The UC Riverside Athletics Department dove head first into the new media pool last year debuting a number of on-line elements to help Highlanders fans keep up with the latest UCR Athletics happenings.
"With the advent of new media, particularly new social media, we recognized the need to upgrade the manner in which we communicate with the various segments of our fan base," said UC Riverside Assistant Athletics Director for Marketing Tim Potter.
"Traditional media, particularly the pages of the Press-Enterprise, is still a vital part of what we do, but it is imperative that we stay up-to-date with new technologies so that we can increase our fan base and enhance the relationship that our fans have with our coaches and student-athletes."
It all began in late January of 2009 when the department launched gohighlanders.com—the new on-line home for each of the Highlanders' 17 intercollegiate sports. Up-to-date statistics, student-athlete and coach bios, schedules, results, downloadable media guides and more are just a click away at gohighlanders.com.
Shortly thereafter, the
Highlanders text messaging service debuted allowing fans to receive final scores, schedule updates, recruiting news and other important information directly to their cell phones.
Next to launch were two Facebook accounts—one for the department (
UCRiversideAthletics) and one for the university's mascot (
scotty.highlander)—and a twitter account (
UCR_Athletics) as the Highlanders began to embrace all that social media has to offer.
And most recently, the Highlanders launched their
Athletics E-Newsletter—a weekly synopsis of coming events and recent athletics happenings sent directly to your e-mail in-box.
Added Potter, "I would encourage all fans of UC Riverside Athletics to sign up for the UCR Athletics text messaging and E-Newsletter services on gohighlanders.com, follow UCR_Athletics on twitter, and add scotty.highlander and UCRiversideAthletics as friends on facebook.
"Not only is the information presented through these vehicles as up-to-the-minute as we can provide, but we will have special promotions throughout the year designed specifically for those vehicles."