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RUNNING HEAD: INNOVATIVE USE OF A BLOG

Timely Local Sports Coverage: Innovative Use of a Blog to Cover Spring Hill Athletic Teams
Michael-John Connell and Daniel Ochoa
Spring Hill College

INNOVATIVE USE OF A BLOG

Abstract
It is known that in order to have a successful blog site, it requires a fan base. Spring Hill College
Communication Arts students MJ Connell and Daniel Ochoa explored the possibility of
attracting an audience by creating social media accounts for a blog site in order to build an online
presence. The social media accounts were launched and examined over the course of three
weeks. The blog site, thebadgerreport.com, was launched ten days after the social media
accounts and was monitored for a week and a half. Various forms of sports news stories were
created for the site for audiences to enjoy. Audio, text, and visuals are all on the site used to
provide a variety of media for viewers to gain information about Spring Hill College athletics.
This project addressed several limitations and defined successful ways to appeal to an audience.

INNOVATIVE USE OF A BLOG

Introduction
Spring Hill College athletics operates a website for all sports available on campus. The
schools website offers a basic sports outlet that consists of rosters, schedules, and scores.
However, the website doesnt provide a personal connection between the athletes and the
audience. These stories also fail to include quotes from student athletes and coaches; these are
crucial sources to stories pertaining to those sporting events. Spring Hill College needed a news
outlet that provides live updates as well as extensive coverage of the institutions sports.
The purpose of the project was to create a sports blog that consists of hard and soft news
through textual, audio, and visual media in order to add a different aspect to Spring Hill College
athletics. The blog was also promoted by social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, and
Instagram. Ultimately, the purpose of this project was to explore the effectiveness of social
media while trying to promote and create a sports blog for Spring Hill College that can provide a
deeper connection between the athletes and the audience. The way this site differs from the
existing one is that it provides quotes from sources participating in the events. The blog also
provides live updates through social media on the sporting events. Results of this project will be
analyzed through the Media Richness Theory (Daft & Lengel, 1983).
According to Media Richness Theory, certain media have characteristics that make them
suited for specific forms of communication. The previous work and research of Richard Daft and
Robert Lengel has shown evidence that some media has several characteristics that should exist
for certain types of communication which mostly supports this theory. The theory suggests that
face-to-face communication is the richest media; however, audio, video, and written words are
also media that vary in richness and can still be an effective way of communicating with others

INNOVATIVE USE OF A BLOG

to obtain information (Daft & Lengel, 1988). Using this perspective of Media Richness Theory,
social media were used to communicate with and engage an audience.
With social media being effective in interaction and engagement, it is essential for a
sports blog to have a social media presence in order to promote it. The social media accounts did
complete the objective of increasing an audience and awareness of the blog, and showcases the
benefits of using it to promote a site. Social media could have a positive impact on promoting a
sports blog. Using Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to create multimedia the bloggers were
able to engage viewers and audience on the blog site. The bloggers gained followers on all social
media accounts and the actual sports blog.
Analytics from Social Sprout, Twitter, and Facebook were used to determine the amount
of impressions our posts had, engagements with posts, top posts, and which genders and people
from what places visit each page the most. The Google Analytics were used to determine the
bounce rate of the site, sessions on the site and how long they lasted, and what type of visitors
we have (new/returning), including how many users total.
Research Question
Can the use of social media be an efficient way to attract an audience for a sports blog
site?
Literature Review
According to the Pew Research Center (2015), adults ages 18 and over are 58% of
Facebook users, for Twitter 21%, and Instagram 19%. The primary audience being targeted are
current Spring Hill College students. College students are typically between the ages of 18-25.
According to Jetscram, there are 42 million users on Facebook between the ages of 18-24 which
is 23.3% of the user base; Twitter has 95 million users between the ages of 18-29, which is 35%

