NOTEBOOK
USA Volleyball deserves gold for digital efforts
n an effort to celebrate the “Social Media Games,” USA Volleyball spent nine months revamping its game plan in the digital arena in preparation for the 2012 Olympic and Para- lympic Games. In the end, the results were Volleyball social media pages, but also the or- ganizational web site (
usavolleyball.org) from fans across the United States and the world. In January of 2012 USAV decided to take the social media leap of faith and hired a full-time communications coordinator, Becky Murdy, who spearheaded the social movement as a strategist to USA Volleyball, its different departments and athletes. She has become the voice of USA Volleyball through Facebook and Twitter updates.
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After six months of extensive strategic planning and design work USAV launched six custom Facebook tabs to enhance user experi- ence; including shareable medals, Olympic scheduling and region leaderboards. The date was April 18, 2012, 100 Days Out To The Olympics. USAV increased Facebook fans by 75 percent in just three months’ time, going from
32,000 fans to over 56,000. In addition @ Twitter handle, went from roughly 6,000 Twitter followers to over 37,400 from launch time on April 18 to the end of the Paralympic Games (523 percent jump). As a result, USAV’s Facebook fan page saw a unique viewing audience of over 1 million talking about USAV in their status updates, comments or photo captions during the Lon- don Games. To make the numbers above a reality, a
different vision needed to occur. USAV didn’t just change page-deep; it also altered the way it communicated with its fans and members. What once was a monologue became a dia- - aways and sharing a common love for a sport. As an example during the London Games,
the time zone change and broadcast schedule limited fans from watching all of the matches for both men and women, beach and indoor. For this reason, USAV opted to live-tweet each match and update fans on Facebook, Twitter and its web site the result of each match as it was happening. The majority of the feedback was positive and fans felt that they were part of the Games even though they were half a world away. The USAV Facebook Page, Twitter feed and web site became a place for fans to celebrate their common love for the sport. Whether a fan played a sport or not, the com- mon theme of American pride was evident. USAV took it upon itself to create the go-to hub for these exchanges to take place for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and will further emphasize social media platforms to reach new volleyball fans.
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