Working In Sports – Digital and Social Media Sports

Building a Career in Sports: Taking Risks, Overcoming Challenges, and Growing Along the Way

A career in sports can engulf you. For most others, sports are the escape, not the job. The sports industry tries to work around the daily schedule; all the most important stuff happens on nights, weekends, and holidays. Sports are central to social lives, fuel and activate passion, and, for some, affect emotional well-being.

It’s also challenging and rewarding in all the best ways. All the conversations, engagement, relationships, experiences, and memories you can create. You produce content and promotions that are entertainment, you sell excitement, community, and (hopefully) joy. You analyze fan psychographics, study platforms, create feelings through content, manage massive projects, drive creative partnerships, manage a brand, and practice customer service.

Eric SanInocencio has built a career in sports, content, digital, and marketing. He has grown up in the industry, picking up all those skills and ascending to leadership roles in top-level organizations in college, pro, and amateur sports, along with a stint at Amazon. While working in sports is a dream job for many, and it is a heck of a lot of fun, make no mistake — it’s a business. It’s important to understand that as one embarks on a career in sports, it’s integral to connect all the thrills and emotions of fandom into meaningful business goals.

“Social and sports is almost always viewed through the lens of fun content to create and fan engagement,” said SanInocencio, who started his full-time career in the Gulf South Conference, a Division II NCAA conference. “The quicker that you can understand how this ties into the larger business objectives, the quicker you open the door for you to consider other opportunities that could be completely different and that might fit a timeline that’s better for you as you grow in your career.”

SanInocencio grew in his career by chasing new challenges, embracing the unease inherent to stepping outside one’s comfort zone. The willingness to run towards those opportunities is key to growth, not just in a sports career but in any career. The ethos has served SanInocenio particularly well, because he was treading a career path in parallel with the growth of the field. There was no such thing as a ‘Senior Digital Media Director’ at a sports team, a role SanInocencio held at the Houston Texans, let alone a growing team of content creators, strategists, and analysts fueling platforms and a paradigm that was evolving as SanInocencio was coming up. At every career stop, he continued growing by facing new challenges, living in that zone of discomfort, and coming out accomplished and better for it.

“It’s okay to feel terrified of an opportunity,” he told me during a two-hour interview discussing developing a career in sports, growing into a leader, and navigating the job market today. “That means it’s probably something that you need to go after. A lot of times…[it’s] ‘What’s the next step in your journey? How do you find it?’ Especially now, where there are so many people looking for jobs, it may be harder to stretch like that.

“But if there’s any indication when you’re signing up or contemplating a career change or a job opportunity, it should scare you a little bit. ‘Can I really do this?’ If it doesn’t, you’re probably selling yourself a little short.”

SanInocencio did just that when he went from the ACC to Amazon, where he was the Head of Brand and Content for the behemoth’s selling partner communities. Amazon is well-known for its distinct culture, and even an Amazonian language that SanInocencio says sticks with him to this day. It was fascinating to hear about the interview process for a leadership position at the multi-trillion-dollar organization.

SanInocencio indulged my interest, going into detail about what it’s like to interview for a job with Amazon.

“You go through that first interview, which usually takes about 45 minutes, because you have to respond in a way that gives context, clarity, action, and results,” described. “You’ll hear the term STAR method when people are interviewing. That stands for: Situation, Task, Action, and Result. That’s how they expect you to respond. They’ll say, ‘Neil, tell me about a time when you were working with Greenfly, when you had to complete a project that was going over budget, and you had to communicate to your leadership team that it was going over budget. What happened when you had that conversation?’ Then you, as a respondent, have to say, ‘The situation was a) here’s what I had to do, the task was b) here’s the action I undertook, and here was the result.'”

Going through the process, SanInocencio came to appreciate that his career in sports business had more than equipped him with the qualifications and skillset to thrive in any organization, including one of the world’s biggest.

“Imagine me trying to give this STAR kind of results and answer series based off questions they would ask me [and] all my answers are sports-related, to folks that have no idea what sports is,” he said. “So it challenged me as a communicator and as somebody who can advocate for myself to be able to explain why us drafting Deshaun Watson and not knowing that we’re going to draft Deshaun Watson makes sense for a leadership principle that’s ‘disagree and commit.’ I’ve got to do the work to say, ‘Here was the situation. Here was the task that was at hand. Here were the actions we undertook and why, and here’s the result.'”

By the time SanInocencio was ready to leave Amazon, lured by the siren call of getting back into sports, he was a seasoned leader. He had experienced leading a team, overseeing a budget, and driving brand and strategy for organizations that reached millions. The path to leadership is not linear, nor is it identical across industries. Many of today’s sports leaders have experience unpacking bobbleheads, cutting up highlights, helping tarp a field for a rain delay, or shooting from the photo well — some of them still do it even with titles like Director or VP.

Consider an NFL analogy. It’s almost a given that the hottest head coaching candidates are the top play callers, the most coveted offensive and defensive coordinators. But it’s not automatic that all these talented individuals will thrive in the head coach’s seat. SanInocencio notes the importance of recognizing the different skillsets required to be the best doer, a master of a certain practice, versus an effective leader of doers.

“Sports is a little bit different [than other industries]. Even if you’re the VP, you may get out there and shoot some content on your phone,” said SanIncencio, who started out in sports information at his alma mater, the University of Montevallo, before taking the initiative to start and grow in social media and content. “You may be writing an article. You may be hosting a podcast. But still, there’s a difference between execution and strategy.

“As you grow in your career, you have to let go of that execution side and focus more on the strategy, which is hard because most people who are put in management positions were great individual contributors. ‘Man, you’re our best videographer. Why don’t you run the video team?’ Those are two different backgrounds needed to make sure that those go well. That’s a different type of request that you’re asking of somebody.”

