How-To Guide

Buzz Alumni Channels

A complete guide to setting up, managing, and growing your school's branded fan community — from first setup to live watch party to sponsor revenue.

In This Guide

What is a Buzz Alumni Channel?
Getting Your Channel Set Up
Creating a Watch Party
Setting Up Athlete Shows
Adding Sponsors
Membership Tiers & Stripe
Managing the Q&A Queue
Reading Analytics
All URLs at a Glance

What is a Buzz Alumni Channel?

A Buzz Alumni Channel is a school-branded digital community hub that lives at itsbuzzing.com/alumni/[your-slug]. It gives your fans and alumni a structured home with:

Live watch parties with real-time chat, emoji reactions, and video Q&A
Membership tiers ($9 / $19 / $49 per month) with tier-gated content
Athlete and coach player spotlights
Sponsor banner and overlay placements with impression/click tracking
Fan points, leaderboard, and engagement tracking (25+ event types)
Downloadable content (programs, wallpapers, playbooks) gated by tier
Event schedule with upcoming watch parties and broadcasts
Local BuzzPins map showing nearby bars and venues showing your games

Who controls it: Your athletic department or alumni association controls the admin dashboard. Fans access the public-facing channel pages. It's Buzzing handles hosting and platform maintenance.

Getting Your Channel Set Up

Channel creation is handled by the It's Buzzing team. Email kori@itsbuzzing.com with the following and your channel will be live within 48 hours:

Provide Your School Details

School name, your preferred URL slug (e.g. "uab-blazers"), conference, state, and mascot name.

Send Brand Assets

Primary and secondary hex color codes, logo URL or file, hero banner image (1400×400px recommended), and social share image (1200×630px).

Choose Which Features to Enable

Tell us which features to turn on: Subscription (membership), Sponsor Packages, Player Spotlights, Fan Q&A, Leaderboard. Each can be toggled independently.

Access Your Admin Dashboard

Once provisioned, your admin dashboard is at /admin/alumni/[your-slug]. Log in with your It's Buzzing admin account to start creating events and content.

Creating a Watch Party

Watch parties are the centerpiece of your channel — live events where fans gather, chat, react together, and watch the game from any source.

Go to Create Event

From your admin dashboard, click “Create Event” or navigate to /admin/alumni/[slug]/events/create. Fill in the title (e.g. “Thompson vs Hoover — Week 1”), sport, opponent, start time, and access level. Paste a stream URL if you have one — it becomes the first source automatically. A BuzzDrop countdown is also created.

Manage Video Sources from the Event Detail Page

After saving, you land on the event detail page at /admin/alumni/[slug]/events/[id]. This is where you add, reorder, and manage all video sources for the game. Each game can have as many sources as needed — NFHS, YouTube, HLS stream, replay, Facebook Live, Vimeo, Zoom, or any external link.

Add Video Sources

Click “Add Source” and choose the source type. Paste the URL. YouTube watch URLs are automatically normalized to embed format. Mark one source as Primary — it loads first when fans open the page. Fans see a source-picker strip to switch between options without a page reload. Click counts are tracked per source.

Set the Access Level

Choose who can attend: Public (anyone), Members (free sign-in), Supporter, Insider, or Digital Booster. Fans without the required tier see a “Join to watch” prompt.

Go Live

When game time arrives, update the status to “live” from the event detail page. Chat, reactions, and polls activate immediately for fans in the room.

NFHS Network: Always use External Link mode for NFHS sources. You may not embed, capture, or restream NFHS video without written permission from the school and NFHS. Link to the official NFHS game page and BuzzPresence handles all fan engagement alongside it.

Source type guide:

YouTube — paste any YouTube URL; embed is auto-generated
NFHS Network — link-out only; fans tap to open NFHS in a new tab
HLS Live Stream — paste your .m3u8 URL for direct broadcast
Uploaded Replay — link to an .mp4 file (R2, S3, or CDN)
Facebook Live — paste the Facebook live video URL
Zoom — paste the meeting join link; fans see a “Join Meeting” button
External TV / Other — any URL that opens in a new tab

Setting Up Player Spotlights

Player spotlights are recurring or one-time programs hosted by athletes, coaches, or team personalities.

Create a Show

Go to /admin/alumni/[slug]/shows/create. Enter the show title, host name, description, schedule cadence (weekly/biweekly/monthly/one-time), and access level.

Set Access Level

Shows can be public or gated to any paid tier. Gated shows give fans a reason to upgrade — link the upgrade CTA directly to the show page.

Fans Browse Shows

All shows appear at /alumni/[slug]/shows. Locked shows show a tier upgrade prompt. Unlocked shows display the full detail page with stream and chat.

Tip: Frame spotlights as community content supported by local sponsors. "Supported by [Local Business]" placement in the spotlight header gives sponsors direct association with the program's audience — and keeps all revenue flowing to the program, not individual players.

