CougCenter 101: Social Media And SB Nation Seattle

I've been busy working on the SB Nation Seattle regional site and have neglected the CougCenter 101 posts, and for that I apologize. In the last of our series of overviews on CougCenter and the SB Nation interface, we look at some of the newer tools SBNation has to offer.

In the last year, SB Nation has placed a heavy focus on social media to promote and share posts with the world. Twitter and Facebook are a great way to tell your friends about the work you see here on CougCenter. If you like something, why not share it with the world? Proud of a FanPost or comment you make? Share that with the world too.

June brought the rollout of SBNation regional sites. Since we're close enough to the Seattle area, the Cougars are lumped in with SB Nation Seattle, your one stop shop for everything Seattle sports. With the addition of the Seattle site, we have another resource for Cougar news and some cool new ways to look at the Cougs.

After the jump, we'll go over how to use these newfound tools.

Social Media

Got a twitter account? What about a Facebook account? If you do, linking them to your SB Nation profile and unleashing the power of social media is one step away.

On the top bar of the SB Nation sites, you'll find this.

If you have a Twitter account, there will also be a button to connect it to your SB Nation account. Click the button, enter your username and password, and you're all set. SB Nation will not use any of the information or pass it out to others. Connecting your account simply allows SB Nation to post links to your accounts with the simple click of a button

At the bottom of every front page post, you'll find this.

Whenever we post something, we send it out to the @CougCenter twitter account. If you're not following it, you're missing out. As soon as something new is posted, it's sent to the world on that account. Additionally, all the authors have accounts where we share our posts, thoughts, and quick hitters on sports. Craig is @thecraigpowers, Jeff is @NussCoug, Grady is @GradyClapp, and I am @floydcoug. Follow us all, you won't regret it.

This is where you come in. If you have a Twitter account, click the retweet button at the bottom of the post. A new window will open with your twitter account and a message with a link to the post. If you like something, retweet it.

If you have a Facebook and you like a post, click the Like button. Facebook will post "Person likes CougCenter 101: Social Media and SBN Seattle", for example, on your wall, allowing your friends to see the link to our post.

Did you write a comment you're proud of? Post it to your wall.

Before hitting post, check the "Post comment to your Facebook wall" box and it'll automatically send it to your facebook profile.

Social media allows you to be a part of the CougCenter experience and grow the commenting community here at CougCenter.

SBN Seattle

Editor Ben Golliver has been doing fantastic work over at SB Nation Seattle. You'll also notice that Jeff and I are doing quite a bit of work over there. Jeff is doing commentaries and a weekly feature on college sports while I'm covering breaking news and updating the StoryStreams. You can find Jeff's Campus Corner feature every Wednesday. I suggest making it a weekly read.

With SB Nation Seattle taking off, the Cougar news there is ramping up. Nothing will change here at CougCenter, but SB Nation Seattle will have all the Cougar news in one stream. We'll cover breaking news here as usual, but if you miss something and don't want to wade through the archives, it'll all be on the Seattle site, complete with links to the full stories. You can find the Cougar news StoryStream here. For an example of a StoryStream with updates, check out our Seahawks stream. There will also be one upcoming for football recruiting news and eventually Cougar basketball recruiting.

SBNation Seattle impacts CougCenter in two ways. The first is the fan confidence feature. In the upper left corner of the site, you'll find this.

Share how you're felling about the Cougs every week by voting. Each week there will be a window to vote. All you have to do is slide the bar -- in increments of 10 -- to the level of confidence you have about the Cougs, between 0 and 100. It'll be tallied on Wednesday, with the results being posted here and at SBNation Seattle.

From time to time, Ben will select FanPosts to feature on SB Nation Seattle under the editor's picks title. If you go to the SBN Seattle homepage, you'll find them displayed right there on the front page.

You'll see that selahcoug's FanPost is currently featured. Contribute some content in the form of FanPosts and you, too, could be featured.

Front Page Posts

One last thing I'd forgotten in the other posts. If you like a front page post, feel free to rec it just like you would a comment. Above the comment interface, you'll find this bar.

Simply click rec to let readers know it's a post you like. The amount of recs will be displayed on the front page and make it easier for readers to find posts that are well liked.

With that, we end the CougCenter 101 series. I hope it's been informative and showed you some new things you can do at CougCenter. Feel free to use any of these tips and tricks however you like. If you've been hesitating to jump and start commenting, by all means do so. We'd love to have you.