Squeak of the Week

Several years ago a group of friends and I started tailgating for UC Football games. As the Cincinnati Football program has grown overtime, so has our tailgate. Two years ago we purchased “The Ultimate Tailgate Trailer” by pooling together funds that investment then grew to a blog, BearcatTailgater.com. There is something very unique about our tailgate, everything is provided and all we ask is for a donation. These donations go to cover maintenance costs along with donations to several charities in our community.

When we first started tailgating we had roughly 10-20 people showing up, we knew we needed more people to not only get fans excited but to do more good in our community. Using social tools has allowed our initial group to leverage our vast social and professional circles to draw attendance each week. Each week (and year round) we blog, tweet and have an active facebook presence.

A lot of people say using social tools (media) is FREE and it certainly doesn’t cost you license fees, etc but it does take a lot of hard work to write content and keep everything current. Luckily our initial group of investors have several tech savy individuals and collectively we make all this work while still being able to focus on our real jobs (this is a hobby, not a job).

What started out as 10 guys getting together each week, has turned into crowds of 250+, sponsors such as Hudy Delight and Dean’s Dairy Dip. We even had a visit from Bush’s Baked Bean’s Tailgate Tour for homecoming. All of this has led to earned media from the Cincinnati Enquirer, 700WLW, 1530 HOMER, ESPN, ESPNU and many local TV news outlets. Not to mention that we were selected as “Tailgater of the Year” by Tailgater Monthly Magazine.

This proves that if you are passionate about something (in this case football and doing good) and some time to write about what you are doing, turning any brand social as unlimited possibilities!