Running head: IMPROVING THE PLATFORM OF BRYANT UNIVERSITY FIELD HOCKEY 1

Improving the Platform of Bryant University Field Hockey

Client: Bryant University Field Hockey
Name of Consultancy: DMF Consulting
Consultants: Leyna DiMarco, Amanda Moss, Grace Farrell
November 13, 2017
Bryant University

Abstract
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Over the past few years social media has become the primary form of communication. Platforms

such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are necessary tools for organizations and growing

businesses to utilize in order to reach a broad demographic of clientele. An increasing number of

collegiate programs have started using social media platforms to educate their fans on

information surrounding their programs and players. Throughout the continued report, DMF

Consulting works with the Bryant University Field Hockey program to revamp and establish an

Instagram account that creates a stronger domestic and national brand awareness. Bryant Field

Hockeys mission is to market the program professionally in order to attract a larger fan base,

potential recruits and to keep parents and friends up to date with the latest news. Bryant

University Field Hockey faced numerous challenges. Bryant University and NCAA social media

regulations constrained the types of posts that were permitted on the Instagram. The Bryant

University Communications Coordinator, who is in charge of all athletic platforms, was not

posting the highest quality pictures. After reviewing the clients goals and challenges, DMF

Consulting built a plan to help the program. For the past three months, DMF consulting has

implemented numerous social media strategies into the BUFH program. We concluded, by

aligning the clients goals with DMFs strategies we were able to increase followers, post higher

quality pictures and create a surge of interesting and informative content.

Table of Contents
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Title Page.......1

Abstract..2

Introduction4

Analysis5-10

Conclusion....1

Recommendations...12-14

References15

Exhibits...16-17

Introduction
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DMF Consulting is a group of three collegiate Division I athletes who have exceptional

experience working on numerous social media platforms that represent personal accounts,

business accounts and athletic program accounts. Our goal is to help improve the current state of

media platforms in hopes to increase brand awareness and success. DMF Consulting believes in

getting to know the client on a deeper level to help maximize results by truly tailoring the social

media platforms to who they are and what they want to represent.

The Bryant University Field Hockey program was founded in 1996. Almost ten years

later, in 2008, the program was transformed into a Division I team. Over the years, their program

has grown in all departments. In 2016 the team gained a new weight room, an indoor facility and

a new athletic training room. The team now consists of eighteen women, and a brand new highly

qualified coaching staff. Most importantly, their social media platforms are currently being

controlled by Matt Gringras. Matt Gringras is Bryant University's Athletic Communications

Coordinator.

For the past three months, DMF Consulting has extensively worked with the Bryant

University Field Hockey program to improve the current state of their Instagram account.

Although DMF Consulting is focusing directly on their Instagram account, we have seen positive

results throughout all of their platforms (See Exhibit 1). By focusing on the quality of pictures,

interesting content and frequent posts, DMF has been able to increase following and brand

awareness for Bryant University Field Hockey.

Analysis
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The purpose of this project is to increase the effectiveness of the Bryant University Field
Hockeys Instagram in order to market the program in the best way possible. By increasing the
quality of photos, uploading engaging content, and improving wordiness of captions, followings
and program awareness will be maximized.

In order to better understand the challenges of social networking, it is important to

develop concepts built upon social research, (Lipschultz, 2017). Over the span of three months,

DMF Consulting conducted some social research of its own, doing formal and informal

interviews with the parents, players and Bryant Athletics staff members. A wide variety of

answers ranged in our line of questioning.

As Bryant Field Hockey develops as a program, our overall goal is to market the program
the best that we can to attract a larger fan base, potential recruits and keep parents and
friends of players up to date with the latest BUFH news.
(M. Gingras, personal communication, October 5, 2017).

Being a player from the Netherlands, I love going on Instagram and seeing what my
favorite club teams are doing back home, and they video all of the fun drills they do at
practice! I think our Instagram should have more videos of the drills we do at practice, to
show people how hard we work and also give international women a sense of what it is
like to play Division I field hockey in the States. We have to think so much bigger than
New England!
(F. Van Dommelen, personal communication, September 4, 2017).

As a parent, you always want to go on the Bryant Field Hockey Instagram and see your
kid on there. I miss the fact that I cant see my daughter everyday, so to go online and
see that shes having fun in Rhode Island while our family is here in Jersey, its
awesome. I think you guys (DMF Consulting) should keep on doing the player features
when you go visit each persons home state. I would like to see more game footage on
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the Instagram or highlights when players score a goal. Sometimes the captions are a bit
wordy and I dont understand what they mean.
(J.Luttrell, personal communication, November 1, 2017).

