Sports and Social Media: A Perfect Match PART 2
Live Streaming, Snapchat and Ad Products the Pros Use
I remember when I first saw this clip, listening to the disdain in the TV announcer’s voice was irritating to me. “Oh, how sad, they can’t even watch the game without playing with their phones”. This image tells me that these young ladies are enjoying their experience at the ball park in their own way, using their own language and I bet dimes to doughnuts that Snapchat captured their experience. This is what user generated content looks like in the wild :)
In PART 1 of this mini-series, I showed you the first 3 Steps you can take to make your social media just as awesome as the pro’s do it. Here in PART 2, I give you the final step. Following all of these in your own team’s ‘voice’, you’ll excite your audience, draw in better crowds, and spark those word-of-mouth interactions among your fan base.
STEP 4: A STRONG STRATEGY EVOLVES
A- Live Streaming Video and Its Impact On Your Team:
The ability to live stream video is certainly not a brand new thing. If you know anything about the founder of a company that is now called Twitch, you’d know that live video has been around in some form since the earliest days of the internet. What IS new, however, is the ability to produce a live stream video right from your hand held device and desktop with the push of a button. The Twitter-owned app Periscope, for one, is relatively new itself (just over a year old in fact) but even in it’s first days, sports organizations were forced to confront the ability that fans now have to capture live video. Whether they streamed live from the game in the venue to sitting at home with their device pointed at a TV screen, sports leagues in particular saw for the first time their intellectual property rights challenged from their very own fan base. Banning the use of Periscope and the now dearly departed Meerkat was the only action professional sports leagues like the NHL could do to protect themselves against lawsuits from breaking the network broadcast contracts.
Today, they are beginning to embrace this technology. The NFL, most notably, partnered with Twitter in in early 2016 to allow live streamed Thursday Night Football games through the Periscope app. Read the NFL’s Official Statement here.
“Twitter is where live events unfold and is the right partner for the NFL as we take the latest step in serving fans around the world live NFL football”. — NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell
So, yes this is great for the pros, but what about YOUR team? If streaming your games live on Periscope sounds like something you’d like to do, you need to check with your league for any guidelines first. For our team here, the governing body of the league we are in has a live video contract already in place with a software company, and any live streams of the games outside of those broadcasts are in violation of those agreements. Where does this leave us now? We start using our imaginations, that’s where!
Before I dive into those ideas, lets talk about Facebook Live. With 1.6 Billion users world wide, Facebook’s answer to Twitter’s Periscope came in the early form of Facebook Mentions, where certified celebrity accounts had the ability to stream live and interact with their followers. This was certainly testing ground for the wider-scale roll out of what is now called Facebook Live. The social media giant now allows you to stream from your personal accounts, your Business Pages as well as groups. This launch comes at a time when businesses complaints about plummeting organic reach could be heard in the next solar system! The best part is, your live stream takes precedent in your news feed! That right, Facebook INCREASES YOUR ORGANIC REACH when you hit the “live” button! To blow your mind even further, Facebook and Periscope have open their API’s to developers, tasking them with finding ways to stream live from desktops, GoPro cameras, 360-degree cameras and yes, drones!
Blab.im is a beta testing site exploring the live video content arena as well. By allowing up to 4 people on screen at once, viewers can interact with the on-screen subjects just as they can on Periscope and Facebook Live. The platform is consistently testing new things and has already had an impact on how sports content is consumed. I’ve seen sports podcasts recorded live; I’ve seen live Q&A’s with athletes, coaches and sports media, etc. Blab is still finding its way into their own, but is certainly one to watch.
I plan to use live video in all kinds of great ways. Our press conferences, for one, will be on Facebook Live. I plan on “scoping” (terminology coined by Periscope users when describing the act of streaming from that app) a few practices, maybe some post game interviews, etc. I’d love for nothing more than to have a fan group discussion happen on Blab, but that may be a bit advanced for our fan base here in Montana, for now.
The point with Live Streaming adoption is this: If no other team in your league has tried any of this yet, than the onus is now yours to embrace these new tools and surprise and delight your fans! If someone has already began, than you are already behind! My position: The Helena Bighorns will be the first team in the NA3HL to embrace these tools and use them for the benefit of fan experience!
