USFS' Social Media Strategy

[dorispulaski]

Yes, but if it was on twitter only and the USFSA website, it is pretty much lost in the flow of everything else.

Bottom line, in a week, they reached 33 people. If you take out Marissa and Mervin's close friends and family members, it would be, of course, smaller. They need to improve their social media strategy.

 

[ice coverage]

Yes, but if it was on twitter only and the USFSA website, it is pretty much lost in the flow of everything else.

Bottom line, in a week, they reached 33 people. If you take out Marissa and Mervin's close friends and family members, it would be, of course, smaller. They need to improve their social media strategy.

Doris, you are not giving a fair picture. The view count visible on YT is a drop in the proverbial bucket of how many total views the series is getting. Please note:

(1) USFS published Mervin/Marissa's video YESTERDAY, Oct 31. Not a week ago. See the date-stamp on the YouTube page.

(2) sabinfire previously has informed us that the actual number of YT views always is higher than the view count that is visible to the public on the YT page. sabinfire knows b/c of his experience as prolific uploader of videos on YT.

(3) USFS did NOT promote the videos only on Twitter. USFS published Facebook videos as well for all three of the episodes so far.

The FACEBOOK videos of this series are getting THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of views.​

Links to the Facebook videos:

https://www.facebook.com/usfigureskating/videos/10153244912111342/ Mervin/Marissa, 3430 views and counting, published Oct 31
https://www.facebook.com/usfigureskating/videos/10153242158271342/ Adam Rippon, 7010 views and counting, published Oct 29
https://www.facebook.com/usfigureskating/videos/10153229943481342/ Mariah Bell, 8335 views and counting, published Oct 22​

(4) USFS did promote the videos by embedding them in tweets as well.

Not sure, but if the videos are viewed within the tweet, I would venture to guess that those views are not included in the view count shown on the YT page.

https://twitter.com/USFigureSkating/status/660592864234074113 (Mervin/Marissa, not even 24 hours ago)
https://twitter.com/USFigureSkating/status/659878671465910272 (Adam Rippon, Oct 29)
https://twitter.com/USFigureSkating/status/657209924473085953 (Mariah Bell, Oct 22)​

(5) The Mervin/Marissa video currently is embedded on the home page of http://www.usfigureskatingfanzone.com/.

(Maybe that is where you originally saw it?)
Not sure, but I would venture to guess that the views of the embedded video are not included in the view count shown on the YT page.​

(6) The episodes of this series obviously are part of the USFS promotional push for each GP and for its skaters at each GP.

So, yes, USFS -- to its credit, IMO -- also is actively promoting the GPs (and Challenger series) in other ways at the same time that it is releasing episodes of this series.
The timing is deliberate, and I expect that we'll see USFS publish at least one new episode next week to promote Cup of China as well as its own skater(s) at Cup of China. Etc., etc.​

---

p.s. Lest anyone wonder, I do know that it is customary for the female partner's name to come before the male partner's.
Although I normally follow that order, I make an exception for Mervin .

 

[dorispulaski]

Possibly.
But we at GS are as rabid fans as there are.

And we only heard about the series after 3 installments. And I only noticed this vid when I looked up Marissa and Mervin's FS and this interview showed up in my youtube suggested for you list.

But if they wanted to do a better job, they could:

Feature it on icenetwork by doing an article to kick off the series, prior to SKAm. And not buried in some weekly roll up throwaway either. Feature it.

Send GS a note when the series is coming up. We could do a story or start a thread.

Have a volunteer start a thread at FSU.

Start the. series with someone most fans want to hear about. Check our fan fests. Or check US team members' twitters and instagrams. One of the team members with high numbers of followers should be the one used to kick off a series. Frankly, while I like them, Mariah Bell, Castelli & Tran, and Adam Rippon should not be their leadoffs.