SanInocencio put his leadership and oversight skills into full gear when he went from Amazon to Perfect Game USA, taking on a VP of Social Media role with a remit to transform the organization in need of an evolution. That’s an exciting opportunity for anyone to step into such a leadership role with the ability to implement a big-picture strategy and operation. But it isn’t easy. Whether you’re ascending within an organization you’ve worked in for years or, like SanInocencio, arriving fresh from the outside, there’s the unique challenge of wanting to promise the world and envision the pinnacle, while understanding the realities of the limited budget and resources one has or can command.

SanInocencio discussed how he approached taking on the position with Perfect Game, which was a chance for him to get back into sports after his time at Amazon.

“It was like, ‘Here’s where I think is the maximum revenue. If you give me this amount [of budget], here’s how I would spend it,'” he said. “Each place is a little bit different. Most of the places you go will already have an established departmental budget that you have some ability to influence and make change. But PG was unique in that social media was considered part of all these different areas that were already in existence, and we were bringing it together.

He continued: “What I’ve tried to do is use the Amazon idea of working backwards. What is our goal as an organization, or what are the three goals that we have, and how, as a social content marketing department, can we influence the success of those goals? Then I want to build a team that feels personal ownership of those, so that I don’t have to tell them every single thing they need to do, they already know.”

SanInocencio talked about the operation he grew at Perfect Game, driving impressive growth across platforms as he learned about marketing to the young demos in PG’s target audience. After parting ways with PG, he finds himself seeking the next opportunity. And going through a job hunt in a tough job market, not just in the greater sports industry, is teaching him new lessons about himself, years into his career, and with an impressive track record on his resume.

“I think you’ve got to market yourself the way you would market a team or a star athlete,” he said, as we discussed the honest realities of a job hunt. “Sometimes that’s hard because that means we’ve got to put ourselves out there. Sometimes we feel like it could be a little cringey, but you have to stay top of mind for people. When opportunities do come, and they go look you up, there’s not just some static story about you. There’s an evolving story that they can read about, learn about, and understand.”

If you haven’t experienced a gap between jobs, you’re in the minority. At any given time, there are friends, family members, or professional acquaintances in your network seeking that next role. It was cathartic to discuss with SanInocencio as we both brought our own experiences to the table. The best thing we can do as a community, and for others, is to be proactive in lending support, picking each other up, and cheering each other on.

“Just know that whatever you’re going through, you are not alone. You’ve got a community of folks, and sometimes you just got to reach out to them,” said SanInocencio (I can confirm, personally, he practices what he preaches) “When you’re on the other side, and you’re in the job, and you know somebody is struggling or trying to find that next opportunity, it may not be going as easy as they would like. Be that person that reaches out to them.”

Aspiring for a career in sports feels like a dream when you’re young. The realities of working a job eventually set in, but the magic of sports continues to shine even as the day-to-day grind of project management, reports, and recaps persists. In reflecting on the past and the future, and all the lessons he’s learned about himself and in dispensing advice to others, SanInoncencio talked about the difference between a job and a career. We should all be so fortunate to have a job that’s gratifying and fulfilling. We can all still chase the dream. The path isn’t linear, and certainly not easy, but nothing worth doing is. It’s the challenges we face along the way that make the achievements matter more.

“If your dreams don’t scare you, they’re probably not big enough,” SanInocencio said, as we wound down our interview. “That’s, to me, where it all comes to. If you shoot for the stars, you may land on the moon in a different area. You’ve got to go for something. Because if not, that’s the job instead of career. That’s fine. If you just want to be this and that’s all, that’s great.

“But if you want a career, I don’t think you can limit yourself because you don’t know what the future holds for you. You just know that you want to chase something that you care about.”

WATCH OR LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH ERIC SANINOCENCIO (there’s tons more!)

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Conferences, Content Strategy, Fan Development, General Sports Business, Social Media, Working In Sports

What I Learned in a Room Full of the Smartest People in Sports Social

Some of the earliest social media hires in sports are now VPs and SVPs. Social media and content have always been inextricably tied to the underlying business and brand for sports organizations, but for years their impact was mostly acknowledged by vibes. Then likes, impressions, and views added a more data-driven and analytical bent.

Today, an organization’s social media and content strategy isn’t expected to deliver likes and comments, the expectation is to drive direct impact on key business objectives.

With such a lofty ascension, there are better questions being asked, more operationalized workflows, more documented guidelines and guardrails, and more thoughtfulness behind every post, piece of creative, and word that gets in front of fans. The ever-increasing fan touchpoints, an insatiable demand for content, and the realization that social media is where organizations can learn about their fans, grow the fan base and brand, and create new marketing funnels and revenue streams — the level of sophistication and discourse has never been higher.

These were among the key themes at this year’s second annual Gondola Sports Summit, which brought together the leaders and producers who bring sports fans all the content, copy, memes, and more that drive such engagement and earned media — and further key organizational objectives.

I was fortunate to attend the conference, which took place in Denver, May 19-21, and featured speakers from several of the biggest teams and leagues in sports, agencies that work with these organizations, and representatives from many of the platforms where fans consume and converse around all that content. There were countless insights and examples, inspirational stories, revelatory ideas, and warm camaraderie. What follows are a few actionable insights from the panels, which built on the theme of social media and sports growing up. We’ve raced well past the tropes of interns, the power of content and social being recognized and appreciated for all the value it can deliver.

What the sports world needs to know about Reddit

Reddit has kind of been having a moment, and not just in sports. It’s increasingly one of the last true large ‘social’ broadcast platforms left, a place where businesses and brands can get unfettered insight into what fans are saying, and more tied into the information users get, whether querying AI or Google.

Sports are not new to Reddit; there have been tons of engagement and conversation happening on various subreddits for years. But now the teams and leagues themselves are taking notice. Reddit’s Sports Partnerships Lead Christine Wixted Wixted sat on a panel alongside MLB’s Vice President, Social Media & Innovation Cameron Gidari , and they discussed some of the use cases and value props for the platform.

