It took years for USATF Masters T&F to launch its own website. It took only months to establish a social media presence — after my rant of November 2014. Thanks to the efforts of several ladies, we now have an official USATFMastersTrack account on Facebook. Our Twitter handle is @USAmasterstrack. On Instagram, we are also usatfmasterstrack. Credit national sprint champ Sandy Triolo for the latest breakthrough. She follows efforts by another woman, who contacted masters media czar Bob Weiner with an offer of help. The USATFMasters.org is a great reference site, but it’s lame for newsy news. (In fact, it still bears this note: “Outdoor Nationals (Jacksonville, FL) are around the corner!”)

USATF masters T&F joins the 21st century with social media accounts.

Sandy writes: “I am happy to lend my media talents to such a worthy and wonderful community. I love being part of masters track. This is my way to give back.”

Awesome, Sandy!

Truth be told, my daily musings can’t begin to do justice to what’s happening in our niche sport. I’ll continue to share news via the blog. But more and more, I post to Facebook (my page and others).

It’s a fact of life — people are getting their news via shared posts on Twitter and Facebook. And if you’re not following (or “Liking”) these accounts, you’re missing out on essential news and information.

Others I recommend:

Masters Track and Field on Facebook.

Masters athletes Lyon page on Facebook.

World Masters Athletics Fan Club on Facebook.

Any others I’m missing?

I also urge masters leadership — everyone on the E-Com as they call the Executive Committee — to join these chats.

Heck, if the pope and the president are on Twitter, what’s Gary Snyder’s excuse? Gary once had a blog, but dropped it. FB is a lot easier.

Here’s the official announcement:

MASTERS T&F SOCIAL MEDIA PROGRAM

By Bob Weiner, Chair, USATF Masters Media Committee HYPERLINK “mailto:weinerpublic@comcast.net” weinerpublic@comcast.net

We are entering the 21st century media.  Sandy Triolo, a National Library of Medicine (at NIH) Project Manager with a masters degree in Electronic Media, who works with top people at HHS, and a top winning sprinter at our national masters meets (W50) who loves going to them, met with our Media Committee at dinner the final day at Jax Nationals. We discussed setting up fast-paced masters info on social media –Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. She wants us all to have quick access to info on issues like meet scheduling updates including rain delays at the meets, lines at awards so best times to go, awards banquet info (had lower than usual attendance this year because needed info dispursed and reminded), ongoing team scores, links to USATF.TV and mainstream TV coverage, and ongoing info before and after the meets, as well as using social media for MTF community engagement.  This will also be for between-nationals/worlds social media as well. It’s great for the growing number of people who use those forums and she is willing to be “fed” info from other people. In a matter of days, she has now set up the sites. She didn’t wait a blink after she got the “empowerment” she asked for.  Those are the enthusiasm and skills we want.

Sandy will be on the MTF Media Committee as our Social Media Coordinator. She is already under way! 

To feed timely info to Sandy that others should immediately see, email: HYPERLINK “mailto:usatfmasterstrack@gmail.com” usatfmasterstrack@gmail.com . Or better yet, go to the new platforms, BELOW.

Says Sandy: “We are kicking off this new page at the conclusion of the 2015 Outdoor Masters Nationals in Jacksonville, Florida. Welcome!! We plan on using this platform to keep you up to date on happenings within our Masters Track & Field community. Thank you all for making USATF Masters Track so amazing!!”

She added, “The more information you provide on what you want to see posted the better. Photography is very needed for all platforms, with photo credits when available. You can send photos to the gmail account or links to photo resources.”

As of July 29, Sandy reports (and these numbers will be way up by the time you read this—these were just by word of mouth and random spots by eagle eyes):

“Already we have 67 Instagram followers  (invited people to send pics for posting)

“On the FB page, we have 349 likes on our page. Our posts have reached over 700 and there have been 15 clicks on the sign up button for USATF.


“Twitter is a bit slower going, will work on building some exposure there. Short press style or opinion statements, and photos are best here (149 characters).”

PLATFORMS:
Here are the media accounts:

Facebook:
 HYPERLINK “https://www.facebook.com/usatfmasterstrack” \t “_blank” https://www.facebook.com/usatfmasterstrack
Twitter:
 HYPERLINK “https://twitter.com/USAMastersTrack” \t “_blank” @USAMastersTrack
Instagram:
usatfmasterstrack .

If you want Instagram, if you need help, email Sandy for the code to embed on a website for people to access our Instagram account.

Our mainstream media outreach remains successful: Great meet at Jacksonville, lots of TV coverage and fifteen stories on local ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and Independent stations; repeated local radio; and front page sports and full page spreads in the major daily paper, the Florida Times-Union, as well as home press around the country by athletes who reached out to their papers.

Many thanks to meet co-announcer Peter Taylor, MTF Awards Chair Mary Trotto, and USATF intern Ryan Stevens for the research, info, and work on both the advance release (13 pages of info for the press on world and national champions at the meet, Olympians, local participants, NFL sports stars and movie actors in the meet, and they used it) and the daily results releases. The advance release was on 150 media websites with twenty million viewers. the Jacksonville regional TV clips alone were seen by a million people. The LOC’s Joel Lamp helped in the outreach. A great team effort.

Thanks to all—and FEED SANDY!
Bob Weiner, Chair, USATF Masters Media Committee HYPERLINK “mailto:weinerpublic@comcast.net” weinerpublic@comcast.net