Bryan Srabian is the mind behind one of the most successful social media entities in sports today. Leading strategy and execution across ten social channels for the San Francisco Giants, he’s earned the fourth-most Twitter followers of any MLB team, and ranked the team third in Facebook fans. How did he do it? Working in marketing myself for Chat Sports, I wanted to find out. So I sat down with the 19-year sports industry veteran to learn the secrets to his success.
1. Tell a Story, Within a Story:
“We are storytellers now, and it is so much more than marketing.”
In the past, Srabian remembers the Giants sending out a single email or displaying one message on the scoreboard to announce Bobblehead night. Now they can reach people through multiple platforms to announce events, and they can display the revelry of the whole evening at the park. Think of your content for a given event, day, or week as a story with a distinct beginning, middle, and end. Aim to enhance build-up and end on the desired note. Recap and reflect to squeeze the most out of your efforts.
Take followers behind the scenes. Srabian knows that nearly everyone has access to the televised parts of the game. So he brings followers exclusive moments. “Players in the locker room, autographing with fans, what you can’t get on TV … people don’t have access to that. We’re trying to tell the story within the story.”
2. Bring More Cooks into the Kitchen:
“It’s good to delegate. Let other people do it.”
Eliminate originality roadblocks by rotating administrators on social accounts. The different perspectives produced by his team members continually surprise Srabian, helping to keep things fresh. Each person will take the same photo from a slightly different angle, with a different caption. He glances down at a recent post. “I didn’t think about capturing these two [images] and coming up with that saying.”
3. Steal Ideas:
“Follow other teams/brands and look at how they are doing things originally.”
Srabian continually conducts market research and adopts others’ creative ideas. One brand was using Vine for Q&As, posting real-time answers. So he brought the concept to the Giants as a way to forge live connections between players and fans. “Stuff like that, changes it up,” he explains. “Sometimes it’s a novelty and sometimes it is a revolutionary way of doing something.” But it’s always worth a try.
4. You CAN Post the Same Content Across Channels:
“You are talking to different people.”
Srabian agrees that it’s a general best practice to avoid posting the same content across all outlets—but only to a point. He explains that because each channel speaks to a different audience and demographic, even the same content will be expressed in a different way. “Sometimes I’m posting the same message on Snapchat and Instagram,” Srabian admits. “But they are different, because Instagram captures things as a piece of art, whereas Snapchat is more doodle and real-time and fun. It’s younger.”