The NBA and Social Media: How One League Dominates the Sports Marketing World

The NBA has always been one of the most popular sports in America and more recently across the world, being part of the "Big Four" major sports. But part of the popularity of a league today is how they've adapted their marketing strategies into Social Media, which the NBA has excelled at and almost set the bar for leagues to follow. Not only have they completely digitized their entire company, by adding features like NBA League Pass to allow fans to subscribe to their very own streaming service to a complete 32 team e-sports league, the NBA has pushed their athletes and the teams they play for to take a more active role in social media.  The league lives on Twitter nowadays, with the majority of their fans, reporters and players actively engaging everyday, and it happened by the league just encouraging their employees to get active.

"Lifting the Hood"
One of the reasons the NBA is so popular on Twitter specifically is because that is where players have begun to open up to fans. NBA players represent a crossroads of sport and culture, and as T.J. Adeshola, Twitter's Head of Sports Content Partnerships put it in an sbnation interview, "Fans want to understand who played well, who won and lost, but they also want to know what LeBron is listening to. They love knowing [Rockets forward] P.J. Tucker is a sneaker head. These lifestyle insights inform users in ways they haven't been informed before" (SBnation.com).

Fans want to feel connected to the players they follow. The NBA more than any other league has a mimicking fan base. Kids play basketball in their gyms and driveways and yell "Kobe!" as they shoot, trying to make a shot like Kobe Bryant. Fans in pickup games attempt the signature James Harden step-back jumper. Amateur players use NBA coined celebrations in their own games and competitions. So when people find out what music LeBron James is listening too, or what shoes P.J. Tucker loves, it brings that same sense of imitation on a digital level. No other league gives insight into a players lives like they do.

Fast Paced Game meets Fast Paced Platform
Basketball is the fastest paced game in major sports. There are minimal stoppages, and players are constantly running up and down the court. The off-the-court antics are the same. Player trades and league news erupts 24/7, 365 days a year. Twitter was the perfect place for the league to create a partnership to grow their social media presence. According to Twitters Developers page, "Twitter's real-time nature is a major benefit to a league which is looking to capture reactions to games and live commentary" (Twitter.com). No other league has their fanbase constantly posting about their games and happenings like the NBA. While it wasn't an in-game event, when LeBron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Los Angeles Lakers, there were 55,000 tweets per minute about his free agency signing (SBnation).  Per minute.

The results for the NBA have been astounding. They have been able to embed Twitter into their NBA Mobile app so fans can follow games and tweets real time. Fans have been able to view game recaps and highlights on Twitter, whether from the NBA account of their teams accounts. Fans see their favorite players outfits and shoes before games, and follow the lives of said players both on the court and off. Personally, the NBA is my favorite league social media world to engage in. Players engage with each other on a wide spectrum of creating beef and rivalries to congratulating and celebrating each other. Teams even engage with each other. For example, a few nights ago when the Charlotte Hornets were one game away from clinching the playoffs, and needed the Detroit Pistons to lose to the New York Knicks in order to get in, the Hornets social media team edited their logo to having a Knicks hat on and posted it, mentioning the Knicks in order to show their support for a team that had their future in their hands. No other league has the type of interactions and engagements that the NBA has, and if the NFL, NHL and MLB want to reach the type of fandom and following that the NBA has, they need to encourage their various accounts to become more open and free with their content.

How Dana White Grew The UFC In the Digital Age

Founded in November of 1993, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, more commonly known as The UFC has quickly become one of the more popular non major four sports in the United States. Being a niche sport and growing up in the digital age, Dana White, UFC Founder, along with the rest of the organization needed to dive head-first into today's most effective marketing strategies for sports: social media and streaming services. Their social media and content distribution tactics have made them a prime example of how a sports league can thrive in this technologically driven era.

The UFC is like most other fighting sports in how you can view their events. UFC offers Pay-Per-View for all of their big fights through traditional cable and satellite providers. However, they have branched out into different streaming services, like offering fights through gaming consoles, smart TV's, and Amazon. Most recently, ESPN bought out UFC's TV contract with Fox Sports for $1.5 billion (USAToday.com) and is revolutionizing how the sport is distributed. Not only will less popular UFC fights be broadcasted on basic ESPN cable, but thanks to ESPN+, the new subscription based streaming service offered by ESPN, their bigger events will be able to be streamed from any cable device, along with an on-demand feature containing a large fight catalog (ESPN.com). According to USA Today, "ESPN+ also will stream preliminary coverage for UFC's pay-per-view cards, which average about 12 per year." This is an enormous step for the sport to reach a broader audience and gain a larger following.

