Mild rant about Leinster Rugbys online presence

[arsebiscuits1]

It has irked me for a while and I think the fact that I had to view highlights of a Leinster game from the Gloucesters YT channel was the final straw. Leinsters online presence isn’t good enough.

Perhaps my off seasons withdrawals have reached breaking point but we are one of the biggest Rugby Clubs in the world in terms of online presences as of today we have 176k followers on both Twitter and FB.

We are bigger than any Aviva or Pro12 Club on Twitter and up there with some of the bigger Top14 clubs. Up against Super Rugby we finish mid table

We have more FB followers than all of the teams in the Pro12 and Aviva except Leicester and again, finish middle of the board against the Top14 ditto with Super Rugby

We finish pretty close to top of the pile in terms of Instagram followers too. Way ahead of all NH clubs and up there with Super Rugby clubs

We have a pretty strong Youtube following too

Across the Laighin was brilliant until it took a year hiatus and made a brief cameo at the end of last season. The Academy was wonderful but only 4 episodes. I think pre- season is a brilliant chance to get a behind the scenes look at some of the workings of a Club as Ulster and Munster have done this summer. A handful of premiership clubs have done the same.

We have gotten no highlights of any pre season game. We have gotten no look at the academy players. No look at the underage squads playing. No A game highlights, no fun facts about player X. No profiles on any of the Leinster based clubs.

Instead we get 30 second video of team announcements and double tapping a stock photo to wish someone happy birthday.

I find it embarrassing that I know more about how Ulster and Munster are shaping up for the season ahead purely because they are uploading content.

Since the seasons end there has been less than 20 minutes of Youtube content uploaded.

[goreyguy]

It's been poor for awhile now, poor website and online content.
Miles behind Munster/Ulster.

[wixfjord]

Completely agree with this. For the biggest pro sport brand in a tech hub like Dublin, it's pitiful really. I follow a lot of what the NRL and Super 15 sides do, and it's literally streets ahead of us (that goes for the Pro 12 too btw).
The lack of on site content, video stuff and innovation is crazy, considering there's a marketing/PR team of at least three people in there, one of which I know is a digital/social person. We haven't moved beyond the level of 'Happy birthday to (insert player name)' stuff.

The video announcements are seen as 'innovative', despite the fact they're annoying, a poor user experience and take ages to upload (and often don't include the subs).

It's also leaving money on the table for the branch. Sort it out chaps!

As an aside, I believe Samsung (who did some nice video stuff around Leinster) are no longer sponsors of the province, which is a loss too from an online content perspective.

[Dirk Stickler]

Yup, it's rubbish. The app situ is dreadful too. It's being replaced but currently there isn't one.

It's a bit inexcusable as well. They're based on a college campus. Not that I would advocate the use of free labour but surely they could easily tie in with UCD to have interested students come up with something.

The website itself is nicely set up from a user pov but the content is either painfully slow or non existent. Even something like the profile pics of the players taken so long to turn up on the site is odd and when they were put up, some were left off.

I know it's a promotional thing as opposed to being specifically club-led but the video Bath/ Canterbury made to launch their new kits is great. It would at least have garnered an extra interest in the upcoming season had it been ripped off on College Green or down even down in Tullow! We don't even know what our Euro jersey is going to look like. I'd imagine most people don't know we're getting one.

[offshorerules]

Dare I say it but ever since Jamie's mot took over the marketing things have slipped a bit.

[goreyguy]

Yup but dont think she is reponsible for online media content.

[wixfjord]

She also hasn't worked for Leinster for a year and a half!

[Dave Cahill]

And she never took over - she worked in the marketing dept, she wasn't in charge o f it.

[Flash Gordon]

Yup but dont think she is reponsible for online media content.

As others have said she hasn't worked there for sometime but digital comms would absolutely be the responsibility of marketing. With regard to the website and apps, most brands have de-prioritised these media because in the world of branded marketing people just don't visit websites or apps unless they are looking for specific information - in Leinster's case it'll be fixtures, ticket information etc. With regard to content they are broadcasting that via social media and that's probably right - the vast majority of people won't go to the site just on the off chance that there might be something interesting but they will click on it if they see something on the facebook, instagram or twitter newsfeed.

[Armchair]

Have to agree PR is very poor at getting content up and reporting on games. Leinster 20s play Clermont tonight would be great to get teams and live tweets even and video highlights next week but.....

