The Evolution of Seminoles.com By Brandon Mellor, Managing Editor, Seminoles.com // Photos Courtesy Seminoles.com
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rom its humble beginnings in the late 1990s to its envelope-pushing, ever-expanding online reach in 2013, Seminoles.com — like that of the entire Florida State University Athletics Department — has undergone quite the transformation over the years. As the only official website of the program, the goal of Seminoles.com has and always will be the same: connecting ’Noles fans to the student-athletes, coaches and teams they cheer for. But the manner in which that particular task is accomplished is always in flux, with technological advancements dictating the website’s evolutionary trajectory. To get a good idea on where Seminoles.com may be headed in the future, it’s important to look at where it’s been and what it has become. The website has undergone five major design overhauls in its existence, with the most recent update debuting Feb. 12, 2012. Unlike previous designs, the current version of Seminoles.com was produced with an emphasis on ease-of-use, multi-tasking and organization. “We looked at what other major sports sites were doing, from ESPN to Sports Illustrated to Yahoo!, to see different layouts,” said former FSU Assistant Athletics Director for Digital Media Ryan Pensy. “We wanted to come back to our fans with a brighter, more visually stimulating look. We wanted something that was easier to engage with from a fan’s standpoint.” Unlike the previous versions, Seminoles.com now allows even more multi-media ways for fans to connect with the ’Noles. Through the efforts of Scott Kotick, Layne Herdt and Jonathan Schillace, Seminoles.com has become a one-stop shop for highquality, riveting video about all things FSU athletics. From game previews to game recaps and from player feature stories to coach interviews, the 2012-and-beyond version of Seminoles.com gives fans the opportunity to see and hear directly from those they watch competing in the garnet and gold. Through its partnership with YouTube, Seminoles.com is also at the forefront of embedded and organized video within written stories, allowing for even more in-depth coverage and analysis of the Seminoles. News stations and national outlets like ESPN and Sports Illustrated are also able to access and utilize the video, which makes it easier for the FSU brand to spread coast to coast. “We realized there was a need in the marketplace for this type of video content,” Pensy said. “We knew we could produce the best video content to cover all of the great student-athletes and stories
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at Florida State University, and the work of those guys has been incredible in getting our message out there.” Seminoles.com’s written content has also diversified over the past few years with more features being written by myself (Brandon Mellor) that accompany the wide-ranging efforts of FSU’s sports information staff, which creates the day-to-day public relations material for every varsity sport that appears on each team’s specific page on the website. The Doak Insider Blog has also seen its content and popularity steadily increase as this is the section on the website where fans can access everything from breaking news to updates on former student-athletes. In addition to video and written content, Seminoles.com’s evolution is defined in large part by the presence of cutting-edge thirdparty tools. Social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter are utilized throughout the website and provide an easy way to share information with Florida State fans across the globe. The weekly Doak Insider Podcast gives fans the option to listen to FSU-related news, updates and inside information, and the popular music service Spotify was recently added to Seminoles.com’s many features as a way for ’Noles fans to hear some of the favorite songs of the student-athletes. “We wouldn’t have been able to grow our social media brands as well as we have had it not been for the great content on Seminoles. com,” Pensy said. “The content drives the conversation. We look at our page views and they are up year after year, and we continue to see an increase in visitors coming to the site to check out FSU athletics, which is really how we measure how well we are doing.” Moving forward, maintaining the same level of success that Seminoles.com has experienced means keeping a finger on the pulse of all things social and digital media. If a new product comes out that will help the site in its mission to spread the FSU word to the world, Seminoles.com will be there ready to try it out. With another exciting fall season set to kick off in just a few short months, Seminoles.com will continue to explore every possible avenue in the digital realm with an eye on making FSU fans feel as though they are on the field, on the court, in the pool, on the track and in the huddle with their favorite FSU student-athletes and coaches. “If you look back to where it was 10 years ago, the site was just about giving a schedule and a roster and providing a way to sell tickets,” Pensy said. “Now it’s telling a story, and we have the ability to tell the story. We’ll do whatever we have to do to connect with our fans and keep pushing forward.” SB
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