Media
Media is often one of the most important parts of the team because it directly relates to how well you do in competition, how you present yourself to your sponsors, community, and fans, and how you recruit new members to your team.
Below are some quick links that give more details about how to succeed with Media.
Quick Links:
World Wide Web
Presentations
Team Image
How To: Non-Tech
World Wide Web
In order for your team to get recognition, support, or new recruits, you need to utilize the internet to get the word out there!
Website:
It is extremely easy to make a website now, thanks to blog/website combination sites such as Wordpress and Blogspot. For a rookie team, these template sites often work best, as they are quick and easy to set up as well as simple to maintain. Creating and coding a team website, while a worthwhile endeavor, can take up valuable time for rookies.
Website Tips:
- Make it visually interesting. Use moving elements! Look for widgets that can display videos, photo slideshows, countdowns to important events, and more.
- Keep your website with the theme of your team, using your team colors. You want to keep all of your online publications in the same format so that you start to create a consistent image for your team.
- Include photos of your team. Your followers, fans, and sponsors will want to see updated photos of your team, from working on the robot to doing outreach events. Remember, a picture really is worth a thousand words!
- Update your website regularly. This shows your followers, other teams, and judges that your team is putting effort into keeping everyone up to date.
- Read the FIRST Website Award criteria. Even if you’re not planning on submitting for the website award, you should still follow the requirements when creating your website.
Social Media:
Social Media is crucial to the development of new robotics teams. Social media is a powerful way to recruit new members to your team. In addition, it keeps everyone updated on recent details.
Social Networking Websites:
- Facebook. Making a Facebook Fan page is one of the most simple yet effective ways of communicating with team members, fans, and even sponsors. Facebook allows for you to quickly update people on the current status of your team and share media from your website and other social media sites.
- Google+. Although this is a fairly new site, it allows you to specifically target the people you want to get information to by categorizing them into groups – team members, fans, sponsors – and sending posts to those certain groups.
Video and Content Communities:
- YouTube. Videos communicate especially well with sponsors and fans because they allow them to connect with your team on a more powerful visual basis.
- Dailymotion. You can use this site to take pictures of your robot as it gets built. This allows your fans and sponsors to see the progression of your robot during the Build Season. This gives you the capability to go back and make a stop-motion video of your robot building itself! It’s a fun and exciting way to document the process.
Do you have questions about making a website or utilizing social media that we didn’t answer here? Ask us!
Presentations
Your team will need to become comfortable with creating and giving presentations, as it is an essential skill for sustaining FIRST Robotics Competition teams. FRC teams give presentations for a varying list of reasons, but the most common include presenting for sponsors, giving speeches to judges at competitions, and creating workshops for local FIRST gatherings.
Four Keys to Your Success:
- Consider your audience. You should tailor your presentation so that it is most effective towards your target audience. Know what your audience is looking for – are they looking for statistics? Do they want to know about the impact your team has had on your local community? Knowing your audience will allow you to use specific information to best make your intended points.
- Know your goal. Why are you giving this presentation? Keep your agenda clear throughout your presentation and bring the overall point home in your conclusion so that your audience remembers your presentation for the reason you want them to remember it.
- Plan your time and organize your thoughts. Be effective with every moment you are allotted for your presentation. You’ll come off as more professional, and it will help you keep your presentation on track with proving your main point.
- Practice, practice, practice! Nothing else helps your presentation more.
Super Structure: Just like your FRC robot, your presentation needs a well-organized structure to be successful. Click here for a good basic outline to get you on the right track to a great presentation, created by FIRST Team 3504.
In addition, these sites (one with pointers for creating great slides, the other about how to give a powerful presentation) will get you on the right track for success in your next presentation.
Also, make sure to look at example FIRST presentations to start thinking about how to tailor your presentation to the FRC competition. Go on the internet and search for presentations about similar subjects to get a good idea of where you should be heading with your own presentation.
Have questions about presentations that we didn’t answer here? Ask us!
Team Image
Creating a strong and cohesive team image is actually one of the most important tasks a rookie team faces- you’ll likely stick with the same image for many years to come!
First, think of what you want to represent in your team. As an all-girls team, The Girls of Steel decided we wanted a strong, female centered image. We brainstormed ideas, allowing the entire team to contribute, and settled on Rosie the Riveter. Rosie the Riveter was already an iconic image and it represents the purpose of our team in a visually interesting way.
We knew that we didn’t want to just use Rosie by herself, so we decided to add robotics into the image by photoshopping in the robot parts. We used a basic version of Adobe Photoshop C.53 to layer the images and make everything look normal in proportion to the rest of Rosie.
When creating your own team image, follow these simple tips:
- Message. Make sure you brainstorm images that represent what your team is all about.
- Catchiness. When narrowing down your ideas to a central image, make sure that your image is unique and eye-catching so that people will remember your team.
- Software. After you decide on an idea, make sure to use quality software to create your image so that it will stay crisp when you blow up the image to make posters or pins.
How To: Non-Tech
Brilliant Buttons:
First, come up with an idea for your button. Often, teams use their logos as their buttons. If you’re from a particular school or organization, piggy-back off of that logo or mascot.
This process is very individual to each FIRST team, but there are some general rules to follow – include your team’s name, your team’s number, your logo/design, and either FIRST’s logo or the special “FIRST” font (both available here).
Terrific T-Shirts:
Having t-shirts for your team is a great way to cohesively make your team uniform, while also adding a little personality to your team’s look.
Creating t-shirts for your team follows two simple steps: find a vendor to create the shirts and design the shirts. Before you start the designing process, make sure you have a vendor lined up to do the printing that offers a price that your team can afford. If you can’t afford the price, you can ask the vendor for a in-kind donation of the services – many vendors, depending on the size of the order, may be willing to do the service pro-bono, or for a discount.
After you have secured your vendor, move on to designing your t-shirt. Your t-shirt should include three things: your logo, FIRST’s logo, and a catchy phrase (or your tag phrase). Make sure you follow your vendor’s specifications, but use your creative juices here!
Bold Banners:
At competition, many teams have personal banners that they hang in their pits. These banners identify your sponsors (recognizing them for their help) and/or help showcase your team.
Again, the best way to get your banners made is to send them out to a printer. Once you find a printer, make an image that follows their specifications. Be creative, but remember that simplicity is key.
Fantastic Flags
At competitions, many teams also make flags for the announcers to wave when they’re on the competition field. This is just part of the amazing fun that FIRST teams bring to the competition. You can choose to go high-tech with your flag (sending it out to get printed) or just use a piece of fabric and make it yourself. Either way, it allows you to join in on the fun!
Have questions about any of the “How-To"s that we didn’t answer here? Ask us!
