A Sea Of Red

What things does LU do well in social media? What can be improved on? What does another school do that we absolutely should be doing?

Personally, I love when the LU Equipment twitter shows the uniform of the week. It makes me so giddy for gameday.

I like the Instagram feed on the videoboard, but I think they need to pull from a couple different hashtags.

I think eventually LU could do the stadium color effect like VT does but I think they should wait a while.

Personally I think LU should invest to have a full team within Athletics Marketing whose job is solely to run social media. Train them on what they are or are not allowed to do per NCAA rules and let em loose for all sports. Kids live on social media and it can and does make an impact on them. We’ve definitely gotten better in the last couple of years, but I think it’s 100% worth having an entire team just for social media, literally no other job except to creat exceptional content for social media. It’s a big job and time consuming to create good video mashups, promos, etc. We may very well already have this team, but one thing I definitely missed this year was an extended hype video for the upcoming season.

I love your LU/Alabama logo.

I dream of the day of a LU-Alabama football game.

Thanks and me too! I’ve grown up a Bama fan, but went to LU so would definitely root for Liberty. Being a Bama fan though helps me get through some LU seasons haha! I’m only about an hour from Auburn and Troy so hopefully I’ll get to those games over he next two years.

FLAMEfromBAMA wrote:Thanks and me too! I’ve grown up a Bama fan, but went to LU so would definitely root for Liberty. Being a Bama fan though helps me get through some LU seasons haha! I’m only about an hour from Auburn and Troy so hopefully I’ll get to those games over he next two years.

Both of those games are in this season. Hopefully you can make both or at least one!

Well Troy is in Lynchburg I believe.

FLAMEfromBAMA wrote:Well Troy is in Lynchburg I believe.

It is.

FLAMEfromBAMA wrote:Personally I think LU should invest to have a full team within Athletics Marketing whose job is solely to run social media. Train them on what they are or are not allowed to do per NCAA rules and let em loose for all sports. Kids live on social media and it can and does make an impact on them. We’ve definitely gotten better in the last couple of years, but I think it’s 100% worth having an entire team just for social media, literally no other job except to creat exceptional content for social media. It’s a big job and time consuming to create good video mashups, promos, etc. We may very well already have this team, but one thing I definitely missed this year was an extended hype video for the upcoming season.

As far as I know, they do not have a "team". I believe that they desperately do need one along with/including design. The social media creative for football is great but lacks in most other sports.

The video of the uniform reveal was incredible. I think the LU accounts go up and down depending on who is running them. I really think Alen York does a great job with broadcasts and and creating some content but it’s my personal opinion that the Libertyflames Twitter accounts have gone down hill since he took over recently.

One example is retweeting his personal account. Knowing when to separate yourself from a large account seems to be social media 101. He has retweeted his personal account no less than a dozen times in a couple weeks. It’s a bad look.

Plus I just think he’s a little out of touch with the majority of followers the account has. They are mostly 20-35 years olds you would think. Using words like “neat” and “looking forward to” really just miss the mark.

Again I like Alen , and love his passion for the school, I believe running social media accounts is not his strong suit . I would like to see us get someone closer in age to the target market and have Alen be a supervisor of the account.


As far as other sports. Again they are hit or miss. Baesball was brilliant and by far had some of the best social media content until last season. Their graphics were black and with red font. Just hard to see and pretty lame.

I have had coversations with multiple people within athletics and it is clear that those in charge really miss the mark and do not value social media platforms as a way to gain momentum and support for the program. We are still sending out mailers and postcards as the first avenue of contact with fans.

Sorry to spill my guts , it’s just been super disappointing the last few years watching these accounts be lame and restricted.

What I would love is for us to have more of a creative department within athletics. Isaac is straight up incredible at his job. An entire team around him can really transform what we put out. I'm not a fan of Tennessee, but I follow UT Creative because their work is so dang good.

While we're on the subject:

Ohio State actually has guys on staff who are paid as well as an assistant coach who's entire role is to create social media and in-house graphics for the football team. They're by far the best in the business. The four of them do graphics and video better than anyone out there. [Ohio State twitter]

If you want to see some of the other stuff schools are doing graphic wise, check out Trenches and Designing Sports.

Jonathan Carone wrote:While we're on the subject:

Ohio State actually has guys on staff who are paid as well as an assistant coach who's entire role is to create social media and in-house graphics for the football team. They're by far the best in the business. The four of them do graphics and video better than anyone out there. [Ohio State twitter]

If you want to see some of the other stuff schools are doing graphic wise, check out Trenches and Designing Sports.

Ohio State has been fantastic recently. I have noticed recently that Liberty's social seems to copy some of their pieces. I hope it's just coincidence.

Id be all for ponying up the dollars and hiring people just for social media. Thats at least a $40,000 skill if you got it

SoD BAS wrote:

Jonathan Carone wrote:While we're on the subject:

Ohio State actually has guys on staff who are paid as well as an assistant coach who's entire role is to create social media and in-house graphics for the football team. They're by far the best in the business. The four of them do graphics and video better than anyone out there. [Ohio State twitter]

If you want to see some of the other stuff schools are doing graphic wise, check out Trenches and Designing Sports.

Ohio State has been fantastic recently. I have noticed recently that Liberty's social seems to copy some of their pieces. I hope it's just coincidence.

Most schools are copying Ohio State. If not directly, they're being inspired by them. I've even picked up some stuff from them for my work.