Reddit is a text-heavy platform, because it’s about conversations. But that doesn’t mean photos and videos don’t have a place, multimedia can start and lead those conversations.
Anyone (including brands) can be welcomed when they provide value. For teams and leagues, that can mean content they’re not getting elsewhere. Don’t just post the highlight, post a unique camera angle or clips that’ll elicit conversation.
Niche down. This will come up again later with TikTok, but with the specific, interest-based nature of subreddits, there is opportunity to engage with non-sports communities. MLB mentioned their success posting in the weather subreddit, for example. AMAs (Ask Me Anything) can also be compelling ways to serve different niches; for example, could your head groundskeeper interact with the landscaping subreddit about caring for the grass at an MLB or NFL stadium? (my example!)
AMAs were brought up multiple times by both Wixted and Gidari, and Wixted mentioned ongoing development of the platform’s AMA product. That’s a telling sign! Gidari talked about the success of having AMAs with MLB’s team-specific beat writers, offering deep engagement and conversation when, for example, the Cubs beat writer does an AMA with the Cubs subreddit (again, my example). This is an easy but effective way to get started on Reddit.
You can get value from Reddit even if you never post. Wixted echoed what many marketers will say, characterizing Reddit as your free focus group. Lurk and listen, and, as Wixted recommended, leverage Reddit Pro — which is free, to set up listening flows to keep track of your brand and sport, and spot opportunities for engagement or pick up insights about your fans or potential fans.
You don’t need to worry about constantly feeding Reddit. It’s not as algorithm-driven as other platforms (posts primarily gain visibility through comments and upvotes), so you can pick and choose opportunities instead of stressing about a 24/7/365 presence
If you’re anxious or uneasy about treading into Reddit, where it’s true that brands are not always a welcomed presence, work through the subreddit moderators (or connect with the mods through the Reddit partnerships team)
Wixted talked through some of Reddit’s near-term priorities and roadmap, so pay attention. She mentioned: Continued devleopment and evolution of their video product, improving their mobile app UX, further development of their AMA product (such as scheduling, RSVPs, video answers, activation within AMAs), building more publisher tools and verifications, and enhancing the live event experience with features like live stats, polls, custom flair, and game highlights (my note: just check out the r/CFB subreddit on a college football Saturday, for example!).

My personal Reddit experience (from running Slyke) — the organic opportunity (and paid) is very real. Definitely be mindful of posting as a brand, you may share the same content under a non-brand handle. Think about posts that will start conversations, and note that users are willing to click off to a link to consume content that’ll funnel back into the conversation on the thread; I’ve had posts reach millions and drive considerable clicks. I’ve also found cost-effective ads (but be mindful of objectives). And do your research — Reddit Pro and Gummy Search can be helpful, jumping into subreddits and searching them or filtering by Best/Hot/Top over different time periods, and test different posting formats (link, text-only, carousel, video, etc.). I’ll also note, for a verrrry small marketer like myself, the Reddit ads team is extremely help and hands-on

Learning from the SMSports OGs

Depending on when you mark the unofficial start of the social media x sports era, the field as a profession is about 10-15 years old. It really did start with entry-level staff and, yes, some interns. The first pros whose job it was to write tweets, hit publish on Facebook, and navigate the early days of social media have grown up in the space, many in senior leadership or still hanging around the industry otherwise, continuing to evolve with it.

A few of these ‘OGs’ hit the stage to reflect on the past, analyze the present, and lend insight and inspiration to those coming up and molding the next era now.

“Likes don’t pay the bills.” Justin Karp , an OG now at NBC Universal, isn’t the first to utter that phrase, but it captures the elevated place of social media in any business now. Counting engagements is fine, but now we have to ask ‘so what?’ multiple times in planning add measurement to ensure those engagements and that reach is connected to business goals. That could mean reaching certain audience, driving home messaging, gaining actionable insights and feedback from fan engagement and comments, tying to sales, affecting recruiting outcomes and interest (for college sports), and driving tune-in, subscriptions, sign-ups, etc.
Platforms and what content and packaging work on said platforms change. So audiences. The point is you always have to be mindful of evolving, an insight elucidated by the Las Vegas Raiders’ Gavin Rivera. Learn to love the space as a science to continually study.
There are still only 24 hours in a day and yet an ever-growing supply of content and options competing for that attention. So everything has to start with a compelling story. Regardless of mediums, platforms, and presentation, the story must be one worth telling.
Rivera demonstrated decisiveness, explaining that we must fully comprehend the brand of the organization and know how to implement it across the board. You should be able to articulate the ‘why’ behind every post, heck, every word, and edit. The industry has grown up.
Karp has spent a lot of time and effort to drive tune-in with live sports broadcast by NBC and its platforms. And a key insight, with broad implications for sports pros, is that sports fans have passions and interests beyond sports. They follow whatever stories, memes, and trends are popping in areas beyond sports. So how can you ensure your game feels culturally relevant, significant enough to command engagement and attention by the biggest audience?

Lessons and ROI with Losing Teams

“Don’t read the comments” was never a good idea. Sure, there is bound to be vitriol and salty language, especially in the lean times for teams, but there is no better way to hear from your fans at scale than social media. It’s a constant source of feedback and vibes, in general and for specific content and campaigns.

If you sift through riff-raff, there is gold in all those fan voices and finding those insights is another way the social media team can deliver meaningful value up to the c-suite. This was one of themes at the conference overall and in a discussion featuring social media and content leaders from the Chicago White Sox (Tim Brogdon ), Carolina Panthers (Alex Grant), and Diana Smith (Charlotte Hornets), three teams from three different leagues who share this one thing in common — their teams have suffered a spate of losing seasons, of varying degrees, in recent years.