Social Media has been where The UFC has taken their biggest strides in regards to promotion however. "For a relatively niche sport to have 20 million followers across its different social media channels, with 80 brand accounts, is seriously impressive given that it has only been around for 24 years" (TheInnovateEnterprise.com). The same article references Forbes.com, which calculated that one of their most successful pay-per-view events had over 13 billion impressions, 3.2 million engagements on Facebook, 246 million impressions on Vine, had over one million uses of the custom UFC 200 emoji, as well as 4.3 million engagements on Instagram and over 270,000 new followers on Facebook. 

But the UFC had to have a strategy in place in order to create successful social media platforms. Dana White didn't grow a 43 million follower base across three platforms overnight. One of the biggest things the UFC excels at is telling a story, specifically what it is like to get in a UFC ring and be a UFC fighter. Only a select few people obtain the skill set to fight MMA, and fans love learning what it is like. Whether their posts include videos (both first and third person), pictures, live streams, fight updates etc., they do a fantastic job of engaging their fans. 

The UFC is no stranger to the world of influencers as well, which they find in house. Their fighters are the main attraction, and they use social media in an incredibly engaging way. Take Conor McGregor for example, former double UFC champion, and arguably the most popular UFC athlete on social media. Conor includes a wide variety of content styles that depict his life as a UFC fighter, allowing his audience to step into his shoes and learn about his life. McGregor has posts about training, videos of him in action, content about his wife and son, just to name a few. Casual fans aren't incredibly familiar with the inner workings of an MMA fighter, so that is how the UFC attracts social media followers, by having their athletes display their lives on full effect. This strategy is implemented from the lowest of fighters all the way up to their founder, Dana White. Not only does White promote every UFC fight and event on his Instagram, but posts highlights from fights as well as memes to engage his followers and keep them on their toes as to what to expect from his platform.

The UFC is a prime example on how a sports league should promote themselves in the age of social media. We have yet to see the full potential of this new form of marketing as teams and leagues are just getting their bearings on how to use this type of communication. The rest of the world needs to take some notes on how the UFC has done it so far, however. By giving an inside look into what life is like as a UFC athlete, branching out into new and improved content distribution services, and an aggressive promotion and content schedule, they are at the forefront of sports social media marketing today.

My Top 5 Athletes Using Social Media

Social media has become one of the biggest parts of people's every day lives more and more every year. Everyone is on social media, and now athletes are beginning to break into the social media world to promote themselves, and their sponsorships. Similar to Tom Brady (see previous article for more details) athletes are utilizing social media now more than ever to build their personal brands, promote themselves, their teams and their sponsors. This post will examine the top ten athletes based off my own research who are utilizing social media the best to promote their personal brands, or the brands that represent them. The athletes listed are in no particular order.

LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers
LeBron has taken his social media game to the next level in the last few years. With 41.5 million followers on Twitter and 36.8 million on Instagram (izea.com) he has very diverse platforms. King James uses his social media outlets to promote himself and his team, celebrate other athletes who are excelling at their sport, share videos and pictures about his kids and their personal successes, or post about social justice issues going around in the world today. LeBron, unlike other athletes, has been vocal on topics such as racial injustice on social media, which sets him apart from other athletes who refrain from addressing controversial topics on social media.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Retired WWE and NFL athlete
While The Rock is a retired athlete turned movie star, he maintains a strong athletic presence on social media, with his 58 million followers on Instagram and 13.1 million on Twitter (sporteology.net). The Rock has an interesting Instagram profile in which the majority of his social media content is posted. As a retired athlete and current actor, his posts range anywhere from his workouts which serve as motivational posts for those needing an extra push in their exercise, to him promoting his movies and TV shows, to his posts with his kids and fans hyping them up. The Rock maintains a motivational and influential platform for all of his followers to benefit from.

