You Don’t Always Have to Play By the Rules

As a social media manager, I’m sure you are use to questions like this: What is the optimal video length, when is the best time to post, etc.? People love to have data to back up their decisions. And while I love studies and data that can help guide decisions, there is one thing I’ve learned:

Social media studies and analytics that aren’t tied to your team, league or brand are merely just a guide. They aren’t rules to live by. Test and see what works best for your audience. It’s all in the context. 

Brad Harrison, the social media manager at Atlanta Motor Speedway, sent me a great example that speaks to this. A few weeks ago the Atlanta Motor Speedway and City of Hampton welcomed big rigs to the city streets for its Hampton Hauler Parade. This year, for the first time, the haulers actually paraded through downtown Hampton. It presented a golden opportunity to get their audience engaged. Here’s how the team decided to cover it on Facebook, according to Harrison:

“When it came to posting a video of the parade, we kept it simple: Instead of limiting the video length to two to three minutes, we opted to run the full length (which was 11:24 long).

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By rule, we tend to limit our video’s length. But in this case, we decided that those parameters, while a good rule to follow, at times need flexibility. The move paid off in a large way: NASCAR fans are passionate and posting content where they would see their favorite driver’s transporter resonated strongly.

The post itself had the highest engagements of any post within the past year on our Facebook channel. It had an organic reach of 512,768 and was viewed by 95,136 people (our Facebook page has just more than 113,000 fans currently).”

We all know most studies would say an 11-minute video is way too long for social. In this case though, it worked for AMS.

The lesson is simple here: Pay attention to your fans and what works for you. Industry standards and rules are meant to be broken if you have a grasp on the why.

Do you have any examples of when you broke “the rules” in social and it worked well? If so, share your example below!

As always, thanks for reading!

Lessons from Baylor’s College Football Playoff Campaign

When Baylor found themselves on the bubble of the College Football Playoffs, they launched a PR campaign (even hiring a PR firm). Content and communications ramped up. They leveraged the hashtag #SettledOnTheField, created great social media content and rallied ambassadors. The results were pretty good:

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As I took a look at their Facebook and Twitter accounts, I couldn’t help but to wonder: Why don’t teams take this approach year round? This was more than just a PR campaign for a spot in the playoffs. It was a rallying point for fans, a way to generate engagement, content for recruiting and so much more.

Here’s the thing: Schools, teams and leagues should focus on making a splash through content year round. It should not take a national stage to think, “hey, we need to promote the heck out of our program”. After all, even in sports, content is king. Baylor’s campaign proves this.

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A Creative Use of Twitter’s Multiple Photos

The other week I saw a cool use of the multiple-photos feature on Twitter thanks to a great hat tip from @WExline. The example is from @SportsCenter, who decided to use the Twitter’s multiple photos as a quiz function. Here’s the example:
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Click to guess?! How simple and brilliant. This content from @SportsCenter is a great example of pushing a platform’s boundaries with out-of-the-box thinking. This is also something others in the sports industry can replicate with little time or money.

The example got me thinking: How else can teams, leagues and others in the sports industry leverage Twitter’s multiple photos? Here are some thought starters for you:

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What About the Fan’s Perspective?

One of the great things about working in social media and sports is that there are so many different angles you can cover. The hardest part isn’t finding content, but getting out of the go, go, go mentality to take time to reflect. If you can take a step back though, you’ll see there’s a lot of extraordinary in your ordinary workday.

I’m always looking for social media and sports initiatives that take a different approach to the same ‘ole same ‘ole. I love those moments that offer a different and unique perspective.

In the past week, I saw initiatives from the Utah Jazz and Ipswich Town that did just that. They offered the fan’s perspective; something we don’t see a lot of. Here’s what they did:

Utah Jazz: Fan View #CLEatUTA

After Gordon Hayward’s game-winning shot against Cleveland, the Jazz’s social media manager had an idea: Why not curate fan videos from Instagram? And that he did (amazing to think that all these people had their phones out filming). The idea is simple and easy to replicate, but a great way to highlight fan content, reactions and action:

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