Remind yourself that the fan sentiment expressed on social media is often unrelated to your performance as a content and social media team, it’s the team performance they’re peeved about. Don’t get down about all the aspersions, but do look for patterns and opportunities within it. When you do something, creating content or commenting, for example, that shows fans you’re listening and addresses a common sore spot, that goes a long way.
What do you do when the season is shot? It’s tough when fans can all recognize that this team just ain’t going to win much, let alone contend this season. The advice for this issue included maximizing the effort around things that fans are excited and feeling positively about. That could mean schedule release, the draft, free agency, training camp, fan traditions and community. You may recognize storylines that fans are interested in; if so, build on that.
If it’s driving behavior, the content is valuable. Fans may not want to hear from you as much amidst losing, but don’t necessarily take negative sentiment or even lower engagement to automatically mean the content didn’t work. Pay attention to other metrics like sends/shares, watch time, and reach, too.
Coaching up is an important skill. You need to be able to communicate and explain strategic decisions to senior leaders and execs in various departments. If you post less, those preseason engagement and growth goals are not gonna be reached. If we want our social media to be among the best amongst our peers, here’s what that’s going to take and why it makes sense. The White Sox’s Brogdon also spoke about high-level conversations about how the team’s self-awareness and even use of memes would help shift the public narrative a bit, and deflect negative attention on the team to more positive attention on the social media team’s approach.
‘Some ideas are worth waiting for.’ This paraphrase, via another paraphrase from the Hornets’ Smith was about not tossing aside ideas when fan sentiment is low, but saving some of them for when the right time comes. Talk to any staff at losing teams and there’s a good chance they have some ideas for content or even strategic direction for when the team becomes a winning one.
Brogdon talked about developing a Whtie Sox fan persona, which guides core strategy and decisions, and enables more thoughtful conversations around the team’s approach. Overall, the panel has a good handle on documenting voice, tone, and brand guidelines, so everyone knows the gospel guiding the strategy and post-to-post decision making.

This panel and others discussed non-traditional KPIs. Engagement is great, but there is so much more value to be tracked and framed. The Panthers’ Alex Grant even mentioned how player comments on content and their feedback as a good sign. As noted earlier, using social listening and comments to drive actionable recommendations and insights, whether based around fan experience [a pain point at the game], reaction to an activation or promotion, or an emerging affinity. Consider community development goals, too. When fans are starting their own conversations and conversing (hopefully respectfully!) with each other, that’s a good sign. If it starts to feel like the team and its fans have inside jokes or their own language, that’s pretty cool.
STN Digital’s David Brickley went into what we mean when we say ROI. Understand the true objective — there is a difference between a marketing and a sales campaign, he said. Not everything is about sales, the objective could be community growth, reaching a specific demo, etc.

Live Coverage and Content

Content producers and leaders from three very different leagues and sports, NASCAR, MLB, and the PWHL, spoke about covering events/games and getting content to the feeds quickly (and why that matters).

Major League Baseball games are full of highlights. They can’t always predict when they’ll be a an incredible defensive play or a monstrous home run, but when it happens they want to own the moment and get it out quickly. MLB’s Brett Blueweiss said the goal is ‘field to feed’ in two minutes, and noted they typically have three different angles to share to make the most of the moments. An over-arching theme was the value of sharing unique content. Plenty of accounts can post the broadcast highlight, but what is the content that only YOU have?
While most sports events take place with fields and courts that are circumnavigable, NASCAR’s Alejandro Alvarez knows he and his content producers can’t possibly be everywhere in their massive speedway venues. So it helps them to be a bit more intentional about the content they want to capture and why. The overall goal, he said, is to convey the visceral experience of being at the race and all the energy and atmosphere of the event.
Both Blueweiss and Alvarez said that data often shows that mobile content (phone-captured) performs better than more polished content shot with more professional video/photo equipment. It looks more like real life, so it’s more relatable, they surmised. Alvarez said the memorable line that ‘the best camera is the one in your hand,’ whether that’s a DSLR or an iPhone. But also be smart about it, recognize the moments where one device or the other makes more sense. Overall, showing the data can also help destigmatize any qualms about phone-captured content that some may harbor.
There’s always risk of montony. Sports are about routine, by design, so content can get stale if every game day looks virtually the same with the live content captured. Some of the recommendations to combat this included giving your on-the-ground content creators some agency to roam around the venue to find unique angles or scenes. And let these talented producers try new things, they can bring good ideas to the table. Even small tweaks, too, can make something feel fresh for fans.

The Perfect Couple: Design and Social

Design and social media are inseparable. The best marriages can make 1+1 > 2, with creative that syncs with the content and copy to enhance fandom and enliven an intentional branding. Every good marriage requires communication, honesty, and compromise, and the discussion among design and social pros from the University of Tennessee’s Athletics and the Atlanta Falcons was full of helpful tips and insights.

Distinct creative looks and techniques are ownable, and can augment brand identioty and equity, stated the Falcons’ Director of Social Media and Influencers, Ryan Delgado .
Tennessee’s Evan Ford explained how the Vols (Volunteers) have creative boundaries around a sandbox in which colleagues can play. This helps maintain integirty while not stifling creative riffs among the school’s many teams. The Vols’ Kellen Hiser (Assistant AD, Digital and Creative Strategy) said that knowing the why behind creative elements and decisions can help inform playing within the guardrailed sandbox and guide future asks, too.
In a nod to the potential for numbness and montony from otherwise awesome creative, there were recommendations about. how small tweaks can mitigate such risks. That could be changing up the font or composition on the creative, or even just the presentation; a new approach to carousels or Reels covers, for example, or a different introductory frame for a Stories post.
Game days can move rapidly (of course!), so it helps to prepare and plan from a content and creative perspective, too. That means scenario planning, so all sides are ready for potential moments. It’s also good to know who is supposed to be where and when, so when content happens, someone is in the right place at the right time, and the director leading the content execution knows who to call on for the content.
A subtle but important point of discussion was honing the creative process from all sides. It can make a big difference when a request or brief is well-written and an informed, reasonable timeline is provided. Knowing how to give and receive feedback are underrated skills. And don’t forget to ensure all sides know the purpose of the creative, how will it be used and why (and if it goes unused, why was that the case?). Close the loop on performance and feedback, that’s a complete creative cycle.
You can win with consistency. Not every post or piece of creative needs to be a home run, consistently hitting singles and doubles can drive consistent impact.
I just loved the Falcons’ Jack Ozmer (Graphic Designer) talk about crafting a team identity that’s consistent across visual and voice. That’s the crux of a lot of this synchronization and synergy of design and social, helping to build that cohesive brand.

