#ComeToUSG
Background
University Sporting Good is a retail store located on the Historic Downtown Square in Oxford, Mississippi. The locally owned and operated store has existed there since 1966 and carries Ole Miss apparel, souvenirs, housewares, tailgating supplies, and infant apparel. Customers of the store have noted it as a “great place for Rebel fanatics!”. University Sporting Goods has a long history in Oxford but struggles to compete with competitors around town. The store has an active social media presence but needs updating and further outreach to be top of mind in residents, students, and tourists of Oxford when searching for anything University of Mississippi related. To maximize outreach, the #ComeToUSG campaign will focus on the use of influencers across the social media platforms, and expand the campaign to Blog, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more.
What’s next?
Influencers are commonly defined as someone with the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of their authority, knowledge, position, or relationship with their audience and someone with a following in a distinct niche, with whom they actively engage. A segment of influencers, called micro-influencers, are used often by brands because their followings consist of anywhere between 10,000 and 500,000 and allow brands to access a more targeted audience and are more likely to have a trusting relationship with their audience.
Putting it to use
For the #ComeToUSG campaign, University Sporting Goods will partner with several Ole Miss student athletes, who are also micro-influencers, to maximize outreach and grow their social media audience. Instagram’s new collaboration feature allows for posts and reels to be published by two different accounts at once. This feature will be heavily utilized in the #ComeToUSG campaign as it allows for posts to be shown to a larger audience and appear on the photo grids of both accounts. The hashtag #ComeToUSG will be used in many posts on each social media platform, creating a cohesive message throughout the campaign. The campaign will also feature tweets created and retweeted by University Sporting Goods and their partners. Additionally, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Blog posts will be created to maximize outreach and grow USG’s social media presence. Finally, events hosted by University Sporting Goods will take place to offer a unique experience as student athletes come to the store to sign products with their names on the item.
