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Professional Sports Marketing Moten, Maya . University Wire ; Carlsbad [Carlsbad]21 May 2018.

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FULL TEXT Publication: The Dartmouth, Dartmouth College, Hanover NH.

A look at average postings of five Washington, D.C. teams in season compared to out of season. Source: The

Dartmouth

Over the course of the last four millennia, sports have served as an integral part of the human experience. With

these contests drawing billions from around the world, marketing representatives constantly need to develop

innovative approaches to engage fans throughout the year. However, what strategies do teams use to motivate

fans to respond? What do some of these interactions look like? Do they differ among different sports?

This week, The Dartmouth examines the social media sites of teams in the Washington, D.C. area as a model to

answer some of these questions and determine some of the more successful methods for getting fans to respond.

In Season vs Offseason

For many teams, it is easy to post on social media during the regular season. There is a certain amount of built-in

content when posting about player highlights, the outcomes of games, interviews and press releases from teams.

It is only during the offseason that the challenge to remain relevant amongst fans emerges. Although teams strive

to continue to post and engage their fans during the offseason, there is still a significant decrease amongst many

teams.

For Washington’s basketball team, the Wizards, there is an abundant supply of content when in season. On

average, the team posts nearly 16 times in a month while in season. In contrast, during the offseason their monthly

posting rate decreases to a third of the usual amount. This decrease is even more emphasized amongst the

Nationals, Washington’s resident baseball team, and in the ice rink with the Capitals, with both teams reducing to

an eighth of the in-season posting.

In contrast, both the Washington Redskins and D.C. United remain relatively consistent throughout the year,

posting on average the same amount of content during the offseason and while in season. This could potentially

be due to the short offseason of soccer. It also could be due to the large following of football throughout the year,

as fans consistently follow the NFL Draft and training camps. While that is not to say that other sports do not go

through the same offseason programming, football remains America’s favorite sport by a margin of over 25

percent, according to a January 2018 Gallup poll. Because of this, it is understandable that a football team would

seek to remain consistent throughout the year to retain those fans.

Twitter Surges

The disparity in posting by time is not the only one that emerges when looking at the habits of social media

marketing. The frequency of posts and different platforms varies as well. On average, teams post on Twitter

double, triple and in some rare instances quadruple the amount that they do on Instagram and Facebook.

Although Twitter data is restricted to an account’s first 3,200 tweets, when examining the average posting rates

from the months of February, March, and April using the Washington Nationals as an example, the team posts at

least 18 times per month on average. In comparison, this is nearly four times the amount of Instagram and

Facebook posts the team sends. Although the Nationals are the only teams shown here, the same trend emerges

among the other D.C. teams —especially among the Capitals with the team posting four times as much and in one

instance five times as much.

One of the primary reasons this occurs is due to the easy accessibility of Twitter. With 280 characters it is

convenient to quickly send something out and update it in real time. In addition, Twitter possesses a certain level

of impermanence that is not associated with Facebook and Instagram. With Facebook and Instagram, audiences

are looking for a photo or highlight capturing a moment instead of the simple update associated with Twitter.

Therefore, one can easily place 10, 15 or even 20 messages on the site as the busy fan might only have the

opportunity to see three.

Message Formats

Regardless of the debate of how often teams post during the season or offseason or how much teams post on

each site, teams do focus on producing content tailored to the different audiences that they cater to on each social

media platform.

According to a Pew Research Center report on social media use in 2018, although most people aged 18 to 65 and

older use different social media, this demographic varies significantly in which sites they favor. While most

Americans use Facebook, those ages 18 to 24 are much more likely to use Instagram and Twitter. Therefore, the

messages that appear on each platform reflect those users.

On Facebook, teams are much more likely to post messages sharing the accomplishments of players, the team

and other affiliates. When Max Scherzer, pitcher for the Nationals, earned his 2,000th career strikeout by striking

out the Texas Ranger’s Nomar Mazara, video highlights touting the accomplishment could be seen throughout the

team’s Facebook page with messages like, “Max Scherzer strikes out Nomar Mazara for the 2,000th strikeout of

his career.”

These messages give the fans a way of remaining updated and inspire fans to support the team and even include

them in the franchise and athlete’s success. In contrast, to appeal to the younger, fast-paced crowd on Twitter,

teams rely more upon posts that update fans in real time on games, highlights, interviews and recaps. Often times

when facing another team, marketing managers live-tweet games featuring messages such as the one the Capitals

posted when preparing for their Game 6 against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the Stanley Cup Playoffs: “#Caps

trail their series 3-2 and are facing elimination for the first time in the 2018 #StanleyCup playoffs. Game six will be

played in the District on Monday night. #ALLCAPS”

Another added benefit that teams take advantage of is the interconnectedness of the platform. With a simple

hashtag or mention, teams have the ability to reach out to a wider audience than their own followers. For that

reason, teams often collaborate on promotions with other organizations to sponsor free tickets, photos of the

game and merchandise provided by the franchise. Before one of the more recent games, D.C. United paired up with

Taste of Arlington, a food festival featuring Arlington food with donations going to charity, by promoting on their

Twitter page: “Come by the #DCU booth at @TasteArlington for games and giveaways until 5 today!”

By connecting with a broader community, teams are able to connect to other fans and continue to promote their

brand. While Facebook and Twitter may appear to fall on different spectrums, Instagram finds a happy medium

between the pair, with posts primarily focusing on featuring players through their performance during games or

while training and spotlighting them in interviews. A primary example of this was the exit interview basketball

player Marcin Gortat provided reporters after leaving the Washington Wizards.

Regardless of the site or type of message, each is focused on creating a narrative around the team capitalizing on

the big moments and illuminating the franchise while providing accessibility to the fans. This accessibility, which

can be seen across every platform keeping fans engaged, is the reason why sports have continued through four

millenia and the reason why it will keep existing after four more.

Credit: Maya Moten DETAILS

LINKS Check for full text in other resources

Subject: Marketing; Athletic drafts &trades; Professional soccer; Social networks;

Professional basketball

Location: Texas Washington DC Tampa Bay

People: Gortat, Marcin

Company / organization: Name: Washington Redskins; NAICS: 711211; Name: Washington Nationals; NAICS:

711211; Name: Tampa Bay Lightning; NAICS: 711211; Name: Washington Wizards;

NAICS: 711211; Name: Natio nal Football League--NFL; NAICS: 711211, 813990;

Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Pew Research Center for the People &the

Press; NAICS: 541720; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130; Name:

Dartmouth College; NAICS: 611310

Publication title: University Wire; Carlsbad

Publication year: 2018

Publication date: May 21, 2018

Section: Sports

Publisher: Uloop, Inc.

Place of publication: Carlsbad

Country of publication: United States, Carlsbad

Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States

Source type: Wire Feeds

Language of publication: English

Document type: News

ProQuest document ID: 2042326359

Document URL: https://search.proquest.com/docview/2042326359?accountid=8289

Copyright: © 2018 UWIRE, a division of Uloop

Last updated: 2018- 05-22

Database: ProQuest Central

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