Sports Illustrated Joins Forces With Clemson University Social Media Listening Center to Improve Content

Sports Illustrated is partnering with Clemson University’s Social Media Listening Center to reveal insights using the school’s unique analytics software that will inform its social strategy and help augment its editorial content. Clemson’s Social Media Listening Center (SMLC), the first facility of its kind in higher education, monitors, measures and engages in social media conversations from across the web. This collaboration provides SI with access to public opinion in real time to help develop content across SI channels.

“Social media is a constant, real-time survey,” says Ryan Hunt, Managing Editor and Director of Editorial Development of SI.com. “Working with a university such as Clemson and its Social Media Listening Center that is continuously innovating in the areas of social media research and contextualization, not just around the NFL draft, is both incredibly exciting and beyond fascinating. The opportunities and potential are limitless.”

Sports Illustrated will work alongside Clemson students and faculty using their cutting-edge laboratory to explore conversations surrounding the 2019 NFL Draft as the first initiative. Over the course of the three-day event, students will monitor 32 prospective draftees, utilizing some of the most powerful social analytics software available to convey sentiment, share of voice, trend information, geo-location data and much more.

“Partnering with Sports Illustrated provides our faculty and students another opportunity to get invaluable real-world experience as part of our comprehensive curriculum,” said Joseph Mazer, Director of the Social Media Listening Center and Chair of the Department of Communication. “Our department’s association with Clemson’s Robert H. Brooks Sports Science Institute creates these unique partnerships for us to study and analyze communication as it pertains to social media and sport. Kicking the partnership off with such a high-profile event as the NFL Draft will provide a great start to what we hope is a long-term relationship with Sports Illustrated.”

This unique collaboration allows Sports Illustrated to provide coverage around the 2019 NFL Draft and unlocks opportunities with Clemson’s Social Media Listening Center in the future.