Digital and Social Media Sports
A business-minded look at digital and social media in sports
Listen to episode 276 of the Digital and Social Media Sports podcast, in which Neil chatted with Kevin Jones, Founder and CEO, Blue Wire sports podcast network.
73 minute duration. Listen on Apple, Spotify and YouTube
Posted by Neil Horowitz Follow me on Twitter @njh287 Check out my LinkedIn articles
The fans are out there. Your fans are out there. More fans than you even realize. There are communities, conversations, and creators engaging with the sport, the athletes, the media and the organizations that comprise the sport’s universe.
You just have to meet them where they are and do so in a way that’s genuine and valued.
It was easier in the halcyon days when ‘social media’ mostly meant Facebook and Twitter (and eventually Instagram). But now fans are more fragmented, different segments engaging on different platforms and divvying up their engagement pie and timeshare.
Most sports organizations fall into one of two camps — either you’re the type to sit back and watch others try out the new platforms first, perhaps just securing a page or handle while you wait OR you’re the early mover, jumping in and figuring stuff out as you go. You either play offense, trying new playbooks and platforms or you focus on perfecting your existing scheme, improving and enhancing the plays you know you can execute well. Convoluted sports analogies aside, it was insightful to learn about the success Joe Setley has seen at the organizations where he’s worked, where the rewards potential greatly outweighed the risks.
“I’ve been blessed to work with organizations that have really been willing to be on the forefront of apps where it’s like, ‘Oh, TikTok’s come out, like, let’s try it,’ said Setley, the Senior Director of Social Media and Content Strategy for Top Rank Boxing. “Top Rank has built a giant audience on WhatsApp now, that launched last year. We’ve been willing to kind of just jump on these trends.
“I think there is probably a graveyard of accounts that I’ve launched over my time at different places that are in that little part of the Excel sheet that just say account no longer in use. But I think that’s really where I’ve had a lot of buy-in from executives and my bosses in the past, and now where it’s really given us the opportunity to say What’s the worst thing that happens? The app’s not going to succeed.
“Going back to that WhatsApp example for Top Rank, we have over 4 million followers on WhatsApp. That’s 20% of our audience that we now have.. That account has been active since June last year, so there’s no reason not to take that risk. Same with the UFC (where Setley previously worked). We launched the TikTok account and I think it was in the first 50 days we had a million followers on it. Like, there’s no real reason not to embrace the kind of new apps because again, worst case, you discard it. But take that chance and hopefully you’re going to get lucky a couple times.”
Everyone who’s worked in social media can likely cite one or more platforms that came and went (Google+ was gonna be huge! Until it wasn’t. What about Peach or Ello or Yo!?). Setley noted that taking the shots isn’t as daunting when you can mostly repurpose existing content (TikTok was an exception, he noted). Meeting fans where they are is job number one. The next arena where that matters, especially for a sport and organization with a global fanbase (or realistic ambitions to have one) is language and culture.
A massive unlock for Setley and his team at Top Rank was to look at diversity of language and culture across their social media accounts. There are fans celebrating the sport and individual boxers hailing from different countries around the world waiting for an opportunity to come together and engage with platforms, pages, and posts that are made for them. It’s a chance to properly serve those fan segments, deepening engagement and connections, and enhancing fan avidity among them.
“All of our content was in English except for a Twitter account, so we really decided to dedicate a lot more effort into meeting these fans,” said Setley, who has been at Top Rank since late 2021. “Potentially another language will come down the pipeline in 2024 or 25, but we’ve seen a massive success in reaching these fans, using language as the main component.
“That was actually a really large reason why we launched the Spanish Facebook and WhatsApp and Instagram pages;, especially for that market, we wanted to have an account that could be more dedicated and focused to them. So we have a large Puerto Rican audience, we do a boxing event at MSG every Puerto Rican Day weekend, so we wanted to create an account that was more dedicated to promoting our Hispanic champions, our Mexican champions, our Puerto Rican champions, and really making sure that like where the main account can’t do 30 posts about them a day, this account could. So hopefully the Spanish account is a start of a larger, more global and regionalized. “
Every team and league (and boxing promoter) would do well to look within the existing fans of their sport and figure out how to turn those casual account ‘followers’ into engaged avids. While we spend time living post to post, aiming to reach higher levels of engagement and engagement metrics, there’s another framework worthy of consideration — moving fans up the funnel, ascending them up the spectrum, no matter where they reside today.