After recommendations, critique and some compliments, DMF Consulting realized

BUFHs Instagram account had some big expectations to fill. With over 500 followers and

counting, bryantbulldogsfh was a username that needed to uphold its promise to our social

community. Parents want to see their children shine, athletes want to make the Instagram fun

and relatable, and most importantly DMF Consulting wants to advertise Bryant University Field

Hockey to younger females to attract a strong recruiting class and strengthen the program as a

whole.

DMF Consulting wanted to begin with a cross-analysis between some of the best field

hockey programs in the country, and field hockey programs within the MAAC conference to

compare and contrast media platforms. What were these field hockey teams sharing on their

Instagram that was successful? What can Bryant Field Hockey learn from these posts?

We first analyzed the Stanford Field Hockey Instagram. Stanford Field Hockey has

16,100 followers, the highest following rate of any Division I field hockey program. The

account even has a blue check next to the username, meaning that Instagram has confirmed

that this is an authentic account, typically with a large following base. What distinguishes

Stanford from other field hockey media platforms is the outstanding photography. Every action

shot or video that has been posted to the Instagram has been touched by professional

photographers and editors. Their videos will often include pump-up music for their next home

game, encouraging fans to come out to the stadium and watch a game.

Stanford takes a very simple approach to writing social media captions,. Most of their

captions are no more than 30 words and are highly stylized. The hashtag #BURN is included in
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almost every post. #BURN is Stanfords team motto this year, hoping to burn the competition

with their speed, athleticism and high level of competitive field hockey. If an Instagram user

were to search accounts by hashtag, Stanford field hockey would pop up on the national explore

page under the #BURN, attracting a ton of followers through direct search. Hashtags are

unique in its ability to tie up all public conversations contributed by various users and make it

available in a single stream. To locate any conversation, you have three options to click on the

hashtag, search for a hashtag or use a monitoring tool that can be obtained from a third party,

(Lipschultz, 2017). DMF Consulting understands the power a single hashtag has in the

Instagram social sphere, and would encourage the team to think of a one word motto for this

coming spring season and use it as a hashtag on all of their team photos and videos.

Stanford has a combination of game photos, videos of the women scoring game-winning

goals, silly activities they will do during practice to lighten the mood, and photos of their travel

to play other teams. DMF Consulting believes that while Bryant may not have the budget to hire

professional photographers for every game or practice, we can ask the Bryant Athletic

Communications Department for game film to highlight on our Instagram page. The analysis on

Stanford Field Hockey was clear; the Instagram has a good media mix of videos, boomerangs,

solid captions and hashtags, actions shots and team activities; all features Bryant can try to

incorporate in the near future.

Monmouth Field Hockey was the next team DMF Consulting studied. Monmouth is in

Bryants Conference, the MAAC, and has a very similar budget to the BUFH program. The

New Jersey based team has 952 followers, a goal that DMF Consulting believes Bryant Field

Hockey is able to achieve by the summer of 2018. Monmouth hires one professional

photographer, Jack Flaherty, to come to home games and take action shots of the women during
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the game. Flaherty has a unique style of photography, in that mainly all of the photos he takes is

of the athletes jumping in the air after a goal. This unique method gives Monmouths Instagram

an action-packed theme, making followers excited to scroll through the page. It is also a brilliant

method because not many other field hockey programs conveys that they won a game with

women jumping a few feet in the air with such elation. Another feature DMF wanted to learn

from Monmouth was the singular shot. Monmouths brand is centered around athletes in the

zone during a game. Only one woman takes up the entire high quality photo, and the

background is blurred so the viewer can focus on the womans athleticism.

Monmouths writing style was different than Stanfords. The Monmouth Hawks often

prefer a longer, more descriptive caption to allow followers to fully comprehend what the team is

doing. One photo posted on May 15 described the Hawks upcoming trip to Italy. Coaches

have their passports ready for the big trip tomorrow! (Hopefully the team does too) Make sure

to follow us and Monmouth Digital Network on twitter for more photos, highlights and videos

during our trip through Europe! #HawksOverSeas (Monmouth Field Hockey, 2017). While

longer captions may not always be a preferred method on abbreviated social media, DMF

concluded this longer caption was necessary in order to properly explain what the team was

about to experience. The #HawksOverSeas hashtag was utilized throughout the entirety of the

trip, once again highlighting the importance of a well-used hashtag. The analysis of

Monmouths Instagram page was necessary because due to funding, budget and social media

capability, this level of professionalism is an attainable goal in the near future for the Bryant

Instagram.

