As a University of Oregon alum it is not easy for me to acknowledge how impressed I am with USC’s head football coach Pete Carroll’s use of social media. The guy is doing a phenomenal job of galvanizing support for his players and team.

Consider this, today Carroll has more than 53,000 followers, and when USC running back Stafon Johnson (number 13) was badly injured in a weight room accident, Carroll provided updates on the situation via Twitter and called on people to show support for him. Specifically, he published the following tweets.

Oct. 2 – “how many follow Friday mentions can we get for @stafon13? Let’s leave no stone unturned!

Oct. 1 – “RT @stafon13 – Hay Twitt world its SJ feeling better & better by the hour with the love and support I appreciate this… Fight on”

Sept. 29 – “I’m visiting with stafon…he wants to say…he’s coming back and through his yrs as a Trojan he’s learned to be strong and fight on.

Another example of how Carroll is using social media includes his YouTube video blogs, which he posts regularly. See below for links to a couple of these blogs:

Video blog #4, UW Game Week and Ohio State recap, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ht_YKAAXnA

Video blog #5 – Overcoming Challenges, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp1if8jRkss

Finally, I want to point out that Carroll appears to be deliberate about the information he shares. You don’t see him posting willy-nilly comments about politics, food, or what he is doing. He shares information about his team, other athletes, and trivia like the song of the day (#SOTD) that will resonate with this key audience – USC college students, faculty and staff as well as alum.

Although I am not a Trojan, I am impressed with how he is keeping the Trojans top of mind and securing support for the team. You can find Pete Carroll on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Petecarroll, on Facebook or check out his Web site http://petecarroll.com/

I believe more CEOs and leaders could learn from Carroll’s use of social media.

This graph (courtesy of www.twittercounter.com) shows how Carroll’s followers have grown from the week of July 4 through October 2.