Week 3 Blog

So Tuesday was the big night, Social Media Night for Ball State! One of the student bodies' favorite nights of the year (mainly due to the t-shirts with our twitter handles on them), came and passed like Christmas. The build up for like a month before, or if you are a department store, four months early, then waiting all day long for the night, and then, unfortunately for us, losing the home game by three points, which I may or may not have fully emotionally recovered from, and I'm not even that big a fan of basketball, so that right there should tell you how impressive it is that my heart hurts from it. Anyway, I think that the Social Media Night was a success, despite the outcome of the game. They announced that the attendance for the evening was somewhere around 3,100, which when you think about the fact that there are over 11,000 seats in Worthen Arena, kinda seems empty, but when you then think about how few people usually go to our basketball games, that was a huge number. I remember my freshman year, the team had like a 20 game losing streak (impressive, I know), and I think that a lot of people saw that, and never even considered that we could be competitive, so nobody goes to the games. However, with Social Media Night, the Cardinals get to see a massive increase in fan turnout, and it really doesn't hurt that our team is really good this year, so good in fact, that if we can win our final few games, we stand a chance of going to the NCAA Championship Tournament. But I digress, the t-shirts were just a small portion of the evening's festivities; there were also the in game promotions! All you had to do was interact via social media with the Ball State Sports page, and you could win prizes during the game, which plenty of people did, I was not selected unfortunately, which may be part of the cause of my heartache, but I'm totally not bitter or anything. Overall, I would say that Social Media Night is a success for BSU, and even though it doesn't exactly fill up the stands, if we had something like it more often, maybe just doing the free prizes for tweeting during the game, we would see a steady increase in people coming to the games. Speaking of which, you can catch your Ball State Cardinals next at home on the 27th of February when they will be taking on Eastern Michigan, and if you can't make it to the game, tune in to ESPN3 and support the Cards!

Week Two Blog

Merry Social Media Night Eve everyone! As I write this we are a mere 5 and a half hours away from Social Media Day! Admittedly its several more hours after that before we actually get to the game, but still, I'm gonna go ahead and call it reason for much excitement to be had.  If you're anything like me, you've been signed up for your t-shirt for a couple weeks now, and the anticipation is killing you. If all your friends are getting their shirts too, your whole squad is about to roll up in twitter @ style. Get to the game early, and get yourselves the best seats your tuition paid for, and get ready for one hell of a game because, even though the Ball State Men's Basketball Team doesn't exactly have the best track record with success, this year, they have been kicking some serious tail. We are currently tied for first at 6-4 in the Western Division of the Mid American Conference, and with a win tomorrow night, we come one step closer to our MAC Championship. Lets not play dumb, we all know BSU isn't good enough to compete for a national championship, not by a long shot. Nor is any other team in the MAC for that matter, but within the conference we stand a pretty good shot. But I digress, Social Media Night is tomorrow, and I truly couldn't be more excited for it. I mean, who doesn't love getting free stuff, when all you have to do to get it is tweet a couple things! The prize I'm looking forward to most are the in-game promos, which are the little contests that people in crowd get to come down onto the court for. Usually they do a simple one with couple where they figure out who is better at something by just asking them a handful of questions, but I think that I would want to try a half court shot for some cash! Now, I 100% admit that I am damn near the last person in the world you would want to play ball with, I'm very proficient at air balls. My free-throw percentage is lower than Shaq's and anybody who knows basketball knows that that man may be one of the worst free throw shooters of all time, so my complete lack of ability would put me right up there with him, something I am going to go ahead and take as a good thing. Anyway, we are very close to one of the biggest nights in Ball State basketball of the year, so let's all get ready, get out there tomorrow and support our boys! #ChirpChirp!

Week 1 Blog

Its about that time of the year again! If you're confused about my excitement, then you should know that at Ball State, every year, we have Social Media Night. It may not have the most exciting name in the world, but what it is, is actually very cool. It takes place on February 9th, when our Ball State Cardinals will be facing Ohio in a MAC showdown in basketball. With our team currently in contention to win the division this year, winning this game will go a long way.  Anyway, the big draw for Social Media Night, is that when you buy a ticket to the game, you automatically get a free shirt. Last year it was a short sleeved T-shirt, but this year it has been upgraded to a long sleeved shirt. But thats not all, the shirt will have your own personal twitter handle on it, that way, when you're walking around campus, you don't even have to talk to people to get them to follow you, they'll just know by looking at your shirt! You'll never have to leave your @ on a bill at the restaurant so that your waiter or waitress will hopefully follow you, your shirt will tell them everything they need to know! It's basically a one time payment for advertising your own brand, and who doesn't love that. On top of all that though, there will be several other events taking place in conjuncture with the game. The Prime Trust Prime Seat Contest, for example, will be giving away four of the best seats in Worthen Arena, complete with free food, and free parking. The Village Promenade will be hosting the twitter contest for the "Captains of the Game", where all you have to do is tweet your arrival to the game with the hashtag #ChirpChirp, and you could get the chance to win a free meal from Moe's! Also, during the game, you can tweet your seat, again using the hashtag #ChirpChirp, in order to win fan packs, which will have all sorts of nifty prizes in them. There will also be a vote on twitter to decide which song the pep band will be playing to begin the second half of the game, so if you have just gotta' hear "My Heart Will Go On", then this is your chance! The Cardinals twitter page will also be selecting a winner for Photo of the Game, all you have to do is post a selfie, again with #ChirpChirp, and your picture will be put up on the jumbotron for all to see, and at the end of the night, the winner will be announced. According to Ball State, there will be prizes to be won throughout the game from what appears to be half the business in Muncie. For me, the best award from that lot will be the concessions, because we all know how expensive a bag of popcorn is. But at any rate, the night promises to be a fun filled one, so come on out, and join the twitter party, and see the Cardinals get one game closer to a MAC Championship!