Livestream is a social site. A cloud-based platform that allows you to share your events live via video. What is great about the service is that is also archives video so you can experience them over and over again, whenever you want. Wherever you are. Free.
USA Racquetball made a proactive move right after breaking ties with IRT Network/Enetlive. They decided to use Livestream and the leadership put it on their own shoulders to get National Singles matches easily available to their constituency. They aren't the first racquetball organization to choose this platform. The Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour has been using Livestream since they separated from EnetLive. Both organizations have decided to move their video streaming ambitions in-house using the platform's easy to use applications.
Though both the LPRT and the USAR will continue to provide viewers with the same benefits offered by the platform, such as viewers being able to instantly view matches that were missed, USA Racquetball is better able to capitalize on this platform because their main goal is to activate their viewers. To clarify, USA Racquetball's main organizational goal is to engage its members into action, that action being in the form of formal participation. Members and potential members who watch the variety of matches will be more likely to feel as they have very specific next steps towards participation in the game of racquetball, which is participate in USA Racquetball affiliated events.
USA Racquetball did a wonderful job engaging their members to participate in the actual streaming and commentating. It was a fun reflection of the event and the people who make up USA Racquetball. Players, coaches, board members all took turns broadcasting matches. And this part is important; Matches in various divisions. Members are more likely to be personally engaged when they have the opportunity to watch divisions that they are participating themselves or wish to realistically play up to. In seeing and watching, members were more likely to feel like they were actually there, playing. There is a better chance members will act on their memberships. This is really good for USA Racquetball. They actually pointed their cameras on themselves and let their members run with it. Commentators were also fully participating in the event. And if USA Racquetball can figure out how to allow local USA Racquetball affiliated events to access and produce streams on their channel, there could be a continual engagement throughout the country. Following USA Racquetball on Livestream wouldn't be just to view national events, but for a host of events that lead up to national events, building on engagement and momentum as this events happened.
This was a good step for USA Racquetball and they nailed it considering it was their first time. They've figured out how to reflect who they are using a social media streaming site. Social. No doubt things will get better as they do this more. It would be helpful for them to continual think "engagement" and "activation" along these lines.
USA National Singles can be viewed here. Some really good match ups with an interesting group of players/divisions/matches for a first time in-house attempt. They jumped into the pool and are just beginning to reflect how big the pool actually is.
Rabbit trail... USA Racquetball should not only think "Engagement" and "Activation" when it comes to their streaming and social endeavors. They should add one more word when the take a broader view of what they do as a whole for the sport. That word is "Inclusion". Inclusion should be at the center of everything, in all operations and the "who" that is involved in making USA Racquetball programming happen. More specifically, how they can proactively engage a broader search/election for a board membership that more truly reflects the actual USA membership. Because when you apply engagment and activation to inclusion you get broader growth.
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