Laura Shoopman Helps Student Athletes Move Beyond-the-Net

The goal of Beyond The Net was to create a platform to help student athletes share stories and experiences close to their heart. As a student athlete myself, I have seen how consuming, draining, and exhausting it truly is. I knew that I wasn’t alone and that others are going through their own struggles. So, I created Beyond the Net to combine three things:

1. A view inside college athletics,
2. Mental health tips for college athletes and others, and
3. Faith-based content to assist during this life stage.

I also knew that the ”big names” on campus also have a life off the court – so it was important to share who they are outside of their sport and share more about them other than just being student athletes.

There were many drivers identifiable for the success of my campaign. First, parents on Facebook really pulled my campaign through. The student athletes would post the link to their article and then parents, and parents of other athletes on the same team would go crazy. I was tagged in the posts more times than not and was able to see the interaction first hand while following along on google analytics for that day. Next, Instagram growth was a consistent, positive driver of engagement. The ability to make easy-to-use links, post to the account, share stories, and have my brand visually put all together allowed for me to gain the most followers out of all my social platforms. Thirdly, my loyal Mailchimp subscribers were a consistent driver of engagement. This Mailchimp group was made up of a lot of teammates, friends from home, and my mom’s friends (who also watched me grow up, I was friends with their friends, etc). I knew that when I sent out my emails every Friday, I would have peak of engagement. Finally, the LARGEST engagement driver: student athlete features. These tapped into the featured person’s family and friends. These were the true driver of all engagement. Facebook, Instagram, and email through Mailchimp were just creating awareness of this true driver.

Demonstrated above is my supporting data for my top blog posts. Outside of my primary homepage, Izzy Schauer’s post lead the way with 739 page views. Then Riley Joe Swanson came in second with 461 page views and finally Madison Bartley’s “I am a light believer and saved” reached 371 page views. I would also like to note that many of the other articles demonstrated great success of their own. In total, I had 16 athlete features, one alumni spotlight, two guest blogs, eight mini blogs, and three thought leadership articles. What though was the major difference between all these types of articles? Student athletes and their stories helped get other people involved by automatically tapping into the circle of people that care about them. There is no way around that statement. Including other people helped this blog be successful! I guess that’s why it’s called “social” media after all!

Additionally, Instagram extremely helped my cause. It was the best social channel of all three social platforms that I used to spread my message. Here are my top three Instagram posts based off of engagement. Each of these did well on their own, but I would like to note that the Post for Campbell and Izzy were both collaboration posts. As you can see, their reach is significantly higher, as there are more likes and comments as well. I would like to point out that you can also see how many times a post has been sent to somebody. This could mean different things: somebody posted it on their Instagram story or someone sent it to a friend via DM. It’s important to understand and recognize that a post being sent is the sharing of your content which means that people are identifying with what you’re trying to share!

Furthermore, my campaign results were considerably higher than the class average; it did significantly better than my classmates. I credit that back to the design of the campaign to get others involved. I was even designated as an outlier and had to be removed from the class data set when grades were being calculated, which was rewarding to know. I especially thrived in acquiring page views and users. I also had a lot of new visitors other than just returning visitors. And as shown in Google Analytics above, you can see the high peaks of page views. The first peak comes from Izzy Schauer and the ones towards the end were Grace Evans, Madison Bartley, and Reilly Jo Swanson. The day these blogs on the student athletes were posted, the most page views were acquired, but the following day also led to a significant number of page views. I believe this is because my campaign was set up to have a ”pre-blog” post, then a post on the day of the blog, and followed by a quote from the article to post on social media. My social media posting tendencies ”sandwiched” the day that the blog was made live on the website. I did this to make the audience aware of what is to come, inform them that the post was out there, and remind them to read the blog if they haven’t already, AND IT WORKED! I was unique in this approach and it definitely paid off.

To conclude, here are some of my top key takeaways from this course and practicum:

1. I think a reoccurring theme discussed in class is planning and organizing. At times, I felt very stressed out maybe even a little overwhelmed because I had to not only run this blog, but I had to rely on other peoples schedules and willingness to help with this project. Their willingness to be vulnerable with my mission and purpose was invaluable.
2. Next, getting other people involved helps you grow, get other opinions, and round out your goals. And that’s something I want to take with me into my professional career as well. Getting other people on board, getting their families, and their friends to care about your mission is huge.
3. People want to help people, but sometimes they just don’t know how. So, make it easy for them to help you!

Thank you to the Digital Engine for this valuable learning opportunity. The Digital Engine provides valuable hands-on experience of running an inbound, organic social media campaign and website. I have enjoyed the experiences and competition within the practicum. This practicum enabled me to create a place for student athletes that I am passionate about. I plan on continuing my site for years to come to positively impact Belmont and other communities. This course is challenging, but for the students who accept the challenge, they leave with an invaluable experience, a better understanding of data analytics, and an incredible portfolio piece to show for it! Thanks again!

– Laura Shoopman

The Digital Engine sincerely appreciates Laura Shoopman and her willingness to share her testimony about her course experience. It feels great to be offering a course that doesn’t just provide applicable tools and skill sets, but joy in the form of practicum fun and relevance. The tools are important but designing a course that brings in so much excitement from the students and their new followers is incredibly fulfilling. If this hands-on course curriculum and practicum interests you, we invite you to check out our Courseware Demo or you can Contact Us to schedule a live Zoom call to explore the course experience in greater detail. We look forward to speaking with you soon. If you are still not sure yet, feel free to check out more student testimonials here.