What Goes Into Social Media and Sports Strategy? Lessons & Insights from Industry Veteran Jeramie McPeek

Everybody sees the output in social media and sports. The post, the copy, the video edit, the story. But there is a complex web within sports entities that goes into the content and brands on social that fans love.

It didn't take long for social media to become professionalized and a growing part of the day-to-day and big picture operations for a team. And with it, the social media pros behind the channels are working alongside others in the organization more, too — all of whom want to do well at their job. Therefore, ommunication, collaboration, and cooperation must happen across parties when developing and executing social media strategy.

Jeramie McPeek has navigated the increasingly complex world of social media and sports since its inception, spending over 20 years with the Phoenix Suns before starting his own practice working with clients in the digital and social media sports space. I recently got to pick his brain on a wide range of subjects within social media and sports. Find some of the key talking points below; it really was excellent. [Listen to the full interview]

Balancing Goals Across Individuals and the Organization

Just about everything funnels through digital and social channels. It's why, for sports teams [and many brands & businesses], nobody has their finger on the pulse of, well, every tentacle of the business (and fan sentiment externally) more than the social media staff. But so much cross-departmental collaboration comes with challenges. Everyone is trying to perform their best — and the way their performance is evaluated must often reconcile with the goals of other parts of the organization. Many social media pros can relate to McPeek, who talked about the diverse objectives amidst the earliest and still-evolving marriage of sponsorship and social.

“I think I certainly tried and I learned, and we came up with a lot of great [sponsored social/digital] executions, but there were also times where we butted heads with the [sponsorship] salespeople," said McPeek, whose Suns were ahead of the curve in many ways in the early days of spononsor integration on social. "I tried to empathize with them as well because their job is just to sell, their job is to bring in more revenue.

"So there were times when they had a partner that wanted 12 Facebook posts and 45 tweets. The sales team was just trying to get the deal done. So they're putting that stuff in the deal to try and sweeten the packages or get the deals done. And they're not necessarily thinking about what that does on the other side.

"There were times that we butted heads and had disagreements and arguments. But I think for the most part we really worked together and kept trying to come up with what would benefit everybody — the fans, the organization, and the sponsors. And that's really when you win.”

The need for the partnership sales team to do their best to close deals and drive revenue must balance out with the goals to have an authentic, valuable social media presence for the brand. There is a similar set of variable incentives (not necessarily competing) beyond sponsor activation, too. McPeek also reflected on this framing with the stories and scoops from the team's basketball side for which the outside media sometimes took precedence over the Suns's own channels.

"The in-house PR team — you know, a lot of what they are kind of evaluated on and judged on from upper management is how many stories they can get placed in the local media...So their focus is getting the outside media to tell unique stories as well. So a lot of times they didn't necessarily want us to tell something first because then the local media might not want to tell it. So we certainly had great relationships with our PR team and I'm still great friends with a lot of the PR people that worked for us back in those days.

"There was always kind of a give and take; a lot of times they wanted the local media to tell a story before we did and we were like ‘No, but these are our properties, this is where we sell tickets and sponsorship, and we should want to get those eyeballs on our site.’ But that's just working in an organization; everybody's kind of got — I won't say their own agenda, but their own objectives and their own things that they're judged on and that they're trying to accomplish. So there's always an internal struggle, if you will, to work together and be good teammates and at the same time get your own responsibilities and jobs done.”

Programming and Packaging for Different Audiences and Platforms

Sports fans represent a broad swath of society, an array of engaged audiences. But different fans are often fans for different reasons. This fact isn't breaking news, but, again, it speaks to the complexity of the behind-the-scenes of social and digital media strategy. The challenge is illuminated as McPeek ticks off the various segments that comprise a fanbase.

“[The mix of content] iss the type of thing you would have conversations about internally because there were a lot of different audiences — you had your season ticket holders, your long tenured season ticket holders who've been there forever, and you'd have your first or second year season ticket holders," McPeek described. "And you'd have local fans who buy tickets and come to games, but they're not season ticket holders. You've got fans outside of the market who are big fans, but they will never come to a game because they don't live anywhere nearby. And then you've got international fans, too, that are following you from other countries. And you've got even different audiences within each of those — men and women, senior fans and kids.?

“So it's a challenge to try and talk to everybody, and in different ways. I can't say that we were ever the geniuses figuring out what that puzzle was and, and how to do all the different pieces, but certainly there were times where we had certain content for certain audiences that really would only appeal to them, and content for other audiences that would only appeal to them.”?

