Aggies Hockey GM made fan interaction priority, grown fan base

She’s never played hockey. Yet in the five seasons she has managed the Utah State hockey team’s social media, Diane Meifert has not only grown the team’s fan base, but increased opportunities for fans to interact with the players.
“We’ve been targeting very unconventional fans,” said the 24-year-old grad student — who is also the Aggies’ hockey general manager and the university’s marketing graduate assistant. “Now, the fans are not just fans, but they’re super fans.”
The Aggies are often not believed when they tell other hockey teams how packed the Eccles Ice Center is on game nights.
“At nationals, we tell them we average about 2,000 fans,” forward Chris Cutshall said. “They don’t believe us. They’re averaging like 50.”
Benson Hoopes been a fan of the Aggies since the first time he went to a game about five years ago. He’s noticed the changes in the social media posts after Meifert started running the team’s page. He said it’s the extra things the team does now that he appreciates.
“They’ve done a lot more social media stuff this year than other years, and a lot more extra things, like now they do stuff between the periods,” Hoopes said. “And they did the yoga thing the other day.”
The yoga with the team event was a first for the hockey team, and corresponded with Utah State’s Weeks of Wellness campaign in October.
Cutshall said Meifert’s marketing strategies have resulted in a more fluid information flow.
“The marketing is more precise and on time,” Cutshall said. “We get what we need when we need it and not last minute. The communication is a lot smoother.”
Working with the hockey is not something Meifert planned on when she came to school at USU.
“I always knew I loved hockey,” Meifert said, “but I didn’t know I was interested in working with it until I got to school. Now, I’ll be working with hockey my whole life.”

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