My Texas Tailgate social media report
The My Texas Tailgate, an all-day virtual celebration that Texas Athletics hosted on May 1, drew significant interest from The University of Texas fanbase across numerous platforms. The planning and production of more than 450 social media posts took place during a two-week stretch and that content was shared on 50-plus Texas Athletics social media channels.
“We had high expectations for our My Texas Tailgate event on Friday, and as Longhorn Nation always does, they delivered big-time,” UT Vice President and Athletics Director Chris Del Conte said. “Our coaches, student-athletes, staff, students and fans across the nation and world joined in, and it was truly an epic all-day celebration of everything Texas. It was a virtual pep rally with a gameday feel that united us all and put the power and energy of our great University on full display for the world to see. We are so grateful for everyone who pitched in and shared the day with us, it was truly one for the ages.”
The 450-plus posts included over 20,400 seconds (5 hours and 40 minutes) of video, which were compiled almost entirely during 170 cell phone video shoots and virtual meetings recorded by staff members, student-athletes and spirit members. The content of those posts generated over 300,000 interactions and added more than 4,200 new followers to official Texas Athletics channels. During an 11-day stretch (April 22-May 2, the campaign hashtag, #MyTexas, garnered more than 66 million impressions across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Longhorn Nation wasn’t only active on social media, though, as from April 24-May 1, TexasSports.com accumulated 84,100 new users and more than 320,100 page views.
“When we first set out to engage our fan base during this time of social distancing and to provide an opportunity for all of Longhorn Nation to show the world their burnt orange pride, the team adopted a mentality that our only limitation would be our imaginations,” said Executive Senior Associate Athletics Director for External Affairs Drew Martin, who headed up the event. “I am so incredibly proud of the entire external affairs staff for accomplishing the Herculean feat of My Texas Tailgate. The sheer volume of content alone was impressive, but to see how our fans reacted to it, embraced it and shared their own My Texas stories was truly something special.”
In addition, UT held a special “At Home” edition of Longhorn City Limits, featuring over 90 minutes of star-studded performances from 23 different artists. Fifteen-thousand viewers tuned in to the Longhorn City Limits broadcast on Facebook and YouTube last Friday night.
“Drew Martin and his staff did a tremendous job of organizing the My Texas Tailgate,” Texas Baseball head coach David Pierce said. “Ideally, we would prefer to be in competition, but we can’t be right now so my hope is that everyone had some fun with it. Our fans mean so much to us and it was great getting to spend the entire day engaging with them.”
The My Texas Tailgate also featured collaborative efforts from Longhorn Network and the Austin Radio Network. Both joined in the celebration with a day of broadcasts filled by some of Texas’ top sporting events of the 2019-20 season, as selected by Longhorn fans.