Everyone’s chasing new fans, especially the sports leagues whose three-letter abbreviations aren’t universally known, but what is the experience like for these new fans upon their arrival? What does the track look like to welcome these relative noobs, coming across the team or sport or league from different entry points, to continue growing in their fandom, moving up the spectrum? While boxing is one of the world’s oldest sports, Setley and Top Rank strategize with intent to bring new fans into the fold.
“We did audience surveys over the last year and really tried to identify what a fan of Top Rank is, and we learned that tons of people love boxing, but they don’t all know the rules of boxing,” he said. “Inside the ring and outside there are things like purse bids or co-promotions or what makes a ten-eight round and things like that; it’s not the easiest to find resources of how to learn these things. So we’re spending an effort this year to launch a series called Boxing 101 that provides these educational points for everyone.
“From a casual fan to a hardcore fan, we want to be able to provide a resource even just for the hardcore fans. They are arguing with their friend, they want to be like, ‘See on Top Rank’s website, they define this as that.’ So we’re trying to really help educate the fans.”
Top Rank can be a valuable resource for fans — showcasing the fighters, informing fans, and providing entertainment and access beyond the televised fights (which air most often on ESPN in the US). But it’s not as simple a relationship as fan-to-team or even fan-to-league. Top Rank supports fighters, promotes fights, and has been a beacon of the sport for decades. But the brand of a boxing promotion like Top Rank is not as simple as that of the laundry we cheer for in stick and ball sports. But Top Rank, like its peers, wants to stand out in the quality and stardom of the fighters they work with and a brand that is as sterling as the 50+ years the promotion has been around (founded in 1966).
Any sports brand, particularly in sports with rich, celebrated histories and historic rewatchable events, would do well to learn from Setley and Top Rank. This writer is personally bullish on the opportunity for organizations activate their archive, and Top Rank knows one of their key differentiating factors against other boxing promotions or even boxing media outlets, is their history. Setley talked about the value of their vault.
“Something that [Top Rank] really does well is we have boxing footage since 1966, so something that we made a very strong push and effort on is showcasing that vault,” said Setley, who also mentioned that 92-year-old Top Rank founder Bob Arum remains an active part of the promotion today. “We now have a Facebook page that’s called ‘Top Rank The Vault’ that has over 600,000 followers. It’s not dedicated to promoting upcoming fights, it’s just you want to watch an old Muhammad Ali fight, you come here. You want to watch an old Marvin Hagler fight, you can come here…
“It’s bringing back that kind of content that separates us, because none of these other promoters have that deep of a library. We have Floyd [Mayweather], we have Manny [Pacquiao], we have Hagler, Hearns, Ali — like anyone that has ever been a legend in boxing at some point has come through the Top Rank doors.”
Backdropping Top Rank’s ability to seek out swings worth taking and value yet to be realized is the buy-in from the top on down. Setley knows that social media strategy doesn’t happen in a silo, it can’t; positive feedback loops buttressed by numbers help keep the train moving, but even before that it takes investment in the vision and the evidence-backed and educated belief that these punches will land.
Said Setley: “At the end of the day we have an amazing president of our organization, Todd duBoef who, revenue or not, has really been a massive supporter of our content overall…He’s been able to give us that belief, that expertise and the resources to make it happen. So over the last two and a half years, our numbers have gone through the roof, and it’s really all thanks to him being able to just be an advocate for us when he’s speaking with other members of the executives, when he’s talking to us, working with him to really build out what our social strategy is.”
Your next mass of fans is already out there, you just have to attract them. Embrace the unknown, take risks, and meet your fans with authenticity. In this ever-evolving digital landscape, understanding your diverse fanbase and innovating will turn casual followers into lifelong fanatics. As Joe Setley and Top Rank have shown, success lies in the connections we build, the stories we tell, and the communities we nurture. By strategically engaging with new platforms and thoughtfully curating content, you can drive deeper engagement and build a thriving, loyal fanbase, and stay on top for years to come.