At Skam, they had the choice of fan favs to talk about, Jason and Gracie. They picked Bell.
They had World silver medallists Chock and Bates. They picked Bell.
They had US champions Scimeca and Knierim. They picked Bell.

Why?

If they wanted to do Bell, to introduce her, that's ok, a worthy goal, but they could have, of course, gone with 2 releases at the same time to make sure someone actually saw these vids.

Nope.

If they needed to interview Colorado folk for convenience sake, they could have added Scimeca & Knierim or Jason.

Nope

Meanwhile at SC, they went with Castelli & Tran and Adam. OK, but why not ASHLEY??? And more, why not internet senseis, the ever-lovable SHIBSIBS?

If they led from strength, instead of from weakness, they could have popularized the series, and those who liked the interview quality (which was good in the C&T interview anyway), might actually know about the series and be looking for the next installment, and watch the Bell and so forth interviews .

But nope.

Better luck to USFSA next time.

 

[Mrs. P]

Sorry to :hijack: but one criticism of USFS' video efforts is that they posted a video of Tyler Pierce, but it was really out-of-date because 1.) She is no longer living in Colorado 2.) She was no longer doing either of her SP or her FS, so people who will be seeing her will be confused because her SP is not really funky or upbeat and her FS is definitely not the Nutcracker.

I'm sure not a ton of people saw it, but I did and I was surprised that nobody thought to check to make sure that the video was still relevant.

 

[dorispulaski]

Yes, I saw that, but thought I had complained loudly enough already

 

[ice coverage]

Possibly.
But we at GS are as rabid fans as there are.

And we only heard about the series after 3 installments. ...

Not true, Doris. Mariah's episode -- the first episode -- was published on Oct 22.
And on Oct 22, StitchMonkey had promptly posted the link to Mariah's episode in the Mariah fan thread.

http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?53028-Mariah-Bell&p=1251192&viewfull=1#post1251192 (post #146 of Mariah's fan thread)​

... Start the. series with someone most fans want to hear about. Check our fan fests. Or check US team members' twitters and instagrams. One of the team members with high numbers of followers should be the one used to kick off a series. Frankly, while I like them, Mariah Bell, Castelli & Tran, and Adam Rippon should not be their leadoffs.

At Skam, they had the choice of fan favs to talk about, Jason and Gracie. They picked Bell.
They had World silver medallists Chock and Bates. They picked Bell.
They had US champions Scimeca and Knierim. They picked Bell.

Why?

If they wanted to do Bell, to introduce her, that's ok, a worthy goal, but they could have, of course, gone with 2 releases at the same time to make sure someone actually saw these vids. ...

My subjective POV is that Mariah seems extremely popular among GS fans -- disproportionately so, considering her relatively limited resume to date (compared to Ashley and Gracie, for example). I think some of the reasons for Mariah's great popularity are: her skating is likeable; her personality is likeable; she is friends with the hugely popular Jason and part of the very popular Team Korocent.
In any case, more power to Mariah that she already has a large and devoted following (IMO).

As for making sure that "someone" actually saw these vids, I would say that USFS succeeded in doing so.

On Facebook alone, over 8000 "someones" have viewed Mariah's episode since Oct 22. Not too shabby, if you ask me.​

I prefer to see the glass as half full. YMMV.

 

[dorispulaski]

In PR, the glass is always half empty at best. You want to grow your brand, after all. You should always be looking at how to do better.

 

[ice coverage]

Sorry to :hijack: but one criticism of USFS' video efforts is that they posted a video of Tyler Pierce, but it was really out-of-date because 1.) She is no longer living in Colorado 2.) She was no longer doing either of her SP or her FS, so people who will be seeing her will be confused because her SP is not really funky or upbeat and her FS is definitely not the Nutcracker.

I'm sure not a ton of people saw it, but I did and I was surprised that nobody thought to check to make sure that the video was still relevant.

Via USFS social media , I was aware of the existence of the Tyler Pierce video -- but I had never clicked on it. Sorry to hear that the content was obsolete.

