#SMSports In 2020: What's our value and what does the future hold?

I don't know about you, but I've found 2020 so hard to process. The sheer volume of what we've experienced, both emotionally and physically, has left me both saddened at what has transpired, yet also inspired by what we in the digital world were able to accomplish under the most unprecedented (drink!) of circumstances. 

In no place was this more evident than sports, as companies with decades of processes in place had to quickly reconfigure their strategies for their new reality. After so much time focused on in-person experiences, the only area anyone could rely on was the digital connection to their fans and customers.

We all went from a predictable content schedule of games and events to a landscape devoid of everything we've come to count on. Nights and weekends normally spent chronicling the happenings on the court and fields disappeared, replaced by an uncertainty that didn't seem to have a definitive end date. 

I remember sitting at the ACC Men's Basketball Tournament on March 11th, watching the games in front of me take place as the world around me seemed to crumble. I'll never forget the two hour stretch when Rudy Gobert and Tom Hanks were bound together as part of a worldwide panic, and with every passing minute the idea of 'normal life' seemed to be slipping away. 

Despite all the negatives that have come from the past nine (!) months since that fateful day in March, there is much we can learn from what we've endured. Digital was at the forefront of so much this year, and because organizations were pushed in that direction so quickly, it allowed us to observe real-time case studies in nearly every industry in the business world. 

With that in mind, I wanted to share some thoughts I have on the space, both for today and the near future. These ideas aren't really in any order, but more a guide as to what has become valuable in the digital space, and how that will affect the future.

1: Digital Is A Problem Solver...So Communicate It That Way

I remember when I first got into social media back in 2008. The idea that these platforms (it was just Facebook and Twitter) would serve as anything other than a way to share 'microblogging' seemed ludicrous, and those espousing those beliefs (raises hand) were viewed with skepticism. Fast forward 12 years, and not only is that thought mainstream, but due to the pandemic, more essential than ever.

Digital is now a primary problem solver. That's it, that's the tweet. 

Any issue your customers are facing is likely to be solved digitally, whether it's content delivery (hello streaming), customer service (ask the airlines about this) or even purchasing products (Instagram is basically a storefront now, and Amazon is a true unicorn). 

Do your higher ups know this? If they don't, they should, because an organization's digital strategy will never be smaller moving forward. 

Want to generate revenue? Digital provides opportunities. 

Want to know more about your audience? Digital connects data. 

Want to stay connected with your fans 24 hours a day? Digital is the primary touchpoint. 

Want to access your financial records? There's an app for that.

Want to go paperless at your events? This is literally a digital experience.

For the first time in recorded history, digital ad spends passed traditional print and television’s, with over 6 billion dollars generated on platforms this year. Instagram took major steps in this direction in 2020, introducing a digital ‘storefront’ that allows brands to directly sell merchandise off the content they post. My wife and millions of others order their groceries online for pickup at the store. Expect others to follow. 

I always say the future of digital is whatever makes us lazier, and the fact that we can buy holiday presents while lying in bed has transformed the customer experience. That’s not going away. According to Salesforce, 84% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services.

The bottom line is that from this point forward, whether you work for Netflix, Citibank or a gas station, digital experiences with your customers will only grow, and as those leaders brainstorm the challenges ahead, chances are, digital is the answer. We need to communicate that as much as possible, so we can be a part of finding the solution.

2: Nostalgia Is Vital

In the #SMSports world this year, we were faced with the most frightening challenge of all...no games. 

We take for granted the comfort the sports calendar provides us throughout the year. We know exactly what each point of the year brings. Whether it's March Madness, April in Augusta or football in September, we can always count on it, because the cycle never changes. However, due to COVID-19, that cycle did change in 2020, and one positive to come out of it is that we learned that nostalgia can not only work, but probably should have been a bigger part of our content strategy to begin with.

Now I know that many of us have #TBT posts already baked into our content calendar or have stored a bunch of 'this day is our team's history' photos into a folder on your computer.

But, 2020 taught us that connecting generations can have real impact, and those moments are ones we should look to tap into more often. Is there someone on your staff with intimate knowledge of your organization’s past? If there isn’t, there needs to be. 

Nostalgia is the reason five million people watched the final episodes of the Last Dance documentary on Michael Jordan. It’s the reason Verzuz has generated billions of views online, bringing back artists from decades ago and re-introducing them to new generations. It’s why Cobra Kai and the Crown are among the top-rated shows on Netflix. 

This content connects people’s memories together and allow us all to share in revisiting the times of our life we hold most dear. That emotion is so powerful, and as we saw in 2020, people crave it.

Sports is at its best when it connects us all and tapping into the history of the games and events we cover not only has the chance to bring back those feelings, but allow multiple generations to experience it together. Cover the past like you cover the present, especially when the moment warrants it. Whether it’s the person’s first time or the 100th time experiencing it, that interrelation is what we should all strive for.