INNOVATIVE USE OF A BLOG

of the user base; Instagram has 74 million users between the ages of 18-29 and which is 37% of
the user base (Apuzzo, 2014).
Social media accounts are a way to drive traffic to a blog. On all social networks certain
keywords generate more engagement than others. Those keywords attract more clicks and can
help promote content (Khan, 2015). Using them intelligently with the social media updates can
increase the effectiveness of the posts (Khan, 2015). For social media accounts there are
different ways to increase engagement and interaction with posts. For example, hashtags on
Twitter expand the reach of posts beyond immediate followers and help reach new audiences
(Khan, 2015). Using a hashtag or even two hashtags can increase the effectiveness of the content
being posted and help drive more traffic (Khan, 2015). Tweets with hashtags attract twice as
much engagement via retweets, likes, replies. To prove that, there is 21% more engagement on
tweets with one to two hashtags (Khan, 2015).
Social media is also designed for visual content. It is essential to include video, images,
and other kinds of visual content in social media updates. Image based posts attract 39% more
engagement on Facebook (Khan, 2015). Also, including emoticons in posts increases comments
by 33% (Patel, 2014). On Twitter, engagement is 200% higher for tweets with image links
(Patel, 2014). This engagement is key and it is important to know when to tweet. The highest
engagement for Twitter posts is on Saturdays and Sundays at 9 a.m., 12 p.m., 3 p.m., and 6 p.m.
(Patel, 2014). The more traffic there is on social media accounts, the more users can be directed
towards the blog, especially if it is as engaging as possible. A website can have a strong
following as long as the measures are taken to,
(a) develops original editorial content; (b) provides advertisers demographic
measurement of users, click-through data, and page-view data; (c) offers online surveys

INNOVATIVE USE OF A BLOG

from users for content development; (d) uses online traffic usage reports; (e) has
voluntary registration; and (f) provides secure electronic transactions of products and
services. (Editor & Publisher 1998)
Creating content that an audience can appreciate enough to share on other media outlets
can be used as a method to get some publicity. A term that can be used for audience members
who share content is amplifier (Rohrs, 2013). Amplifiers raise the volume on your message
and propel your content well beyond your marketing budgets reach. Sometimes they even help
branded content go viral (Rohrs, 2013). Having members like this in ones audience can be an
effective way to have the work spread throughout the internet and potentially bring in new
members of the audience. Typically, amplifiers share things that interest them, something that
they can relate to with a family member, friend or colleague and they can do it how, when and
wherever they want (Rohrs, 2013). In order to get these amplifiers to become amplifiers, content
needs to be created that they want to share.
As great as amplifiers can be for promoting your blog, joiners are the greatest audience
member one can have. They like, follow, pin, register, and subscribe to receive information that
is of interest to them and in doing so, they selectively open the communication channels they use
to your messaging (Rohrs, 2013). According to Rohrs, Joiners are the most valuable audiences
you can build for your company. These audience members are typically on a somewhat
personal level with the brand. They allow you to contact them directly and are someone that you
have personal information about (Rohrs, 2013).
The next big thing for a site to thrive, is to hone in on engagement from your audience
members. An engaged audience is an attentive audience. An engaged audience is a responsive
audience. And an engaged audience is a profitable audience (Rohrs, 2013). Interacting with

INNOVATIVE USE OF A BLOG

your audience makes them more engaged. It is a good way to keep them coming back and
engaging themselves within the site, with you, and with fellow audience members. Three
benefits that come from having an engaged audience include: increase in social media visibility,
improvement in email deliverability, and increases in mobile app usage (Rohrs, 2013).
When talking about sports and how to reach these fans, one needs to think about what
sports bring to the table when they occur. Theres so much going on in a sporting event to
provoke human emotions that covering it can also bring about similar feelings. Some things that
can be covered are the athlete that lacks the self-control to avoid discipline, that inconsistent
player who never seems to perform at the right times, or even the coaches and front office drama
(Giles, 2003). David Giles found that Walter Gantz identified three main motivations for why
people watch sports. Chief among these is fanship (or fandom), interpreted as the desire to
thrill in victory; also is the desire to let loose to a lesser extent, the desire to learn skills and
tactics by watching top performers (Giles, 2003). Covering such an event could lead to some
very interesting news based on the results and actions during the game that fans of the teams or
player to read that content.
Fairness is another key aspect to keep in mind when creating something journalistic.
According to Ingram, Henshall, and Browne (1991), It has a lot to do with avoiding bias,
treating people equally, and allowing people to have equal chances to do things or express
themselves. Fairness is made up of two parts:
Objectivity, which is not forcing your own personal opinions on the news. The opposite
of objectivity is subjectivity. The second part is impartiality, which is not taking sides on
an issue where there is a dispute. Impartiality also includes presenting all sides of an
argument fairly, what we call balance. (Ingram et al.,1991)

