Webinars are essentially online classes you can take from the comfort of your home or office.
There are currently a lot of webinars out there that can help recreation directors. To find useful webinars, you should Google the term “webinars” along with any topics you are interested in.
Here is an example list of webinars: Recreation webinars
Do you run a tournament? If so, you know that marketing your tournament is essential to its success. Without good marketing, you won’t be able to get enough quality teams to participate. Nowadays, there are so many tournaments out there. Coaches have a lot of choices. It’s up to you to make sure they choose you.
Luckily, nowadays, there are a ton of easy and effective ways you can market your tournament online. Here are the top three reasons you should start learning about online tournament marketing NOW:
1.) Word of Mouth. The best way to attract new teams to your tournament is to have previous participants recommend you. You want to make it very easy for existing participants to get your tournament in front of their friends. The easiest way to do this is to make sure you post photos and videos from the tournament online. Existing participants will of course want to see them, and will likely share them with their friends. When their friends see pictures of your tournament, they will likely start asking questions… “Where did that take place?” “It looks like a nice facility. What tournament was that?”. Etc, etc, etc. As questions are asked, answers will be provided, which means more leads for you.
2.) 24/7 Convenience. If someone hears good things about your tournament and wants to check it out, you want to be sure they can do it at their own convenience at any time of the day. It is critical that you have a tournament website that they can visit directly or easily find on Google. Ideally, you would want your website to have an online-registration feature built in. This way, people can locate your tournament online, learn about and sign up, all without you having to lift a finger! To learn more about free tournament websites and online registration programs, check out free tournament websites.
3.) Cost. Since the internet is such an effective way to market your tournament, you would assume it’s very expensive. Wrong. The internet is not only the cheapest way to market your tournament, but it’s typically 100% free. Nowadays, you can get a tournament website, conduct online registration, post photos and videos and use social networks at zero cost. This is a great alternative to the old, expensive ways people used to market tournaments; banners, magazine ads, newspaper ads, etc. Check out these helpful links:
Free video posting with YouTube
Are you in charge of running a tournament? In today’s world, there are a lot of tournaments coaches can choose from. It is critical that your tournament stands out from the crowd. YouTube is an easy, free and exciting way to set your tournament apart from the rest.
Below are six simple steps you should follow in order to get a YouTube presence:
1.) TAKE VIDEOS. This is a must in today’s video-obsessed world. If you or someone else took videos at your last tournament, make sure you get your hands on them. If not, make sure at the next tournament someone is in charge of taking videos. You do not have to hire a professional videographer to do this. You can buy a quality camera very cheaply these days. They are very easy to set-up and operate. You or a colleague can easily get some great video footage.
2.) MAKE THEM COOL. Don’t just shoot random clips from the sidelines. Instead, take things to the next level. Interview coaches after games; feature tournament MVP’s in highlight clips; take a behind-the-scenes tour of the tournament facility.
3.) EDIT THEM TOGETHER. Once you have some video footage, you need to edit it together. There are many easy-to-use programs out there for video editing. Your computer likely comes pre-loaded with video editing software. At the end of the video, make sure you mention your tournament, and provide instructions on how teams can participate.
4.) ADD MUSIC. A great song makes any video clip better. Once you have some footage edited together, get a cool song to play over it and it will really spice up your video.
5.) UPLOAD TO YOUTUBE. Once you have your final clip, upload it to YouTube. Your video will have its own personal web link on YouTube.
6.) SPREAD THE VIDEO. Once your video has its own web link, you should spread the link around. Have the link added to your tournament website; email it to past tournament participants; have your sports association feature the video on its site. Once you get your link circulating around, people will naturally forward it to others, and your video will start gaining momentum. As your video’s audience builds, so will the news of your tournament.
To get a camera at a good price, check out Amazon.
When you’re ready to upload your video, visit YouTube.
To get a tournament website, check out free tournament websites.
Do you run a tournament? If so, it is critical that you get your tournament as much exposure as possible. More exposure means more participants, which means a better experience for teams and for you.
The easiest way to get your tournament exposure is to let people find you. In today’s “Google Age”, you want to make sure you show up in the Google search results when people look for the types of things you offer. For instance, if you run a softball tournament in Orlando Florida, it would nice if you showed up in the Google results when a coach searches “softball tournaments in Orlando, FLA”.
