PUR3801 Project 1 Social Media Strategy

1. February 21, 2016
Victoria Cela

2. • Executive Summary
• Social Media Audit
• Assessment
• Website Traffic
• Audience/Competitors
• Social Media Objectives
• Online Brand Persona and Voice
• Strategies and Tools
• Timing and Key Dates
• Social Media Roles and Responsibilities
• Social Media Policy
• Critical Response Plan
• Measurement and Reporting Results
Table of Contents

3. • Our major social media priorities for the 2016 offseason
(March-August) will center around increasing our online fans
and followers.
• The primary focus will be to generate future fan followers by increasing
online traffic through what content we publish on our accounts and
when we do so.
Two major social strategies will support this objective:
1. A plan to regulate the frequency and volume of posts published to our
social media platforms.
2. Boost more two-way communication between the team/players and
fans/followers.

4. Social Network URL Followers Activity per Week
Facebook Facebook.com/newengl
andpatriots
6, 463, 819 7+ posts/week
Twitter Twitter.com/patriots 2.3 M 30+ posts/week
Instagram Instagram.com/patriots 1.8 M 10 posts/week
Google+ Plus.google.com/+patri
ots
1, 221, 697 4 posts/week
Pinterest Pinterest.com/patriots 24.4 K 1.9k pins
Vine Vine.co/patriots 145.5 K 9 posts/week
Snapchat Patriots n/a > 5 stories/week
Foursquare Foursquare.com/patrio
ts
27, 513 60+ likes
LinkedIN Linkedin.com/company
/new-england-patriots
7, 847 1 post
At present time, the highest number of interactions per post occurs on Twitter with over 30 posts per
week reaching more than 2.3 million followers. Little to no interaction takes place on Linkedin. It
seems the team merely uses it as a reference page to redirect viewers and followers to the main site.

5. February
2015
February
2016
Source Volume
Twitter 1.2 M
Facebook 2.8 M
Instagram 1.1 M
Vine > 100k
The Patriots’ main site is currently ranked #3,577 in the country based off its website traffic compared to all
other sites. It generated over 4 million hits in January 2016.
*Almost 30% of traffic comes from social media, specifically Facebook.
At present time, Facebook is by far the biggest driver of traffic for the brand. However, the team’s Twitter
account gained over 1 million new followers in the past year alone indicating a significantly high interaction
rate.

6. • > 66,000 average fans attended regular season home games for
the 2015-16 football season
• Based on a study done by Scarborough Sports Marketing in
2011, the following can be deducted:
• The average Patriots fan could be
described as a single, white
male in his early-to-mid thirties.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Male 60%
Female 35%
Age 30-44 45%
Age 45+ 33%
Black 5%
Hispanic 4%

7. Competitor Name Social Media Profile Strengths Weaknesses
Dallas Cowboys Instagram:
Dallas Cowboys
Huge fan base all across
the country; dubbed
“America’s Team”. For the
month of February, they
have had an average of
29,000+ likes per post.
A lot of the photos
resemble one another and
appear to use the same
kind of filter over and over
again.
Miami Dolphins Twitter:
@ MiamiDolphins
Member since February
2009. Does a good job at
promoting specific
hashtags with lots of
different posts and RTs.
Could do a better job of
responding or interacting
with fans on its profile.
New York Jets Facebook:
New York Jets
Good variety of different
posts, from articles and
videos to personal player
photos and updates.
Not many individual
players are necessarily
highlighted nor tagged in
posts.
The above assessment focuses on three major competitors of the Patriots and their presence on three
social media platforms: Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. While the Dolphins and Jets are
competitors more so on the field, the Cowboys rival the Patriots’ brand image and have been
competing for the title of “America’s Team” for quite some time now.

8. • During the 2016 offseason, our main focus is to keep our current
fan figures as is, while trying to generate future fan followers
through our social media platforms.
• To accomplish this, our social media purpose will be for our online
presence to gain more recognition to users outside of the typical fan-
sphere by posting and sharing more content that these individuals
would find more entertaining and even relatable.
• Specific objectives include:
• Increase volume of snaps posted on Snapchat by 30% by the start of the
regular season (approx. 6 months).
• Designate a specific day for each player to “take over” the snapchat account for a
specific time period (one hour).
• Increase Instagram followers by at least 10,000 by the start of the
regular season.