3: Smaller Is The New Better

The first allure of social media was the scale it could provide, the idea that content could be shared around the world with the push of one button. That instant connection was so intoxicating and pushed us all to value follower counts and impressions as the key currency of our digital strategies.

However, the more intertwined we’ve become, the more fractured our content consumption is. Organic reach on Facebook is a thing of the past, and other platforms have pushed to have more personal connections with their users. 

That sense of community has become more important than ever, whether it's #Cooking recommendations on TikTok (27.6 billion views), the explosion of Facebook groups (it defined 2020 politics) or Clubhouse and it’s collection of rooms (Twitter is copying this idea as we speak). 

The feeling of being in a shared environment has become paramount to the digital experience. Even Twitter, which can still scale your message, has nooks and crannies (#MarketingTwitter for starters) that focus on groups of people with shared interests. That’s never been more evident than 2020, where we’ve spent so much time apart from the people we work with and care most about. 

Smaller is the new better, and that requires us to think about how we craft our messages not only for each platform, but for each fan we encounter. I know this sounds daunting, but going forward, it must be what we strive for.

We all expect a personal touch, and that should extend to the brands we interact with. Think about it. My Netflix feed is different than yours, and your Spotify playlist is different from mine. Whether we've noticed or not, when we engage with a platform, we expect it to know us better than we know ourselves. Why should sports be any different?

Our goal moving forward should be to provide a personal omni-channel experience every time our fans interact with us. We should know who their favorite players are, what time they like to read about our teams, how often they buy tickets and what their favorite food is when they show up to watch. All this data is out there, but it is imperative that we knock down silos and work together to think about and build an entire landscape that serves our customers exactly how they want. 

It’s so much more challenging to think of each interaction at that granular level, but this is our customer’s expectation. We are all experiencing the world through individual lenses, so we must segment that journey as much as we can to match the customer’s preferences. It's what they desire now, and it's time we deliver.

4. Creativity Needs Time, Resources...and Mental Health

Let's face it, if you work in social media, you are never truly off. Your phone becomes an extension of who you are, and even in moments when you are supposed to be away, you are a text, tweet or email away from being locked in again.

Again, I know how fortunate we are to call people's entertainment our 'work', but in the past year while other areas of the business have struggled to exist, digital has exploded. Not only were we all forced to be creative on command, but we did so without the ability to really plan for what was ahead. 

The never ending ‘future’ came in day to day increments, and we did our best to react, test, push and analyze in the same 24-hour stretch. Announcements came in flurries, and we had to learn to manage our workloads virtually. We were resilient, but in the end, I couldn't help shaking this feeling that while I was accomplishing a lot, I'm not sure I did any of it well.

If we are going to consider digital a vital part of the organization (we've been screaming this for a decade), then organizations need to better understand the process these departments go through in order to be effective. Creativity takes time and cannot be fit in at the whim of an arbitrary deadline. Again, I understand that desperate times call for desperate measures, but if you want quality, you have to be willing to let it happen, or understand when it can't.

Creatives need space to breathe, moments to process and breaks to recharge. Burnout is a real issue in #smsports, and that only worsened in the past nine months. Again, you can't compare 2020 to every other year, but moving forward, we must make sure our best and brightest are mentally healthy enough to tackle this all-encompassing space. 

It's ok to not be ok, and as leaders in this space, that always must be at the front of our minds as we grow in our careers. It's vital to everyone's success...and sanity.

What also is evident is that we cannot continue at this pace, and we need true investment into our departments from the organizations that are now looking to us to take lead on projects that weren’t in our job descriptions ten months ago. 

Videos and graphics don’t just appear on social media feeds, they require equipment, software and most importantly, people. We can’t keep trying to figure out how to do less with more, and it’s on us as leaders in this space to outline the resources we need to be truly balanced and successful. 

If your boss were to ask you tomorrow what you needed to do your job better, would you have an answer ready? I don’t mean your suggestion of what needs to be done, I’m talking about a specific outline and justifiable plan that not only outlines the structure you are hoping for, but how that staffing plan would increase return on investment. 

Do your senior staffs know how much financial value your channels create at every event? How often do you share reporting analytics with those in charge of your yearly budget? Have you talked about paid social needs, and how that connects with the marketing and sales team’s goals in 2021?

Speaking of communicating our value, the most important facet of these explanations is the way you do it. Digital is full of so much jargon, and you can NEVER assume that people who don’t work in this space understand the metric you are sharing with them. The best way to advocate for your field is to explain it in terms your boss finds valuable. 

Do you report to marketing? Then spend time of engagement, reach and fan club sign-ups.

Is your boss the CRO? Well, focus on sales and the amount of revenue digital can generate.

Are you part of business analytics? If so, talk about the demographics of your followers.

If we want to advocate for what we do, we need to speak the right language. Be strategic in what you present and explain value in terms that are relatable. For us to get the resources we hope in 2021, it’s essential we do it the right way.