McPeek went on to note that once one can wrap their head around all the audiences, there is another challenge looming just as large nowadays — the panoply of platforms, each often commanding different forms or packaging of content. Put the audience and the platforms together and the permutations add up quickly to complicate the development of social media strategy. So when there's an excellent story to tell, the next step becomes determining all the places and ways to tell it.

McPeek explained: “There are a lot of factors to consider every time you're putting a story together and figuring out: how to write it, how long it should be, or should it be video instead? What channels should it go on? Should it go in your game program, your printed publication, or should it be on your website or should it be in your mobile app? Should it be on your video talk show? Should it be on the TV show?

"I mean, there are so many different channels and opportunities and places to put stuff [on]. It's a constant juggling act and the conversations never end. You're always talking about where's the best place for this type of content."

Voice and Personality for Sports Social Media

For over a decade now, sports teams and brands have been able to speak directly to fans. Prior to the arrival of social media channels, those opportunities were few and far between. The ways that fans heard from their favorite teams and players came in press releases, advertisements, programs/magazines, and through the videoboard and PA at games. But, call it whichever year you'd like — sometime in the second half of the first decade of the 2000s, teams and athletes starting talking to, with, and at fans directly. And, as the previous section of this article made clear, the diversity of the fanbase makes it difficult to establish a voice and personality that everybody loves.

"I think [you want to] come up with a voice that feels authentic and feels like a fan, the voice of a fan, but also be professional at the same time, which is tough," said McPeek. "Some fans are going to be using a lot of profanity when they're watching a game or using slang words that 99% of the fans may not understand or whatever.

“So you gotta find a voice that's fun and playful, but genuine and real, and isn't just always upbeat and positive because fans aren't always upbeat and positive. If your team loses by 40, you can't put a positive spin on that and have your followers feel like they see that. Your team just lost by 40, they’re upset, they don’t want to see your spin. So, in some cases, that's where you maybe revert to a little bit more of the just straightforward here's the results, here's the stats. But if instead you can use, you know, a crying emoji or an emoji with the eyes drooping — you're sad. That expresses what a lot of your fans are feeling."

Trying to express what the fans are feeling helps solidify that intimate connection between the team and the fans. Even as much of NBA Twitter, in particular, has oftentimes become a sea of snark and sarcasm, there should be care taken and a mix of lighthearted fun with empathetic authenticity, McPeek explained.

“It's really about trying to be genuine and trying to be authentic while not crossing the line and getting too sarcastic or too aggressive or too offensive to other teams," he said. "There's always a balance there and we've certainly seen the cases over the years where someone at a team crossed the line and went too far and, next thing you know, they're out of a job. So it's a fine line trying to find that balance of being playful and being authentic without going too far.”

The Motivations for Athletes and Social Media

McPeek had a front row seat to (and played a part in) the emergence of athletes on social media, really taking off when Shaq (then on the Suns) took Twitter by storm. But even while today some athletes still eschew social media, they all appreciate the power it has, when leveraged well. McPeek saw several Suns players over the years get active on social for one reason or another, and today some of his clients include pro athletes whose social media he advises and assists. Each athlete has their own incentives and objectives that drive their adoption of and activity with social, McPeek elucidated.

"I think the majority of them do understand the value there, even if they don't love it or aren't super active themselves, they understand the value of communicating directly with fans controlling your own narrative, controlling your own brand," said McPeek. "I think every athlete's different. Some of them really just genuinely enjoy interacting with fans. It's like the old school chat room and they just love getting on and talking with fans and seeing what fans are saying and having fun with them or bantering with them or going back and forth with them. Some of them really love that, [but] others hate that. They hate the fact that fans can criticize them and critique them and make fun of them if they have a bad game or, or judge them in a lot of ways. Some athletes get real sensitive about that. They don't want to see any of that, any negativity.

“So for them, the ones that still see the value in social besides putting that [negativity] aside for them, it's more about building their brand and hopefully being able to get sponsorships and generate revenue through it. Others, I think it's more about brand and less about revenue, but they want to portray who they are and who they are as people, and for people to see them in unique ways and off the court or off the field."

*****

The challenges and opportunities that Jeramie encountered in the early days of social media are not all that different from those of today. The platforms multiply, but the foundation and principles still reign supreme. That constancy is why social media strategy is not just a day-to-day proposition — it's backed by thoughtfulness, depth, analysis, and collaboration. So just remember the next time you enjoy the social media output of your favorite team or athlete that there is far more than meets the eye.

LISTEN TO MY FULL CONVERSATION WITH JERAMIE MCPEEK

or Read the transcript