In my first post about athletes being represented in new forms of media, I wanted to focus on the biggest new media out there, TikTok. TikTok has blown up right now with hundreds of millions of users active on the application every day. So, it is natural that universities are going to start to get in on the action when it comes to this new platform. The ability to go viral truly is unmatched on any other platform.
The first example I am going to use, is the University of Cincinnati’s football team. They have started to become very prevalent on TIkTok for one reason in particular. This is because they make extremely creative videos using a variety of tools such as video editing, expensive setups and a lot of man power.
I have worked in Arcadia’s athletics department and La Salle’s athletics department and I have not seen anything like the content they are currently putting out. What makes them so unique is the creativeness of the employees running the account. While other accounts may just post highlight clips, this account goes above and beyond others to garner hundreds of thousands of views.
Another account that has similar ideas is the Duke men’s basketball team. Their account however, focuses a lot more on the players and even the coaches. Where Cincinnati may post more edits, it doesn’t focus too much upon individual players. On Duke’s page they will focus more on the athlete and coach, trying to make the viewer like the athlete and feel a personal connection after only 15 seconds. They also show off some of the benefits that can come from being an athlete at their university. In one specific video, a student-athlete for Duke showed some of the stuff that he received for being on the team. As simple as this seems, it is one of their best performing videos, gaining over 400 thousand views. This use of the players image and benefits has worked extremely well for the team and has helped expand their own personal brand, bringing in views and more fans. All of this comes from using the image of a student-athlete and a little bit of creative editing on the part of the communications department.