Whether employers like it or not, their workers are going to be checking in on March Madness, at least now and then, numerous studies have shown.
The frenzy begins with a flurry of games on March 21 and 22. Here's a printable bracket with all the dates and match-ups in one place.
As usual with major events, one of the best places to keep up with the developments in real-time is Twitter. You can be part of the larger national conversation, or even the niche collegiate conversations, if you know the right hashtags. And if you're really obsessed with college basketball, you can set up many of these as columns in TweetDeck.
Here are the must-know hashtags for the games. Follow as little or as much as you wish, and enjoy.
Official Hashtag: #marchmadness
Other Major Hashtags: #BigDance, #bracketology, #brackets, #collegebball, #marchmadness13, #myfinal4, #NCAA, #NCAA2013, #NCAAbrackets, #ncaatournament, #ncaatourney
Hashtags That Could Get Interesting: #buzzerbeater, #cbs, #cbssports, #cinderella, #collegebasketball, #ncaabasketball, #ncaabball, #ncaahoops, #underdogs, #upset, breakout players' names during the tournament, and don't forget about #NIT
Round-Specific Hashtags: Use of these will increase as the tournament goes on.
#RoundOf64, #Roundof32, #Sweet16, #Elite8, #FinalFour / #Final4, #NationalChampionship
Regional Hashtags: Alone they're not always useful, but if you pair them with #NCAA or other terms, these are interesting to monitor as well: #Midwest, #West, #South, #East
Team-Specific Hashtags: Follow the conversation at the team-level with team-specific hashtags. This could be school name, a version of that, or a mascot name. These are some of the most popular ones.
MIDWEST: #UofL (Louisville), #NCAT (N.C. A&T), #ColoradoSt, #Mizzou (Missouri), #OKState (Oklahoma State), #GoDucks (Oregon), #SLU (St. Louis University), #NMState (New Mexico State), #Memphis, #SMU (St. Mary's), #Spartans (Michigan State), #Valparaiso, #Creighton, #Cincinnati, #Duke, #Albany
WEST: #Gonzaga, #Southern, #Pittsburgh, #WichitaSt, #Wisconsin, #OleMiss, #KansasSt, #BoiseState / #LaSalle, #ArizonaWildcats, #Belmont, #NewMexico, #Harvard, #NotreDame, #IowaSt #OhioSt, #Iona
SOUTH: #KUbball (Kansas), #WKU (Western Kentucky), #UNC (North Carolina), #Villanova, #VCU (Virginia Commonwealth), #Akron, #Michigan, #SDakotaSt (South Dakota State), #UCLA, #Minnesota, #Florida, #Northwestern, #SanDiegoSt, #Oklahoma, #Hoyas (Georgetown), #FloridaGC
EAST: #Indiana, #LIU, #GeorgeMason , #NCState, #Temple, #UNLV, #Cal (California), #Cuse (Syracuse), #Montana, #Butler, #Bucknell, #Marquette, #Davidson, #Illini (Illinois), #Colorado, #Miami, #Pacific
Know of a better hashtag for a team above? Ping me on Twitter (@ckanal) or leave a comment below.