Facebook Marketing For Sports Teams

How To Guide:

FACEBOOK MARKETING
FOR SPORTS TEAMS
Copyright 2014 SimplyCast

1

FACEBOOK MARKETING
FOR SPORTS TEAMS
When it comes to the sports industry, finding passionate fans is not hard. They are everywhere, just
waiting to tell you why they love or hate a certain
team or player.
No, the hard part is engaging those fans, and turning them into your team’s super fan that will buy
tickets, hats, shirts, mugs and anything else a logo
is on.
In the past, sports organizations relied on marketing
approaches such as TV ads, newspaper promos
and radio spots to sell tickets.
In the digital age, the options to reach fans has
exploded to the point that if you are not using them,
those fans sitting on the fence, may jump to another
team.
Whether it is email, SMS, voice or another channel of
communication, reaching a fan on their any of their
devices is certainly a must.
The hot, hot, hot area for sports organizations when it
comes to marketing and engaging with fans, is social
media. In particular, Facebook.

cause that would be like telling a pitcher what a baseball is. Everyone knows.
But, when it comes to engaging with fans on Facebook, we will go into much deeper conversation on
how to do that.
It is much more than saying hi and posting photos.
What makes it exciting however is, using Facebook
marketing for your sports team is about as fun as it
gets and measure across the planet in an instant.
So how is it done? Let’s throw the ball in the air and
get started.
1. Have a Game Plan
2. Keep the Conversation Going
3. Offer Exclusive Content
4. Get Players Involved
5. Invite Everyone
6. Show Off Social Messages
7. Contests
8. Leverage Other Social Channels
9. Best Practices
10. Automation

We won’t even bother going into what Facebook is beCopyright 2014 SimplyCast

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#1:

HAVE A GAME PLAN
Going back to the world of sports, if you don’t have
a defined strategy, you are most likely not going to
win a lot. Yes, there are the odd cases where physical talent will beat a solid game plan. But unless
you have the LeBron James of Facebook marketing
campaigns at your disposal, you best sit down and
strategize with your team.
What are you hoping to achieve from engaging your
fans on Facebook. Page likes, comments, photo submissions, click throughs to other content or gathering
user data. Whatever it is, lay it out before you start doing
anything.
Then at the most basic level determine how often
you will be posting to your wall and what type of
content. Establish daily, weekly or monthly fea-

tures in order to build a following that knows what
is coming. Trivia, posts of the week, photos of the
month and whatever you think will entertain the
fans.
Don’t be afraid to try new things and experiment.
If you find something that is new, it will stand out.
Whatever you can do to lock into the passion and
energy of the fans will grow your Facebook community much stronger.
Set goals, stick to them and plan ahead to get the
most out of your team’s Facebook page.
Of course, monitor Facebook Insights to see how all
your hard work is doing.


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#2:

KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING
The clear leader in sports popularity in North America is football. The NFL has games once per week
and yet they have fans that live and breath football
24 hours a day, seven days a week. When it comes
to fan engagement using Facebook, it is the off
days that are just as important as game day. You
need to fuel interest leading up to every game and
provide insight after every game. With the accessibility of the Internet these days, fans have access to
reading content all day long.
But with the standard work hours being 9-5pm,
remember that a lot of fans won’t be checking updates or looking at photos at work (or they should
not be).
Pinpoint those high traffic times on your Facebook
page and focus heavily on those with fresh content. For NFL teams, the days leading up to a game
during non-work hours are prime time. With games
happening mostly on Sunday, Friday night and

Saturday is when most fans will start digesting and
interacting with what you post.
These high-traffic times are perfect for content that
sparks opinion. If the team is having a quarterback controversy, asking who should start the game will launch a
comment thread of epic proportions.
Posting round the clock may seem overwhelming,
but remember that the Facebook news feed is designed differently than let’s say the Twitter one.
You don’t need to post every hour on Facebook like
you might on Twitter to stay in the feed. As a rule,
three times a day is a good way to stay top-of-mind
and maintain engagement.
A diehard fan wants to know everything the President or GM knows. Fans want to be on the inside.
Capitalize on this with behind the scenes updates
and photos that can be as simple as the team
having dinner together on the night before a big
game.


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#3:

OFFER EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
How many brands do you follow on Facebook that
simply fill their walls with sales pitches, promos
and other self-promoting information. None? This
is probably because you stopped “liking” them the
moment you realized they were not providing value.
No matter what Facebook page you are managing,
you can’t make it all about your company, team or
brand.
This means no bombarding fans with ticket deals.
No telling fans how awesome the team is. No
endless coupons to save on sweatshirts. You get
the point.
Fans are on your Facebook page to learn more
about the team and establish a deeper connection
with the sport, team, athletes or event. Try to keep
your content full of value and almost special in a
way. Don’t just post what is already on 10 other
sites. Give the fans something unique. These fans
are opting in to your messaging and are at the ready
to interact and answer questions.
The team’s official website is where anyone can find
the team roster, schedule, stats and other news.
Don’t be lazy and post this information again on
your Facebook page. Give it a spin and make it