TikTok Tips

TikTok continues to be a force in social media and no other platform has been more valuable in broadening the scope that sports can penetrate. The discussion on the TikTok panel was centered around March Madness and creators, and was packed with insights for general application, too.

Search and intentional discovery remains a big priority for TikTok. The moderator of the panel, Kenny Yansen (TikTok leads for sports broadcast partnerships) showcased the key ways the platform activated around TikTok and the tournaments’ hub and search were front and center. TikTok in general remains a major search platform and it appears they’re continuing to lean into that behavior. When was the last time you searched your brand, team, or partners?
Bleacher Report’s Louise Chouinard (Senior Producer, Field Content) articulated their approach to TikTok, embracing a culture of experimentation. And not all good ideas will hit on TikTok the first time you post them. Sometimes posting a second or third time, with or without tweaks, can hit. She also noted the opportunity to experiment and ‘flood the feed’ during those high times, such as during March Madness. Some of that creative spaghetti will stick, reach new audiences, and inform future practices, too.
Content creator and former pro basketball player Trey Phils (and Yalie!) advised to not be afraid to flop. You just have to post. Get reps and try stuff. One of the features of TikTok your content doesn’t get automatically served at scale to users, let alone followers. Only the good content does. The bad content barely gets seen by anybody, so don’t sweat the flops. If you trip and fall while walking and nobody’s around to see it, who cares? (my example there, haha)
When you work with creators, select creators whose style and content fits what you (and the brand) are seeking, said Chouinard. Then let them cook. If you try to force something that deviates from the creator’s content style, that’s not good for anyone.
Lean into niche when you can (and when it’s relevant). TikTok has ‘unmatched discoverability,’ said Chouinard. Oftentimes niche sports or niche topics can over-perform, so look for those opportunities and lean into it. She cited an example of an interview with Stephen Nedoroscik (the bespectacled pommel horse hero for Team USA Olympic men’s gymnastics team) in which his love for the video game Rocket League came up. TikTok did its thing, getting that content to Rocket League aficionados on TikTok and the post took off.

The Growth and Opportunity of Women’s Sports, Athletes, and Content

No sports industry event can take place without a discussion about women’s sports. The growth is undeniable, the athletes influential, and it feels like we’re still just getting started.

One of the content motifs that came up as a propellant, with benefits for women’s and men’s sports and cultural relevance was athlete collabs. That could be across teams in the same sport, teams in the same city, teammates together, or no natural connection like that at all. Numerous female athletes have wider reach on social media, and many are just better at social, even if the teams and leagues foir which the male athletes’ have bigger overall fan bases, for the most part, which means both sides stand to gain. Audiences can multiply quickly with collabs.
Women’s sports athletes are inviting new brand categories and activations into the fold. Beauty and feminine hygiene brands, for example, now have a natural platform in sports that’s growing in scale, and these athletes are creating new opportunities through content like GRWM (get ready with me). Women are, in general, more willing to be vulnerable on social media, which makes them more relatable to fans, and more effective and authentic brand ambassadors.
There is a tangible shift in the way brands play within women’s sports, too. While in the past their activations often came across as patronizing, like an act of charity. Now, it’s more about celebrating women’s sports and the athletes as legit superstars performing impressive athletic achievements.
Fans of women’s sports are fans. They’re often more vehement and even tribal, which helps create a valuable platform for women’s sports. When other leagues/teams or brands engage authentically with women’s sports teams and athletes, these tribes often come with them, and bring their passion and devotion.

Understanding, Activating, and Community Building with Fans

It’s easy when you’re the legacy team account. (Okay, not easy, but stay with me) But how do you become a relevant presence for fans when you’re a media outlet, an upstart content and competition company, or even a multi-trillion-dollar corporate brand? There some insights and ideas with broad applications that I picked up in a discussion with the pros helping to engage communities and fans for ALLCITY Network, Overtime, and Microsoft.

ALLCITY’s Parker Sperry (VP of Partnership Marketing) spoke about how ALLCITY, the parent company behind localized media companies (DNVR, PHNX, among others) thinks about serving fans throughout their gameday journey. From pregame to in-game to postgame, what can they do to engage their fans and add value?
Sperry also spoke about positioning their talent to be brand ambassadors, in addition to how they work with creators. They want to offer fans something unique, so they’ll oftne let their creators try ideas in the moment and overall think about formats that are outside the box. They’re not trying to be traditional media.
Overtime’s Mike Kaufman (Director of Social Strategy) appreciates the platform they have and the communities they can create and serve. He discussed the importance of listening to and learning from athletes (and their parents) to better serve them. He also spoke about discovering communities they can help, using their platform to fill programming gaps and serve those communities fans fans.
Microsoft’s Joey Maestas , a social media and sports vet who today helps Microsoft market its AI as Social, Influencers & Video Lead for Copilot. In devising strategy, the north star for him is to consider what use cases would their audience care about? That guides the creators they work with (and how), the activations they produce, and the content they create.

A few more

Not everything fit in the sections above, so here are a couple other things that stuck with me.

