Using social media to amplify business-marketing means focusing on 3 key areas:
- Having a targeted social media strategy
- Understanding how people use social channels (consumer behavior)
- Making messages authentic and personal
Social media strategy isn’t just creating an account; it’s about connecting existing fans and leveraging their passion to reach potential fans. It’s also pivotal for businesses to understand their audience correctly, measure effectiveness of one’s efforts, and last but not least, actually make or implement necessary change.
Under the guidance of Joe Stetson (Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of Marketing & Communications, New York Red Bulls) and Molly Brady (Manager, Social Media), the Red Bulls have utilized social media strategy to fight against adversity in one of its toughest seasons to date, turning their dark and miserable season into one filled with hope and success.
“When you talk about superstars such as Thierry Henry or players like that you really have to build your story using social media around that person” said Molly Brady, Manager, Social Media for the New York Red Bulls. “Their career, their personality is so important to the team itself. So when we actually lost a player like Henry, it gave us a good opportunity to build a story from the ground up. Instead on targeting henry alone, we got to focus on the new core players, the coaching staff, the new academy program, the marketing sector, USL team and more; we were given the opportunity to focus on the red bull fans, not just the fans of a superstar”.
How the Red Bulls are fighting back
Needless to say, social platforms have done wonders for the Red Bulls. Overall engagement has peaked around 2 million fans/followers, and they have been able to reach more than 3 million people with their videos.
The Red Bulls have not only used Facebook to attract fans, but they’ve also encouraged users to join other platforms. Even though the team page only has around 700k followers on Facebook, they have gotten a 40% increase in likes and followers, and are getting more and more people to join the live games, from 12,000 -14,000 to 18,000 – 19,000.
- Twitter/Instagram has been one of the biggest factors for fan engagement and interaction. Molly Brady has become a famous celebrity among fans due to her live engagement, and many appreciate the authenticity brought by the Red Bulls staff. In addition, The Red Bull’s twitter had an engagement increase by 348%, while their Instagram had a whooping 935% increase respectively.
- Team Website/Mobile App/Four Square
The Red Bulls have embraced social networks such as Foursquare in order to focus on building fun, Red Bull competition. The team website contains all the necessary need-to-know information about the Red Bulls, while the new Red Bulls app is a valuable tool for fans to keep up to date with news and live-feed.
- Google+ and YouTube
Without a doubt, the most important social media platform to the Red Bulls was the use of YouTube. Paul Hawkins, Senior Director, Multimedia created video content that has increased views by more than 800%.
“We are able to shift our focus to providing what fans are actually coming to the team website for, stated Scott Sandalow, Manager, Digital Media. “Firstly, more than just the main content hub of the Red Bulls, the website has really become this all in one surface tool that helps people solve any inquiries or problems from the website. The second thing we do with the website is make sure that the website’s aesthetics really reflect us as a club not only from a marketing standpoint from a first team standpoint. I think its very representative of what we’re trying to do as a club, and it’s really put up with a lot of thought and consideration with what we’re trying to accomplish.”
Red Membership
Perhaps the most important reason why the Red Bulls are regaining momentum is because they have established a customer/family first perspective. The New York Red Bulls have shifted their complete focus and by changing the way they treat loyal fans, they are able to effectively expand their fan-base at the absence of more traditional methods.
These include but are not limited to
- Establishing awareness of new Red Bull arena
- Increasing interests in the team (no superstar)
- Driving attendance up to the games
- Converting soccer fans into Red Bull fans.
“What this opportunity allows us to capitalize on is on getting more fans into the team, and to really grow our fan-base in an authentic and genuine way,” explained Joe Stetson. “We just recently launched a campaign called the Red Membership campaign, which is how we brand the way we handle our season ticket holders. We want to call them red members not season ticket holders because we want them to feel apart of the red bulls family. This is our 20th season and we always desire to have a very broad fan-base. We’re very inclusive and we take a look at the entire metro area (the tri-state area, the new york, new jersey, Connecticut) versus just looking at boroughs in New York or relating themselves to the specific class of people. We want red bull arena to be a welcoming place for all walks of life, so when you look at the fans that come in to watch the Red Bulls, it’s very diverse from all ages and backgrounds”.
Through an email interview with SportTechie, Paul Hawkins (Sr. Director of Red Bull’s digital media) talked about the challenges of producing digital content and how big of an impact social media has on businesses today.
Question 1: Social Media and Digital Media in today’s age are the prime methods of communication. What has been the biggest asset to you in increasing the viewership/fanbase of the Red Bulls Franchise and how will that shape the upcoming plans for the future?
Paul Hawkins: Besides the great play on the field, the team is our biggest asset. Each player, coach, and even fan has compelling and interesting story – and our aim is to tell these narratives on video. Our fans turn to the New York Red Bulls platforms, whether it is our website, Facebook, or Twitter, on a consistent basis to digest this content. With a cinematic style, we will continue to tell these stories until there are no more to be told – but in the world of sports, with an ever changing landscape – the refreshing thing is that there will never be a lack of stories to be told.
Question 2: I understand the Red Bulls have faced a lot of adversity in the past, especially losing its best player (Thiery Henry) and coach Mike Petke. They’ve also faced more problems with the arrival of NYCFC and the constant need to expand the Red Bulls fan-base. In regard to changing social media strategy, what has been the biggest learning experience or challenges in fighting through this difficult time?
Paul Hawkins: The biggest learning experience for us in a time of adversity and difficulty, as we experienced earlier this year, is to keep our heads down and continue to do what we do best – which is tell stories. Through video content, we can help control and direct the narrative around the team. While a section of our fan base may not be happy with decisions that are made behind the scenes, we continued to help direct the conversation by producing content that tell the stories of our biggest asset – which is the team that currently exists.