Career Paths: Tuckwood Finds Her Social Place
Her efforts helped CSU soccer's accounts pop
Savvy Rafkin
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Behind the winning sports teams, roar of the crowd and parents frantically taking pictures, a social media team is constantly working behind the scenes at to ensure student-athletes get the professional publicity they deserve.
Social media intern Emily Tuckwood has spent the past two years showcasing Colorado State athletics to the public, and the coaches could not be more thrilled to have her there.
In addition to her internship for the CSU athletics department, Tuckwood is a senior double majoring in Journalism and Business Marketing. She was introduced to sports by her father and their shared love of hockey.
“I played a lot of different sports throughout my life, but the biggest one was hockey,” Tuckwood said. “I did that for about 10 years, and it was one of the first sports I’ve ever gotten into. My uncle and my dad played together on the team, and once I was able to learn how to walk, my dad would take me out in our driveway and knock the puck around. I ended up just growing up with the sport from there because I got introduced to it from an early age.”
Fast forward several years later, and Tuckwood found herself revamping the CSU women’s soccer Instagram page, which was a hit with both the public and the players. Previously, the soccer staff had been in charge of running the account, which is difficult when the bigger focus is on winning games as a team. Once Tuckwood was in charge, the page exploded and gained a lot of traction.
“Our players walk up to me and go ‘how did Emily do this’ or ‘how did she do that’ and so she’s making an impact, not just for the rest of the world to see what CSU soccer does, but our players are noticing and being like ‘that’s really cool,’ said assistant soccer coach Tori Ball. “For us as a staff, we don’t have to run that stuff. It’s something lifted off of our shoulders.”
Her hard work on the soccer Instagram page was recognized, especially by CSU social media assistant Brandon Randall.
“The entire soccer team’s Instagram was just kinda dead,” Randall said. “It wasn’t being posted to; it was inconsistent. When it was being posted to, it wasn’t great content that the team was excited about. Ever since she got her hands on it, it’s completely flipped. It’s seen crazy growth over the past couple years.”
Sports and content are definitely two of my biggest passions, and putting them into one job … There’s nothing better in my mind.Emily Tuckwood, CSU Social Media Intern
Described as a humble and reserved girl, Tuckwood packs a punch when she works on her content projects. She uses her creativity to express herself and communicate with people through her work instead of with words. For Tuckwood, “show, not tell” is part of who she is.
But for Tuckwood, social media wasn’t always the plan.
“[I was] doing a little bit of social media management for the ultimate frisbee team and I had no intention of doing so. I was there to play and practice and compete,” Tuckwood said. “I was talking to one of my captains about it one day and how I used to make a bunch of videos for classes back in high school just for fun and I really enjoyed doing it. She gave me the idea of making videos for our team during tournaments and learning the social media accounts. I hadn’t really done a lot of social media stuff until then; I had my own personal accounts, but I never really used them. I wanted to take on the challenge to try it out and I ended up loving it.”
After falling in love with social media management, Tuckwood’s passion and dedication to her craft took off and turned into a beautiful asset to the CSU athletics department. During her free moments, Tuckwood spends time getting inspiration from other content creators and watching YouTube videos to increase her skills.
Tuckwood has learned countless valuable tricks during her time in the social media department, from animation to uplifting team members to being open to suggestions, she will enter the workforce with an abundance of skills ready to use during her next endeavor.
And what comes next for Tuckwood?
“Definitely continuing to do what I’m doing now,” Tuckwood said. “I love content creation, and I love the fact that I am able to work within the sports industry and make content about that. Sports and content are definitely two of my biggest passions, and putting them into one job … There’s nothing better in my mind.”
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