I will say that after noticing small-ish errors on the USFS fanzone site, I have e-mailed USFS twice within the last two weeks, and the errors have been corrected in timely fashion. So I give them points for responsiveness.

Also, it is my belief that the social media staff for USFS is quite small, and that they are stretched quite thin. (My belief, although I don't know hard numbers.)
They produced a ton of content before and during Skate America, and this week they were doing double-duty promoting both Skate Canada International and Ice Challenge.
So the Tyler Pierce gaffe is unfortunate, but I am willing to forgive them.

Anyway ... Mrs. P, I hope you can educate me for general purposes and shed light on my questions above, please:

(1) If someone views a YT video embedded within a tweet -- without clicking over to the YT site itself -- does the viewing of the embedded video within the tweet get added to the view count on the YT page? Or not?

(2) And if someone views a YT video embedded with a non-YT webpage -- without clicking over to the YT site itself -- does the viewing of the embedded video within the non-YT page get added to the view count on the YT page? Or not?​

Thanks.

---

In PR, the glass is always half empty at best. You want to grow your brand, after all. You should always be looking at how to do better.

First of all, I did not say that USFS sees the glass as half full. I said that I -- as a member of the target audience for USFS promotional efforts -- see the glass as half full.

And duhhh .... of course USFS wants to grow its brand and do better.
Why else would USFS already have introduced two new video series this year, for example?

(1) "At This Moment" - the one with episodes so far featuring Mervin/Marissa, Adam, and Mariah.

(2) "Chillin' with Team USA" -- the one with episodes so far featuring Tyler, Sean Rabbitt, Alex Johnson, Tim Dolensky, Nathan Chen, Amber Glenn, and I don't remember who else.
(Sean Rabbitt's video was published to promote that he was competing at the Autumn Classic, and I posted the link in more than one thread at the time. I even complained on GS about a typo in his last name.)​

No, USFS is not immune from errors.
But unlike you, Doris, I do not take pleasure in throwing oceans of cold water on the efforts that USFS is making.

 

[Mrs. P]

Via USFS social media , I was aware of the existence of the Tyler Pierce video -- but I had never clicked on it. Sorry to hear that the content was obsolete.

I will say that after noticing small-ish errors on the USFS fanzone site, I have e-mailed USFS twice within the last two weeks, and the errors have been corrected in timely fashion. So I give them points for responsiveness.

Also, it is my belief that the social media staff for USFS is quite small, and that they are stretched quite thin. (My belief, although I don't know hard numbers.)
They produced a ton of content before and during Skate America, and this week they were doing double-duty promoting both Skate Canada International and Ice Challenge.
So the Tyler Pierce gaffe is unfortunate, but I am willing to forgive them.

For me it was really egregious error considering she was at Ice Challenge doing completely different programs. The last thing you want to do is confuse people. Thankfully, not a ton of people watched Ice Challenge, so probably only a handful of people noticed.

That video was likely filmed while Tyler was at ISP Camp over the summer.

Even with a small crew, it's always easy to do a quick quality check. A simple "Has anything changed?" may have prevented that video from being posted.

Anyway ... Mrs. P, I hope you can educate me for general purposes and shed light on my questions above, please:

(1) If someone views a YT video embedded within a tweet -- without clicking over to the YT site itself -- does the viewing of the embedded video within the tweet get added to the view count on the YT page? Or not?

(2) And if someone views a YT video embedded with a non-YT webpage -- without clicking over to the YT site itself -- does the viewing of the embedded video within the non-YT page get added to the view count on the YT page? Or not?​

A view is a view regardless of where it's embedded. So yes, a view on a webpage or Twitter would count as an additional view for that video.

 

[sabinfire]

(2) sabinfire previously has informed us that the actual number of YT views always is higher than the view count that is visible to the public on the YT page. sabinfire knows b/c of his experience as prolific uploader of videos on YT.