On episode 275 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, Neil chatted with Joe Setley, Senior Director of Social Media and Content Strategy for Top Rank Boxing.
What follows are some snippets from the episode. Click Here to listen to the full episode or check it out and subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or listen on Spotify or Stitcher.
Listen to episode 275 of the Digital and Social Media Sports podcast, in which Neil chatted with Joe Setley, Senior Director of Social Media and Content Strategy for Top Rank Boxing.
69 minute duration. Listen on Apple, Spotify and YouTube
Posted by Neil Horowitz Follow me on Twitter @njh287 Check out my LinkedIn articles
What is the total addressable market for a sports team?
Depending on who you’re talking to, the answer may be everybody who lives within a certain radius of the team’s home city or venue all the way up to, well, everybody in the world with a pulse.
With seemingly limitless goals, it’s a delicate dance for sports marketers and strategists to try and be everything to everyone while understanding the most effective use of not-limitless time and resources to develop the healthiest, lasting fan base.
The key is to put the fans first. Sure, that sounds like a ‘Duh’ comment, but in the endless chase for numbers and vanity metrics, are fans really at the center of the strategy? That’s not to say virality is bad, far from it — we want to recruit new fans — but that doesn’t mean the bulk of time and resources should be spent thinking about these potential new fans at the expense of those already in the fold. Ruben Dominguez manages these masters in his position at the helm of the Portland Timbers social media and content strategy. The Timbers have a passionate fanbase and Dominguez knows serving and speaking with them is paramount.
“I really use these times to talk to fans and gauge them in that sense because if you read the comments, you can get some stuff out of that of what people want, but when you come up to people and they’re telling you what they like about the channels or what more they want to see I think it’s always the best thing that you can get,” said Dominguez, referencing the real-life conversations he’ll have with fans at Timbers events.
Dominguez continued: “The best example I can give getting to that is press conferences. So when I first got here, I really thought, as a soccer purist, that press conferences and hearing from the manager and players is the best insight that you can give. Win, draws, losses — it just really gave the opportunity for a manager to speak, so I was pretty hell-bent on getting those out. Even if they didn’t do the best numbers, there’s a good chance to just provide people with info about the team and dictate narratives.
“With that being said, a lot of people saw that as low [engagement] numbers, not really any juice for the squeeze. But now that we’ve had a little bit of a higher-profile manager [Phil Neville] come in and people are wanting to hear [from him], I thought it worked out well, and now that’s something that gets a lot of buzz when we put those out.”
Dominguez championed content like the press conferences, which he used as an example of content that would serve fans more than serve metrics, but he also put the strategic lens on the initiative. The team can produce content that’s valuable and desirable for fans and make the most of it for the organization and its business objectives. A coach press conference on its own may not do mega numbers, but the recurring nature and the countless clips they beget produce meaningful opportunities.
“It might not be the greatest piece of content, but I think there’s a lot that you can get out of it for the organization,” said Dominguez, who spent time with the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and the United Soccer League (USL) before making his way to Portland.
“So when you’re looking at these specific things you’re doing, whether it’s training photos or arrival photos or all these things that are recurring and come about, I think you just got to put it in that context. How does it work for the fans? How does it work internally for you all? Is it something that you can get a lot of juice out of the squeeze for, and then how does it work for the business side? And that’s kind of how we make decisions with everything.”
Meeting fan expectations and identifying value within recurring content are key cornerstones, but the Timbers, like any team, want to continue to grow that fanbase and find new ways to develop and engage fans. It can be easy for content teams in sports to get caught up in the routines of the season’s grind, one practice and pregame warm-up and postgame coverage blending into the next. Many fans may count on the routine coverage, resting assured that the team will deliver it day in and day out. But teams need to disrupt themselves, too, take chances, try new things, and find ways to break through the expected to attract new attention in the feed and find new ways to bring in new and existing fans. There’s a calculated strategy to the experimentation and innovation, and it’s a mix of art (creativity) and science (what the numbers say).
