It appears FedEx is aware the NSCAA is going on this weekend.
They promoted this short Vine on twitter. You decide.
FROM: Coaches, TO: Refs. Ship it all using FedEx #OneRate, so you can see what's actually happening on the field! https://t.co/xgHzecr8Q1
— FedEx (@FedEx) January 18, 2014
Kinda clever of them.
TourneyCentral is pretty excited to be at the 2014 NSCAA again this year, housed in with the Premier Athletic Advertising folks and their family of tournaments in booth 839.
The show opens this evening, but here is a sneak peek at us getting things ready for you. Stop on by and say hi!
Editor’s note: Vine was killed off by Twitter in 2016. You may want to use Instagram Stories or Snapchat for short video clips instead. We updated The Game Through Glass for Instagram Stories.
Video is hot. Short video bursts are even hotter.
The new attention span for online video is anywhere from :06-:15 seconds thanks to Vine and Instagram. We’ll cover Instagram in the next article, but for now we’ll focus on Vine.
To use Vine, you will need a smartphone or a tablet with a camera and a twitter account. It is app-based so it resides mostly on your phone or tablet. You shoot, edit and post videos with your phone.
First, the technical stuff:
Step one: Sign up for a twitter account if you don’t already have one. It will make thing a lot easier. You should be using twitter anyway.
Step two: Go to the app store on your phone, (iPhone or Android) search for the Vine app and download it.
Step Three: Log into the Vine app with your twitter account.
When you first open the Vine app, it will ask you to log in using Twitter. Select your twitter account and you’ll open up to the main screen. The key icon you are looking for in the camera in the upper right corner. Press on this.
The app will then open to the shooting screen. You can toggle the front and back-facing cameras with the icon in the lower left, but until you get the hang of it, it’s best to just choose one or the other.
To shoot a video, just hold down on the screen. When you lift your finger, the camera will stop, then start again when you touch the screen. It is a bit tricky at first, but you’ll find as you get better at it, you can do all sorts of really cool stop-motion effects.
You can save clips for later, re-order them, etc. as you get better and want to push the app to its limits. the only thing that you can’t control right now is the sound, but Vine might fix that is a later release.
Once you are satisfied with your video, press on the forward arrow, fill out the caption, toggle to Twitter and post. (You can also post to Facebook, but since Facebook is not entirely secure on phones, we just re-post manually from our Twitter feed. The choice is yours.)
What to shoot with video
By far, the hardest part about using video for your soccer tournament is deciding what to shoot or what story to tell. You may think that :06 seconds is not a lot of time, but if you don’t plan your story, it can be an eternity to fill up. As an experiment, shoot a Vine just of you, staring silently into the front camera.
Kinda a long video, isn’t it?
Some ideas:
Once you start getting the ideas flowing, there will be no end to the number of stories you can tell, all at :06 seconds at a time.
Next up: Instagram
The first thing a good real estate agent will tell you to do when listing your house is to paint the front door so it stands out from the rest of the house. A visible, easy-to-find front door says, “Welcome, this is the way in.”
Your tournament website should do the same thing. Unfortunately, many soccer tournament sites are so intent on fancy design, featuring sponsors and whatever else that they forget to paint the front door. A team is left searching around, wondering “How the heck do I apply to this tournament? When is it? WHERE is it?”
I often wonder how many teams just give up and apply somewhere else.
From time to time, we get requests from a tournament director to “jazz up” the front door, to make their tournament look different from everyone else.
“Why,” we ask, “are your applications slowing down? Are teams finding it difficult to apply?”
“To the contrary,” they say. “Applications are consistently up year over year. Your software is easy to use and everyone knows how to apply, get schedules, maps and scores easily.
“So why are you asking us to obscure your front door?”
Our Advice: Simplify. Remember your mission of making it easier to get teams to find you, apply quickly and find game schedules and results easily. On every contact point on a TourneyCentral website, we post the where, when and how much right at the top of the page. The Apply menu option is always on the main menu of every page. Nothing is more than one click away.
Instead of focusing on the next whizz-bang whirly-gig thing to set your tournament apart, focus on your content. Make sure your news is up-to-date and timely. Make sure your schedules are correct and posted as quickly as possible. Update your scores as soon as your can after the game ends. Promote your sponsors and advertisers. Use your social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) often and earnestly.
Each of the TourneyCentral tournaments has the same tools. What you do with yours is what will set you apart.
Offered without comment or endorsement except for the very last scene.