A view is a view regardless of where it's embedded. So yes, a view on a webpage or Twitter would count as an additional view for that video.

Where did this come from? Looks like this discussion was pulled out of another thread, but I didn't see where it originated from.

Yes, the public view count on YouTube is always lagging behind the actual real-time estimation of views. This is especially true for 'popular' videos, ones that generated hundreds or thousands of views in a fairly short time. A lot of videos will stall at '300+' views even if they actually have 100k views. (I've never seen it that high personally, but some of my videos have a public view count stalled at '300+' when my analytics tell me the video is building thousands of views, and still counting.

YouTube/Google wants to 'verify' the authenticity of views before adding them to the public count, to avoid fraudulent or misleading numbers.

Embedded videos that originate from one external source are under much higher scrutiny by YouTube, because a person who 'views' a video embedded in another location is much more difficult to determine the legitimacy of that 'hit'. It is not uncommon for the public view counter to lag behind 24-48 hours before verifying and adding views to the counter.

Auto-play videos are not counted as views, because a person did not trigger the video to begin playing.

 

[ice coverage]

For me it was really egregious error considering she was at Ice Challenge doing completely different programs. The last thing you want to do is confuse people. Thankfully, not a ton of people watched Ice Challenge, so probably only a handful of people noticed.

That video was likely filmed while Tyler was at ISP Camp over the summer.

Even with a small crew, it's always easy to do a quick quality check. A simple "Has anything changed?" may have prevented that video from being posted.






A view is a view regardless of where it's embedded. So yes, a view on a webpage or Twitter would count as an additional view for that video.

I agree that the Tyler video error was major, although I am willing to forgive the error (see below).

As you say, the Tyler video prob. was shot at ISP Camp at the end of June. And it prob. was edited soon thereafter (before things for USFS got increasingly busy with Champs Camp, JGP Colorado Springs, the SLC Classic, the two separate parts of US Challenge Skate, etc. -- I forget the order of these events).
Then the Tyler vid intentionally was withheld from publication until her first international of the season.

I think we can reasonably assume that USFS was working long hours in Milwaukee and enduring serious sleep deprivation.
When USFS still was trying to catch its breath in the wake of Skate America, the Tyler vid slipped through the cracks and got published a couple of days ago without a light bulb going on in anyone's head at USFS that what Tyler said in June had become inoperative.

Not good.
But having lived in that kind of glass house of being completely mentally and physically drained after an intense work marathon, I will limit myself to throwing pebbles and not larger stones. I do hope that USFS will never let this type of error happen again.

Thx for your answer about video views, Mrs. P.

Where did this come from? Looks like this discussion was pulled out of another thread, but I didn't see where it originated from.

Yes, the public view count on YouTube is always lagging behind the actual real-time estimation of views. This is especially true for 'popular' videos, ones that generated hundreds or thousands of views in a fairly short time. A lot of videos will stall at '300+' views even if they actually have 100k views. (I've never seen it that high personally, but some of my videos have a public view count stalled at '300+' when my analytics tell me the video is building thousands of views, and still counting.

YouTube/Google wants to 'verify' the authenticity of views before adding them to the public count, to avoid fraudulent or misleading numbers.

Embedded videos that originate from one external source are under much higher scrutiny by YouTube, because a person who 'views' a video embedded in another location is much more difficult to determine the legitimacy of that 'hit'. It is not uncommon for the public view counter to lag behind 24-48 hours before verifying and adding views to the counter.

Auto-play videos are not counted as views, because a person did not trigger the video to begin playing.

Thanks for your extremely informative post, sabinfire .
Very good stuff to know.

