://www.instagram.com/gt_baseball/
Florida State University Baseball Social Media Sites:
https://twitter.com/FSUBaseball
https://www.facebook.com/FSUBaseball/
https://www.instagram.com/nolebaseball/
Clemson University Baseball Social Media Sites:
https://twitter.com/ClemsonBaseball
https://www.instagram.com/clemsonbaseball/
University of Miami Baseball Social Media Sites:
https://twitter.com/CanesBaseball
https://www.facebook.com/TheUBaseball/
https://www.instagram.com/canesbaseball/
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Appendix
1A: 2015 Baseball Home Game Attendance
Team

Dates

Total

Avg.

LSU

39 421,771

10,815

Arkansas

33 273,605

8,291

Ole Miss

26 208,362

8,014

Mississippi St.

31 230,918

7,449

South Carolina

34 250,057

7,355

Texas

23 127,802

5,557

Texas A&M

41 199,119

4,857

Florida St.

37 158,284

4,278

Clemson

28 119,023

4,251

TCU

36 147,335

4,093

La.-Lafayette

26 101,626

3,909

Nebraska

27 105,406

3,904

Texas Tech

27

98,969

3,666

Virginia

23

83,825

3,645

Florida

39 138,441

3,550

Hawaii

29

95,048

3,278

Creighton

28

87,226

3,115

Vanderbilt

33 102,022

3,092

Arizona St.

36 108,510

3,014

Alabama

31

93,047

3,002

Rice

29

84,187

2,903

Oregon St.

28

80,054

2,859

Wichita St.

32

90,907

2,841

Auburn

34

94,834

2,789

Southern Miss.

28

75,847

2,709

Arizona

36

95,946

2,665

Miami (FL)

41 109,256

2,665
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Kansas St.

25

65,766

2,631

Louisville

33

81,205

2,461

Baylor

28

65,631

2,344

East Carolina

33

74,388

2,254

Indiana

25

55,185

2,207

Georgia

29

63,903

2,204

Kentucky

23

47,551

2,067

Tulane

30

61,782

2,059

Cal St. Fullerton

29

57,951

1,998

Tennessee

24

45,004

1,875

Houston

32

58,648

1,833

Missouri St.

22

38,800

1,764

North Carolina

29

50,075

1,727

Illinois

28

48,207

1,722

Stanford

31

49,648

1,602

Oregon

31

48,833

1,575

West Virginia

22

33,158

1,507

South Ala.

28

42,147

1,505

Georgia Tech

26

37,937

1,459

Oklahoma St.

27

38,384

1,422

Fresno St.

27

38,305

1,419

Texas St.

26

36,565

1,406

Liberty

28

39,334

1,405

Average

30

99,197

3,220

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2: Polling Results from Georgia Tech Home Game (Sample Size: 50)
2A: Why do you attend Georgia Tech Baseball games?

2B: How did you find out about todays game?

29%

36%

Family/Friends
Email
Social Media
Team website

14%
21%

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