Adding Sponsors

Sponsor slots appear during watch parties — either in the banner strip at the top of the page or as an overlay on the stream itself.

Open Sponsor Management

Go to /admin/alumni/[slug]/sponsors and click "Add Sponsor".

Fill In Sponsor Details

Sponsor Name — displayed publicly. Asset URL — the sponsor's logo or banner image. Click URL — where fans go when they click. Slot Type: Banner (top strip, 32px tall, text + logo) or Sidebar (stream overlay, 88×80px logo card). Priority: higher number = shows first. Watch Party ID: leave blank for all events, or select a specific party.

Track Performance

Every page load fires an impression. Every click routes through a tracking redirect. View per-sponsor data at /admin/alumni/[slug]/sponsor-report/[slot-id].

Pricing suggestion: Banner slots: $500–$1,500/event or $2,500–$5,000/season. Sidebar overlay (premium): $1,000–$3,000/event. Use the impression and click report to justify renewal pricing.

Membership Tiers & Stripe

Membership revenue flows directly through Stripe. You need three Stripe price IDs — one for each paid tier.

Supporter

$9/mo

Insider

$19/mo

Digital Booster

$49/mo

Create Stripe Prices

In your Stripe dashboard, create three recurring monthly prices at $9, $19, and $49. Copy each price ID (starts with price_).

Send Price IDs to It's Buzzing

Email the three price IDs to kori@itsbuzzing.com. They get set as environment variables: ALUMNI_TIER_PRICE_SUPPORTER, ALUMNI_TIER_PRICE_INSIDER, ALUMNI_TIER_PRICE_DIGITAL_BOOSTER.

Fans Join at /alumni/[slug]/join

The join page shows all tiers. Free join is instant (no Stripe). Paid tiers redirect to Stripe Checkout. On success, the fan's membership tier is automatically upgraded via webhook.

Cancellations Are Automatic

If a fan cancels, the webhook downgrades their tier to free automatically. No manual intervention needed.

Managing the Q&A Queue

Fans submit video questions from the watch party page. You control what gets answered on air.

Open the Queue

Go to /admin/alumni/[slug]/qa-queue to see all pending submissions for your channel.

Review & Approve

Click Approve on questions you want answered. Rejected questions are removed from the queue without notifying the fan.

Move Through Stages

Pending → Approved (selected for air) → Green Room (athlete is preparing answer) → Live (being answered right now) → Completed (done). Each stage transition is a single button click.

Best practice: Assign a moderator to manage the queue in real time during watch parties. They approve, push to green room, and mark live — the athlete just sees a "Live" card with the question text.

Reading Analytics

Your analytics dashboard at /admin/alumni/[slug]/analytics shows:

Fan engagement events — join, watch_live, send_chat, react, and 20+ other tracked actions
Points leaderboard — who your most engaged fans are by name and tier
Tier breakdown — how many fans are on each paid tier
Sponsor performance — total impressions and clicks per slot, per event

Per-sponsor reports are at /admin/alumni/[slug]/sponsor-report/[slot-id] — use these for sponsor renewals and to justify rate increases.

All URLs at a Glance

URL	What It Is
/alumni	Directory of all published channels
/alumni/[slug]	Your channel home page
/alumni/[slug]/join	Membership tier picker for fans
/alumni/[slug]/watch	Current and upcoming watch parties
/alumni/[slug]/watch/[id]	Live watch party page with chat
/alumni/[slug]/schedule	Full event schedule
/alumni/[slug]/shows	All athlete shows
/alumni/[slug]/leaderboard	Public fan points leaderboard
/alumni/[slug]/community	Community feed scoped to your school
/alumni/[slug]/downloads	Tier-gated downloadable content
/alumni/[slug]/local	Nearby BuzzPin watch spots
/alumni/[slug]/sponsors	Public sponsor display page
/admin/alumni	Admin: list all channels
/admin/alumni/[slug]	Admin: your channel dashboard
/admin/alumni/[slug]/events/create	Admin: create watch party
/admin/alumni/[slug]/events/[id]	Admin: event detail & video source manager
/admin/alumni/[slug]/shows/create	Admin: create athlete show
/admin/alumni/[slug]/sponsors	Admin: manage sponsor slots
/admin/alumni/[slug]/qa-queue	Admin: video Q&A moderation
/admin/alumni/[slug]/analytics	Admin: engagement analytics
/admin/alumni/[slug]/sponsor-report/[id]	Admin: per-sponsor report
/api/alumni/[slug]/schedule	JSON: upcoming events + broadcasts
/api/alumni/[slug]/leaderboard	JSON: top fans by points
/api/alumni/[slug]/live-now	JSON: current live event

Need help with something not covered here?

Email kori@itsbuzzing.com