Super Bowl LI will forever be known for the legendary 25-point comeback that Tom Brady led the New England Patriots back from against the Atlanta Falcons. However, behind the scenes nine of our Rice students were helping the NFL Social Media Command Center. The students monitored, regulated, and published all social media content for the NFL through Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
“Overall, working the social media command center was a great experience where we all were able to gain real world experience working in multiple positons associated with social media,” said Temi Alaka, a senior majoring in Sport Management. “As a football player it was interesting to see the social media aspect associated with the biggest football game of the year.”
Alaka, along with the other eight students, could move between three positions that all were an integral part of the command center. The three positions included the Listener, whose primary responsibilities were to monitor social media sites, and answer any questions asked on social media platforms by fans and send the responses to the Captain.
The Captain, the next position the students work, oversaw the Listeners and gave them approval on all published material including answers to questions that the Listeners responded to. After the Captain’s approval, responses from the NFL’s social media accounts were published into the world.
The last position that the Rice students worked as was the Lead, whose main responsibilities were to report directly to the Director of Social Media and oversee all the other interns. This position monitoring and reporting any safety security concerns that may arise from social media as well.
“It was an amazing time,” said Trey Martin, a senior majoring in Sport Management. “It was like the Final Four internship a couple of us did, but still taught use a couple of new things about how a large organization handles their social media during an event.”
The Final Four internship mentioned by Martin was a similar opportunity that 30 of our sport management students had when they were able to volunteer to help run the Social Media Hub during the 2016 Men’s Basketball Final Four.
Denzel Davis, a senior from Orlando, Florida, is double-majoring in Sport Management and Managerial Studies.