Sunday, December 4, 2011

Belk Bowl

I am a NC State student. This means I hold my head high, howl loud and proud, and flash the Wolfpack hand sign. I bleed red 'n'white. I go to football games, sit in the student section and participate in every chant, every wave, every song. I was elated when my Michigan born-n-bred fiance' wore his NCSU t-shirt to the NC State vs. Central Michigan game. I was smug and sassy when we beat UNC FOR THE 5TH YEAR IN A ROW! Ok.. I'm still smug and sassy about that fact. And the very last game of the season... when we came back and beat Maryland... I was so full of Wolfpack pride, I wore red and white every day the next week. Today I found out NC State was going to the Belk Bowl. I rushed to the website to check on tickets and when I clicked on the "individual tickets" link, this is the page I saw:


My first reaction was shock. Of all the teams they could have chosen to put on their site, they chose our arch rivals? Are you kidding me? My next response was to vocalize my frustrations. I am a social media strategist. I own a company that specializes in assisting companies and organizations with their web presence and communications.  So I did what all social media geeks do. I took my grievance to Twitter. I found the Belk Bowl on Twitter and fired off this Tweet:

   Shelli Mayfield 
Hey ... I'm a  fan. I went to ur pg to buy individual tickets for this bowl & u have the TARHEELS as the pic! WTH? 


Clearly the Belk Bowl understands the power of social media because within 20 minutes I got this response:



 Belk Bowl 
  The site features photos from all past games but we've updated it just for you. Better?

I immediately went back to the website and to my delight, the header on the page had been changed to this:


I am a happy girl. I am happy because my beloved Wolfpack is going to a bowl game. I am happy that in this day and age of corporate management and technology overload, we have a way to communicate with organizations on a much more intimate level than previous generations ever thought possible. Most of all, I am happy the Belk Bowl is wise enough to embrace these technologies, heard my distress and came riding up on their white stallion to save the day. 

Thank you to the social media team for the Belk Bowl.

GO WOLFPACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!