It’s always instructive to pay attention to what the major platforms advise, so we were all at rapt attention when Meta addressed the crowd. Kristen Oh (Sports Partnerships at Meta) shared a breakdown of Instagram’s many products, and how organizations can think about using each. While nothing is absolute, the overview included: Utilize the feed for curated highlights, Stories for ephemeral moments, short and entertainment-focused videos for Reels, go Live and be interactive with fans, and connect with core fans (in general, for specific events, for sub brands, for athletes) in Channels.
Meta also reviewed Threads. It’s no secret that adoption and engagement on Threads is a big priority for Meta right now, and it was informative to learn how they speak about Threads and the frameworks for success on the platform. View the linked image for the full slide summing up the big ideas, but in brief they presented 4+ recommendations to build a community and engaging presence on Threads. 1) Post authoritative content like highlights and behind-the-scenes, 2) ‘Own the moment’ by sharing content that makes a statement or echoes what fans are feeling, 3) Tap into creators and commentators by developing ambassadors and elevating community voices, 4) Drive Community engagement by empowering everyday fans. Ultimately, consistently engage with fans and with the community, and that’ll go a long way on Threads.

STN Digital’s David Brickley cited the old cliche ‘Your network is your net worth.’ But it wasn’t just about how who you know helps you get hired at your next job. It’s about being able to make things happen, too. He’s right in it, as a founder and leader of an agency, but he added another framing to the old aphorism, if there’s a big activation or content campaign to execute, do you have the rolodex of trusted agencies or freelancers to call into action? Building that network is valuable, particularly as you ascend. to more senior roles.

That’s over 4,000 words above. If you made it all the way here, whether you read this in a single sitting or sections at a time, I hope you feel smarter having learned what I learned. Since there is so much, here are some of the lasting themes and insights to ensure you take with you:

Social has grown up — from “vibes” to a strategic, business-impact engine that drives tune-ins, ticket sales, sponsorships, marketing objectives and deeper fan insights.
The communities for your content are broader than you think — Think beyond sports content and communities, and add value to others. Try sharing relevant content to niche subreddits and TikTok fandoms.
Measure what matters — count engagements and views remain important, but aim to tie posts and performance to business goals (tune-in, brand messaging and pillars, marketing communications, community growth, brand affinity, partner activation).
Empower your creators and colleagues — Formalize guardrails; the goal is not to micromanage, but invite safe experimentation, so creators, freelancers, and coworkers can unearth fresh angles and creative ideas.
Content and Social are Strategic — Articulate the why behind the strategy, content, and creative. Decisions and direction should make sense because they align with the why.
Experiment without fear — on TikTok and beyond, embrace rapid “fail fast” iterations; only the best content surfaces, so don’t sweat the misses. You may even reach communities you never thought about
Lean into under-tapped fandoms — women’s sports, niche athletes and underserved communities hold high-value audiences hungry for genuine curation and context.

Somehow, this barely scratches the surface of all the knowledge to gain and stories to hear from the presentations at Gondola. Not to mention all the conversations on the side and the relationships formed outside of the official sessions.

Thanks to the team at Gondola (led by the legend Jared Kleinstein) for putting together a tremendous event and to all the speakers for being so thoughtful and generous and energetic with their discussions. If you haven’t checked out the Gondola platform, I encourage you to check it out, explore the content and creators, learn about the features, and sign up for an account. Visit Gondola

And shoutout to my employer Greenfly, who got several unsolicited shoutouts from the guest speakers, praising our software and service for being so valuable to their content operations and ability to achieve business goals.

General Sports Business, Social Media, Working In Sports

Six SMSports and Leadership Lessons from Industry Luminary Amie Kiehn

Social media and sports roles didn’t exist when most of us were born. We couldn’t list Social Media Manager for a sports team as a dream job for the fifth-grade yearbook. So the pathways, the lifestyle, the strategies — everybody is still trying to figure it all out as we build it.

So it’s instructive to hear from those continuing to pave the way, leaving legacies in their path. Amie Kiehn has been one of those trailblazers. She didn’t start in the smsports stone age (that would be me), but what she accomplished in her 5+ years with the Carolina Panthers and what continues to do now as the Head of Community at Gondola has touched the industry in meaningful ways. I recently spoke with Kiehn on the Digital and Social Media Sports podcast and came away enlightened and inspired.

Here are six big lessons for social media and sports (and beyond) from the thoughtful, reflective Kiehn:

Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there

Kiehn talked about making her own breaks — sending countless cold emails to pros in the sports space, getting replies back from only a few. Years later, she runs into many of those people as peers, many of whom were too busy to get back to ambitious Amie back then. Reaching out is free, and doing so instantly separates you from 90% of aspiring students and young professionals that don’t.

“It took a lot of [bravery] to just reach out to people and be like, it’s okay if they don’t reply,” Kiehn told me. “So that’s what I would tell a lot of young people — if they’re willing to put themselves out there, the universe will reward them with hopefully good things.”

Learn to lead in different ways for different people

The best social media staffs in sports have a lot going for them — creative talent, resourcefulness, buy-in, and strategy — but leadership and strong, cohesive teams are underappreciated and integral. Great social media squads also require a diverse set of players, all working together in harmony to manage the output, the brand, and the short-term and long-term strategy. Before beginning her sports and social media career, Kiehn spent years teaching through the Teach For America program. She talked about the important lessons she learned from her time in the classroom, where not every student learned the same way and could be instructed the same way. She took that to heart with the panthers

“So once I realized that, and where I felt like I was hitting my stride, was when I was leading where not everyone got the same Amie,” she said. “Some people just wanted to be like, ‘Hey, I’m good. Approve my budget. Let me go.’ And other people needed some nurturing, which was fine because that’s the type of leader I am…I’m an empath, I really care about people deeply. So that was an easy thing to click once I got it…That’s how I felt like I was being my full self, when I was leading and helping others.”

