A research-led content strategy that grew a D1 program's audience by understanding why students weren't connecting — and building something they finally could.
01 — Overview
When I took on the Social Media Manager role for UC Davis Women's Volleyball, the goal set by the athletics department was clear: increase overall traffic to the program's social channels and grow awareness among the student body on campus.
The account had 5,979 followers and relatively good engagement. Rather than jumping straight into posting more content, I started by asking a more fundamental question : why weren't students already engaged?
02 — Discovery
I conducted informal on-campus interviews with students by stopping people in common areas and asking two simple questions: what did they know about the volleyball team, and had they ever watched a game?
The answers were consistent. Most students knew almost nothing about the team and had never attended a game. As I kept asking, a pattern emerged in why they weren't interested.
"Most students saw the athletes not as relatable students, but as distant, untouchable professionals."
This was the core insight. It wasn't a visibility problem — it was a perception gap. Students didn't see themselves reflected in the team's content. The existing social presence was polished and game-focused, which unintentionally reinforced the idea that athletes existed in a separate world.
03 — Key Insight
Students didn't disengage because they disliked volleyball, they disengaged because they couldn't relate to the athletes. The content presented players in their most "serious" state: game-day uniforms, competition, performance. There was no window into who these people were as students, peers, or human beings.
This reframed the entire content strategy. The solution wasn't more content, it was different content, designed to close the relatability gap and humanize the athletes in the eyes of their fellow students.
04 — Strategy & Execution
Introduced consistent behind-the-scenes videos from practice, such as casual moments, jokes and pre-game rituals. These showed the athletes as students first and competitors second, which directly addressed the relatability gap identified in research.
Had players personally invite students to games — speaking directly to the student audience in their own voice. This closed the distance between athlete and viewer, making attendance feel personal rather than institutional.
Used platform analytics to identify peak audience activity windows and scheduled high-priority posts accordingly. This helped maximize visibility without the need to substantially increasing posting volume.
Encouraged athletes to reshare content to their own networks, extending organic reach beyond the program's existing followers into new student and non-student audiences.
05 — Data & Analysis
Audience analytics collected in August 2024 revealed clear behavioral patterns that informed posting strategy throughout the season.
A standout early data point came from the Media Day post on August 15th — a team photo that reached 11,584 accounts, with 85% being non-followers, confirming strong discovery potential beyond the existing audience.
Video Performance — Aug 17 to Sep 21, 2024
The most telling data came from tracking video performance over time. Each behind-the-scenes video consistently outperformed the last — a compounding effect driven by audience trust building week over week.
Aug 17, 2024 — Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Sep 21, 2024 — 35 days after Video 1
The jump to 85.8k views wasn't a fluke — it was the result of an audience warmed up over weeks of consistent, relatable content. Reshares grew from 9 to 145, showing followers had become active distributors, not just passive viewers.
06 — Results
07 — Reflection
The most valuable part of this project wasn't the numbers — it was realizing that the right question changes everything. The brief asked for more traffic. But going out and actually talking to students revealed that the real problem was about perception and relatability, not volume.
That shift — from "how do we post more?" to "why aren't people connecting?" — is what made the strategy work. It's a principle I carry into every communications and research challenge: the insight lives with the people, not the spreadsheet.
If I were to run this project again, I would formalize the research process earlier — structured interviews or a short survey would have given me more defensible data to back the strategic pivot. That's a gap I now know to close from the start.