more interesting. This can be stories from team outings, pictures from a road trip, injury updates and
other non-game day information.
Use your team Facebook Page for exclusive content, something that is perceived as a value for
the fan, such as a discount at the Arena Store. If
players are shooting interviews for the website or
a TV show, get your social media team to ask one
question that will go live only on Facebook. Let fans
know that a big reveal to do with the team will only
happen on Facebook a few hours before the game
and watch the flood of fans.
It makes them feel like the Facebook community
itself is an exclusive group and that its members are
entitled to special rewards.
Our last example would be, two or three times
throughout the season, run exclusive Facebook Fan
Days, for which the team offers their social media
followers steep discounts on tickets and access to
an exclusive game experience. Followers on social
media platforms like Facebook are some of the
most passionate and loyal fans and you want to
provide them with once-in-a-lifetime experiences
they can’t get anywhere else.


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#4:

INVITE EVERYONE
Regardless if your team plays in an arena, stadium
or other type of venue, it is impossible for every
fan to come to each game. So how do you take
advantage of the thousands of fans who could not
get tickets or who live far away as the big game
approaches?
As the Facebook marketer, you need to be sure that
those who are left at home still feel like they are part
of the crowd.
In the old days, this was limited to television and
radio. Not anymore.
Some NFL teams host an online or virtual “tailgate”
party on their Facebook Page. Some teams have
live chats on Facebook where fans can ask questions about the game they are watching.

Another example is a type of Pre-Game Social party, which is a cool way for thousands of fans across
the world to come together and talk about their
team for a few hours leading up to the game.
If you don’t have the resources to run exclusive
Facebook events, an easy way to bring fans into
the game is to post photos of the actual crowd,
the physical ticket for the game, the field, players
warming up and any other image that will set the
atmosphere. These photos could elicit thousands
of Likes and hundreds of shares, helping fans (and
their friends) feel like they are in the building as well.
Bring the world to your venue with these simple
Facebook marketing tips.


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#5:

GET PLAYERS INVOLVED
Sports fans love the teams they do because of the
players. Without players to love, a team won’t have
a hardcore following. This is because every sports
fan has a favorite player. So just imagine the impact
you can make on your fans if you can make it possible for them to interact with that player. Engagement will explode just by using the resources you
already have access to.
For the holiday season, many teams will feature
videos of their players wishing fans a happy holiday
season whether it be Christmas, New Year’s etc.
For the athlete it takes a few seconds but for the
fans, it will have them watching it over and over and
sharing it with their friends. The payoff is excellent
when it comes to fan engagement because it is the
personalities of the athletes that help humanize the
brand.

The job is actually getting easier for marketing
teams as well. Players are becoming more involved
with social media efforts as they try to brand themselves as they enter into endorsement or sponsorship agreements. If you can leverage an athlete that
already has a strong following on Facebook, then it
can only spill over onto the team if done properly.
Think about your own club. How hard would it be to
post videos on Facebook of fans asking their favorite players a question? Not very hard. You can also
advertise live chats with the players or other exclusive player interaction.
We have even seen instances where the team will
let the player “take over” the Facebook page for
a few hours just to have one-on-one time with the
fans.


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#6:

SHOW OFF SOCIAL MESSAGES
When expanding the reach of your team’s Facebook
following, it helps to spread what the fans are saying in other places. Whether this means aggregating
Facebook posts or comments on the team website,
stadium scoreboard or even the local TV broadcast,
it will make a fan feel like a celebrity and help drive
more people to the team’s Facebook page.
Although it is changing, it is more likely a fan will
first go to the team’s website rather than the Facebook page. If they see a highly populated social

media feed of hardcore fans, they are going to go
where the conversation is. This means more likes
for your page and more fans sharing content from
your page.
This can also include picking a fan of the day or
Facebook post of the day and featuring it all over
the team’s properties. You will be amazed at how
much action this kind of feature will bring as fans
love to be showcased on their team’s pages.


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#7:

CONTESTS
This is where brands and organizations have been
using Facebook for years. Fun and engaging contests that give the fans a chance to win something
they otherwise don’t have easy access to.
This kind of Facebook marketing is very popular
among sports teams. Sports fans love winning, especially if the prize gets them close to their favorite
team.
Teams can offer everything from free tickets to a
lunch date with their favorite player.
The Carolina Hurricanes from the NHL run a Facebook contest for every game where they ask the

fans to pick who will score the first goal of the
game.
The winning guess wins an autographed puck and
another random person from all entries will win a
$500 gift card to the local mall.
The form is embedded right into Facebook and
is easy to fill out. The form also lists what player
signed each puck and other rules and regulations.
Not only do you engage the fan with a fun contest,
but you also gather some vital data such as the
fan’s name and email address.