INNOVATIVE USE OF A BLOG

Although impartiality or bias can enter all areas of journalism, the greatest dangers lie in
reporting politics, industrial disputes, religion, race, and sports. Any area in which people have
very strong feelings can lead to conflict and to bias in reporting the issue (Ingram et al.,1991).
Ingram et al. states, One must develop an accurate understanding of news to your audience, then
be fair and consistent in the selection of every story (Ingram et al.,1991).
Figuring out what sports news is, is the first step in choosing what story to write.
According to Ingram et al., This may include injuries to top players; changes in personnel - a
player changing teams, a coach being sacked, a manager retiring; plans to build new facilities; a
new sponsor or other financial developments in the sport; or changes in the rules or
administration of the sport (Ingram et al.,1991). From deciding what to write, the next step
should be gathering sources to support the story.
In todays world humans have found new ways to communicate through the advancement
of technology over the years. Phone calls, text messages, video calls, emails, and even messages
sent through social media sites have become common ways of communication for humans.
Although there are different ways to communicate, are there better ways of communicating than
others? Daft and Lengel explain,
Face-to-face is the richest medium... Face-to-face discussions enable the assimilation of
broad cues and deep, emotional understanding of a message. Telephone conversations
and interactive electronic media provide rapid feedback, but lack the element of being
there. Eye contact, gaze, blush, head nods, posture, and other body language cues are
eliminated Written media that are addressed, such as memos, notes, and reports, can be
personally focused, but they convey limited cues and are slow in feedback Thus, each

INNOVATIVE USE OF A BLOG

medium has an information capacity based on its ability to facilitate multiple cues,
feedback, and personal focus. (Daft & Lengel, 1988)
Taking this into consideration, journalists should conduct interviews in a manner in
which they obtain their information through the richest medium possible. There may be
circumstances that a reporter cannot conduct a face-to-face interview and have to resort to a
phone call or messages through another medium, but a reporter must take into account that not
having those visual cues that go along with certain quotes can prevent a full understanding of
what was said.
Methodology
The proposal the bloggers presented was to create a sports blog that produced news about
Spring Hill College athletics. The blog aimed to attract Spring Hill College alumni, current
students, family and locals of the area. The bloggers met with assistant athletic directors Michael
Patrick and Chad LeBlanc to get permission to report about the colleges athletics (see Appendix
A). The goal of the blog is to create content for fans of Spring Hill sports to consume, discuss,
and share.
Building the Site
One of the main goals of the site was to provide extensive coverage of Spring Hill
College sports for people affiliated with the institution. Spring Hill College students are usually
in between the ages of 18-25 and were the primary audience. They were given something to
connect themselves with their fellow students who are playing college athletics. From there,
alumni from the college were notified about the blog as the secondary audience. All members of
the targeted audience were engaged through social media.

