Promoting your High School Teams on Twitter. Fall 2014 Update

I published this last winter with the start of basketball season. I have updated in regards to football, but the same guidelines can apply to other prep sports.

High school fall season has begun and several hundred schools around Missouri and several thousand across the US have started their quest of a state title.

I have enjoyed sending score updates for teams I follow. I also pass along or RT updates of high school sports that mention me, @westmosports.

Allow me to offer some suggestions for those who would like to have their score updates retweeted.

1. State both teams, their scores, the period/inning/match and time left in the period.

Examples:
After 1, Raytown South 21 Lee's Summit 14.

3:03 left in 2nd, Park Hills goes up 14 to 6 against Sullivan.

2. If you want to mention an individual player, make it brief.

Walters w a 24 yd run to take the lead for @staleyfootball over Oak Grove 28-21. 4 left in 3rd.

Abbreviate when you can. Use digits, cut  out punctuation, anything to conserve your 140 characters.

3. If you know the twitter handle of one of the teams, use it, but only if it can be clear to the reader who the team is.

@FortOFootball 14 @willardschools 7 after 1.

Sometimes it is a judgement call. Your local followers may know @shsballcoach represents Smithville MO High School, but to be RTed by a follower across country, specific is better. If you have conserved characters, you will have room to mention @shsballcoach.

4. Use hashtags. I like to get my plug in for #mopreps, #kspreps, etc. The 2 letter state abbreviation plus "preps."
#mogbb or #mogbb for Missouri boys basketball or Missouri Girls Basketball.
It also helps to make a hashtags for the teams to make them easily found.
Try not to get too clever with hashtags. Their point is to get your tweet found by others interested in your update.

5. If you wish to promote your team and be their cheerleader, that is quite all right. However,  you will be RTed more often if you use a neutral voice.

"Putnam County 54 Milan 12 with 1:01 left in game," gets the same message across as "Putnam County is running all over Milan 54-12 with the end near. You get the subtle difference.

Also by taking a neutral voice, you will gain followers who follow your opponent.

6. Some sports are better reported with just a final score or result, such as Cross Country and Golf. I don't get many tweets in regards to these so here is your chance to get your team noticed.

7. As I mention on my twitter profile, I will RT when you mention me on any preps update. 

Guy Newcomb, @scoreboardguy will RT Missouri high school scores. 

There are several others on twitter who will pass along scores. The key is that you need to mention them in your tweet.

Thank you for reading this and let me know if it has been helpful. If I get several new followers, I will know it has. 

If your favorite team is seldom mentioned, let me know and I will see what I can do. Perhaps you need to be their twitter rep.