Flo Sports

[Kuiper]

It must be huge on Instagram, because it's pretty quiet on X, including the whole conference championship weekend. There's still a really large audience for sports on X.

In terms of actually posting about the conference championships as they happen, I think that depends upon whether Flo has those broadcast rights or whether the conference retained them. They have definitely been pumping the conference tournaments for Flo Schools in DI for the Colonial Athletic Association the last few days on their FloCollege|Basketball account (@FloCollegeHoops). 

For soccer, they tend to post highlights after the fact.  In the Landmark, Flo posted some highlights like this one.  And the UAA doesn't have conference tournaments in soccer, but they did repost a post from UAA for Wash U. winning the title.  I don't know how much reach @FloFC has, but if someone was following @FloFC because their kid plays in DII in the Lone Star Conference, then I guess they saw the repost about Wash U. and that technically broadened the conference's reach.

[Patrick Coleman]

It must be huge on Instagram, because it's pretty quiet on X, including the whole conference championship weekend. There's still a really large audience for sports on X.

In terms of actually posting about the conference championships as they happen, I think that depends upon whether Flo has those broadcast rights or whether the conference retained them. They have definitely been pumping the conference tournaments for Flo Schools in DI for the Colonial Athletic Association the last few days on their FloCollege|Basketball account (@FloCollegeHoops).

Yep. Their D-III conferences, though? I didn't really see anything about that. I couldn't care less what they do to cover D-I.

[IC798891]

She admits there was a financial benefit from the payout, but focuses on the branding benefit, stating that their social media reach increased 200% by having stuff on Flo. 

I can believe the reach point.

A 200% increase in reach is a positive. The name of the game is increasing, well, everything. So if they're seeing a 200% increase, that's good.

Few caveats, though:

1. My bolding was intentional. My guess is, they've had their social media reach increase since having stuff on Flo. I'd be surprised if they have enough data to attribute it completely to Flo.

2. The UAA has just 3,289 followers on X, and 7,212 on Instagram. Clicking on the Insta followers, I see a lot of accounts of people who have very few followers and who make almost no posts.

https://www.instagram.com/susan7854229/
https://www.instagram.com/lucasgusoccer/
https://www.instagram.com/carolinegandelsoftball2027/
https://www.instagram.com/tkswaney/

Given that the baseline was based on their own relatively small followings, a 200% increase might represent a small number of accounts*. And given the number of bot and legitimate but largely inactive accounts on social media, reaching X number of additional accounts doesn't mean actually reaching 200% more people.

*I'm reminded of this often when we're given enrollment updates. Deposits may be up 13% year-to-date, but that might represent an increase from 30 to 34.


My guess is there's a reason they picked a percentage to share rather than absolute numbers.

[y_jack_lok]

"2. The UAA has just 3,289 followers on X, and 7,212 on Instagram. Clicking on the Insta followers, I see a lot of accounts of people who have very few followers and who make almost no posts."


I realize that by the standards of celebrities and politicians those numbers of followers are insignificant, but for a D3 sports conference they don't seem too bad to me. But I'll admit that I have no other basis for making that comment. I suppose D1 conferences could have hundreds of thousands to perhaps millions of followers. Anyway, just an observation.

[WUPHF]

Interview with UAA commissioner Sarah Otey and there's some talk about the decision to go with FloSports

So many things to discuss, but maybe the first thing that comes to mind, I cannot believe they hired a consulting firm and paid them for over a year. I say that rhetorically because of course I can believe it.

No way they spent less than $30K x 8 to hire LEONA.

I do like that the interviewer asked very clearly for the tangible benefits, outcomes...

She references social media reach increasing 200%, but also admits that they hired a social media manager.  The UAA did not do much on social media before this season.  They would not even post the preseason polls, for example.

[y_jack_lok]

^^^ If you look at the below bio of the VP of LEONA, it's no wonder the UAA went with Flo.

https://leonamarketinggroup.com/2022/11/lindsey-ross/