“I think when we do take those risks, we ask the same questions,” Dominguez explained. How is this going to affect the brand? What is this going to do for us? Could this be something that lives on? If we do it, what metrics do we need to measure for — and not just numbers-wise, it’s like the pulse of the community. If we do something and we see that a lot of fans like it and they’re like, ‘We want more of this’, but maybe it doesn’t fit our brand, then we’ll look at it and say, ‘Okay, where can we fit this?’ Or we say, hey, maybe this is our brand because this is something our fans like, our players like, and those are the people that we’re speaking for when they go out into their communities and when they get to talk to their people, what do they want to show about their teams?”
The sum of fan touchpoints and engagements makes up the brand of the team. Now, not every encounter and impression is expected to carry the impossible burden of burnishing every brand pillar. There are different fans, different expectations, and different opportunities with each platform, digital and otherwise. For someone in Dominguez’s role, it’s integral to activate each platform with intent and appreciate the expectations, behaviors, and opportunities each presents. Dominguez broke down how he and the Timbers think about the various social media platforms.
“When we look at a social strategy, we’re looking platform to platform of what we want to do,” he said. “I think one thing that we can say about TikTok, for us, is we kind of just want to show the cool aspects of what we do of our life, our players, and just show those kind of aspects of the game; [whereas] you look at something like Twitter or Instagram, it’s going to be totally different.
“I think when we look at Twitter, we want to show that we know ball, because I think that’s the best place where you can kind of display that, where things kind of go and you see things from different platforms, and when you do reach these other audiences, whether they support a team in Europe, South America, we want to show that know what we’re talking about, and we’re not one of those typical American teams or have that stigma.”
Teams are continually trying to serve their fans and create a brand that’s attractive to prospective fans. Oftentimes the simplest path to a spike in fans, or at least supporters, is through the players. Just ask Inter Miami, who saw their fanbase grow exponentially upon the arrival of Lionel Messi, or look at Tottenham Hotspur over in the Premier League, who gained perhaps an entire nation of fans when South Korean football star Son Heung-min joined the club. Such star power can get fans in the door, but it’s on the organizations to foment deeper, lasting connections that transform individuals’ identities to adopt everlasting fandom. Dominguez had a front-row seat to player-driven fans, particularly when he worked with the Portland Thorns, which boast US Women’s National Team star Sophia Smith on their squad. There’s a difference between cultivating fans of the team that ‘x’ player plays on and fans of the team who love both sides of the jersey.
“I think, speaking on the Thorns side, just the dynamic of that and working at the NWSL, the national team players are highly regarded,” he said. “People are going to switch team allegiances with their players going to different sides. So I think that’s one thing in that in a sense sells itself, where I think the difference on the Timbers side is I feel like the brand of the Timbers is almost like the star player and just playing for the Timbers. So we’ve always tried to keep that mantra…
“On [the Timbers] side we have the obligation to tell a lot of stories. And I think, since I’ve gotten here, I’ve really made it a point for us to, no matter the player, their play on the pitch, their status within the team, I think there were stories everywhere to be told. So we really tried to make that a point to get them out into the world and tell their stories.”
Teams want fans to feel connected through the players, but in a way that family members support each other because they’re part of a common group with a shared crest. This type of familiarity and communal support is achieved by telling stories of players all the way up and why Dominguez talked about the team’s content strategy around their Timbers Academy, where fans can get to know the players they’re bound to love, because they play for the Timbers (even if it’s not on their first team yet).
“We have probably the best academy we’ve had in the Timbers’ short history,” said Dominguez, “so really showing those players and getting them accustomed to what we do and ultimately banking on if they make it to the first team that we have archived footage and can tell their story from when they were young up to when they get into the first team.
“I think probably one of the coolest things I’ve been a part of since I’ve been here is we signed a homegrown this year. His name’s Sawyer Jura. He’s Oregon through and through. He’s from Bend. When we were able to do his announcement, he had pictures from when he was like 7 or 8 with [Timbers mascot] Timber Joey coming to games, we were able to recreate some pictures with him and his family from when they were on the field at games when he was younger to now. He’s been on the first-team squad a couple of times this year. So it’s been awesome.