B- Snapchat for Sports Teams
Now to my most FAVORITE part: SNAPCHAT!! Those that know me well will tell you how much of a Snapchat nerd I truly am! I even started a podcast focused on nothing but Snapchat itself! (The Snapchatters Podcast, yes shameless plug!) These live streaming tools are awesome but nothing got me more excited when my company took on this partnership with this team than creating its Snapchat account did!
Nearly all the major pro sports leagues and teams in North America have created Snapchat accounts, but not all are as active as I’d like to see. Snapchat’s biggest opportunity with fans of sport worldwide is the ability to have those one-to-one conversations privately and the one-to-many content through “My Story”. If you are not familiar with Snapchat, than the time to embrace this platform is NOW. Even if you don’t understand it, how it works or why probably a large chunk of your fan base loves it, you need to recognize that Snapchat is growing faster than its counter parts did at the same age with ZERO signs of stopping in the near future.
Some of my favorite teams to watch on Snapchat are the Blackhawks (one of the first NHL teams to adopt AND use Snapchat on a regular basis in the NHL), the Milwaukee Brewers (MLB), and the Washington Capitals (NHL). Consistency is key for any social strategy, but these three have embraced this platform and blazed a trail for other teams to follow. All three give me what I crave most- ACCESS! Everything from behind-the-scenes stories from inside the locker rooms to account takeovers by players, coaches and yes, even a zamboni driver, I can’t get enough of the cool stuff I get to see that most people don’t because the refuse to use it.
In case you still haven’t played with Snapchat yet, there is a feature inside the app which recognizes the users geographic location and delivers certain types of filters to them to use in their Snaps (the term for the content one creates in Snapchat). These are called “Geofilters” and in 2015, Snapchat opened these virtual post cards up to its entire user base to create themselves, a feature previously offered only to Snapchat’s growing ad partners. From this fan’s perspective, it is such a delight to me to take a Snap and swipe to find and use these Geofilters when I am in new places around the word, and yes of course, sports venues! Here are two that I have designed for the launch of our Snapchat account, coinciding with the press conference announcing our new head coach:
On-Demand Geofilters DO cost money, so when building your ad spend for the year, be sure to plug the boss for a few extra bucks to have for these. Fans go NuTsO for these, trust me! This really comes back to STEP 1, right? GIVE FANS OWNERSHIP? User Generated Content, baby YEAH!
C- Social Ad Products the Pros Use (or at least, should)
I’m going to assume that we have, in fact, moved far beyond hitting the “Boost” button in Facebook and calling that an ad, right? While it does cost money, the most effective ad products for your dollar are things you may not even be aware of.
Facebook is always innovating, and last year, they developed an ad product that incorporates several elements all into one ad, served to mobile users of Facebook. These are called Canvas Ads and you can read all about these here. Between integrating this wonderful mobile ad experience with Facebook ad product Carousel Ads (yes, read up here, too) [both sources are from Facebook.com/business] your team can serve important information with clean Calls To Action without using your news feed as a billboard.
Did you know Instagram is owned by Facebook? Yep, true story. In fact, the reason I bring this up is because to create an ad for Instagram, you must use Facebook to create the ads. The good news? Since Instagram is a mobile-only platform, you can leverage this knowledge to create an impactful mobile presence while serving Facebook desktop users with different types of ads. And true to Facebook form, they provide you with all of the analytics you need to see if your ads are working effectively towards your goals.
Whether its ticket sales, game night promotions, or co-promotion with a brand partner, these powerful social media ad tools, when used correctly, can make a very large impact to your team’s financial stability.
IN CLOSING…
In this two-part mini-series, we found out why social media is so important for sports teams at all levels of play. We’ve closely examined use cases from pro teams, and I’ve demonstrated what a team on the smaller, local level can do with these tools; BUT, I haven’t told you the WHY, which is most important!
The Bighorns broke a 4-year attendance record when I was there, and then we broke that 3 more times including playoffs the same season. We saw a 24% boost in overall attendance, higher ticket revenues, an incredible boost in concessions and beer sales, apparel sales went through the roof- all of those would say that my strategy back then provided them ROI; otherwise, they never would have hired my agency to do it again! And my “why” back then is as it is now: Without the fans, the team cannot exist! Fan experience is something I take seriously, and I aim to make this season an improvement over any one before it.
Do you manage social media for a sports team? I’d love to hear your insights! Leave me your team’s social so I can follow!
