APSE

High school sports fans in McHenry County (Ill.) have a dedicated voice to turn to when their teams are down on their luck.

He doesn't have a face, necessarily, but he has a byline and a personality.

He writes in the third person, drops his 'g's and grandstands on his opinions.

In a recent blog post, he wrote: "Call The Rant old fashioned, mainly because he is, but fundamentals are the key to winnin' games. It would be nice to see more players doin' the little things right and really cuttin' down on all these errors."

"The Rant," the personality of mchenrycountysports.com, has 1,235 friends fans on Facebook and is engaging readers who will likely never know who he is.

"When you're using social media, you have to know your audience," said Eric Olson, the sports editor of the Northwest Herald. "Something like video or The Rant is more enticing on Facebook. It's easier to find high schoolers on Facebook, too. That's where they are and where their friends are."

Using the free or cheap social media tools available, like Twitter, Facebook and live streaming games, has opened new audiences and allowed newspapers to generate revenue, said Olson and John Sahly of the Daily (DeKalb) Chronicle. The pair presented a session of utilizing social media and coverage at the Great Lakes Region APSE meeting on April 18 in Chicago.

"It's about treating (social media) like a person and not an entity," Sahly said. "I use Twitter to answer questions, or post on other people's walls on Facebook. It's about being social. "

Another key to engagement is working with the web staff to find out when readers are most active. Posting on facebook during peak times, like in the morning, after lunch and before readers leave work will drive more traffic to a newspaper's site.

Continued engagement has allowed huskiewire.com, the Daily Chronicle's Northern Illinois sub-site, to amass 2,670 friends on Facebook and continue the brand of the Chronicle. In addition, Huskiewire on Twitter has 799 followers and on April 19 promoted five different stories through tweets.

"When (Northern Illinois football player Devon Butler) was shot, it was a bigger story on Twitter than on Facebook," Sahly said. "We were constantly posting updates. We were updating the story every hour on Twitter, from the hospital, from the courthouse. We could get the information out there quickly."

Twitter has also opened the world of sports to a new quote machine, the duo reminded the attending sports editors.

When Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler was injured and didn't return to the NFC Championship game, Jacksonville Pro Bowl running back Maurice Jones-Drew didn't hesitate to tweet: "All I'm saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee… I played the whole season on one…"

"Before Twitter, who would have thought to call Maurice Jones-Drew about playing on his knee after Jay Cutler went down," Olson said. "But here was his opinion that we could write about."

In addition to the known entities of Twitter and Facebook, Olson has added additional revenue with one-way engagement of high school fans. By taking a crew of four to one football game a week for a live internet stream of high school games on Friday nights, revenue has been generated for the with bumper ads in and out of the halfs. Two announcers, a cameraman and a producer on a laptop — none of whom are filing live stories on deadline — have added another dimension to the prep coverage.

Sahly said that selling the ad that ran with a beat writer's live report from the Humanitarian Bowl helped pay for the trip to cover Northern Illinois in Boise, Idaho.

"You have to plan things out with your ad staff whenever possible," Sahly said. "You can drive web traffic with ads in videos and that's profitable."

Hillary Smith is a reporter and the new media sports coordinator at The Times of Northwest Indiana.