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The logo created for the site was drawn by one of the bloggers, taken into Adobe
Illustrator and transformed into its current state. It is the profile picture for all of the social media
accounts as well as the favicon for the website (see Appendix B). Another version of the logo
with the title of the site The Badger Report spelled out beside it was created as the header of
the site (see Appendix B). Another variation of the logo with the name of the site located
underneath it was made for the About Us section (see Appendix B).
The bloggers used WordPress as the platform for their website, with an installed theme
from Envato labeled Sportsline. The theme was purchased for a price of $40 and will last for
six months. The domain thebadgerreport.com was also purchased for $18 and will be owned
until September 5, 2016. Zach Roberson of Media Space Marketing provided expert advice and
hands-on assistance through TeamViewer in putting the layout of the website into place. Some
unforeseen issues occurred before the launch of the site causing a delayed launch date of
thebadgerreport.com. Once Roberson had installed the site, one of the bloggers attempted to
tweak certain pages by deleting certain aesthetics that were unwanted. This attempt then led the
site to crash due to something being deleted that should not have been; the source of the problem
was never identified. Another issue with the site was the slideshow on the home page. The issue
it caused was shifting all content to the left and all stories were forced off the page (see
Appendix D). The problem was resolved when it was discovered that at least six posts needed to
be labeled as sticky for the slideshow to operate correctly (refer to Appendix G to see about
posts).
Once the theme was successfully re-installed to WordPress, the tabs leading to secondary
pages (Rugby, Volleyball, etc.) had to be put into place. All secondary pages were designed off
of the original design from the Rugby page (see Appendix C). Each tab was renamed by going

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to the backend (the administrators page) of the WordPress site by going to the sidebar and
clicking Appearance -> Menus and proceeding to add menus by clicking create new menu
(see Appendix C). The different pages on the site such as the Home page, About Us and
Scores were added by again going to the sidebar and clicking Pages -> Add New and from
there the title and content of the page can be added (see Appendix G).
A plugin called WordFence, was recommended by Roberson to be installed in order to
prevent spam bots from taking over comment threads as well as preventing hackers from getting
into the site. WordFence also disclosed information of live traffic that showed which city people
were visiting from, how they got there, and what they did while they browsed the site (see
Appendix P).
Producing Content
The content created for the site includes news and feature stories, audio and visual media,
graphics and polls. This was done in an attempt to build a dedicated audience and create a place
where fans can obtain newsworthy information. A small staff besides the bloggers was built in
order to produce graphics and news stories. Freshman Brendan Murphy helped create the jersey
graphics used in the recent games widget as well as on the Scores page on the blog (see
Appendix E). Junior Ryan Flynn contributed a story pertaining to the Spring Hill womens rugby
teams success at the Battleship Invitational Rugby Tournament hosted at USS Alabama
Memorial Park (see Appendix F).
The bloggers met daily to discuss and brainstorm ideas for stories and content. The
writers also edited their staffs work as well as each others work and came to a conclusion on
what should be posted on social media accounts and the blog. Any conflicts that came about,
were handled by the bloggers and decisions were made whether or not to publish certain content.

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When one of the bloggers were unable to attend an event, they were responsible for that persons
duty or another staff member filled in.
The programs the bloggers used to create graphics were Adobe Illustrator and Adobe
Photoshop. The bloggers used a Nikon D3200 camera with several different lenses to make
photographs. Any photo editing was done in Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Lightroom. The
journalists used the Nikon D3200 and smartphones to record footage of events. The program
they used to edit and fix audio was Audacity.
The way the content was published on the site is similar to adding a new page. The
bloggers clicked Posts on the sidebar and then clicked Add New. From there the title and
story content can be entered into their respective fields (see Appendix H). Photos that were used
as the featured photo for each story were added by scrolling down on the Add New page and
clicking Set featured image where the blogger could then upload or chose a file that was
previously uploaded (see Appendix H).
The bloggers contacted coaches and athletes from various sports teams and authoritative
figures at Spring Hill College for interviews. They were reached out to through phone calls,
emails, texts and social media. Any athletic events that happened on campus were attended by
the writers. They had alternatives for any rescheduled matches and events to create newsworthy
material. No missed/cancelled interviews ever occurred.
Reasoning for Stories
One of the feature stories created was focused around a Swedish study-abroad athlete
named Kalle Nilsson. The reasoning behind this individual being chosen as the focus of this
piece was that he comes from the fifth largest golfing country in Europe, according to the Royal
and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews (R&A, 2015). Nilsson is also an important member of the