Don’t take this all too seriously

When every tweet, Story, and TikTok will reach tens or hundreds of thousands or millions, it may be natural to feel a little intimidation. You’re part of a team that works hard and plays a game among fierce competitors where winning is everything. You’re part of a multi-million or billion-dollar business with big budgets and impressive production teams. But you can’t get bogged down in all that, can’t be afraid of failure and taking healthy risks. Sports are supposed to be fun, social media is supposed to be relatable. Kiehn and her team embraced a spirit of innovation and a dedication to, well, fun.

“I think sometimes we can take things too seriously in the content space and that’s okay,” Kiehn explained. “At the Panthers, I always felt like our voice was something that you could kind of poke fun at yourself a little bit. So we often would make content that maybe wasn’t super-polished and didn’t always have the most pristine look, like it was a meme that we saw…We really tried to have fun with it.

“I think that was how we had so many (social media) home runs… is because we tried to have fun ourselves and make our team laugh; then we had set the precedent that like, okay, we’re going to try it. The Panthers team always would hear me say this: ‘Okay. Let’s try it. And let’s watch the comments like hawks’ We would post stuff…[being] like, let’s [just] post it. But let’s immediately get feedback from people. And if it’s not a hit, let’s just take it off. But if it is a hit, let’s find out what we did there that we can try to capitalize again on.”

Sometimes you need to reset and that’s okay

It’s very easy to get addicted to the routine. You kind of have to, at times, in the social media and sports world just to keep up and keep your sanity. But that doesn’t mean teams should eschew a consistent pursuit of progress and keep everything the same even if it feels stale, stilted, or no longer suitable. This was key insight Kiehn picked up in her time as a teacher, where classrooms could get chaotic at times and everybody just needed a reset.

Said Kiehn: “If I felt like things were not grooving in the right way, I’d be like ‘Alright, let’s all get together, let’s talk about it. Is there something that I’m doing? Is there a process that needs to be rehashed out? [Does] someone just kind of need a break? Let’s talk this out so we can fix it and it’s not that big of a deal. So I started trying to make those conversations happen more often.

“So that’s a big thing of [being a leader] for me was [to be] someone willing to call out [when] it seems like either morale-wise, content-wise, just the process of how we’re managing projects — do we need to reevaluate something? So I always was fine with re-evaluating something, even if it was a process that I loved and [others feel] this isn’t working.”

What comes first — the buy-in or the measured success?

Okay, it’s kind of a trick question. Because each begets more of the other. In learning from Kiehn and what drove such a great reputation and results with the Carolina Panthers social media, she attributed a lot to the trust and buy-in. That included her immediate supervisors all the way up to team owners David and Nicole Tepper. And that trust gave them the agency to continue to take chances, have fun, and continue to build the social media brand of the team to the point that fans came to anticipate each post and poke.

“Our team really felt pretty empowered that — if the ownership group is being like, yes, you guys are kind of funny, keep it up — then it really enticed us to keep momentum,” Kiehn reflected. “When you’re organically making fun content and you’re hopping on trends that make sense for the brand, it shows up in the numbers.

“And we had [created] such an established voice on social that people were like, oh, I want to see what the Panthers do…We were getting great numbers because we were doing something that was fun and different, and people really liked that.”

Work-life balance is possible in sports, it’s just defined differently

The last couple of years has seen the sports industry face a reckoning amidst the broader ‘great resignation’ happening in the US. Kiehn herself is among them, becoming the Head of Community at Gondola, where she can continue to support creatives and pros in social media, and at a job that also affords her more time at home and with her family. Most everybody accepts that sports business happens during business hours AND during non-business hours; sports are weekdays and weekends, sports happens on holidays, and there will be early mornings and late nights. But sustainability is more possible when the working hours are more a series of peaks and valleys, and not excessive with no end. Kiehn gave a thoughtful perspective on the challenge of work-life balance in the sports industry, who says the working hours in sports are ‘like a pendulum.’

“I honestly don’t believe there can be work-life balance in how people imagine it, [as in] I do work 50% and I live my life [50%]; I don’t think that works,” she said. “I think people in this time right now are craving flexibility. So I hope that in this new workforce we could have something where you both work and life can be flexible and that you can finally hopefully maybe have more of an equilibrium.

“I always try to remind people that…it’s like a pendulum a little bit; some days with more heavy work, some days heavier at home…I think all people should have…as much of an equilibrium that works for you as possible.”

***********************

Thanks so much to Amie for lending her thoughtful, articulate insight and expertise! We will continue to learn from her and leaders like her for years to come…

LISTEN TO MY FULL CONVERSATION WITH AMIE KIEHN

College, Digital, Sports Media, Working In Sports

Episode 160 Snippets: Andrew Brewster Developed a Michigan State Athletics Blog for USA Today While also Working a Full-Time Job

On episode 160 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, Neil chatted with Andrew Brewster, Editor, SpartansWire (Michigan State Athletics blog for USA Today).

What follows are some snippets from the episode. Click Here to listen to the full episode or check it out and subscribe in iTunes or Stitcher.

Working In Sports

Reflections on the Job Hunt and Beginning a New Chapter at Greenfly

There’s something fun about uncertainty. Not knowing what’s next. It allows one to imagine the best of potential realities, believing every day and every small step is closer to some dream being realized.

That was the mindset I took after my last job – which I enjoyed and grew in – ended with the startup company not making it further after a full lifecycle during my four-plus years there. There was nothing but uncertainty ahead. After a trip to Europe – not exactly self-discovery, but a good chance to get away – the journey began.

This is more about moving on to the next chapter in my career, so I’ll keep this short. But first, some of the key life lessons from a path that I traveled over the last months, which included times of unbridled enthusiasm, impostor syndrome, bouncing back enough to consider going out on my own, getting close on really good jobs, getting ignored by other jobs, being ballsy and bold enough to turn down opportunities, reaching intermittent nadirs of despondency, trying to find small wins every day, and all while approaching every day and every interaction with the continued belief that you’re doing the right thing and that nothing can affect Fate more than the actions you take today.