Simone Biles, United States Gymnast
Simone Biles bursted into pop culture and the sports realm after her five olympic medal performance at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games (izea.com). Although her following is not as large as the two athletes mentioned previously (3.3 million on Instagram) she is incredibly influential and utilizes her Nike sponsorship to promote women in sports. She has several posts with young girls and women athletes promoting and celebrating women in sports using the hashtag #NikeWomen. Simone also is incredibly transparent with her personal life, balancing content between sponsorship posts with Nike, and personal life updates. This balance provides a unique platform that engages all audiences across the country.

Serena Williams, Tennis
Serena Williams has become the face of tennis in the past few years, thanks to her success on the court and her recent pregnancy while playing. Serena has 10.9 million followers on both Instagram and Twitter, and like Simone Biles, is a Nike sponsor and utilizes that on her platforms. Serena is big into using the Nike campaign, "If they think your dreams are crazy, show them what crazy dreams can do" (Nike.com) and showcasing women athletes excelling in their respective sport. Serena has become one of the biggest influencers in the gender equality in sports and uses her social media to promote that. She is incredibly successful on and off the court, and even gives a glimpse into her life as a mom on her accounts, which her fans find incredibly engaging.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Juventus
Regarded as one of the most famous soccer players of all time, Ronaldo has an incredibly large following thanks to the reach of soccer around the globe. The Juventus forward has 125 million followers on Instagram and 77.3 million on Twitter (izea.com). Ronaldo's social media is a classic sports social media influencer account. He posts pictures and videos of him and his team practicing and performing in games, but posts about every single one of his sponsors, big and small. Ronaldo engages all fans of all different races and nationalities thanks to his reach due to the large audience of soccer, and his wide variety of endorsements ranging from Adidas, to his own personal underwear brand, @c7underwear.

How Tom Brady Built His Brand Through Blogging and Social Media

Tom Brady is the Quarterback for the New England Patriots, and a successful one indeed. Winning six super bowl rings throughout his illustrious 19 season career, he has defied father time by playing well into his 40's. Brady has been successful both on, and off the field however, with his own personal brand, TB12. Brady attributes the majority of his success in his "old age" to his rigorous diet and exercise plan that keeps him in shape. In September of 2013, he launched the TB12 Sports Therapy Center in Foxborough, Massachusetts, the home of the New England Patriots (Digiday.com). The launch of the fitness center became the launch of his brand, one of the first personal brands amongst athletes that has taken the sports marketing world, specifically influencer marketing by storm. 

So first, what is TB12? According to Digiday.com, it is "a sprawling brand that is everything from lots of reps with fitness bands to a diet featuring avocado ice cream - all premised on the fitness gospel that underpins Brady's legendary run in the NFL" (Digiday.com). Brady has a goal to help other athletes, ranging from football to skiing, maintain a healthy body and prolong their career as long as possible, just as he has. And the brand has grown far from just a fitness center. "As they try to scale, TB12 has expanded beyond the one center by selling other products. 'The TB12 Method' book was released in September 2017. A few months later, they launched the TB12 Method mobile app. TB12 also has an online store for workout equipment like TB12 resistance bands, supplements like TB12 electrolytes and apparel like TB12 hats and, through a partnership with Under Armour, recovery pajamas that help  you heal muscles while you snooze" (Digiday.com). 

But one of the major successes through all of this is how Tom and his team have branded the quarterback to become a relatable athlete that people can get behind, and want to buy products from. "His in-house team decided to explore on building his brand through Facebook by sharing Brady's personality through personal photos and funny memes...as an attempt to make the athlete more relatable" (adweek.com). 

The branding efforts have paid off immensely. Prior to Super Bowl 52, Brady was featured in a Facebook watch series called Tom vs. Time. After the series, the TB12 team partnered with Facebook to create two separate TB12 advertising campaigns to bolster product sales, and the results were phenomenal. According to "Facebook for Media," the ads increased sales of TB12 products by 98.8% and increased TB12 app installs by 56.7%. By using the watch series to market himself and the program, Tom Brady was able to garner even more success than the brand had already been experiencing. The viewers of the show increased traffic to tb12sports.com by 64%, and 53% of the revenue created. The TB12 marketing team geniusly  drove Tom's personal social media following and the brands following through the roof. 

