These days, every professional sports team has a social media presence. They have Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, blogs, and more. Lately, teams have even started finding roles on Instagram or Pinterest. Unfortunately, it seems that most teams' strategy ends with a presence. Look through Twitter feeds of organizations and you'll find they're all filled with links to game previews and recaps, video highlights and team transactions. On Facebook, a team might get fans to 'like' them, but rarely do they give them any real incentive to revisit the page. It isn't that the desire isn't there. More likely, it's the result of not knowing where to start. Luckily, a few teams have gotten creative and created a path for other teams to follow. Today, we're looking at three teams in three different leagues who have achieved success in social media.
The Cleveland Indians
The Network: Blogs, Facebook and Twitter.
The Strategy: Find opinion leaders, treat them well, and let them do the talking.
How they did it: In 2009, the Cleveland Indians were coming off two straight disappointing seasons in an economy that was also trending downward. So when the Indians looked in increase conversation and engagement in the community, they looked towards social media. They transformed a section of their stadium into what they called the
'Tribe Social Deck.' The section came with free wireless internet and access to content previously available to members of the press only. The club then invited opinion leaders within the Cleveland Indians online community to invite to the suite. As awareness of the club spread, fans were able to submit applications to be invited. Fans were allowed to bring friends and were encouraged to blog and tweet about their experiences. After the season, the Indians enhanced the club by moving it to a private suite, complete with protection from the weather and an indoor living space designed to stimulate conversation between game attendees. They also renamed the club the 'Indians Social Suite.' In an attempt to get some ROI out of the campaign, they added discounts for fans who liked the team on Facebook or followed on Twitter.
The Payoff: Believable third-party endorsements and a more active community. A 214% increase in Facebook 'likes', a 699% increase in Twitter followers, and a 174% increase in revenue from social media efforts.
The Lesson: Any team can brag about their stadium or game day experience. It's much more believable when it comes from another fan, especially if that fan is already considered a respected voice in the community.
The Boston Celtics
The Network: Facebook
The Strategy: Gain better demographic data from fans.
How they did it: When you're the Boston Celtics, getting fans to like you isn't a huge problem. That includes getting fans to 'like' you on Facebook. But what happens after that? How do you get fans to engage with you? What do you do with the information you've gained about those fans? For the Celtics, answering that question involved an initial
financial investment, a partnership with an outside vendor and a lot of thought. The end result was the 3-Point Play, a Facebook application in which fans pick three Celtic players and predict a statistic for an upcoming game. Points are awarded based on accuracy and the risk level of a fan's picks. After each game, the top-scoring fan wins tickets to an upcoming home game. The game is quick and easy to play, and fans only have to play once for the Celtics to gain access to their demographic information. That information gets added to the Celtics team database. Once they have that information, they are better likely to see how much fans are spending on tickets or merchandise, as well as how often they spend on those items.
The Payoff: Since creating the 3-Point Play, the Celtics have added 85,000 Facebook fans to their marketing database. More importantly, they've sold almost $200,000 in tickets to those fans.
The Lesson: Give fans a reason to not only like your page but keep coming back. Then promote that reason on every platform you can to drive up awareness and interest. Know what demographic information you want from those fans, and more importantly, how to take advantage of that information.
The New Jersey Devils
The Network: Blogs, Twitter, and 'offline' viewing parties.
The Strategy:
1. Use influential fans to create engaging dialogue on game days and off-days alike.
2. Capitalize on that fan engagement by getting area partners to advertise.
How they did it: Despite a long track record of on-ice success, the New Jersey Devils were having a hard time creating a strong fan base in Newark, NJ, where they play less
than 30 minutes from the more popular New York Rangers. So early in 2011, the Devils took a page from the Cleveland Indians social media strategy, and created a social media control center focused on influential fans. They called the center 'Mission Control', and gave a 25-person group, called the 'Devils Army Generals,' the room, assigned with the task of monitoring social media activity, blogging, arranging Tweet-ups, answering team questions and more. After accomplishing successful levels of fan engagement, the Devils took the strategy one step further. They used the Command Center as a lead in sales meetings, selling advertising opportunities to area vendors. Those partners sponsor online fantasy games and fan contests, rather than sponsored Tweets or posts, which keeps fans from getting force fed advertisements.
The Payoff:
1. Over 70,000 Facebook likes in the first month, and 1,000 new Twitter followers a week.
2. $500,000 in revenue from marketing partnerships in 2011.
The Lesson:
1. Your best fans will volunteer to work for you.
2. Engagement is great, but you can benefit financially as well without inundating fans with ads.
You can find more information on the above campaigns from the following links:
The Indians Social Suite: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=32066#
The Celtics 3-Point Play: http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2012/02/27/Opinion/Peter-Stringer.aspx
The Devils Command Center: http://www.badrhinoblog.com/2012/02/how-the-devils-monetized-social-media/