DMF Consulting finally set out to mimic some of the good quality posts and writing

styles of the aforementioned teams we analyzed. One of the first issues we needed to set straight
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was talking to our client Matt Gingras. Matt is outstanding at computer graphics and editing.

However, being that this is his first year at Bryant, he was a little timid and did not understand

the importance of high quality and up close photos at games and practices. Matt would take

pictures from very far away on his iPhone, which often made the photos pixelated and dark. All

18 women would be in a single post, and the shot would be taken from about 20 feet away, not

allowing any viewers to distinguish faces in the shot. After consulting with DMF, Matt agreed

that he would continue to post graphics for a player's birthday, stats of a game and features, but

agreed to leave the live action game photos in the hands of Bryant Universitys professional

photographer David Silverman.

Silverman captured high quality photos, and even blurred out the background to focus on

the athlete in the photo, just like Monmouth had accomplished. These photos resulted in some of

Bryants recent most liked photos on the Instagram, and gave the account a very professional

touch. DMF Consulting quickly realized the field hockey team did a pre-game dance before

every game in the locker room, and decided to capture this on video to share with followers. The

women did a short thirty-second choreographed dance, and this video went field hockey viral.

The Bryant Field Hockey Instagram exploded with likes and views, reaching over 1,650 views in

just 1 week. This short video exemplified that while Division I athletes train, practice and play

serious, there is always a large appetite for fun times that people really enjoy watching. It was

very unique for other coaches to comment saying how they wanted their players to do something

similar.

Bryant Field Hockeys writing style continues to vary. At times, the team uses brief

captions like Stanford. On September 22nd, BUFH posted Fear the Dawgs. Bryant takes on

UVM @ 4pm on Goldberger Family Field (Bryant Field Hockey, 2017). This type of writing is
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10

brief and informative, with a caption that tells the reader the time, the place and the team they are

playing in very few words. In other photos, a longer caption and explanation is needed. On

November 3rd, BUFH posted Not following us on Twitter? Yesterday, sophomore Floor Van

Dommelen from Berg en Dal Netherlands was named First Team All-MAAC. Junior Victoria

Newbill from Wilton Maine and Senior Keighan Richardson from North Attleboro

Massachusetts were honored with Second Team Selections. Congratulations Bulldogs!, (Bryant

Field Hockey, 2017).

This longer caption allows readers to comprehend the level of award achieved, and

highlighting the fact that three Bulldogs were selected for athletic awards. DMF Consulting also

recognizes this caption because the first line Not following us on Twitter? is a teaser headline

to encourage fans to get the latest updated news on the Bryant Field Hockey Instagram account.

By mentioning where the women are from, followers of BUFH understand that Bryant Field

Hockey recruits from all over the country, and all over the world. This posts writing is efficient

and effective for recruiting diverse women who want to attain athletic awards and play at a

higher level.
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Conclusion

DMF Consulting is forecasting that if Bryant Field Hockey continues to study the

Instagram pages of highly publicized teams, along with teams in the conference, and continue to

actively follow club teams and high school teams, they can gain over 900 followers by the

summer of 2018. By incorporating high-quality action shots, personal player photos, fun videos

and team travel, Bryant Field Hockey Instagram page can be an effective tool for recruiting new

talent, attracting a larger fan base and keeping parents, players, friends of players and the Bryant

community up to date with the latest BUFH news.

As mentioned in the beginning part of the analysis, in order to understand social

networking, it is important to always conduct social research. DMF Consulting has learned

throughout the course of the project that merely posting pictures does not mean the content is

exciting or engaging to increase followers and gain an audience. DMF Consulting searched for

improvements, and by interviewing players, parents and staff, we were able to build the field

hockey community and work with the constructive criticism to formulate and improve the

platform of Bryant University Field Hockey.

