3 Questions With … Julie Jurich, University of Pittsburgh

Julie Jurich is director of Social Media and Media Relations at the University of Pittsburgh. She recently answered 3 Questions with INFLCR:

Julie Jurich, University of Pittsburgh

1. How do you balance trying to get traditional media coverage of your programs with the need/ability to tell your own story on digital and social platforms?

I think our media relations crew does a great job getting coverage of our teams by the traditional media. We have a pretty solid balance of the traditional media coverage and telling our own stories on digital and social. Obviously it’s a bit more difficult for us being in such a pro sports city, but we all have a great relationship with our local media who work with us on getting coverage. Sometimes our stories on digital and social will spark something with the media, which is always great.

2. What are some things you are doing this year to take Pitt’s social media up a notch?

We are really trying to tell the stories of our student-athletes this year. Obviously that should always be a goal, but we’re really ramping it up this year. We launched a TV show this fall called Pitt: Beyond the Script that airs weekly on AT&T SportsNet in Pittsburgh. What’s been great with the TV show is that it’s all of our content and we can distribute on social however we’d like. We are able to pull the feature pieces to post to the team accounts and website, as well as the entire episode. A lot of our teams have also started utilizing the student-athletes for Instagram Story Takeovers, which have been really fun to watch. We’re still early in the year so I’m looking forward to see what we can continue to implement throughout the rest of the year.

3. What are some ways you coach your student-athletes about how to use social media?

Throughout the summer, the media relations department always talks about different topics to cover with the student-athletes once their back on campus so we’re all on the same page. This year we talked about tagging student-athletes and being really intentional in assisting them build their brands. We all spend a good amount of time around our teams, so they see us as a resource, which is great. At the beginning of each year, we will join in on one of the team meetings and give them the “social media talk.” We harp on the importance of representing themselves in a positive and professional manner, as well as the University, their team and family. We are constantly thinking of different ways to coach them throughout the year.  

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INFLCR is a SaaS platform for sports team properties to store, track and deliver their content across their influencer network of athletes, coaches, former athletes, media, etc. Each influencer can access their personalized gallery of content on their INFLCR mobile app, which they can use to download and share specific content to their social media platforms, with all influencer user activity tracked back to an INFLCR dashboard for the sports team properties. In its first year, INFLCR has signed and renewed software subscription partnerships with more than 20 college, high school and professional sports team properties, including iconic college sports team brands like the University of Miami Football and the University of Kentucky Men’s Basketball. For more information or to request a demo, visit http://3.80.10.35/

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