“That’s kind of what we’re striving for from a content side, is just having all of that stuff built up to tell the best possible stories we can, and have players on this team that people feel like they know and can connect with, and then, in turn, you feel like it’s a family and a community that you’re building and you don’t have to depend on X star coming in for you to be a Timbers fan, you’re just a fan of the club.”
Perhaps the best example of generational fandom is in college sports. Dominguez has first-hand experience and perspective having attended and worked at Texas A&M, with a massive fanbase that loves their Aggies across sports and as student-athletes cycle in and out. That type of unconditional devotion transcends one’s understanding of the X’s and O’s, goes beyond any individual player, is bigger than wins and losses, and lasts a lifetime.
“Coming from a [college like Texas A&M] that is very big on tradition, I feel like we’re kind of the same here in Portland,” said Dominguez, who’s in the midst of his third season with the team. “We have a long history, coming up on our 50th year of the club, so those sorts of [traditions] are just things that you can highlight and just show people love and feel a part of something at the end of the day.
“I think any footy fan that you speak to just wants to feel that community and feel something to be a part of while supporting their team.”
On episode 274 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, Neil chatted with Ruben Dominguez, Senior Director, Social Media Content and Strategy for the Portland Timbers MLS club.
What follows are some snippets from the episode. Click Here to listen to the full episode or check it out and subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.
Listen to episode 274 of the Digital and Social Media Sports podcast, in which Neil chatted with Ruben Dominguez, Senior Director, Social Media Content and Strategy for the Portland Timbers MLS club.
79 minute duration. Listen on Apple, Spotify and YouTube
Posted by Neil Horowitz Follow me on Twitter @njh287 Check out my LinkedIn articles
What are the common experiences to which everyone — like, every single person — can relate? The ultimate connective tissue between you and any random stranger you may encounter.
There’s the local weather, food you like to eat, and, in some form or fashion — sports. Maybe you played a sport growing up, you or your friends or family are a fan of a team, your son or daughter plays a sport or their friends do, you keep an eye on the former classmate who qualified for a national team, your coworker tells you about their fantasy team or bets — the total addressable market for sports can really be, well, just about every human on the planet.
And in the past couple of decades the scale and opportunity for the business of sports reached a new echelon, a new era where startups and entrepreneurs attracted the attention of investors who had previously not thought of sports as a ticket to the massive returns venture capital seeks. There’s never been a better time to have big, innovative ideas in the greater sports industry.
Wayne Kimmel, Managing Partner of sports-focused venture capital firm SeventySix Capital, is one of the leaders helping to foster this dynamic period in the sports industry. Listen to Kimmel speak and you can feel the energy he has for ambitious ideas and individuals. It’s why Kimmel and SeventySix have supported, and continue to fund, businesses that want to do big things in the ever-changing and ever-growing field of sports.
“We started thinking about [bringing venture capital to sports] and we’re like, ‘Wow,’” said Kimmel. “Every person in the world falls into one of these buckets. You may hate sports and you may be the biggest orchestra fan in the world and you never watch a game or anything, but then when your granddaughter’s out there on that gymnastics mat, you’re focused, right? You’re like, ‘Oh my God. Or you’re your grandson is playing baseball or your son’s the star on a basketball team or something like that — all of a sudden that is your life and that’s where you’re going to spend a lot of money.
“So we see all that [and] we’re like, Well, this is a world that we want to be in and we started looking around, like, who are the investors? Who’s backing the entrepreneurs who are using technology, using data, using analytics to make it better? There’s not a lot of us, and there still aren’t a lot of us out there investing across this right now. But it’s such a big opportunity and the dollars around and in this multi-trillion dollar sports media entertainment industry is big and getting bigger every single day.”
Kimmel recognized the opportunity certainly got bigger on a day in 2018 that will remain immortalized in US sports — the day the ‘PASPA’ law was struck down, opening the pathway for states around the country to legalize sports betting. In my interview with him, Kimmel recounted how he took action right away, knowing the time was ripe for companies to capitalize on this new opportunity to engage and activare sports fans, as well as buttress the burgeoning sports wagering industry. SeventySix supported the growth of the Vegas Stats and Information Network (VSiN), which had the grandiose vision to become the CNBC of sports betting (they largely have). Kimmel also came into contact with Matt Holt, who saw a need in sports betting that someone would have to cover and had the ambition that Kimmel so embraces. I’ll let him tell the story.