100% Agree!

We can only speed up facilities, performance, etc. so fast, but this is something that you can immediately jump to the top simply by having a team. Shoot, with our school of cinematic arts interns should be easy to acquire too!

Hire a team of 8 or so. One head and 7 workers. Cover all sports Social Media/Marketing promos, materials, etc. At any given time you should be able to easily acquire 4 interns from Cinematic Arts or other areas to have a full team of 12! Much like uniforms kids these days are drawn to impressive promos/social media/photos/videos/etc. In my opinion other than possible coaching changes (If we don’t win 4 this season) this would be a top three change we should make and would definitely be worth the investment considering today’s younger audience and recruiting base!

Check this out on Ohio State’s IG and you’ll instantly understand how a kid would gravitate towards OSU. It grabs the heart and allows you to be in their room recruiting them year round!

BJWilliams wrote:Id be all for ponying up the dollars and hiring people just for social media. Thats at least a $40,000 skill if you got it

You're talking $60ish for your team lead. $50k for senior designer. $35-40k for junior designers.

And that, friends, is why it's so hard to get quality designers to stay in athletics.

Oklahoma hired a female last year and social media presence is top notch and making a marked difference in recruiting / buzz ( Stoops wasn’t a big fan of it but Riley embraced it and the difference really shows )

There are some really great women designers and social media managers out there. It's still mainly a boys club, but it's diversifying.

FLAMEfromBAMA wrote:100% Agree!

We can only speed up facilities, performance, etc. so fast, but this is something that you can immediately jump to the top simply by having a team. Shoot, with our school of cinematic arts interns should be easy to acquire too!

Hire a team of 8 or so. One head and 7 workers. Cover all sports Social Media/Marketing promos, materials, etc. At any given time you should be able to easily acquire 4 interns from Cinematic Arts or other areas to have a full team of 12! Much like uniforms kids these days are drawn to impressive promos/social media/photos/videos/etc. In my opinion other than possible coaching changes (If we don’t win 4 this season) this would be a top three change we should make and would definitely be worth the investment considering today’s younger audience and recruiting base!

Check this out on Ohio State’s IG and you’ll instantly understand how a kid would gravitate towards OSU. It grabs the heart and allows you to be in their room recruiting them year round!

They left out the part about the coach having your back when you beat on your GF.

Too soon?

Hey guys!

I figured I would chime in on this post. I am Jacob Webb, a designer in Liberty's Marketing Department. Liberty's athletics creative is divided in an unorthodox way. I, along with two other designers (one which is leaving next week), work on just about all athletic printed promo materials. This includes schedule posters, brochures, flyers, billboards (printed and digital), etc.

There is one full time designer in the athletics department and I believe they are trying to hire another (they had a GA that was an outstanding social media manager and a surging designer, but he recently graduated and was hired by a school in Tennessee). They focus on social. I would love to see that team grow into a fully staffed design team eventually, but I understand that is a process.

Before working at Liberty, I spent a short amount of time over on App State's football staff doing graphic design for their social. I was their only designer on staff while there was one more that worked on other sports (who is now at ECU). As an "intern" I was essentially available round clock doing whatever needed to be done. The majority of this contained designs for football recruits (literally round clock). There is a lot that goes into it that isn't seen by the general public due to NCAA regulations. If anyone is interested, I'd love to explain more via DM.

All of that to say, the amount of work that social requires is enough for a large team to cover (and I haven't even mentioned the actual social media handlers who would keep up with the actual accounts). Luckily, the college athletics world is starting to understand the importance of social/social graphic design. For example, there are high school recruits that have chosen schools solely because of their social/graphic design. The top programs are recently really starting to tap into this and others are trying to keep up. Ohio State, South Carolina, Auburn, Texas, Washington, are a few of the top programs who's athletics department are starting to really pay out on creative and it shows. They are doing an unbelievable job.

I look forward to seeing where Liberty's social is headed, but keep in mind... It is a process.

Thanks Jake! It’s definitely a process and is growing. Ten years ago football was just an unpaid practicum student making really bad designs for internal playbooks or posters. At that time, Athletics had one designer from University Marketing who did all the design work for the department.

As someone else mentioned, this is the one area we could invest in heavily outside of facilities that would make a true impact on both marketing and recruiting.

Jonathan Carone wrote:

BJWilliams wrote:Id be all for ponying up the dollars and hiring people just for social media. Thats at least a $40,000 skill if you got it

You're talking $60ish for your team lead. $50k for senior designer. $35-40k for junior designers.

And that, friends, is why it's so hard to get quality designers to stay in athletics.

Yup...you can make real good money just working with social media and the attendant graphics.

Thanks again for chiming in Jake. Like Jon said, this is an area that we really could put a larger investment in financially and in "boots on the ground" as it were

BJ - what these guys are doing with design and social, and the hours they’re expected to work, is worth way more than what they’re getting paid. That’s why the shelf life for the talented designers and social media managers in athletics isn’t very long. The good ones end up going freelance and make 2-3x what a school will pay them while working better hours.

Thanks for sharing Jake! Hopefully my opinions didn’t come across harsh or ungrateful. I know it’s a ton of work as I’ve done a lot of the same type of work before. We’ve come a long way just since I graduated a few years ago and I can’t wait to see the future! Keep on keeping on man, only can do so much with a small team and what we do have is way better than few years ago! Glad to hear someone involved wants and sees the need for a full team as well though!