So, how do you show up in the Google results? More importantly, how do you show up toward the top of the results? You can of course pay Google in order to sponsor certain words. In this case, you will be listed under the “Sponsored” results section of Google. You will have to pay Google every time someone clicks your ad. Most tournaments do not have the budget to pay for sponsored ads, so we are going to focus on the FREE way to get listed. When you do a Google search, all of the results that show up in the middle of the page are free. That is where you should focus.
Here are the three easy steps to follow in order to get listed in the free results:
(1) You need a tournament website. Your website link can’t appear in the Google results unless of course you have a website!
(2) You need to load your website with the right words. Make sure the title of your website and the content contain words that a potential coach doing a Google search may type in. Going back to our example above…if you run a softball tournament in Orlando, FLA, it would be a good idea to fill your site with words like “softball”, “tournament”, “Florida”, etc.
(3) You need to get other websites to link to your site. When Google determines which sites get shown the highest in the search results, the main thing Google focuses on is judging the amount of “links” a site has. This does not refer to the amount if links you post on your site. Rather, it refers to the amount of links other sites post of your site. The easiest way to get links to your site is to ask others involved with your sports tournament to post your link on their site. For example, if you are part of a national sports association, ask the association to post your link. It is also a good idea to have your link posted in online tournament directories. To learn more about using online tournament directories, check out our post on online sports tournament directories.
As mentioned, the first step to getting listed on Google is to get a website. Check out this link to get free tournament websites.
Nowadays, the ideal way a sports program to communicate is for the program to have its own website as a central place for information, and then use social-media services like Twitter and Facebook to supplement the main website.
As Twitter gains more popularity within the sports and rec community, it is important you know the best ways to take advantage of it so you are not just wasting your time.
Here are three great ways you can manage your sports program online with Twitter:
1.) Twitter is an easy way to connect your sports/rec program to other sports/rec programs in your area, your state, the country, or even the world. A lot of sports/rec programs are already using Twitter. You can find them and instantly connect to them with the click of a button.
2.) Twitter is very useful for announcing an important upcoming event that you would like the general public to attend, such as a fundraiser. Obviously, you can use email and your central website to spread the event to the people that are already close to your program. However, Twitter is very useful for spreading the event to people outside your program who do not already know about your program.
3.) Twitter is a great way to get your program exposure and attract new participants. If you are active on Twitter, you will show up in a variety of places on the network. Millions of other Twitter users are able to see you on the network and click through to your profile page to learn more about you. It is very important you include a link to your central website on your Twitter profile so people can click this link to access your full vault of information.
Do you have any other uses for Twitter you’ve found helpful for your sports/rec program? Leave a comment and let us all know.
To get a Twitter account, check out Twitter
To get a free website for your sports program, check out these Free sports website templates
Getting a website set up for your camp these days is easy and it can save you a ton time, here’s 5 reasons to move your program online…
1) Improve front office communication – Whether you’re running a one day clinic, a one week camp or a full summer camp, your front office needs to communicate with staff and counselors. With a website, staff members can check important announcements throughout the day from their cellphone or check on their laptop. This will reduce traffic in and out of your front office location.
2) Parents can check in online – One thing that drives a camp director crazy is having kids with cellphones making calls home or to their parents throughout the day. A camp website will allow parents to check pictures, videos, announcements and game results. This cuts back on the need for daily phone calls that interrupt the flow of camp life.
3) Manage a paperless schedule – Your athletic director can easily maintain a calendar online with the day’s games and instructional periods. In just minutes, all staff members can check this schedule, reducing the number of meetings that need to take place throughout the day. This not only saves time, but money in paper printouts.
** Here’s an example of a software that can help: Free sports software **
It’s every coach’s worst nightmare – five parents in a 5th grade soccer league ended up at the wrong field and they’re all blaming one person, the coach. The angry e-mails, texts and calls come pouring in as if the coach had prevented those parents’ children from getting noticed by college scouts…at age 10.
In reality, it wasn’t the coach’s fault; the team phone tree had broken down, which prevented those 5 parents from getting the message that game was being played on Elm Street, NOT Broad Street. And if you go one step further, you shouldn’t even blame the coach OR the phone-tree, you should blame the parent who thought that using a phone-tree was a good idea for the 4th consecutive season.
Most importantly, the mix-up would have been prevented if the team was using a sports web site. A sports web site does 3 critical things to make life easier on all participants in a sports program.
1) It improves information flow: A website creates a a central hub of communication for program directors, coaches, parents and athletes where they know they can “check in” for info rather than wait for a phone call.
