A Look at Washington Athletics’ Uniform Reveal

Washington Athletics is celebrating a new era with a new look. This week they unveiled their Nike uniforms online, and they did a fantastic job with their online campaign.  Below are four keys to their success:

1. They varied content.
Washington fans were treated with many options when it came to consuming the information on the uniform reveal. Whether fans wanted to watch a video, go through a photo gallery, take a walk down memory lane or enjoy a pretty visual presentation on Exposure, the options were there. Here’s a list of everything they put together:

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MLB Brought Baseball Back In Style

The start of any sport season is always the perfect opportunity for teams, leagues and sponsors to capitalize on the excitement of fans who have been waiting months for the action to kick off. We have seen some great countdowns from teams and leagues to the start of the season, but the MLB took a different approach as baseball season kicked off. Instead of counting down, they celebrated baseball being back and highlighted all the great things about the sport and league.

In my opinion, they nailed their baseball is back campaign:

  • Copy was short and sweet
  • Content had a consistent look and feel
  • They tapped into emotion (which compels people to share)

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Creating Infographics? Keep These Five Things In Mind.

There is a trend underway in the digital / social media + sports landscape, and we’ve seen it even more since football has started… data visualization.  Infographics are being used to replace game notes, celebrate wins, compare matchups, highlight student-athlete stats, etc.

I love this trend toward data visualization. It makes sense. Here are just a few reasons why:

  • People are visual by nature. Sixty five percent of us are visual learners, according to the Social Science Research Network.
  • They help increase traffic to your website. Publishers who use infographics grow in traffic an average of 12% more than those who don’t (source here).
  • Infographics are easier to consume. It takes us less than 1/10 of a second to get a sense of a visual scene (Merieb, E. N. & Hoehn, K. Human Anatomy & Physiology).
  • Still not convinced? This should do the trick.

If you decide infographics should be a part of your content plan– or they already are– here are five things you need to consider to make them bigger, better and more meaningful:

1. Make sure you have the basics down.
As with any piece of content, infographics need to have a purpose.  Content without purpose is like driving without a destination (it’s pointless). If you plan to create an infographic, make sure you have a firm understanding of the objectives, audience, goals, etc.  If you need help setting content marketing goals, this can help.

2. Try to find a common theme / story.
The best infographics I’ve seen use data to tell a story. It’s not enough to simply take data and turn it into a pretty picture. Take the time to figure out how you can weave all the data together to tell a story. Storytelling is a powerful mechanism that increases virality, so in the long run, the extra time spent number crunching and analyzing will be well worth it.

3. Create an amplification plan.
You can’t expect to post your infographic on the web and have it take off on it’s own;  it needs a push or two or more.  Make sure you come up with a plan for amplification before your infographic goes live. Figure out how you can slice and dice your infographic into smaller pieces of content for your social media platforms. Find the most tweet-able nuggets to share with a link to the full piece. Know which social media platforms it will do best on. Remember, really great content is worth sharing more than once.

4. Differentiate the content / theme from week-to-week.
If you plan to create an infographic every week (like game notes for football), make sure you have a content plan to differentiate the infographics. If your infographics look the same every week, you’ll eventually lose your audience. You don’t have to share every great nugget all at once.  Pace yourself. 

5. Measure your success.
One of the best things about the social and digital space is the instant access we have to feedback and data. Make sure you take a look at the data available to understand what worked with the infographic and what didn’t. Page views, reach, shares, engagement and sentiment are just a few ways you can measure success depending on your goals.

Now it’s your turn… have you used infographics before? If so, what were your keys to success?

Social Media Opportunities for the 2014 ESPYS

Since I’m a self-proclaimed social media dork, I can’t help but to watch everything through a social lens. So, when I watched the ESPYS last night (which I love), I analyzed what else could be done.

I jotted down my suggestions and thought I would share them, just for fun. Let’s be real… these suggestions are not ground breaking. In fact, most of these suggestions are “old” in the world of social media. Nevertheless, here are a few easy and simple social integrations / suggestions I think could help the 2014 ESPYS:

 1.    Designate specific team hashtags for fans to use in the #ESPYSBestTeam Twitter voting.

Designating specific team hashtags for fans to vote with seems to help rally the cause. Perhaps it’s because fans need a little more direction or it helps people feel more connected (I’m not really sure). I do know this… if the MLB’s All-Star voting was any indication… specific hashtags work.

2.    Share instant replays of the video montages for each awards category.

The video montages ESPN put together for the ESPYS is the type of content that does well in social media—compelling, powerful, emotional, etc. I would have liked to see ESPN do an “instant replay” with those videos, making them available on Twitter immediately after they were shown on the air.  After all, if you are going to produce that type of content, why not maximize it?

In ESPN’s defense, they did a great job of putting up the powerful speeches through the night… I just wish they hadn’t neglected the great content they produced FOR the show.

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How Can I Create Compelling Content for Social Media With Limited Time, Resources, Etc.?

If you work in athletic communications, I understand time and resources can be half the battle when it comes to social media. Here’s the good news; you can create compelling content with a limited budget, time, resources, etc.

Yes, it’s true… you can create visuals like the one below with just your phone:

Screen Shot 2013-06-11 at 3.51.38 PM

During the 2013 CoSIDA Convention I shared the apps / platforms I use to create compelling content, like the graphic above. I’ve had several people ask me what they were, so I thought I would go ahead and compile a list for you all. So, without further ado, here they are…

Apps I use to create graphics with just my iPhone (please keep in mind it’s almost always a combination of apps):

  • PicFrame (.$.99)- This app lets you combine multiple photos into awesome collages.
  • SnapSeed ($4.99)- There are four great filters on this app- Grunge, Vintage, Drama & Tilt Shift. In addition, the app is great for basic editing (crop, rotate, etc.) and fine-tuning your image. You can really make colors pop with this app.
  • PhotoToaster ($1.99)-  This app is great for textures (canvas, old paper, antique, concrete, etc), vignettes and adjusting light.
  • Over ($1.99)– Add beautiful typography and artwork to your photos.
  • InstaFonts ($3.99)– Add text and filters.

Additional content generation resources / platforms:

  • Infographics– Check out Piktochart, Easel.ly, Info.gram if you’re looking to create infographics with little to no graphic design experience.
  • ThingLink– This app / platform offers an online tool to create interactive images. To create the image, you simply upload a picture, identify hot spots, and add text and links. The best part? The tool is integrated with Twitter.
  • StorifyStorify is a social network service that lets the user create stories or timelines using social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.