The thing is, I want to go out with a bang. I wanted to do something that hasn’t been done. I wanted to involve my friends, my community and everyone else who supports me. And the #SeeTheFinishLine Campaign does just that.

With the Under Armour Ultimate Intern semi-finals coming to a close in approximately 24 hours, I could see the finish line. We’re almost there. 

MY GOAL 

• To make an explosive last 24 hours to my campaign by getting as many people as possible to participate in a social media extravaganza via Facebook and a bit of Twitter in order to show Under Armour that I should be their social media specialist.

HOW I GOT PARTICIPANTS

• Simply a Facebook status asking if I could get one more favor from my friends. This status was posted around 2:30pm I really just expected about 20 people to respond but check this out…

• EIGHTY ONE of my friends liked this status.
  
  I was in absolute awe and I knew that this would be huge with the amount of people I have willing to do this.

THE TASK

• Every person who liked my status got the following message around 9pm:

• A message to tweet was also given to those it was applicable to. With specific instructions to change our profile picture RIGHT at 10pm EST on 3/6/12. 

THE RESULTS

At 10pm EST, this happened:

• Profile Pictures changed…

• Under Armour’s Facebook exploded with messages from supporters…

• And Twitter went crazy with #SeeTheFinishLine…Click Here

And my campaign got a taste of the incredible power of social media and the even stronger power of a strong support team. 

The best part about this? It didn’t just stop at 10pm. More and more people changed their profile pictures in support of me, more tweets went out and people continue to like the page:

Maggie Chang for the Under Armour Ultimate Intern Team

If this campaign doesn’t show how passionate I am about this, I don’t know what does. The ability to harness social media like this is why I, Maggie Chang, should be your next Ultimate Intern.

We can #SeeTheFinishLine

It’s surprising, but Under Armour does not have an iPhone application. 

So I’m going to pitch to them to produce an iPhone app designed for shopping just as their site is. They do have a mobile site, but I think an app would be a huge step for them. 

What I’m picturing for the app is as followed:

• Simply called Under Armour
• A simple, clean interface which allows for easy browsing of products
• Product oriented like the website with tabs of: Register, Men-Women-Boys-Girls-Outlet, Locations, My Cart, New at Under Armour, My Armour List, My Account
• Register — Each app user would sign up with their email, give their first/last name and a password in order for individualized usage. If users are already registered on www.underarmour.com, this step is not needed. During registration, Twitter and Facebook accounts can be linked.
• Men, Women, Boys, Girls, Outlet would show products in an easy to view way and allow for users to read information about products, see measurements and size information (important since you’re not in a store and can’t try it on) and add products to their “Armour List” or “Cart.” All products will also have a tweet or share button next to them so customers can share products they think are cool to their followers/friends.
• Locations would allow for users to find locations of Under Armour stores and outlets.
• My Cart is for users to actually be able to purchase products. Like iTunes, users will provide credit card, billing, shipping and other information as well as their username/password for the purchase to go through. This gives Under Armour an advantage where customers now have the option of purchasing from the ease of their phone in a personalized way.
• New at Under Armour would include new products, videos/news/media of Under Armour events (i.e NFL Combine), and updates on Under Armour athletes
• My Armour List would be a “wish list” of sorts that allows users to pick out products they are interested in and add them to the list. Lists will be linked with social networks so that people can tweet out or Facebook share their lists. Lists will also provide Under Armour further information on products that customers are most interested in
• My Account would provide information such as password changing, as well as tracking purchases.

And being me, yes, I had to add the little social media plugs in there because 1) I think Under Armour can grow on social media and 2) people would already be on their phones and since mobile is one of the most common forms of using social media, might as well try and kill two birds with one stone!

I just thought this would be a good idea for Under Armour as the application industry is booming and as someone who wants to be a social media specialist, I’d say that going mobile is the first step to make Under Armour that much visible on social media!

When people ask me what my interests are, I say sports, marketing and social media. The first on the list usually needs to nice conversation about sports I like, athletes I cheer for, and teams I like. The second is pretty self-explanatory only because that’s what I’m studying in school at the Ross School of Business. 

But the third, social media, sometimes throws people off. “Social media?” they ask. Yes, social media. But I’ll always clear it up for them.

I don’t mean social media in the sense of updating Facebook statuses or tweeting what you ate for lunch.

I mean social media in the sense that I’m absolutely fascinated at the ability of sharing stories in multiple ways…in just seconds. In its simplest form, social media is just blogging. Micro-blogging in terms of Twitter, social-blogging in terms of Facebook, network-blogging in terms of LinkedIn.

I love being able to communicate with people that you normally don’t get to. Those people being celebrities, companies, recruiters, alumni of my school, stores, etc. I love that, as a student, I can find out more about the industries I’m interested in with just a view of their Twitter, or get the latest information of what’s going on around my school.

I like influencing my friends, peers, and other people to get involved with the social media movement. I like getting people interested on the benefits of social media and I try to tell them how to use it properly, about privacy settings and what I’ve gotten out of different social media outlets. I know that many of my friends will vouch that I’ve gotten them on Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and even a few to find out their Klout scores!

But my biggest interest comes in social media marketing. It’s amazing how influential social media has become for marketing now. Companies not having a Facebook and/or Twitter is a rarity these days. Product information comes out via these social media platforms now. Even customer service is done through them these days. The brilliance of social media is that everyone who is your fan or follower is interested in you in some way—or else why would they have liked your page or followed you? That in itself has already given you the target market. You can reach all of your followers with just 1 tweet. And all of your fans with just one post. It’s unbelievable if you think about it.