2) It makes programs runs faster: Announcements posted to a website can be automatically emailed to mobile devices for faster communication.
3) It allows coaches to coach and parents to parent: Coaches save time making phone calls and writing emails and parents save time calling the coach and calling the other parents. All parties are able to spend time doing the things they love the most.
Here’s an example of a service that provides free sports team websites
Under pressure to cut costs in your rec department, athletic department or YMCA? Check out these 3 easy ways you can save money by using some basic online tools:
1.) Reduce paper handouts. Try to gradually reduce the amount of paper handouts your program uses. Instead, post the handouts online as documents for people to download. You’ll save a ton of money on paper/printing costs. There’s no need to completely stop printing handouts at once. Instead, try to cut down the amount to 75% what it is now, then 50%, and then 25%.
2.) Take advantage of group deals. Group deal sites like Groupon are more popular than ever. If you need to buy sports/rec related items, try to find online deals you and your colleagues can take advantage of as a group.
3.) Stop using hot lines. Do you pay for a hot line to announce things like rain outs? Try switching to online announcements. Make sure you have a program website, and that people in your program know your web address. They can check the site for updates as opposed to calling a phone number. You can easily post rain-out announcements on your site and people can see them in real time.
To do this, you obviously need a website first. We are not talking about a municipal website you share with all the other city departments in your town. We are talking about a website YOU CONTROL DIRECTLY and can make updates on as you wish. Check out this link to get a free website for your sports/rec department: free sports websites.
Thinking about using a sports software to better manage your sports/recreation program? Before you make a decision, you should know the differences between cloud-based sports software and installed sports software. If you make the wrong choice, you can pay a hefty penalty in terms of time, headaches and of course, money.
The word “cloud” has been getting thrown around a lot these days. It seems to be a popular choice for software in many industries. But what does it mean in non-technical terms? And how does it apply to sports software and you?
In short, cloud software does not require installation or downloads. You can access it online at any time. Your data is saved and protected online. Installed software is just the opposite. You have to download and install the software onto specific computers. You can only access the software on those computers, and you are responsible for backing up, saving and protecting all your valuable data. For example, “gmail” works in the cloud.
In today’s internet-connected world, cloud software is the clear choice. Since cloud software is a relatively new thing however, most people don’t know much about it. The good news is that it is much simpler than you may think. Here are the main advantages you will gain from using a cloud-based sports software as opposed to an installed software:
1.) PRICE Cloud software is drastically cheaper than installed software because it costs less money for companies to build and distribute. Don’t be fooled by price! Just because an installed software is expensive, it does not mean it is better than a cloud software. Installed software is only more expensive because the companies that build it have higher bills to pay due to heavy production and distribution costs. They turn to you to pay those bills. Since cloud-software is less expensive to manage for companies, it is often very cheap and sometimes even free for users (ex: free sports software).
2.) TIME Cloud software requires no installation or download (think CD-Roms or slow moving download bars). You can access it online at any time. For example, you can get to gmail instantly on any computer by visiting gmail.com. Installed software is far from instant. In addition, it often requires long phone calls with company reps about things like configuration (ughhh).
3.) UPGRADES. When cloud software gets upgraded by the company that makes it, you will instantly have access to the upgrades. Your software automatically gets updated through the web. When installed software gets updated however, you are often required to jump through hoops in order to get the upgrades (more downloads, new CD-Roms in the mail, more phone calls, etc). Not to mention, you may even be asked to get out your check book and pay to have access to these upgrades.
4.) SECURITY. With cloud software, your data is kept safe and secure by the company that provides it. Most importantly, it is backed up online. With installed software, saving data is up to you and the computer you installed the software on. If your computer crashes or breaks, you are completely out of luck.
Not to mention, since cloud software runs on the web, by using it, you will have access to all of the advantages of running a sports and recreation program online. Check out our post on the advantages of managing a sports and recreation program online.
Finally, we are sure you are curious to see an example of a cloud-based sports software. Here is an example of a cloud based sports software.
Can you think of any more advantages cloud-based sports software has over installed sports software? Leave a comment and let us all know.
The best way to get exposure for your tournament is to (1) make a tournament website and (2) have a link to your site posted on major tournament directories. Below are examples of tournament directories:
You can easily find many more directories on Google.
Do you have any directories you’ve used in the past that were helpful? Leave a comment and let us all know.