Whatever contest you can dream up, Facebook is the place to either host it or promote it. Keep in mind that
Facebook does have policies for running contests and you should become familiar with those before you
launch. https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php


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CONTESTS
Another fan driven Facebook contest that your team could run would be getting fans to submit videos on
why they are the team’s number one fan.
Set the rules and how to enter and watch the super fans go crazy with creativity. Once you watch all the
submissions, you can turn them around and let your Facebook fans vote for their favorite. Video contests
like this work wonders because video is a huge part of the Internet culture and can go viral very easily.
Videos of your fans doing funny things to represent the team on Facebook equals marketing success.


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#8:

LEVERAGE OTHER SOCIAL CHANNELS
Social media is more than just Facebook. Yes, it is
the largest of all the social networks on the planet
and yes, your mom and dad are on their, but you
need to leverage other social channels. Easily grow
your Facebook fan base just by letting fans on other
social networks know about the team page.
This includes Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube. Tumblr,
Instagram, Flickr and of course Google +. Normally
LinkedIn would be mentioned but sports organizations don’t really focus on that network for fan
engagement.
On top of cross-promoting the team Facebook page
on these networks, you can also use them to funnel fans to your page. If you have an exclusive pre
game chat with one of the players, advertise it over
several networks.

Photos work great to engage fans and draw them
in. Post a photo on Instagram of the player who is
doing the chat, sitting at a computer smiling.
Send out tweets reminding fans that they can ask
their favorite player a question on an exclusive
Facebook chat starting at 1 pm.
Most of the time, a hardcore fan will join every social network the team has, but that does not mean
you can’t find new interest.
Social media is a powerful medium that can have
your content going viral across many platforms in a
matter of minutes.
Yes, we are focusing on Facebook in this guide, but
by integrating and cross-promoting to other networks, you reach can do nothing by grow.


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#9:

AUTOMATION
Now, engaging fans and growing a loyal following is all about personalization. So how does marketing
automation fit in? Well the simple answer is, it makes things easier to plan, manage and implement at the
exact time needed.
You no longer have to worry about staff sitting at the ready to interact with fans when it comes to more
generic messages.
With Facebook, automation software allows you to set up two types of Facebook messages.
The first being typical posts that you can set in advance to help populate your wall. This is best for content you know
is not going to change. Like reminders for other functions, game day start times, photos of players to celebrate birthdays and whatever you can think up.
These posts can be all create in one batch and set up to automatically post. Your page won’t come across
as robotic, assuming you mix it with a lot of “human” posts.
The second type of automated post that is becoming more and more popular is a trigger-based post.
A fan taking an action like signing up to an event or downloading the team’s app. Then a post will be added to that
fan’s personal Facebook wall, saying what they just did and opening it up for their friends to do the same.


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#10:

BEST PRACTICES
Best practices are what you should be doing for
success in marketing. When it comes to Facebook,
there are a lot of suggested ways to go in order to
boost the likes on your page.
But we are going to focus on the few that are musts
if you want to pull in the hardcore sports fan.
First, try to stay away from generic and blanket
statements. Have a little edge to your words. After
all you are representing a sports team, not a law
firm.
Talk with some confidence or bravado. Motivate
fans to take a stand one way or the other. Leading
up to a game, get fans fired up with content that
says the win will be ours.
An example is a simple fill in the blank post: Tonight,
the Red Sox are going to ____ against the Cardinals.

profile image in the first thing someone will see.
For the most part it will be of the team logo but it is
okay to be creative.
If you are thinking of text in your profile image,
remember it shows up on news feeds and mobile
phones very small. If the words matter, nobody will
be able to read it.
The timeline photo is your first impression maker.
Don’t skimp with a low resolution image. Make it
pop. Use an image that represents your brand and
don’t overdo it. Also avoid a lot of text or anything
with a sales pitch. When in doubt, have fun with it.
In the end, take your readers into consideration before doing anything with your Facebook page. Fans
will think of the page as their home or community,
so let them drive the conversation and what you
add as content.

Like mentioned earlier, if you have a posting strategy (and you should), you need to stick to it. Don’t
all of a sudden post 25 times in an hour.
You need to be a real person and make it personal
when posting. Think about what posts stand out
on your own Facebook page. Yep, you know what
stands out and what looks a little to generic.
You also have to do more than post. You need to
respond to fans. If they leave comments or ask
questions, you need to act. Don’t hide. Even if it is
negative, you should respond in a way that shows
you are hearing them and understand their pains.
Posting photos has to be a part of your overall strategy. It is a proven fact that images shoot engagement rates through the roof.
Then there is your profile and timeline photo. Your


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DRIVE FAN ENGAGEMENT
WITH FACEBOOK MARKETING
As a sports organization with thousands of hardcore
fans, you know if you give them a place to feel a
part of an online community, they will flock to it.
Facebook is the perfect place to build and foster
this community because everyone (or mostly everyone) is already using the world’s largest social
network.
All you need to do is get them to like you and
provide engaging content. Yes, that is simpler than
it sounds but if you stick to the above tips, your
franchise, league or brand will have a Facebook
page that is full of opinions, likes, shares and highly
engaged fans.

www.simplycast.com | 1.866.323.6572 ext.1
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Facebook Marketing For Sports Teams

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