Somehow Amber managed to pin down one of the club's newest directors, the daughter of Hall Of Fame legend Ralph Carr, for long enough to answer a few questions.
AMBER: You were born to follow Sutton, but this has been your first season on the Board of Directors, it was a bit of a baptism of fire.
PAT: No joke! It became an all consuming rollercoaster of hard work, firefighting and emotions. I literally have been involved in Sutton for all of my life, but on the sidelines, getting involved when requested for help, but the board realised this first season in the National League for a while was a watershed moment to move the club forward so I agreed to help out. Ha, how little we knew!
AMBER: You were invited, specifically, to review the club's approach to social media and develop our on-line presence. How do you feel that is going?
PAT: I realise change is not always to everyone's taste and there will always be people who care about the club and preferred the old website and the previous ways of working. The change over hasn't been as smooth as it could have been mostly due to having to put it on hold time and time again due to the Cup run. But we got there and we will continue to improve and adapt it. There are 33% new users on the site now since March which is wonderful and over half on mobile or tablets. The main problem was making sure it worked on Bruce's Blackberry…
The socials presence change has been massive and I am delighted with it and feel our 50k+ reach across all platforms is a valuable asset to the club and we look to improve on that. We totally expected the new users due to the cup run to drop off a cliff post Arsenal, but I am immensely proud that over 80% stayed on and keep engaging. Millsy runs twitter with a rod of iron and a sense of humour and we have a laugh, Facebook is a really strong tool for us now and at 10k+ followers on Instagram, we have the biggest account in the National league.
AMBER: What have been the big success stories so far?
PAT: Well, the reach and the chatter, as I said, is wonderful and the International spread is amazing. A family named 'Sutton' in the USA followed us through the cup run and then visited 'the stadium' on a recent holiday to the UK. The club has always had an family, #innittogether [copyright AB] feel and we hope to share that online. That's the key to it all, so that people can involve themselves in the club and all its areas aside from just the first team. The wonderful successes of the various youth teams and the community teams has also been great to watch.
But the biggest success has been the season ticket sales this year whereby over 50% of sales so far have been online. Pleased with that.
AMBER: Is there anything else you'd like to see happen?
PAT: The Club's online shop is being improved and I think will be an enormous asset. The website's in hand and will be an ongoing process.
I'd like more pictures for content to be sent to info@suttonunited.net
No more Joycey quizzes.
And any chance of Dos giving us more notice before announcements? No? Thought not - keeps us on our toes!!
AMBER: So, the obvious question, have you ever experienced anything like the Arsenal game before?
PAT: NO! Not on any level! I work in media and the car park on that day was busier with trucks than backstage at Glastonbury. I relied on and pulled in a lot of work colleagues to help or oversee things and they all agreed, as did the BBC sport teams, that it was extraordinary. Everyone at the club can hold their heads up that day. Amazing.
AMBER: What one moment stands out for you from the cup run?
PAT: Winning away at AFC Wimbledon, dunno why but that one got me really emotional. The evening of the draw when we got Arsenal and the response online, which was a sign of things to come, now seems surreal too.
AMBER: What are you looking forward to about next season?
PAT: Another cup run!
Going to Orient.
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