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mens golf team starting in all four tournaments and winning one individually this past season.
His journey from Sweden to the United States to play golf while attending school separates him
from the rest of his teammates. The story was told through use of audio because in the
Introduction to Online Journalism Roland De Wolk explains, Good reporters know that hearing
the actual voice, intonation, and uncensored language of a person can do far more for a story
than can a written quote lying flat on a page (De Wolk, 2001).
As stated earlier, anything pertaining to sports news from a coach firing to circumstances
surrounding a player on, or off, the field should be written about (Ingram et al.,1991). For
example, the reason we chose to write a story on the assistant athletic director becoming the new
interim head soccer coach was because it was new and is related to the type of stories produced
for the audience. News should be new, unusual, interesting, significant and about people
(Ingram et al.,1991). In this case, it was unusual for the school to hire a brand new head coach
and then six games into the season both the head and assistant coach resign due to personal
reasons.
Being an audience member of Spring Hill sports, it is important to gain information about
the teams one is interested in. The audience is interested in what occurred, the reasoning for it,
and how the players feel about the situation. It was an odd situation in which both a head coach
and assistant coach resigned, leaving the assistant athletic director as the new head coach. When
deciding the facts and sources we would use to cover this story, telling both sides of the story is
an important factor. There are usually two sides to every argument, so do not be one-sided in
choosing what facts to include or which words to quote (Ingram et al.,1991). The sources
picked were the new head coaching staff consisting of Michael Patrick and Craig Kennedy and a
current freshman player on the team named Tatum Shacklett. These sources helped state facts

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and information that provided how a player felt about the situation as well as how the new
coaches approached new positions and their thoughts moving forward.
Another feature story that was written focuses on Australian study-abroad athlete
Christian Cage. Cage was selected for this story because he is the only member of Spring Hill
Colleges mens rugby team from outside the United States. Besides the fact that he is the only
member of the team from outside the U.S., what made it more attractive to write about is that he
comes from Australia, which is home to the second-best rugby team in the world, according to
the International Rugby Board (2015). Another factor in choosing Cage for the feature is that he
is an outstanding member of the team, taking on a leadership role helping those who arent as
experienced as him learn more about the game. Again, the fact that this story is unusual,
interesting, significant and about a person was another reason for choosing this subject (Ingram
et al.,1991). The reason this story was chosen to be written rather than played through an audio
or video is because the blogger felt his accent made it difficult to decipher what he says at some
points.
Use of Social Media
Social media accounts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook were utilized to promote the
sites content, reach out to audience members as well as posting exclusive content. Each of those
accounts and SoundCloud were used as outlets to host any audio or visual media posted to the
internet by the bloggers. Specific content posted on social media accounts include photos,
videos, audio clips, and graphics in order to engage account users. The bloggers used WordPress
and Google Analytics in order to monitor the amount of traffic being generated by the site and its
social media accounts (see Appendix J).

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A social media campaign happened the day the website was launched. Text posts,
photos, and videos were posted on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook promoting sporting events
occurring around Spring Hill College (see Appendix I). Photos posted on the Facebook and
Instagram pages were edited in Photoshop or Lightroom beforehand.
Facebook was used to follow and like pages pertaining to other Spring Hill College
organizations and posts were made promoting the new site and other social media accounts. One
post was made on the Spring Hill College Alumni Association Facebook page in order to let
alumni know about the new sports site covering their alma maters athletics.
Along with the usual tweets, content created for The Badger Reports Twitter account
includes videos and photos. Videos and photos were not edited after being taken as they were
immediately tweeted out to their followers. On Twitter, the pictures and videos were taken by
clicking on the compose tweet icon, then clicking on the camera icon and choosing whether to
shoot a picture or a clip (see Appendix K). When taking a video, the red video camera icon
should be held down until the necessary clip is recorded or until the maximum recording time
has been reached (See Appendix K).
Twitter was also a big part of giving live updates to the audience about the sporting
events around Spring Hill College. One key concept given by Rena Bivens in Digital Currents
How Technology and the Public are Shaping TV News is,
Immediacy in the sense of demonstrating to the audience that the news organization is
there at the scene of the event- has become increasingly valued in tandem with
technological developments that have enabled live coverage from more locations
throughout the world. (Bivens, 2014)

