What’s the Worth?

Quality over Quality
I’ve seen it before, not just in sports, but with any brand: A large fan-base, little engagement.

It’s not a new approach, but I firmly believe engagement (clicks on links, shares, comments, etc.) is just as important– if not more important– than the number of fans or followers. If fans aren’t engaging, consuming, or seeing content, then what are they really worth? Think about it.

Long gone are the days of focusing on number of fans alone; here to stay are the days of creating killer content, telling a story, building a community and humanizing your brand.

Content that Engages
When it comes to content, it’s time to go beyond on-the-field stats and play-by-play. It’s time to:

• focus on content that tugs at your fans
• use action words to encourage engagement (like, share, tell us, etc. are your friend)
• give fans what they want, not what you want
• stop pushing, and start cultivating

Take a look at the following posts from sports brands and consider the engagement numbers on each post in relation to the number of fans:

Atlanta Falcons: 1 million+ fans

Ohio State Buckeyes: 1.3 million fans

Red Bull: 36 million fans

NASCAR: 3.3 million fans

Women’s Running Magazine: 41,000 fans

MLB: 4.4 million fans

Think about this: If you have 3 million fans on Facebook, a five percent engagement rate would mean 150,000 fans are commenting, liking or sharing content.

Tke a close, hard look at how much engagement teams, leagues, etc. are getting on Facebook. I think you’ll be quick to realize some are doing good job of engaging, others are falling short. Either way, it’s time to take look at the engagement numbers in relation to number of fans; it’s time to bring quality- not quantity- back.

What teams, leagues, etc. do you think are doing a good job of focusing on quality, not quantity, on their platforms?