The Beast : Socially Networking

Today was a blast. It was The U’s first ever Social Media Day and from my perspective, an overwhelming success.The brainchild of Associate Athletic Director Chris Freet, Social Media Day had lofty goals and accomplished all of them.

From the eight o’clock hour when old/new offensive line coach Art Kehoe took his seat in front of the camera to the 10pm when the Canes’ baseball game against Rutgers wrapped up, it was all about The U. A special day full of fun and entertaining interaction with the cast of characters that makes UM go.

As I tweeted yesterday, a bunch of NCAA institutions just got leapfrogged by ‘The U’ when it comes to fan interaction.

The most remarkable thing about that statement is that a year ago, this athletic department lagged so far behind when it came to this sort of interaction. As mentioned often last year, it seemed UM had forgotten that at day’s end it was in the customer service industry and the only thing this fan base had to go on was wins and losses, which doesn’t bode well when you’re dropping almost as many games as you’re winning.

With this new approach, fans get to a point where they feel they know the players, coaches staff members and have more of a vested interest in the program. Wins and losses are equally as important, but by understanding the process and knowing those involved, there’s less reason to be out for blood every time there’s a loss. More transparency makes for less conspiracy theories.

When I launched allCanes Radio last fall, I often talked about the amount of stories not getting told by the mainstream media because and thankfully I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. When talking to our associate athletic director on this week’s edition of allCanes Radio and discussing the ins and outs of Social Media Day, I realized that the athletic department was ready to roll up their sleeves, fighting the good fight.

One thing to build on for next year’s Social Media Day; the ability to stream the action on your iPhone or iPad. I know the difficulties of catering to that one segment of the smart phone and tablet crowd, but with Apple’s market share what it is, I would assume that this time in 2012 that’s something the folks at UM will have worked out.

For those of you who were dialed in for Social Media Day, what did you learn that you didn’t already know before? What would you have done differently? This is definitely the time to speak out because as we’re seeing, UM is getting proactive in this area and the constructive criticism is needed if this event will be bigger and better next year. Comment away.

IN OTHERS NEWS : Props to the women’s basketball team … literally … as the team flew to Boston in a prop plane for their showdown against the Eagles last week. Evidently their charter jet was hit by a fuel truck the day before and the only available option was a prop plane. The trip wound up taking six hours, including a stop to refuel. Thankfully the Canes still got the win.

There remains no doubt in my mind that Katie Meier deserves coach of the year honors. This is a team that’s never had a winning record in the ACC and now has a shot as finishing first in conference. Even better news; this is a young squad and they’ll all return next season. Here’s to a strong finish and a great post-season run.

Regarding men’s basketball, my pal Steve Gorten from the Sun-Sentinel let us know that according to athletic director Kirby Hocutt, head coach Frank Haith will return next season – which will delight some and frustrate others.

We have high expectations as a fan base, but change isn’t always a good thing. Coach Haith undoubtedly knows what it takes and while this team has underachieved and players might not have developed as expected, the basketball program isn’t in dire straits like the football program was under Randy Shannon.

Again, this is the ACC and there are top-flight teams in conference that can afford to have McDonald’s All Americans on the bench, while Miami would love to have just one in the starting line up.

At day’s end this team fights hard and gives great effort. This year didn’t turn out as expected, but Kirby is content bringing Frank back for another year and that’s good enough for me.

Lastly, we’re getting closer to spring football, which should have us all juiced up. As we head in that direction, let us know any ideas you have regarding guests for allCanes Radio. I’d like to do some meet and greets during spring ball and maybe we can meet up to talk Canes and grab a beer at the Titanic. Until then, Go Canes!

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