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The live tweets sent out were providing immediate updates for audiences to follow along and to
make it feel like they were at the game. According to Patel (2014), the highest engagement for
Twitter posts is on Saturdays and Sundays at 9 a.m., 12 p.m., 3 p.m., 6 p.m. and certain tweets
were posted accordingly (see Appendix L).
Tweeting to Gain an Audience
Twitter is known to be a huge outlet for news throughout the world. Due to the
unforeseen website difficulties delaying the debut of the blog, the bloggers decided to begin
gaining an audience by using Twitter. The accounts first action occurred during October 24,
2015 on Family Weekend covering all of the sporting events happening around campus that day.
Until the site was ready for the publics eye, all news reported by the bloggers was done so by
using Twitter to tweet out newsworthy information, as well as retweeting posts with similar
importance. Once the site was completed, a tweet was sent out to notify the audience about the
debut (see Appendix I).
Monitoring Growth through Analytics
In order to see the growth of their website and social media accounts, the bloggers used
several outlets to analyze certain aspects of their audience. SproutSocial.com was one of the
main tools used to gather analytics about the bloggers social media accounts. The website gave
definitions of each topic that gave information pertaining to impressions and interactions of posts
and the age and global demographic of followers/visitors (see Appendix M).
Twitter also provided analytics within its own network. One of the bloggers signed the
Twitter account up for analytics by searching for Twitter analytics on Google and signing up
through the appropriate webpage. The analytics show the top tweets, top media tweets, top
mentions, profile visits, and how many impressions their tweets have gained (see Appendix N).

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Google Analytics was the program used to monitor the bounce rate, sessions and their
duration time, as well as how many visitors surfed the blog. Google provided an analytics video
education program called Analytics Academy that explained what each page on the website
does, as well as defining each topic being monitored (see Appendix O).
A WordPress plugin called WordFence was installed mainly as a security tool for the
website, but it also gave information pertaining to where people visiting the site were visiting
from (see Appendix P). This provided a more specific insight for the bloggers to see where their
audience members were coming from.
Evaluation
The final results of the growth of the social media accounts were measured by
SproutSocial.com (see Appendix M), Twitter Analytics (see Appendix N), and Facebook page
insights (see Appendix Q). The final results of the website were measured by Google Analytics
(see Appendix R). The results were monitored from October 24, 2015 to November 11, 2015.
Twitter Analytics
Since the Twitter account was started on October 24, 2015, it received 2,150 profile
visits, gained 85 followers and had 14,000 tweet impressions. Over a 28 day period, the
bloggers tweets averaged 503 impressions a day. These numbers were very pleasing especially
because of how quickly the account gained followers. In just three days after starting up, there
were 61 followers following the account. The top tweet earned 823 impressions, which was great
to see, considering the research was followed and it was sent out with a hashtag at a high traffic
time and got the result the research implied would happen. The top two media tweets, which are
tweets containing some aspect of multimedia (videos, pictures, etc.), each received 383 and 242
impressions respectively. Seven of the top ten tweets were sent out at the times the research had

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proven were most effective. The results from the page lead the bloggers to believe that this was a
successful tool in gaining and engaging an audience, as well as a successful social media news
outlet.
Facebook Analytics
The blogs Facebook page was not as popular as the Twitter account, accruing 59 likes
with 2,352 impressions by 1,403 users. 52% of the page impressions were seen by fans of the
page, while the other 48% saw the posts from likes, shares, and comments from the page. Most
of the impressions occurred on Tuesdays and Wednesdays with each averaging 324 and 121 a
day, respectively. In comparison of organic and viral impressions, the posts going viral
dominated the number of organic impressions by a difference of 78% to 22%. This was
intriguing as it generated traffic towards the page, but not much of it was from users checking to
see what was occurring on the page. The most engaging post reached 146 people, engaging 15
making for a 10.27% engagement rate. The post that reached the most people reached 497
people, but only engaged 10 people, making a 2.01% engagement rate. This post had as many
likes as the post with the most engagement, but was not as engaging. This may be due to the fact
that it was not a link to a specific story, but rather it was the introductory post with a link to the
actual website. The page definitely helped bring traffic to the site as analytics measuring sites
sessions showed more results than posts not shared through the fan page.
Sprout Social Instagram Analytics
The Instagram account was by far the weakest of the three social media accounts.
Although there are 203 followers of the account that number is misleading because it was linked
to one of the bloggers personal Facebook accounts. This led to some people following the

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account that were not a part of the targeted audience. Of the four posts made on the platform, the
top post had only 20 engagements.
Sprout Socials Presentation of Analytics of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
SproutSocial.com was used in order to obtain and organize the analytics from the social
media pages. The way Sprout Social displayed the analytics in an organized and understandable
format made it very easy to evaluate the analytics (see Appendix M). It was a crucial piece in
understanding impressions by gender and location, total engagement of posts, and recognizing
trends of activity of the social media accounts.
Google Analytics
Through Google Analytics the bloggers were able to determine how many page views,
sessions and lengths, organic traffic, and bounce rate. The site received 555 total page views in
the week and half it was operating. This number is pleasing considering how much time the site
was running and the amount of articles (11) posted during that time. There were 322 total
sessions on the site with each session lasting around one minute and 19 seconds. The bounce rate
for the site was at 76.09% which is not bad considering that the bounce rate organic traffic to the
site was 42.86%. The bloggers also found that the sites traffic was largely coming from users on
mobile devices or tablets. Of the 322 sessions held on the site, 236 of them were from mobile or
tablet traffic. The bounce rate of these users was up above the site average reaching 84.32%.
Based on these numbers, the bloggers thought that if the site had been launched earlier there
would be more results to draw conclusions on how successful the site was.
Limitations

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WordPress was selected to host the site because of its easy navigation and the
Sportsline theme could be applied to it. However, when the bloggers were trying to update the
theme and work on the site it resulted in a mistake from the writers which led to the crashing of
the blog site. With limited knowledge of WordPress the journalists had to contact a web
developer in order to solve the problem. The web developer was referenced through a fellow
peer and he helped set things up for the site on his own time. Money was the other limitation.
The bloggers did not have a large budget. The money they did have was spent on the theme and
the domain. If money was not a limitation, they couldve had paid this web developer or a web
developer and been a first priority which ultimately, helps with timing.
Time also became a limitation. The writers were not able to launch the site at the original
date they wanted to which put them behind on their calendar. Launching the site at an earlier
point could have made it possible to attract more of an audience, produce more stories, and post
more social media content.
Conclusion
Blog sites have an opportunity to develop a social media presence and attract an
audience. In todays world, social media is key in obtaining a following for a certain or particular
audience. Social media is also used as a tool to report news in various forms as it occurs.

The bloggers used the theoretical underpinning of Media Richness Theory as a basis for

research. Media Richness Theory explains why the writers decided that face-to-face interviews
were most effective in obtaining information from sources. Both of the journalists preferred a
richer medium in order to observe the social and bodily cues that go along with verbal
communication.

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In conclusion, the answer to the projects research question, Can the use of social media

help attract an audience for a blog site? is yes. This blog site/project gained followers on its
social media accounts and the website while bringing a different aspect and providing a unique
voice to Spring Hill College sports. Although the site was successful in gaining an audience, it is
important to point out the question: How much more of a following or audience couldve the site
brought if it was launched earlier?
Reflection
At the finish line of Senior Seminar, we can say this has been the most rewarding course
so far. This project has taught us how to build an online presence and an audience. Also, we have
learned how to evaluate Twitter analytics, Facebook insight, and Sprout Social analytics. This
project has provided us with experience that we can now showcase in our portfolio to future
employers.
This course taught us to value time management and deadlines. During this project, some
of our original ideas failed and some deadlines were not met. If we had to do this project again,
we wouldve launched the blog site earlier. We believe that if the site was up for a longer time it
couldve been possible to attract more of an audience as well as engagement.
We were in control of the website ourselves and truly enjoyed being able to make decisions on
our own and as a team. When we saw the interactions we were getting on social media and the
visits we were getting to our site in such a short amount of time, we were extremely happy with
our work.

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Reference List
Apuzzo, R. (2014, October 20). Social Media User Statistics & Age Demographics for 2014.
Bivens, R. (2014). Digital Currents: How Technology and the Public are Shaping TV News (p.
227). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Daft, R. L., & Lengel, R. H. (1983, May). Information Richness: A New Approach to
Managerial Behavior and Organization Design (TR-ONR-DG-02). Retrieved from
Department of Management Texas A&M University website:
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a128980.pdf
Daft, R. L., & Lengel, R. H. (1988, August). The Selection of Communication Media as an
Executive Skill. Academy of Management Executive, II(3), 225-232. Retrieved from
https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/cctp-505fall2008/files/2008/09/selectionofcommunicationmedia.pdf
De Wolk, R. (2001). Introduction to Online Journalism: Publishing News and Information (p.
97). Boston, Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon.
Duggan, M., Ellison, N., Lampe, C., Lenhart, A., & Madden, M. (2015, January 9). Social Media
Update 2014.
Giles, D. (2003). Media Psychology. Mahwah, N.J.: Routledge.
Golf around the world 2015. (2015). Retrieved from
http://www.randa.org/en/RandA/News/News/2015/March/~/media/RandA/Downloads
and Free Publications/2015/Golf Around the World 2015.ashx
Gunter, B. (2003). News and the Net. Mahwah, N.J.: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
Ingram, D., Henshall, P., & Browne, B. (1991). The News Manual Vols. 1-3. Retrieved from
http://www.thenewsmanual.net/index.htm

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Khan, J. (2015, March 6). 7 Effective Ways to Increase Your Social Media Traffic and
Conversions. Retrieved from https://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/social-mediamarketing/7-effective-ways-to-increase-your-social-media-traffic-and-conversions/
Patel, N. (2013, December 6). How to Increase Your Twitter Engagement by 324%. Retrieved
from https://www.quicksprout.com/2013/12/06/how-to-increase-your-twitterengagement-by-324/
Patel, N. (2014, January 10). How to Increase Your Facebook Engagement by 275%. Retrieved
from https://www.quicksprout.com/2014/01/10/how-to-increase-your-facebookengagement-by-275/
Social Networking Fact Sheet. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/factsheets/social-networking-fact-sheet/
World Rankings. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.worldrugby.org/rankings

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Appendices
Appendix A- Chad LeBlancs signature for permission
Appendix B- The Badger Report logos
Appendix C- Website screenshots
Appendix D- Website errors
Appendix E- Jersey graphics
Appendix F- Contributors story
Appendix G- How to create a new page on the website
Appendix H- How to add a new post and select a featured image
Appendix I- Social media campaign posts
Appendix J- Social media profile page screenshots
Appendix J- How to take photos or videos on Twitter
Appendix L- Top Tweets
Appendix M- Sprout Social analytics of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram
Appendix N- Twitter analytics
Appendix O- Google analytics Analytics Academy
Appendix P- WordFence live traffic report
Appendix Q- Facebook insight
Appendix R- Google analytics

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Appendix A- Chad LeBlancs signature for permission

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Appendix B- The Badger Report logos

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Appendix C- Website screenshots

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Appendix D- Website errors

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Appendix E- Jersey graphics

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Appendix F- Contributors story

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Appendix G- How to create a new page on the website

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Appendix H- How to add a new post and select a featured image

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Appendix I- Social media campaign posts

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Appendix J- Social media profile page screenshots

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Appendix K- How to take photos or videos on Twitter

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Appendix L- Top Tweets

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Appendix M- Sprout Social analytics of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram

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Twitter

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Facebook

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Instagram

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Appendix N- Twitter analytics

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Appendix O- Google analytics Analytics Academy

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Appendix P- WordFence live traffic report

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Appendix Q- Facebook insight

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Appendix R- Google analytics

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