Facebook Catches March Madness

Facebook is embracing March Madness, with temporary custom frames for profile pictures for teams in the 2016 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship tournament highlighting its efforts. The social network said it worked with the NCAA’s social media and digital team to design the custom frames, and fans can search for their teams here, after which they can specify when their profile pictures will revert back to “normal.” Facebook Live videos will also take to the court, as the social network said in an email to SocialTimes that teams, including the University of Oregon, University of Virginia and Duke University, will tap into the live-video-streaming feature, as will college basketball legends such as Grant Hill. Several examples are embedded below. Facebook Messenger is tournament-bound, as well, with the social network providing the following ways for the app to be incorporated into users’ March Madness experiences: Show your team spirit with customized group chats: College basketball season is a time for friends and families to come together and for rivals who went to schools with a slightly different shade of blue to taunt. Within Messenger, you can set a “team” name for your group chat, change the chat's colors to those of your favorite team, change the Like emoji from a “thumbs up” to a basketball (or whatever else might be appropriate!) and give your buddies nicknames like “slam dunk king” or their favorite player's jersey number. Anyone in the conversation can customize the group, meaning that there’s lots of potential for back and forth. Get organized with Payments: Don’t waste your time chasing your friends down for their shares of the tab after you go out to watch the games—or for their shares of snacks and drinks if you're staying in. Ask everyone to settle up through Messenger by sending the person who covered the tab his/her share. Here’s where you can learn more. Get excited with basketball stickers: Do some trash-talking or celebrate the slam dunks with basketball-related fun using the Sports Talk sticker pack. Finally, the social network offered the following NCAA Tournament-related statistics: Only two universities involved in this year’s tournament have seven-digit like totals: University of North Carolina (1.1 million) and University of Kentucky (1 million). Top four head coaches in the 2016 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship tournament, by likes: John Calipari, University of Kentucky, 559,000 Mike Krzyzewski, Duke University, 140,000 Mark Turgeon, University of Maryland, 4,000 Cuonzo Martin, University of California Berkeley, 2,000 Power conferences, by likes: Southeastern Conference, 625,000 Big Ten Conference, 288,000 Pac-12 Conference: 214,000 Atlantic Coast Conference: 170,000 Big 12 Conference: 88,000 Big East Conference: 11,000 No. 1 seeds, by likes: University of North Carolina, 1.1 million University of Kansas, 362,000 University of Oregon, 46,000 University of Virginia, 29,000 No. 2 seeds, by likes: Michigan State University, 74,000 Villanova University, 56,000 University of Oklahoma, 47,000 Xavier University, 29,000 No. 3 seeds, by likes: University of Miami, 437,000 West Virginia University, 101,000 Texas A&M University, 23,000 University of Utah, 18,000 No. 4 seeds, by likes: University of Kentucky, 1 million Duke University, 368,000 Iowa State University, 77,000 University of California Berkeley, 13,000 No. 5 seeds, by likes: Indiana University, 291,000 Baylor University, 147,000 University of Maryland, 51,000 Purdue University, 31,000 Readers: Which teams do you have finishing atop your brackets?

Social Pro Daily

Facebook Catches March Madness

Facebook is embracing March Madness, with temporary custom frames for profile pictures for teams in the 2016 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship tournament highlighting its efforts.

David Cohen

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David Cohen