The lessons:

Set goals every day. Set thoughtful goals. Have purposeful goals. And be rigorous in setting aside time to accomplish those goals
Make your own breaks – fill in the skill gaps for the next job you want, study your industry top-to-bottom because you have time others don’t, give value to others, and, ultimately, be intentionally present
Talk to others. Man, there are a handful of people that let me bounce ideas off them, celebrate the good times, talk through the not-so-good times, and seemed to pop in the texts or DM’s right when you need them. Really cool
Know what you value – Maybe I’m in the minority, but my jobs and my passions over the years have tended to intersect. It makes getting excited and energized about it easy. But working in and around sports or social is never something to be taken for granted. It requires understanding where money, lifestyle, job function, industry, and location come into play for one’s priorities and life

In the end, it was a combination of Fate and proactivity that led me to Greenfly. A quick story — I always knew of Greenfly, but then I saw an NBA team tweeting to their fans to download the Greenfly app and share content to the team. It was a use of their app that I hadn’t seen before and was introducing a new form of fan activation. So I reached out for a podcast interview and got to meet and interview the founders. And, yadda yadda yadda, I learned more about the company and got excited about what they do and where they are going, learned how I could be a fit to join, and here we are. It feels right.

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I can remember just coming up in this sports and social media world, the first times I timidly interacted with players in the room. Eventually, they figured out and came to (sorta) appreciate what I did — helping to tell and share their stories to fans on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, the website, and other platforms. I used to show them how popular some of the posts featuring them were or told them about how they’re resonating with fans. I’d grab them for quick interviews or ‘reads’, knowing every minute talking to the camera was another minute they couldn’t, well, go home or hit the showers or do anything else but sit in there with me. And the only way to really communicate with them about content was [except for the very rare DM] through PR or Team Ops, who had their ear for requests and needs.

This was early days for player social media, few were active on social and those that were didn’t put too much strategy into it. Now, players are building their brands on social media. They appreciate, especially the non-superstars, the power that content featuring them wields when it’s shared on social to drive fan awareness of them, fans following them, and fans becoming fans of them as individuals.

So to learn not just about the utility of Greenfly, but also how it’s actually used and how players seem to truly appreciate the value to them was cool and inspiring. The teams/leagues have incredibly talented and creative social / digital / production teams, and an enormous and growing bank of photos and highlights that the players want to get at easily. And the teams want these players [who play the actual games] to amass huge fan bases, who will ultimately buy more merch, go to more games, watch more games and highlights, and talk more about the team on and off social media. Mutual need and mutual benefits. That sounds like a relationship.

And that’s one reason I’m excited about Greenfly – it’s collaboration. It’s collaboration with everyone — players, staff, talent, and even fans or fan ambassadors in sports; in other industries, it’s employees, actors, artists, advocates, customers, and influencers. Content is king and collaboration is how the best kingdoms continue to grow and reign.

Finally, as someone who geeks out about this sports and social space – and how it functions – I’m constantly interested in processes and operations (I ask a lot about that on my podcast interviews). And, while a decade ago social and digital media may have been seen as a side department run by the youngest staffers, it’s now a very sophisticated, multi-faceted, strategic operation. During each season [or even single game/event], there are thousands upon thousands of potential highlights, photos, GIFs being created one click and snap at a time. There are template and graphics, there are personalized GIFs or graphics for players, there are brand guidelines to maintain across accounts, there are tons of short-term and long-term projects to track and balance and prioritize, and there is a staff and brand to manage. And, there is a dizzying collection of software and hardware the team is using every day to make it all happen.

Tired yet? That’s why Greenfly’s approach is so important – the company appreciates how these teams function and designs the product and processes and organization and integrations to help them execute and measure what they do better, faster, more efficiently, and more effectively. Everyone is trying to play Moneyball, to do it better and do it smarter.

I’m psyched to hopefully inspire digital and social marketers — but, really, anyone trying to activate on social themselves or with their own army – through sharing awesome examples, giving out smart and actionable tips, uncovering insights from studying the incredible customers using this product, and helping brands, businesses, teams, and organizations continue to cultivate and mobilize their own content community. The platforms and how content is consumed will change, but the power of good content, a good story, and an engaged, attentive, invested audience — those things transcend technology and time.

It would be cliche to say I wouldn’t trade the experience of the last several months, since every experience shapes you and everything, err, ‘happens for a reason.’ But I do feel good about the lessons learned and I actually do believe I ended up in the right spot for me. It doesn’t feel like I’m convincing myself, I’m convicted. It feels right and I hope anyone else going through a similar experience can end in such a good place. I look forward to continuing to exercise my passion for this space and learning from the community. The next chapter starts now and there’s nothing but energizing uncertainty ahead.

College, Fan Development, General Marketing, Sponsorships, Working In Sports

Episode 151 Snippets: Chris Grosse on Driving Attendance in College Athletics, Building Fan Experiences, and Creating a Special Game Atmosphere

On episode 151 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, Neil chatted with Chris Grosse, Assistant Athletic Director for Marketing at Penn State Athletics.

What follows are some snippets from the episode. Click Here to listen to the full episode or check it out and subscribe in iTunes or Stitcher.

Category: Working In Sports

Building a Career in Sports: Taking Risks, Overcoming Challenges, and Growing Along the Way

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Episode 160 Snippets: Andrew Brewster Developed a Michigan State Athletics Blog for USA Today While also Working a Full-Time Job

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Reflections on the Job Hunt and Beginning a New Chapter at Greenfly

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Episode 151 Snippets: Chris Grosse on Driving Attendance in College Athletics, Building Fan Experiences, and Creating a Special Game Atmosphere

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