Emojis, and pictures, and funny captions, oh my! In the world of sport updates, stats and winning streaks often garnish a majority of attention.The Tiger emoji has a newfound popularity on Instagram with DePauw University athletic teams' increased social media activity, showing a whole new, personal side to their program.
According to Athletic Director Stevie Baker-Watson, a handful of teams have become more active on social media, Instagram in particular. The women’s basketball team has been posting current students talking about their experiences, which promotes the DePauw experience to prospective students. Likewise, the women’s lacrosse team showcases athletes by posting on each players birthday.
One recent post on @depauwwlax’s Instagram wished a happy birthday to sophomore Grace Clark, a transfer student.“Not even starting practice yet and already being recognized on the team’s social media says a lot about DePauw and the women’s lacrosse program,” Clark said. “It makes me even more excited to start practice.”
However, the teams listed above are only a few teams that have taken to the internet. Since taking over the field hockey program, Lauren Thomas has also taken over the Instagram. Her increased content was accompanied by an additional seven followers a day during pre-season training. Currently, @depauwfieldhockey has over 450 followers and more than 130 posts. “People like to see things rather than read things,” Thomas said.
The field hockey’s posts are directed towards current athletes, their families and potential recruits. Likewise, the content ranges from training, to athlete shoutouts and to team activities. “It’s very much so to keep the team excited and active,” Thomas said. “But also good insight for recruits to be able to see, ‘If I were to be a part of the DePauw field hockey team, what would my day-to-day life be like?’ We also have parents liking things as well as younger sisters and younger brothers.”
Similar to field hockey’s online presence, the men and women’s cross country and track program has taken to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. @depauwxctf’s Instagram has almost 700 instagram posts and upwards of 450 followers along with over 600 followers on Twitter.
However, there is a method to the madness: “The target audience on Facebook is mostly for our parents and alumni to stay up to date with everything that goes on,” Assistant Coach Stu Newstat said. “Twitter and Instagram is used to give recruits an idea of what our team is like and to showcase our current student athletes. We use social media to create an online personality for the program.”
Baker-Watson labeled game-stat and score content as “regular commentary,” and it can often be found on Facebook or Twitter. The utilization of Instagram that many teams have started to take advantage of gives a more personal profile on the team and program that game stats cannot provide. “Your color commentators is all of us,” Baker-Watson said. “ We fill in the gaps so that way, people understand what it’s like. We use social media a lot for information purposes. Not so much to tell people what the score is, but what the feeling is in that moment in time.”
While game updates and stats are important, at the core of every program is a team whose culture cannot be reflected in these numbers. Instagram provides a unique platform for athletes to be recognized for both athletic and personal accomplishments, as well as, show onlookers who the team is. Thomas reflects, “As long as we continue to use Instagram, I think it will only draw more attention.”