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Have to agree PR is very poor at getting content up and reporting on games. Leinster 20s play Clermont tonight would be great to get teams and live tweets even and video highlights next week but.....

Do you really expect Leinster to send a social media person over to France to cover an underage friendly?

Some of the criticism is very much warranted but I think people need to get a grip as well.

[Peg Leg]

Have to agree PR is very poor at getting content up and reporting on games. Leinster 20s play Clermont tonight would be great to get teams and live tweets even and video highlights next week but.....

Bah, video....? such a jester.

[arsebiscuits1]

Have to agree PR is very poor at getting content up and reporting on games. Leinster 20s play Clermont tonight would be great to get teams and live tweets even and video highlights next week but.....

Do you really expect Leinster to send a social media person over to France to cover an underage friendly?

Some of the criticism is very much warranted but I think people need to get a grip as well.

It would be a big waste to do that I agree.

But I would be shocked if there was not some video/ performance analyst filming out there.

I'm not saying that for this very game it is essential the analyst films it so it can go on Youtube. But modern sports teams film literally everything. They can be clever about their footage and resources

[goreyguy]

Have to agree PR is very poor at getting content up and reporting on games. Leinster 20s play Clermont tonight would be great to get teams and live tweets even and video highlights next week but.....

Do you really expect Leinster to send a social media person over to France to cover an underage friendly?

Some of the criticism is very much warranted but I think people need to get a grip as well.

It would be a big waste to do that I agree.

But I would be shocked if there was not some video/ performance analyst filming out there.

I'm not saying that for this very game it is essential the analyst films it so it can go on Youtube. But modern sports teams film literally everything. They can be clever about their footage and resources

all the underage games are recorded, just like preseason games.

for whatever reason leinster pr just don't do anything with the footage.

the social media/online content is a joke. So poorly done.

[Dave Cahill]

for whatever reason leinster pr just don't do anything with the footage.

I wouldn't necessarily blame the marketing/comms department. I'm not saying its not down to them, but in the past, it hasn't always been their call. I know from personal experience that under Schmidt and Cheika the reason was mostly Schmidt and Cheika. Nothing that was recorded featuring a Leinster team, any Leinster team, was released in any way without their say so and they rarely gave their say so. They were of the opinion that any video that could be of any use to the opposition at any time, now or in the future, shouldn't be made available. For example, for the Treble DVD, we were given almost no access to B&I cup footage as Joe Schmidt didn't want it available - we could use the stuff from BBC Regional as it was already in the wild and that was it.

[Flash Gordon]

for whatever reason leinster pr just don't do anything with the footage.

I wouldn't necessarily blame the marketing/comms department. I'm not saying its not down to them, but in the past, it hasn't always been their call. I know from personal experience that under Schmidt and Cheika the reason was mostly Schmidt and Cheika. Nothing that was recorded featuring a Leinster team, any Leinster team, was released in any way without their say so and they rarely gave their say so. They were of the opinion that any video that could be of any use to the opposition at any time, now or in the future, shouldn't be made available. For example, for the Treble DVD, we were given almost no access to B&I cup footage as Joe Schmidt didn't want it available - we could use the stuff from BBC Regional as it was already in the wild and that was it.

Which makes perfect sense. One of the things you often see is a rookie senior player making a huge impact in year one and less so in year two because oppositions have analysed him to death.

[nc6000]

There's a new Leinster App for Android but it requires another app called TribeHive Connect to also be installed which "works by creating a network between the fans' mobile devices which passes app content from phone to phone enabling fans to keep up with live scores and dynamic league tables even if they don't have a data or Wi-Fi connection themselves."

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ster&hl=en

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... .app&hl=en

[Morf]

I'm not sure what the aim of this video is. Sharing the players very mixed feelings about it and obvious struggles of some to be complimentary.

Quite odd.

[BlueWheels]

Fully agree, it's very poor.

They don't even update the very simple stuff such as staff changes FFS ...... for example on their Branch Departments page, they are still showing Sinead Coffey as the Ticketing Officer, although she left at the end of last season and her replacement has been in situ since early August



http://www.leinsterrugby.ie/branch/bran ... tments.php

[BlueWheels]

I see they've updated the Ticket Officer details ...... They must read the threads after all