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Recommendations

After researching and writing an extensive report on the social media layout of Bryant

Field Hockey, DMF Consulting has three recommendations. Our first recommendation is that

Bryant continue to work very hard at maintaining a level of professional posts, good format and

writing style. DMF recommends that Bryant Field Hockey utilize a style sheet, and the general

rules are as follows:

1.) For an Instagram caption on game-day: the time, name of opposing team, and name of
field must be included.
2.) Bryant Field Hockey players are always referred to as women, not girls. If possible,
Dawgs (team mascot) should be used to be more gender neutral.
3.) When using a solo shot of an athlete, her full name, class year and where she is from
must always be used.
4.) All photos must be taken using the rule of thirds. Photos should be taken at appropriate
length depending on the style of the shot, if a viewer can not recognize a face because it
is too far away, the post will be deleted.
5.) Cursing in captions or videos is strictly prohibited.
6.) Hashtags are highly encouraged, DMF recommends the team come up with a team motto
they would like to use as a hashtag throughout the year.
7.) Photos of athletes performing off the field are just as important as on the field. Be sure to
highlight academic achievements, and involvement within the community.

By providing a broad set of guidelines to follow, people who control the Instagram

account for years to come will be following the same set of rules. DMF Consulting did not want

to set a rule in place about the length of a caption, because we realize some photos need a longer

explanation. DMF Consulting will check in with Bryant Field Hockey Instagram frequently to

ensure all rules are being followed and their Instagram maintains a level of professionalism.

Our second recommendation is something called paid content. Instagram uses the same

powerful advertising tools as Facebook. That way, you can set up, run and track campaigns the

same way you do with Facebook ads, (Instagram Business, 2017). Instagram teaches their

followers step by step how to attract a larger fan base, certainly something that Bryant Field
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Hockey hopes to do. Paid content is the why and how the Stanford Field Hockey team has

so many followers. Users are asked to create a business page and profile, in this case field

hockey is the business. Instagram states that individuals must have a Facebook Page to run ads

and create a free business profile on Instagram. Next, users select their ad objective, target

audience and ad format within Ads Manager or Power Editor, two systems that are very useful

for creating flashy graphics. Then, account managers must determine a budget and decide how

long their ads should run and what budget they are comfortable with spending. Finally, users

may publish their ads on Instagram. Individuals get a notification when the ads are approved and

ready to run, (Instagram Business, 2017).

Here is the catch: followers do not even realize they are looking at ads. Instagram

bypasses the ad notification so people do not quickly scroll away from the photo or video,

thinking it is just another annoying advertisement. When Instagram tracks what people follow,

these ads have a high probability of popping up on the persons explore page, giving the

organization a higher chance that people will follow them. So for instance, if a young high

school girl was looking at Olympic field hockey players Instagram photos, videos of drills she

can try at home, paid content allows Stanford Field Hockey to automatically pop up on the

explore page, so this girl will find the account and follow them, even if she was not directly

searching for them. Paid content can be pricey, however this gives Bryant Field Hockey an edge

over the competition like Stanford has already done.

Our last recommendation is a Photo of the Day challenge. (See Exhibit 2). Photo of

the Day allows the Bryant Field Hockey team to showcase their personal interests in a time when

they really do not have a lot of content to post because it is offseason. The calendar in

November is called the Thankful For calendar. Each day, a different woman on the team will
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post a picture of what she is thankful for in her life. Some will be photos that are more silly, like

a Snapchat filter. Other photos give the viewers an inside peek of these athletes lives, like My

Parents! day. While maintaining a level of professionalism and witty captions, DMF

Consulting believes that the Photo of the Day challenge will increase viewer attention, especially

if they notice that the Instagram account will be posting everyday.

At the conclusion of this report, DMF Consulting has conducted thorough research,

cross-analysis of other field hockey teams across the country and studied tools on social media to

make the content more professional and engaging. If Bryant University Field Hockey wants to

excel as a program, they now realize the power and influence social media has on their personal

brand.
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References

Bryant Field Hockey. (2017, September 22). Fear the Dawgs. Bryant takes on...[Instagram post].

Retrieved November 7, 2017, from https://instagram.com/bryantbulldogsfh

Bryant Field Hockey. (2017, November 3). Not following us on Twitter? Yesterday...[Instagram post].

Retrieved November 7, 2017, from https://instagram.com/bryantbulldogsfh

Instagram Business. (n.d.). Retrieved November 6, 2017, from https://business.instagram.com/

Lipschultz, J. H. (2017). Social media communication: concepts, practices, data, law and ethics (2nd

ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Monmouth Field Hockey. (2017, May 15). Coaches have their passport ready for...[Instagram post].

Retrieved November 1, 2017, from https://instagram.com/monmouthfh

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Exhibit 1: