Sports Executives: 3 Recommendations to Better Grow Fan Engagement on Social Media

As sports continue to capture the attention of billions of fans worldwide, teams are shifting to social media outlets such as Twitter and Instagram to interact with their fans instantly in a more engaging way. As a sports marketing student at Northwestern University, I’ve found two articles that highlight the importance of making this type of connection.

Rick Maese of the Washington Post wrote an interesting article entitled "NBA Twitter: A sports bar that doesn’t close, where the stars pull up a seat next to you." In this article, he discusses how NBA fans immerse themselves in Twitter in order to stay up to date with the constant, essentially year-round, news cycle of professional basketball. According to Maese, this has essentially become a routine for many fans, and some even prefer to follow the games via their online Twitter communities rather than go to the game in person if they had the opportunity. This relate to the idea that team's usage of official social media accounts gives fans an outlet that they can follow and constantly engage with during live games. These official team accounts often times provide commentary, which can make online users feel as if they are watching alongside other fans of the team. For more insight, you can follow Rick on Twitter. 

Courtesy of Getty Images

Anthony DiMoro on Forbes takes a deep dive into how this trend of social media quickly invaded the sports world, along with some examples of teams who are able to generate a great deal of fan engagement while strengthening a team's overall brand in an article titled "The Growing Impact of Social Media on Today's Culture." One example Dimoro gives is how often times, a sports league or team creates one common hashtag around a topic so that fans can see all related tweets and news in one, centralizes location (e.g. #BecauseItsTheCup for the NHL playoffs). As a result of these tactics, he claims that fan engagement and discussion online is at new levels that no one could have imagined several years ago. If you want to find more of Dimoro's work, you can follow him on Twitter or visit his official website to see his latest sports media ventures.

Based on these articles, along with my own personal experience helping run multiple verified team accounts for Northwestern Athletics, here are three recommendations for sports executives to better grow fan engagement on social media:

• Entertain Your Followers – Fans want to feel like they’re watching the game with the team, it’s up to you to engage and relate to your audience.

• Storytelling = Engagement – Recognize what is happening in the game and the implications/message behind every single word you are sending out and how it fits into a bigger picture.

• Stay Ahead of the Surge – The industry is constantly evolving, be ready to adapt to any changes or innovations in order to ensure you are putting out the best possible final product.

As a sports executive, it is more and more important that you make meaningful connections with your fans and people interested in your team using social media, and I hope these three action items will help you do that more effectively.

My name is Zach Wingrove and I am a senior at Northwestern University studying Journalism and Integrated Marketing Communications. I have worked closely with Northwestern's Athletic Department during my four years, assisting in media relations for almost all of Northwestern's 19 varsity programs at some point. During the 2018 MLB season, I worked on the Media Relations team for the Chicago Cubs. In the future, I want to continue working media relations in either professional or collegiate athletics. You can follow me on Twitter and on LinkedIn.

Content Creators: 3 Recommendations for Better Promotion through Social Media

As social media continues to develop and grow, new businesses and influencers are taking to social media every day to promote their brand and their ideas in order influence others to follow and support them. As an Radio Television Film major at Northwestern University, with an interest in the world of social media and what can be done to stay relevant and on top in an ever-changing landscape, I have found two articles that delve into the best practices to improve on one's social media presence.

Digital marketer and social media influencer Kim Garst addresses on her website's article, Facebook Live vs. Instagram Live: Differences & Best Practices, the pros and cons of each site's features and the best time to use those features. She reminds us that while both can increase followers and their online engagement, they must be used uniquely and properly to render success. Both sites share many of the same basic features for when a user goes live that help drive organic traffic and engagement. However, Facebook has much more permanence, allowing the user to keep their live video up to be watched later and continuously engaged with and repurposed. Instagram does not allow the video to be kept up, so it promotes a sense of urgency that will drive followers to engage with the user then and there in order to interact with them in real time.  By understanding these differences and utilizing them properly, brands can best promote themselves to their audiences in real time.

Image source linked here 

On Lilach Bullock's content marketing website, she has an article titled, Are Your Competitors Better Than You At Social Media? in which she addresses the tough competition that social media brings and the importance of analytics and competitive research in order to stay ahead of the game. Performing research by using the tools this article provides allows for better understanding of and engagement with your target audience in terms of types of content, timing of posts, and best hashtags for exposure. Bullock provides tools to compare different social media sites, different accounts within those sites, and monitoring and analyzing hashtags. By conducting this research and staying on top of it, one can better understand and identify future opportunities for growth and user engagement.

After reading these articles and utilizing the knowledge I have gained from my marketing education at Northwestern University, I recommend three courses of action for better utilization and promotion of a brand or content on social media:

•     Choose The Best – Pick the proper social media outlet(s) that will best reach your audience and promote your content.
•       Better Understand Your Competition – See where your competition is thriving/failing on social media and learn from it. 
•       Generate More Engagement – Don’t just post and leave it, engage with the audience and make the site personable. 

 
Remember these three action items to better engage with your followers and build an even better and more rewarding online presence. 

My name is Jennifer Spottz, and I am a senior at Northwestern University studying Radio/Television/Film with a minor in Japanese and an Integrated Marketing Communications certificate. Upon graduation this June, I will be moving to LA where I will be working for a production company and focused on best utilizing their media to promote both current and future content. 
You can find me on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

Sports journalists: Three tips to improve your ability to sidle

For sports journalists, building a rapport with athletes is a great way to get scoops. As an undergraduate student with an interest in sports journalism, I found two articles that discuss how reporters "sidle" next to NBA players for one-on-one interviews.

The Art of the Sidle: The Slickest Move in NBA Media; Bryan Curtis; The Ringer

This article includes several interviews with NBA reporters on how they approach players for interviews. The reporters talk about the challenges of getting players alone and how to build relationships with them. It also mentions how reporters get annoyed when their colleagues intrude on their one-on-one time with players.

Golub: Controlling the NBA media; Jack Golub; The Stanford Daily

This article explains how reporters are controlled by NBA players. The author uses the example of Jimmy Butler's situation in Minnesota to support his argument. He also responds to the first article and offers a different point of view.

Based on these two articles and my experience at Northwestern, I have developed three action items you should consider the next time you’re thinking about approaching an athlete for an interview.

• Build Unique Relationships - Don’t risk becoming a mouthpiece for an athlete when talking to him or her one-on-one.

• Ask Bold Questions - If you’re trying to get a scoop, don’t be afraid to approach an athlete with hard questions.

• Don’t Disturb Colleagues - When a fellow journalist is getting one-on-one time with an athlete, respect them and don’t join the conversation.

The next time you’re thinking about approaching athletes, use these three action items to improve your ability to sidle.

Chris Grismer is an undergraduate student at Northwestern University. He studies journalism and integrated marketing communications. You can follow him on Twitter @Chris_Grismer.

Social Media Marketers: 3 Ways to Use Wendy’s Tweets to Fortify Your Twitter Game

Social Media Marketers are tasked with the incredibly difficult job of marketing in a digital environment that is ever-changing, due to constant technological industry changes. As both a student at Northwestern University’s Medill and a Creative Marketing Intern at Moblty Inc., with an interest in digital marketing, I found two articles that provide fascinating information on how Wendy's established and maintains such a successful social media presence. 

The first article I think you should look at, titled Wendy's Roasts its Way to Social Media Stardom, was published in QSR Magazine and written by Kevin Hardy. The article opens by establishing that Wendy’s is branded with a confident, playful, and positive tone targeted at consumers who don’t take themselves too seriously. This tone adopts an unapologetically snarky edge when interacting with competitors and consumers on Twitter, where Wendy’s functions as an entertainment destination. Hardy explains that Wendy’s is much sassier on Twitter than it is on other social accounts because the Wendy’s social media team mindfully adjusts the voice based on each platform. He closes his discourse by suggesting that Wendy’s should optimize social media platforms, other than Twitter to increase engagement, which fosters traffic and customer loyalty. 

Source Link

           The second article I recommend reading is Wendy's Amazing Social Media Team Shares The Secrets to its Success, which was written by Entrepreneur Media’s Staff Writer Nina Zipkin. In the article, Zipkin discusses how Wendy’s social media team shared valuable information about their content production process through a Reddit AMA. Despite the care free nature of Wendy’s tweets, planning and approval are sometimes required prior to posting, especially if the subject is Mcdonald’s. She notes that the team occasionally has to refrain from posting tweets that may cross the line and sometimes receives criticism from executives regarding content. Zipkin emphasizes that Wendy’s social media team is constantly aware that they toe the line between sassy and too sassy and consequently go through mistakes.

          Based on these two articles and my work experience in the digital marketing industry and at Northwestern University, I developed three action items that you should consider the next time you think about social media marketing and establishing your persona.

·     Find Your Voice - People want to interact with an authentic, consistent, human voice that acclimates to each social media platform accordingly.

·     Push the Envelope - Wendy’s social media presence is famous for its honest and edgy tweets, not for playing it safe; you must be reasonably bold with your voice to gain attention and establish yourself in the social media realm. 

·     Optimize Your Presence - Social media is an opportunity to establish yourself and become known; in order to do so, you must optimize social media platforms through the use of a uniform voice and presence that is conversationally tailored to each platform.

Try to keep these tips in mind the next time you work on creating your persona on a social media platform through tweets, posts, and more.  

Amara Wahby is a student at Northwestern University’s Medill, studying Journalism and Integrated Marketing Communications.You can connect with Amara on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Digital Marketing Managers: 3 Ideas to Increase Revenue with Social Media Advertising

As a Digital Marketing Manager reaching your high value customers is becoming more difficult in the disrupted marketplace. Likewise, thanks to digital and new media, audiences and channels are more fragmented than ever before. As a graduate student in the Northwestern University Medill’s IMC program, I have been researching social media advertising and found two articles that will help you understand and use social media in a strategic way.

In the article, “Social Media Advertising: The Complete Guide”, Christina Newberry discusses how online and digital media advertising are growing, especially social media advertising. The most used platform is Facebook covering 35.4% of the total display advertising in the United States. Companies are switching their advertising spending from traditional media to digital at a fast pace. Therefore, Christina Newberry decided to share some tools and recommendations to easily create ads in six of the most used social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Snapchat. However, it is important to choose which platform is ideal for your organization and create unique content strategies that will engage your target market.  

-Christina Newberry @ckjnewberry, Hootsuite Blog

-https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-advertising/

Source: www.zeemo.com.au

Even though social media advertising has proven effective to reach a company’s target market, many consumers find targeted ads to be annoying and disagreeable. That is why ad blockers have become increasingly popular and this represents a problem for marketing communications. That is why Kevin Jennison enumerates in “Ad Targeting is failing users”, some recommendations that companies can implement to deliver a better targeted ad experience for consumers. His three recommended actions are to let consumers decide which ads they want to see, target users based on their actual context, or simply wait for advertising technology to improve with the hope that new algorithms will resolve this problem.

-Kevin Jennison @JennisonKevin, Ad Exchanger

-https://adexchanger.com/data-driven-thinking/ad-targeting-failing-users/

Based on my review of these two articles and relevant studies I have done in Medill’s Integrated Marketing Communication program at Northwestern University, I have developed three ideas you should consider when planning social media advertising strategies.

·      Symbiosis increases results-

Traditional media advertising is not dead; investing in it can help support your company’s social media advertising strategies.

·      Divergence engages consumers-

Creating unexpected, “outside the box” social media strategies will make you successful and attractive in a world full of options where customer loyalty is slowly disappearing.

·      Embrace change fast-

Customers adapt to changes in technology and social media platforms faster than marketers and companies; you must react quickly, but accurately to stay relevant with your target market.

If you take into consideration the three ideas mentioned before, you will be one step closer to successfully plan social media advertising strategies for your company that stay in your target market’s minds.

About the Author:

My name is Alexandra González. I am a graduate student in Medill’s IMC program at Northwestern University with an expected graduation date of December 2017. I am looking to increase my knowledge in Digital Marketing and Brand Strategy. I have previous experience in communications and digital film production. Contact me at Twitter @asg1616 or Linkedin.