All in all, Tom Brady and the TB12 team paved the way for athletes to begin their own personal brands and become social media influencers. Athletes like Derek Jeter, Russell Westbrook and Cristiano Ronaldo (to name a few) have followed in Tom's footsteps, creating their own brands, mainly clothing and apparel lines. Today, athletes are utilizing their endorsements on social media to not only promote themselves, but the products they represent. As TB12 continues to grow and expand, watch out for more and more athletes to begin to develop their brands as Tom has. He has set the groundwork for how an athlete should properly become a social media influencer.

Why Nike is Leading the Sports Social Media Industry

With over 318 different and diverse social media profiles, which include and even more diverse profile of posts utilizing pictures, videos, infographics and advertisements, Nike is the top of the industry in sports social media marketing (unmetric.com). Today's social media landscape and audience is tricky to grasp. The clickbait and instant information society we live in makes it difficult for many companies to truly capture the attention of those consuming their content. Audiences today need jaw dropping headlines and short, to the point posts that contain content that is exactly what they are looking to read. Nike has successfully captured our attention in several ways. One way is taking controversy by the horns and running with it (Forbes.com). Another few are focusing on quality over quantity, utilizing their athlete sponsorships as influencers, and creating engaging content all across the board. In this post I will explain in depth how these strategies have paid off for the sports apparel mega-brand.

Embracing Controversy
Nike has become more popular thanks to several controversial issues they decided to tackle, specifically their backing of Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick is an "exiled" NFL football player who decided to take a knee during the national anthem several times throughout the 2016 season, and is now out of a job. They used Kaepernick to relaunch a Just Do It campaign centered around the quote "Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything" (Nike Twitter, Forbes.com). It was jumpstarted with a two minute advertisement featuring minority, disabled, and gender role influenced athletes excelling at their sport, with Kaepernick in the background offering encouraging words. The world saw this compelling campaign by Nike, and mentions of Nike and engagement with their tweets skyrocketed. The new core demographic Nike has begun to target of young urban consumers ate up the campaign, while some mocked it. It is apparent that Nike targeted a younger audience for their campaign, which Forbes projected would continue to engage with and interact about the most.

Quality over Quantity
Unmetric.com analyzed Nike's main social media accounts on the mainstream platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube) over the course of a year to understand better how the megabrand utilizes social media. When it came to their Facebook, that is where they utilized quality over quantity heavily. On their Facebook throughout the calendar year 2017, Nike posted an average of four times a month. They showed no true schedule, rather only posted when topical. Their posts came during a running of one of their campaigns, or during a large scale sporting event in which they had a stake, whether a sponsor athlete involved or their name on the event somehow. Keeping the posts spread out is an incredible way to ensure your audience is engaged. Social media users don't like to be bombarded, and Nike adopted that. In 2012 the company posted 836 times, and realized this new trend, and in 2015 posted 28 times.

Using Influencers
Nike recognizes that athletes are heroes to today's world. People aspire to be like their favorite athletes, so Nike uses their athletes as inspiration for their content consumers. They have sponsorships throughout all sports, and their sponsorship profile is incredibly diverse. This creates a trustworthy feeling coming from the company, because the more athletes they showcase the more people are going to follow the company on social media. The more people see their favorite athlete (which is increased with a mass amount of sponsorships) the more engaging the posts become. Nike has emplored baseball, basketball, football, and all different sports players of all different races and genders to be spokespeople for them. Not only is Nike posting about these athletes, but these athletes are posting about Nike and Nike campaigns, which drives engagement and interaction.

Nike has set the standard for how to run a social media portfolio. If companies take even one page out of the Nike handbook, they will see a large increase in their social media success

The AAF and Social Marketing: A New Beginning

Saturday February 9th marked the beginning of a new football league to help cure the American football hangover called The Alliance of American Football. This new startup league consists of NFL misfits and and castaways that will play during the spring offseason of the NFL. The leagues inaugural games consisted of the San Diego Fleet visiting the San Antonio Commanders, and the Atlanta Legends visiting the Orlando Apollos. According to CBS.com, "both games averaged more than 2.9 million viewers for the 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. time slot." (CBS.com).

The major challenge for this startup league, as with any startup business is gaining a following. The Alliance of American Football needed to get creative in how they would gain a viewership, and through innovative social marketing through social media

and an engaging app, they were able to out rate the NBA games on February 9th.