9. Adjectives that describe our
brand:
• Strong
• Loyal
• Entertaining
• Successful
When interacting with
customers we are:
• Helpful
• Welcoming
• Cooperative
• Patient
• Good-humored

10. • Paid:
• Use Facebook account to boost most popular Instagram posts every Friday for the
week.
• * Posts must have generated >20,000 likes and at least 200 comments to be eligible.
• Owned:
• Continue to promote our #FanArtFriday posts on Instagram.
• Encourage submissions by sending out reminders via appropriate social media channels.
• As the season gets closer, offer incentives ( T-shirts, caps, photos, etc.) for best submission.
• Earned:
• Analyze twitter for the following key words and/or hashtags: Gronk, spike,
touchdown, Patriots.
• Top 50 fan accounts to use key words/hashtags the most creatively will be entered in
a drawing to win a personalized, autographed photo of Rob Gronkowski himself.
Tools used- Buffer, Hootsuite, Photoshop

11. Charitable Events
• October:
• Hometown Huddle
• November:
• Thanksgiving-in-a-Basket
• Special Olympics of Massachusetts
Flag Football & Cheering State
Games
• December:
• Children’s Holiday Party
• Gifts from the Gridiron
League/Team Events
• March 9:
• 2016 league year and free
agency period begins at 4 P.M.,
ET.
• April 28-30:
• 2016 NFL Draft
• July-August:
• Patriot Training Camp

12. • Senior Vice President of Marketing and Brand Development:
• Jennifer Ferron
• Director of Digital Media:
• Jana Gauthier
• Senior Director of Marketing Services and Operations:
• Gail Titus
• Social Media Manager:
• Cecily Faenza

13. • As social media continues to become a part of our personal and
business lives, it’s important for employees of the Patriots to keep a
few guidelines in mind:
• Be professional
• Be constructive
• Be supportive
• Be respectful (to everyone: fans, opposing teams, janitorial staff, etc.)
• Create excitement
• Be considerate
• Don’t forget your manners
The New England Patriots do not condone any inappropriate, disorderly or
disrespectful content on our social media pages.
The New England Patriots’ main goal is to maintain fun and engaging
profiles for fans and followers.

14. Scenario: Inappropriate Snap added by player
• Action Plan
1. When Snap is detected:
1. Save Snap (open app, play story, click ’save’ option).
2. Delete Snap.
3. Alert Cecily Faenza (Social Media Manager). If Cecily is unavailable, reach out to
next in charge.
2. Cecily to sync with next in charge to go over aftermath.
3. Cecily to develop appropriate follow-up message for Facebook and
Twitter (largest audiences), next in charge to approve.
4. Cancel Snaps for remainder of day.
5. If media picked up on Snap, Jennifer Ferron (Senior VP of Marketing &
Brand Development) to handle all direct contact.
6. Cecily to sync with Jennifer, Jonathan Kraft (President), Bill Belichick
(Head Coach), and athlete involved to discuss possible consequences.
*Pre-approved messaging: Depends on nature of the Snap.

15. Social Network URL Follower Count Activity per Week
Facebook Facebook.com/newengl
andpatriots
6, 509, 461
+1.5% growth
10 posts/week
(more on weekends)
Twitter Twitter.com/patriots 2.36 M
+2.5%
32+ posts/week
Instagram Instagram.com/patriots 1.81 M
+0.5%
14 posts/week
Snapchat Patriots 20x more views One hr takeover per day
Timeframe: as of March 1, 2016
• Our Instagram account has gained over 8,000 new followers in the past three months, on track to
hit our goal of 10,000 by the 6 month mark. Surprisingly, our Twitter account gained the most new
followers.
• The frequency of posts on the social media profiles have become more organized and scheduled.
It’s important to note our #FanArtFriday has become a huge success since the last report.
• Snapchat take over by the athletes generated a whopping 20x more average story views than
before. Most notably was the take over day with Gronkowski, of which views sky rocketed over
200%.