This conversation originated in the fan thread for Marissa Castelli and Mervin Tran.

http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/sh...-Mervin-Tran&p=1268912&viewfull=1#post1268912 (see posts #43 and 44)​

 

[el henry]

I am afraid that I need to agree that USFS could do more with their social media strategy. I don't think this view is throwing cold water on their current efforts, or dissing those who I am sure work hard and long for little reward in the social media department. I see this view as "Jason needs a quad to medal internationally": an objective statement of fact, and it is what it is.

I think this may be result of an incoherent strategy. I don't blame them, we rabid fans argue among ourselves over the strategy. Is the strategy to:

1. Take the few "popular" skaters (relatively speaking): the Shibs, Jason, Ashley, Gracie, who else? and run with them for all they're worth ...
2. or expand the popularity of the lesser known skaters.

Me, I would go with Number One. (I think that is what Doris is arguing). Take those skaters that some people might know, for some reason, and run with them. When we start arguing about whether it is 33 visitors, or 300 visitors, or 800 visitors, we are arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. 800 views is not going to rejuvenate FS and does not a media strategy make.

These skaters work so hard for their results and give us so many beautiful programs. There must be a way to spread the good word further, without it being seen as disrespect to the folks working there now.

 

[ice coverage]

I am afraid that I need to agree that USFS could do more with their social media strategy. I don't think this view is throwing cold water on their current efforts, or dissing those who I am sure work hard and long for little reward in the social media department. I see this view as "Jason needs a quad to medal internationally": an objective statement of fact, and it is what it is.

I think this may be result of an incoherent strategy. I don't blame them, we rabid fans argue among ourselves over the strategy. Is the strategy to:

1. Take the few "popular" skaters (relatively speaking): the Shibs, Jason, Ashley, Gracie, who else? and run with them for all they're worth ...
2. or expand the popularity of the lesser known skaters.

Me, I would go with Number One. (I think that is what Doris is arguing). Take those skaters that some people might know, for some reason, and run with them. When we start arguing about whether it is 33 visitors, or 300 visitors, or 800 visitors, we are arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. 800 views is not going to rejuvenate FS and does not a media strategy make.

These skaters work so hard for their results and give us so many beautiful programs. There must be a way to spread the good word further, without it being seen as disrespect to the folks working there now.

For the record, the view count for Mariah's video is over 9000.
Over 8300 on Facebook, as I said above.
Plus 800+ on YouTube, when I looked earlier today.
... Plus based on sabinfire's explanation of YT view counts, who knows how many more are not reflected in the public view count?

I think USFS is hedging its bets and going with BOTH strategies that you mention.

USFS social media DOES take advantage of the popularity of its best-known skaters.
It has had Jason, Ashley, the Shibs, etc. "take over" its social media accounts, for example.
During Skate America, USFS social media did cover Jason and Gracie ... as well as Max, Ross, Karen, Mariah, etc., etc.

As I have said ad nauseam in other threads, USFS always can do more with its social media, and I would love to see them do more and more.

But I strongly disagree with selectively cherry-picking the beginning of one series that USFS started ten days ago -- and then citing it as "proof" (my word) that it is not actively doing other types of things as well.

Surely I am not the only one who remembers countless other GS threads that have bashed USFS for not doing more to support the careers of up-and-coming skaters.
It is maddening to me that USFS gets bashed when it does show support for lesser-known skaters.

 

[sabinfire]

... Plus based on sabinfire's explanation of YT view counts, who knows how many more are not reflected in the public view count?

Just a real-time example from today, from a Yuzu EX video I recently posted...

As of now:
http://s27.postimg.org/wndg7blf7/yuzu1.png (public counter shows 480 views)

In my analytics tool:
http://s12.postimg.org/ml98i6zz1/yuzu2.png (estimated views are over 2,500)

Sometimes you can easily tell the public counter isn't correct just based on the likes/dislikes the video has garnered... they can far exceed the number of public views!

ETA: estimated views are at 2,700 now.

 

[ice coverage]

Just a real-time example from today, from a Yuzu EX video I recently posted...