And so yes, that is why I love social media. Passionate about it, really. And I can’t wait to show you what I’ve got, Under Armour, if chosen as your social media specialist.

#SocialMediaSaturday: Tweeting for Community Support

I reached out to many community twitter accounts and got responses and support! #SpreadTheWord

Thank you to:

• Fox Sports Detroit, our local sports channel for all things Detroit Sports!
• Dana Jacobson, former Michigan Wolverine and current ESPN Anchor!
• Tom Dienhart, Senior Writer for BTN.com, part of the Big Ten family!
• Michigan Hockey Now, covering all hockey in the state of Michigan!

The Goal: To get 200 Likes by 1:30AM EST for my “Maggie Chang for the Under Armour Ultimate Intern Team.” Start time: 12:12AM EST.

How:

• By social media of course! I posted a Facebook status and tweeted this to tell people what I was trying to do:

Social Media Tactic Used:

Incorporation of followers and friends that THEY can make the difference by setting a time-restrained goal.

• What is said right above is extremely important to realize. When you can make people feel involved in any process, your backing will be much stronger. In the first 20 minutes, I got 27 likes right away! People saw that they could get me to 200 and they decided to make the difference.

Consistency of Status Updates

• I decided to keep people updated on how many more likes we needed through the entire hour because the sense of urgency is set when you do that. Examples are shown below:

My friends DEFINITELY pulled through!

People who already liked my page:

• Retweeted my tweets
• Facebook Instant Messaged their friends to convince them to like my page
• Shared my page, expressing the goal

And a lot of people who hadn’t liked it originally were motivated to like it to help me accomplish this goal. 

Did we make it?

Hmm…

Just a MINUTE before time ran out, we got to 200!!!!

A HUGE thank you to my friends who got so into helping me! Thank you if you just liked the page, thank you if you shared the page, thank you if you IMed people, retweeted, etc. It means the world to me; I won’t let you all down :)

#Reached200

Just wanted to repost my social network sites for your ease and enjoyment:

Twitter

LinkedIn

Tumblr

Pinterest

Delicious

FourSquare

Enjoy!

As someone who wants to become your social media specialist, Under Armour, I’ve decided to try and create a little bit of buzz about myself. After a huge amount of support I got after posting that I had been selected as a semi-finalist (ahh, I was ecstatic!), I thought I could harness that support…as anyone who likes social media should! Let’s see if this starts a trend… here we go! 

Like the Page! Every like helps! :)

To read before you read the rest of this post, read this first if you haven’t already: Tweet Your Seat! My Social Media idea coming to life!

So my social media idea actually played its part tonight! Which is pretty cool!

How awesome is this? It was officially on the @umichbball twitter. Again, I’m really disappointed I couldn’t be there tonight but such is the life of spring break, haha. But Crisler Center was sold out tonight. With the tweet you see above, many fans tweeted their section, row and seat in and here are some of the winners:

Awesome night even with a really sad night for Michigan Basketball with the loss against Purdue. That’s it for Crisler for the season but it’ll be fun to see if we do this next year or at hockey with Yost Ice Arena! 

I’m thrilled to announce some exciting news that will be happening at Crisler Center (home to Michigan Basketball) tomorrow! It all started out as one little idea that I had…and it’s coming to a reality tomorrow for 13,000 fans!

I am lucky to work under the Chief Marketing Officer at Michigan Athletics, Hunter, and he’s one of those people that’s always willing to listen for new ideas. So at a lacrosse game a few weeks ago, I pitched him an idea called “Tweet Your Seat.” After pitching it to him at the game, he loved it and told me to tell our Director of Digital Marketing, Jordan. Here’s an excerpt of my e-mail to Jordan, CCing Hunter:

I think (Tweet Your Seat) would be a great way to get more people involved with @umichbball and I think it’d be more fun if the handles interacted more with fans because everyone loves that! We could do a Tweet Your Seat thing at the Ohio State (or Purdue) game and people can tweet their seats in with a certain hashtag… If they’re following @umichbball, we can just choose a few people through the game that’ll win a prize pack or two, show them on the video boards and tweet out their picture as the winner. It’s an easy and fast way to get more people to follow Michigan Athletics as well as promote more fan interaction. And we’ll be seen as one of the leading social media schools!… Let me know what you think! I really think it’d be very easy to pull off too!

And guess what!? Check out this e-mail Michigan Basketball sent out this morning. This email reaches all ticket-holders and people who signed up for Michigan updates. Subject line: Michigan vs. Purdue - What to expect Tomorrow Night at Crisler Center

My social media idea is happening! It’s so cool to see it come alive. I won’t be there tomorrow (2/25) for the game because it’s my spring break right now but I asked them to let me know how it goes!

It’s exciting to see your ideas come to life and that in itself is a huge reward. I’m thankful that the Athletic Department here at Michigan gives everyone the opportunity to pitch ideas. This is just proof that a single idea from just an intern can make it through to impact 13,000 fans! I think this shows you, Under Armour, that I am creative and have a good handle on social media to be your social media specialist! I can’t wait to come up with ideas for you if given the opportunity! 

If you’re going to the game tomorrow, make sure to TWEET YOUR SEAT! I can’t wait to see how it all turns out!

I’ll keep you all updated on how tomorrow night with how Tweet Your Seat goes! Right now, I’m just thrilled it’s all happening!