David Livingston, the president of the Atlanta based team pointed out one of the opportunities the league could attack in an interview with Forbes. "'Every fan has a smartphone and they are used to engaging with that device during the game, whether they are at the stadium or at home. Our proprietary app includes fantasy elements and encourages engagement.'" (Forbes.com). This new app gives fans an experience the NFL doesn't provide. Not only does the app allow fans to watch the game get diagrammed play by play, buy tickets for games and have access to each fans team shop, it allows fans to guess what plays will happen and earn points, making watching the games a game in it of itself.  Another opportunity The Alliance has jumped on is the legalization of sports betting in the United States. The app allows fans to bet in game on their teams and games they follow, which is an attracting feature to today's modern sports fan.

Football fans are incredibly engaged on social media, and the Alliance has taken advantage of the new form of marketing that is Twitter and Instagram. Their twitter account features retweets from every team which outlines the highlights of each team from their games as well as pictures of results for each game. One of the best things they do is only include pictures and videos which are easiest to captivate audiences and increase engagement within the fan bases. According to Mediatech.com, "Fans that watch sports-related videos have positive purchase intent to buy from brands that use social influencers." The Alliance of American Football has utilized the first part of that, by posting almost exclusively videos and pictures. If the league hopes to continue their success and viewership, they must start to include social media influencers into their social media platforms. That will allow fans to become more engaged and more willing to purchase merchandise and tickets for their respective favorite teams.

Two weeks into the season the Alliance is on the right track to becoming a prominent league and gaining a significant following. Their app is something different and modern for their fans which will allow football fans to engage in their favorite game in a new way. Social Media is the new popular form of advertising, and the Alliance needs to continue on the same track if they hope to keep up the success they have had. Separating them from the NFL is athlete recognition, and to supplement that factor they must incorporate influencers to help build their brand.

Yankees deal for Zach Britton

While it may have seemed like Brian Cashman would have done anything in his power to add Manny Machado onto his team, his focus before the deadline remained clear: add pitching. Yesterday, the New York Yankees traded for Baltimore Orioles reliever Zach Britton in a deal that sent pitching prospects Dillon Tate, Cody Carroll and Josh Roger to Baltimore. Yankee fans, including myself would have rather seen Cashman trade for a starter, but the addition of Zach Britton is a step in the right direction for a few reasons.

The Yankees now have one of the most talented bullpens in the American League. The three headed monster of Aroldis Chapman, Dellin Betances and David Robertson has been pitching well, especially Chapman who is currently top 3 in American League saves. Chasen Shreve has recovered from his abysmal start to the season, and the rest of the bullpen has rounded out to form. Adam Warren, A.J. Cole and Chad Green have been pitched well, and Jonathan Holder has been stellar this year, posting a 1.76 ERA over 41 innings, with 36 strikeouts. This team is in a position where they feel confident their bullpen can hold a lead for Chapman or another big name at the end of the bullpen. 

Zach Britton adds another dimension to this cast of pitchers. After battling injuries for the past two years, the 30 year old left hander found himself in a closing role in Baltimore, beginning his season in June. While his ERA is 3.45, Britton has only given up 6 earned runs, putting up 0's in the run column in his last seven appearances, and posting 13 strikeouts in 15.2 innings. He had two bad appearances in June, but has since proved himself as one of the better relievers in the league so far.

I am a big fan of this trade, because it adds a fear factor to the bullpen. Now the Yankees, realistically only need their starter to get to the 6th inning. If in a close game they can have a lead in the 6th, manager Aaron Boone could choose to overkill the opponent with Robertson in the 6th, Britton in the 7th, Betances in the 8th and Chapman closing the game in the 9th. One of the things I've liked about Boone in his first campaign as manager is that he has not been afraid to throw Robertson, Betances and Chapman all in the same game, displaying his will to win. Adding Britton makes this bullpen one of the most dangerous in the game, and the added factor that both the Astros and Red Sox were going after Britton as well makes this trade all the more sweet. 

The next step for Cashman should be to find a starting pitcher he doesn't have to overpay for. Chris Archer is rumored to be on the move out of Tampa Bay, and would be a valuable asset to pitch behind Severino. For now, the Jacob DeGrom rumors have cooled off, but another mets ace, Zach Wheeler, seems to also be on the block and a target of the Yankees. Either of these two pitchers would make great additions to fix the Yankees starting rotation, the one aspect of the team holding them back from title contention.