The biggest event on campus (outside of graduation) is when Oswego hosts our archrivals Plattsburgh in men’s hockey. Oswego was ranked #1 in the country coming into the weekend; Plattsburgh #4. Posts on our Facebook page on the topic often earn more than 100 likes, comments on past contests and “Go Lakers!” cheers, so it’s a good time to promote a hashtag. With our usual constraints (zero budget, staffing of just me and any available interns), we picked up the banner of #ozwhiteout and ran with it.
Quick take (if you don’t want to read the whole Storify below): We were able to get the support of student TV station WTOP early, which was big. What worked best for our main Twitter outlet, @sunyoswego, was posting quality content — video, photos, score updates — others were likely to retweet. We drew a prediction from one of our most famous alums, ESPN’s Steve Levy, into the stream. And a quick raw video I hurriedly shot, edited and uploaded to our YouTube channel picked up hundreds of hits almost instantaneously. Oh, and Oswego won 3-0. Go Lakers!
Promotion of the hashtag started early, as I reached out to WTOP Sports Editor Justin Andrews, who took my class last semester.
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@jandrews89 Ha! Also, I kind of favor #ozwhiteout cuz it’s shorter.
RT @sunyoswego: The campus is abuzz over tomorrow night’s #ozwhiteout game between Oswego, #1 in the nation, and Plattsburgh, #4 nationally. Go Lakers!
Thanks to a tip from prominent alum/Laker fan Lou Borrelli, I received word the line for admission (slated to start at 4; it went a bit early) was hitting critical mass, even tho doors weren’t slated to open until 5:45. I walked the line and took a quick raw video, which I quickly ran through iMovie (for a title) and posted to our YouTube page.