Typically, we use this blog to discuss strategies and initiatives launched by the #UMSocial central social media team. However, it is worth noting that our University has many departments and units that use social media and run great campaigns! We plan to begin featuring more of these initiatives in order to shed light on all of the truly innovative things happening behind the scenes in social media throughout our University.

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On July 2, the @umichfootball Twitter handle went private to host an online VIP event with giveaways, Q&As with players, and contests. The event ran for a mere 9 hours, and yielded a 849% increase in week-over-week follower increase, and #GoBlueVIP was trending worldwide in only 32 minutes.

With only a seven-day window of promotion, the team at Michigan Athletics chose to run this stunt during a low-volume news period for Michigan Football, geared towards follower acquisition and promoting a sense of exclusivity for their followers. They also hoped to use the promotion excitement to lead into the Michigan Football “Countdown to Kickoff” platform, which will launch August 1st.

During the event, fans answered a series of trivia questions for a chance to win a pair of tickets to a game at the Big House, and were able to tweet in questions to OL Taylor Lewan, QB Devin Gardner, and coach Jeff Hecklinkski using dedicated hashtags. The three hashtags were used a combined 1490 times throughout the event.

Overall, the event was wildly successful for Michigan Athletics. #GoBlueVIP was mentioned 16,719 times. @umichfootball gained 8,092 followers during a 7-day period.

Jordan Maleh, Director, Digital Marketing offered his insight on the campaign:

“Clearly, #GoBlueVIP was a social media stunt, and to be completely transparent, expectations were relatively modest when first launched.  By no means were there expectations of #GoBlueVIP becoming a worldwide trending topic, and consistently a United States trending topic throughout the day, but with the inclusion of high value rewards to participate and the timely positioning of content, Michigan Football fans expressed why they are the No. 1 fans in the country.”

Thank you to Jordan, and the Michigan Athletics team for providing us with an inside look to #GoBlueVIP. Wherever You Go, Go Blue!