As of now:
http://s27.postimg.org/wndg7blf7/yuzu1.png (public counter shows 480 views)

In my analytics tool:
http://s12.postimg.org/ml98i6zz1/yuzu2.png (estimated views are over 2,500)

Sometimes you can easily tell the public counter isn't correct just based on the likes/dislikes the video has garnered... they can far exceed the number of public views!

ETA: estimated views are at 2,700 now.

Thx, sabinfire.

All else aside, I have been learning a lot about YouTube from you.

And thx for your Skate Canada videos .

 

[sabinfire]

All else aside, I have been learning a lot about YouTube from you.

You're welcome.

FYI (and golden411, you probably already know this, just making my own observation) -- the Facebook links to the USFS videos are auto-play, so they are not counted on the public YouTube view counter.

 

[ice coverage]

USFS published the fourth installment of the "At This Moment" video series today.
The focus of the fourth installment, pegged to TEB, is Hubbell/Donohue's SD.

Because Aaron/Settlage are in the opening animation for the series, seems likely that USFS planned to peg an installment about them to Cup of China, but held back b/c Maddie/Max had to withdraw. I hope/believe that a Maddie/Max video eventually will be published -- possibly/probably next week, when they compete in Tallinn.

Copying my post from the Madi/Zach fan thread:

Hubbell/Donohue discussed the meaning behind their SD in a USFS video published today.
It is the fourth installment of the USFS "At This Moment" series.
The 2:40 video is viewable on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

@USFigureSkating

.@MadiHubbell & @ZachTDonohue talked about the meaning behind their short dance in the latest #AtThisMoment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBfNZXfN1aA …
1:15 PM - 13 Nov 2015
https://twitter.com/USFigureSkating/status/665276768488550400​

U.S. Figure Skating

There was a lot of meaning behind Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue's short dance earlier today. Watch below as they previewed it in our latest edition of #AtThisMoment.
Nov 13
https://www.facebook.com/usfigureskating/videos/10153265564216342/​

At This Moment | Season Preview with Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue

Published on Nov 13, 2015
In Episode 4 of At This Moment, Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue preview their 2015-16 short dance.
https://youtu.be/JBfNZXfN1aA​

ETA, whoever makes the graphics for USFS needs to be more careful about typos. This video has a typo in Madison's name. ​

 

[ice coverage]

Skate America social media stats are in the December issue of Skating magazine:

http://content.yudu.com/web/y5b2/0A1uvwc/Dec2015SKATING/html/index.html?page=22 (p. 20 of the magazine)​

Impossible to copy and paste from the article. Below is a non-verbatim summary:

The official hashtag #SkateAmerica reached nearly 8 million people, with thousands contributing to the chatter.

More than 27,000 posts with the hashtag on Twitter alone.

Posts with the hashtag were delivered to Twitter timelines almost 50 million times.

Among the top ten mentioned Twitter handles were Jason, Gracie, Max.

During NBC's live broadcast, more than 2500 posts reaching one million people, as "Gracie Gold" was the second-most mentioned phrase.

"The height of the social media buzz came late Saturday night when Aaron excited the hometown crowd with his title."

More than 500,000 views for the brand-new "Uncut" series with skaters' reactions as they came off the ice.
The most popular: a special version that featured Max's reaction in the K and C to his victory.

A post-event highlight pkg reached more than 215,000 people and had more than 60,000 views within hrs of being posted.​

---

ETA, re 2015 US Nationals:

"... more than 50,000 tweets using the event hashtag #NC2015 were seen 121 million times by more than 5.5 million people at the nine-day event."

Also: USFS made "ample use" of the Greensboro Coliseum's state-of-the-art center-hung data board by featuring "live social media, Ice Desk broadcasts, and senior athletes making their own video introductions."

http://content.yudu.com/web/y5b2/0A1uvwc/Dec2015SKATING/html/index.html?page=7 (p. 5 of the magazine)​