Tweet this -- How I Plan to Improve Our Twitter Presence in Year 2

Strategies Behind the Storytelling of a Sports Brand

Nothing says social media mistake like checking the Twitter followers you have after a year of operating and discovering just how low that number is. But that’s okay. This exercise is about improving our brand's Twitter presence.

We are in Year 2 of our festival and that comes with a complete new set of criteria. Instead of ‘How do we …?’, most of our meetings this year start with ‘How can we improve and make this sustainable?’ We have a great and engaged Facebook following, and loads of images on Instagram. Now its time for me to take our Twitter to the next level.

Before creating tweets, I started with the basics and tackled the actual Twitter page. I noticed that we did not have a bio under our @WeHoSportsFest handle. After some research, I decided I liked the idea of using a hashtag, including a call to action and writing in first-person. As a spokesperson for the WSF, I want to make sure our followers know they are connecting with a real person. And I quickly added our city and state as well as the link to our website.

I crafted a bio that included everything important to our brand, and in 160 characters!

Next I focused on images for the page. We are fortunate to have a talented creative director who has stocked our photo library with a wealth of incredible images. We choose photos that are vibrant, beautiful and reflect our brand. But even the greatest photo will be boring if the page does not get refreshed. Honestly I am confused about this. On the one hand I don’t want too many images to confuse our readers about our brand since we are a start up. But I also know that a variety of images could keep their attention. Best practices here seem to state that changing once a month or every other month is the right balance. I will experiment and see what works for us.

With all of the page elements updated and ready, my next task is to work on a content strategy. I am confident that the steps I’ve taken in the first phase of this initiative are in the right direction.

What strategies have you used to increase your brand’s Twitter presence?

Tracey Savell Reavis is the Director of Communications for the West Hollywood Sports Festival. The WSF is an award-winning festival that brings together recreational sports leagues in a multi-sport event to compete on the campus of UCLA on Labor Day Weekend.

In this series, get the rundown behind the creating of a sports brand as it is unfolding. Help yourself to the tips and tools you can use. Follow @tsavellreavis to share her branding journey.  #ReadySetBrand