It’s an exciting time to be a fan of the Temple Owls. They have a basketball team that has made a habit of going to the NCAA Tournament most years and a football team that is playing in the Big East football conference for the first time this season. Now fans have a new way to follow their favorite team and get rewarded for doing so.
Temple Athletics announced last Friday that they are partnering with Lodestone Sports, launching a new social media rewards system. Using this, fans can show their support for Owl Athletics in social media space and earn prizes in the process.
Fans receive points for keeping active with Temple Athletics through numerous social media platforms. These include “liking” official Facebook posts, commenting on the Temple Athletics Facebook page, re-tweeting Twitter posts and checking into games on FourSquare.
“This is a great opportunity for our fans to become more involved with our Athletics program,” said Scott Walcoff, Temple’s Associate Athletic Director of Marketing/Promotions/Sales. “Since entering the BIG EAST Conference in Football, we’ve seen a tremendous amount of buzz around Temple. Creating this social media fan engagement program is a great and fun way to reward our fans for their loyalty, as well as utilize their support in an effort to promote our teams throughout the Delaware Valley.”
In addition to accumulating points through social media initiatives, fans will have access to exclusive coupons on the Temple Athletics Facebook page, and can compete to become a “Fan of the Week” on the individual team Facebook pages. The athletic department will have separate leaderboards for students and non-students so fans can always see where they stand against their fellow classmates/Owl fans.
“We are proud to have such a fantastic program like Temple Athletics as a partner,” said Mark Drosos, President of Lodestone Sports. “Their commitment to social media will prove to create an even stronger bond between the school and their fans while creating new relationships with local sports fans.”
Temple University is clearly taking the right steps with this program. By offering prizes and “gameifying” their social media initiatives, they are providing fans with additional incentives to join the Temple Athletics’ social media pages and are driving conversation about Owl sports.
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It is challenging for brands to expand their social media presence, and major companies like Amazon demonstrate how to provide incentives in exchange for joining their Facebook pages. This is a win-win for all parties involved. For college programs the fans get free merchandise and opportunities, and their athletic departments are able to accumulate their extremely valuable social currency.
By giving away relatively inexpensive prizes, the Athletics department can attract many new followers to their social media pages and can build a larger audience to which they can continue to promote their message. They might even gain some new fans in the process.
As Temple Athletics observes “This is just the beginning as Temple Athletics will be adding new social platforms, additional ways to earn points, as well as engage with teams and friends before, during and after games.”
We are looking forward to seeing what they come up with next.
(Photo courtesy of sportsagentblog.com)