“We wanted to get behind entrepreneurs who want to do the big thing in the present right now, we constantly still want to look at entrepreneurs, we still want to get behind entrepreneurs who are pushing things forward and doing the next thing…,” said Kimmel, who founded SeventySix Capital in 1999. “One day,(VSiN founder and CEO) Brian Musburger introduced me to Matt Holt, who’s the CEO of IC360 now. [IC360] is the company that makes sure that everything’s on the up and up across the whole sports betting industry today.
“Matt was a host at VSiN at the time and doing some other things, and he comes off [the air] and says to me,’ I’m going to start this company. It’s going to be an integrity business to make sure that everything’s on the up and up across sports betting — every single operator, every single regulator, every single team, every single league, every single conference is going to be my client. And I’m like, ‘Matt, I’ve heard entrepreneurs talk like this before, but you don’t need everybody. You can just get a small percentage of them and we’ll be pretty successful.’ He goes, ‘No, we’re getting everybody.’ Well, you know what? He’s done it.”
Not only do issues like competitive and statistical integrity scale across the entire sports ecosystem, but the performance side of sports can also penetrate every level — from the multi-millionaire GOAT to the rec league warrior to the peewees and preteens. So it makes sense that Kimmel and SeventySix Capital also have eyes on tech that can help the athletes themselves. There is a democratization in technology now, where nearly everybody has internet access and a connected mobile device, and that universal access increasingly applies to the latest and greatest tech in sports performance. Because businesses recognize there is demand and amateur athletes are increasingly willing and wanting to get this tech for themselves or their kids. Kimmel elaborated on this trend, where Little Leaguers can feel like their MLB heroes when it comes to optimizing performance.
“What’s cool about all this is that not only is this something that can happen with the professional players in major league dugouts, we’re able to now bring this down to anywhere USA, any field for any kid who’s playing baseball, softball or whatever sport it is,” said Kimmel. “They’re getting the opportunity to be able to have the same kind of tech, and that will only mean that these games will get better. It will enable the kids themselves to be better players, have more confidence, have more fun…It could change a kid’s life by just enabling them to do that.
“Are they going to go to the major leagues? Probably not. But you know what? They may be a fan for life. And that’s a big deal for MLB and some of these other major leagues who are really looking to build fans for life.”
It’s hard not to be energized speaking with Kimmel, envisioning (and bringing to fruition) the grandest vision of ideas and businesses in the greater sports space. It’s a testament to the ambition that accompanies venture capital and the near-universal nature of sports and gaming and the engagement around it all. There’s another SeventySix company Kimmel discussed that embodies those ideals, and which sort of pivoted their way to a product that every consumer brand can utilize — Lucra Sports. You may know Lucra as the technology now powering the peer-to-peer gaming for Dave & Buster’s. Kimmel explained that that direction is limitless, and Lucra is just getting started.
“Now we’re going to expand that even further…,” he said. “[Lucra] went out as really a pretty special peer-to-peer sports gaming business, but now is the technology platform for major brands and what they’re doing from a gaming perspective and enabling these major brands to unlock the gaming and competitive piece of their business is just brilliant…Hopefully, very soon, you’ll be hearing about some other massive brands that are starting to bring this whole gaming mechanic into their experience.”
The capitalization and innovation in sports is just getting started, too. If the rate of pitches and opportunities that Kimmel and SeventySix Capital encounter is any indication, the next decades of the sports industry will be as dynamic and awe-some as these past couple. There are more talented entrepreneurs with more ambitious ideas than ever — and, now, the investors and support to bring them to life.
“We see a ton of entrepreneurs. I mean it’s upwards of 170 new opportunities that come in the door every single month, from all over the world,” Kimmel told me. “It’s amazing to think about all the entrepreneurs, all the innovation that are trying to figure out what’s the next thing across sports, media, entertainment, and we’re thrilled to take a look at all this stuff, try to figure out how we can be part of it and do more.
“We want to do more and more. We’re constantly trying to get behind more of these incredible entrepreneurs who are trying to make it all happen. That’s what it’s all about.”
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