CASE STUDY:
Summary
Celebrating Student-Athlete Success
Harwood showcases their student-athletes by sharing awards and achievements, such as their “Athlete of the Week” recognition, to social media on a consistent basis. Their focus on students is reflected by their strong presence on Instagram (utilizing standard in-feed content and Instagram Stories) - the platform where Harwood students spend most of their time. Coupled with their consistent sharing of game info on Twitter, Harwood does an excellent job engaging and informing their community via social media.
Chris Langevin
Athletic Director
Harwood-Union High School (VT)
The Goals
Student-Centered Approach and Transparency
Chris Langevin
Athletic Director
Harwood-Union High School (VT)
“My social media goals are really to promote Harwood’s students and get accurate and timely information out to the community.” Chris and Harwood’s goals for all digital engagement are centered around the students and the community to create excitement surrounding Harwood athletics. Instagram is where the students’ eyes are, and so Chris wants to leverage that to develop school pride and instill a sense of self-esteem and camaraderie among the students.
The Challenges
Designer-Focused Platforms Became Time Consuming
Just a year ago, Harwood’s social media was not thriving, and Chris was spending way too much time creating templates and graphics. He saw what professional and collegiate teams were doing and was trying to replicate that on various platforms meant for design professionals. “Prior to using Gipper, it would take me an entire day just to create one game day graphic.” He was struggling to get any engagement whatsoever.
The Solution
Create Professional Content in Less Time with Gipper
Harwood’s goals when partnering with Gipper were to use the platform and templates to create professional-looking social media accounts and give his student-athletes top-notch promotion. Implicit in this goal was the objective of creating an identity through consistent, branded content. “When I found Gipper, I was interested in creating a professional-looking Instagram, using branded content to give my students college-level promotions. I have been successful in doing that through my bread and butter game day posts, score updates, and athlete awards.”
