So I was just talking about this with someone the other day, because I noticed it too. To be honest, your average, casual observer doesn't even know that there is going to be college basketball this year. Most folks who I talk to about it don't know that the NCAA, let alone Mason, are going to play games this winter. So there's that uphill battle of simply educating folks on the fact that yes, there will be basketball, and yes, Mason will be competing. Agree that winning cures all, but in the mean time the program needs to find a way to recapture some of those casual folks who bought in after 2006 and 2011. I honestly think that as much as some folks on here detest the idea, bringing back guys from those eras will bring some of the casual folks back. If we aren't good, people like to relive those glory days and feel a connection to back when we were relevant. I think bringing in Ike Tate was a super smart move on the ADs part and I hope they move forward with a plan to bridge that gap and bring some of those guys back in the fold. Listening to y'all's interviews with former players they players are open to it, but they aren't going to make the first move, it has to be the school (and it should be). We should be sending those dudes gear every year. There is no reason why Lamar shouldn't be wearing a Mason T shirt to every single one of his practices. If it's stupid, but it works, then it's not stupid.
Take this next piece with a grain of salt because it's super subjective and just my opinion:
Y'all's content is not bad. Your production value is top notch comparing it to other places. I think you need to do a better job capturing some of the niche audiences and grow from there. The old farts on this board don't understand what a podcast is, let alone listen to it. They want to see written articles with static pictures. Statistics are cool too and will catch some of the more hardcore basketball heads, but if you have an article with all numbers you are going to scare folks away. They want interviews with Brad and Washington and Dave. They are interested in recruiting, but want to be told what to think on it. They don't want to engage with folks on Twitter (tbh they don't have Twitter, or instagram, or any of that).
Then you have the college aged kids who I think you are really good with interacting with. They want the content focused around the players. They want an instagram post with a paragraph caption on whatever it is you are trying to talk about. Memes, vidoes, you know the drill. They'll engage with you across social media and will also engage with you on recruits. Your average student is not going to listen to podcast over 15 minutes though.
Then you've got the middle of the road weirdos. Folks like me, who like niche content. I really think that y'all bringing ExPat into the fold was genius. It gives people a good cross section of Mason content. Behind the scenes type stuff that you'd never get out of them as a student, info on what they are up to now, etc. I think you could really expand the Expat audience if you made it a little more clear on the marketing side that a huge portion of the pod is dedicated to talking about the guys time at Mason. I went in not expecting y'all to talk about college at all, but was pleasantly surprised when half of the interview was dedicated to it. I also think it will do wonders for the program as a whole. For some of these guys you interview, this might be the first mason-related interview they have done since leaving school. Gives them a little nostalgia, and maybe can help facilitate conversations between them and the AD in the future.
So to sum it up, I think you need to have separate content for the various niches of your audience, focus on capturing and developing that and the mainstream will come with it. Also interviews with some of the more important folks around Mason sports will go a long way. The geriatrics on here would probably have their grandkids download a podcast on their iphone for them of y'all talking to Washington about basketball and his view on what role the team plays in the university.
but we truly are crappy in every way.
