Sports: How leaders of digital media engage fans
On March 11th, we gathered some of the top digital thinkers in sports media to share the experiences and lessons they’ve acquired over the years of running some of the biggest digital projects in online sports.
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You have to go beyond the play-by-play and instant arm-chair analysis. For the people at games give people a sense of the drama and what the feel of the game. For others, provide real inside and inside information. -
For all our guests: Who do you follow/read in online sports media and why? -
Some love for Sports Illustrated from our audience:I'm a big fan of Luke Winn at SI. His college basketball coverage is second-to-none. He offers great analysis of stats that make for great reading: interesting and digestible.
ALat 11:32 AM -
Go outside your comfort zone. For me that's outside of sports. Political bloggers, local news types, CNN, people on the front lines. See what works in other areas outside of sports and apply it.
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BJ, following that theme, what methods have you brought over from other media topics and applied to what you do at SI?
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There are too many to be specific, but I can try and categorize the kinds of people I follow. I enjoy people who do the statistical analysis I don't do, people with unique, quirky takes on sports, beat writers who chronicle every step and national columnists. Also, I use social media for most of my news so I echo the use of CNN/AP news feeds -
Let's ask the big guys for some advice for the little guys. Matt and BJ, what content advice do you have for smaller media sites? How can they achieve success with limited resources?
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As for following-- I set up Twitter lists for hockey media / influencers twitter.com as well as our fans and Sabres blogs/influencers twitter.com and local media twitter.com that I mainly follow to stay up on everything.. pretty hockey/Buffalo focused in my reading. -
Break news. I don't care how small it is, it will resonate. And drive the conversation. People will want to be a part of it.
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How can a small site drive the conversation? What's the best method for that?
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Take a local event and make it national. It it's a team that overcame the odds, make it appeal to a wide audience. It it's a town issue, people might be interested nationally. Tweet the stories at large organizations and people with a large number of followers.
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Small site should try to build a network either with other small sites or ideally make some contacts at bigger sites that they can occasionally pitch to or at least have some contact with.
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Since 2004, the NFL (perhaps unsurprisingly) and the NBA (a bit more surprising given its total draw relevant to the other major sports) have dominated searches among major US sports leagues.
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On the 'small site' question. We don't try and be the BBC or Sky/Fox. We're not (yet) aiming for massively high productions values - although a few of our bigger clubs are close to that.
Quickly taken, short form works well. Especially when 'consumed' on small mobile device -
We all should strive to be unique and uncommon, regardless of the size of our platform. Small sites can make a big impact by doing just that. People have enough of the vanilla stuff but the more unique you are and the better you are at it, the greater the influence you'll have. A site like ProFootballTalk started out as a little blog run out of a guy's home and he did such a good job with it that the site eventually attracted such a massive following and is the go-to source for everyone who loves football. -
I think one way to be successful at any place, big or small, is to provide an easily accessible one-stop shop. As a fan, can I come to one page on your site and get all the information on my team. Make it easy for people, on any device. -
It's very important to keep an eye on sports trends if you want to stay relevant. To everyone: What are some of the major trends your organization is paying attention to? What keeps you up at night, with respect to ensuring your content and audience strategy remains relevant? Which trends do you think are stale or overplayed?
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A few trends I've seen.... (1) Allowing fans to create content for you and distributing that. (2) Showing personality on social media in addition to being informative. (3) Video, video, video. Video.
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We're keeping on eye on wearable technology, as I'm sure everyone involved with digital publishing is. The format of content as 'cards'
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For those who are thinking about asking a question—please do! (And to those who have already, thank you!) We have allocated time at the end for audience questions, so hold tight. We'll make our best effort to get to your question at that point.
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And also rise of social. Fans coming through organic search are still looking at info such as match reports, buying tickets, fixtures and standings. But newer types of content, such as Buzzfeed-style 10 Signs You Support Team X are more appealing via social.
Fans share content to their social media networks if it makes them look either first or funny, and the article quoting manager saying "We want to win on Saturday" is neither. -
Marc brings up a good point about wearable technology....is anyone else looking at that as a way to create content? Also, to Marc, can you expand on what you mean by "content as cards?"
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I think one trend I've noticed is teams are controlling more of the information and using their platforms to break news and create editorial content. On one hand, I think it's great that teams are willing to let people inside their doors, but, controlling the message can muddle the truth.
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What are the stale trends out there? What do you wish would just go away?
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For us right now, we're trying to find a way to help people filter out the noise on Twitter and social. So much of the conversation on and around sports is happening on social media platforms. What is the best way we can guide and inform the conversation?
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The Boston Globe attended the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference and found 'wearable technology and how the technology and data being poured into each respective sport' among the dominant themes.Wearable technology the new big thing among sports teams
Boston.comPower brokers in the NFL, NBA, NHL, Major League Baseball, and soccer are all present for this weeks MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference at the Hynes Convention Center. -
Last question for everyone before we throw it open to the audience. How do you guys measure your reader and fan engagement. What hard metrics do you use to know what is working?
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Time spent is our measuring stick.
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Metrics. We obviously look at unique visitors, mobile v desktop. But more recently we have focused on frequency and dwell time
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Our barometer is the reach of our content. Sure, it's RTs and likes, but when it's getting quoted in articles and spoken about on TV, then you know you're being successful.
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Wearable tech for sports isn't exactly new, but as The Connectivist found, its potential applications are multiplying rapidly, and the gap between amateur and pro athletes may even close (ever so slightly):
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Every kind of analytics. Will look at it all. Website traffic, retweets, mentions, followers gained, Facebook insights. It all gets taken into consideration.
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Thanks everyone for that last answer! Belinda and I are now going to open the floor up to some audience questions. Here we go!
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This first question is directed to Matthew:
Would love to hear more about ESPN's thinking and strategy behind their use of Medium (Which I think is an underutilized network) for the World Cup.
ScottSandalowat 11:17 AM -
I'm not directly, or indirectly, honestly, involved in that project. But we want to create a one-stop shop for people to find what they need and want.
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Alright, on to the next. This one is for everyone:
How do you make yourselves stand out when it's a big event that everybody is tweeting or covering? what do you do to engage fans that differentiates yourselves?
Andrew McKayat 11:13 AM -
For me, I try to inject as much of my personality into my reporting/tweeting etc. without getting myself into any trouble. I think it helps readers connect with me, and my feeling is that if you follow me on Twitter or read my writing, you have a pretty good idea of the things I like, the stuff that makes me laugh and the things I find most interesting.
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Pictures, videos and giving people information they can't get anywhere else goes along way. For example, just spotted Pat Riley and he said LeBron told him an hour ago he would have the game of his life.
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As we discussed before, any inside, behind-the-scenes type content or anything that *most* fans even don't see. I'd also say at least from a team's account POV, the team account can have some fun with positive moments, get creative, and as the official team account, that tends to get some attention. Some teams for example have used exciting moments as an opportunity to be funny, for example. Timed right, that can definitely go viral.
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We've used Scribble to pull all those tweets and content into one place. We have our reporters on site sending in photos and videos you could only get from being there. And again, we try to present it in a way that makes it easily accessible, no matter where you're coming
to us from. -
Be less corporate, be more fun. That's what people go to sport events for, isn't it? To have fun. We must make sure our platforms reflect that.
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Good answers everyone! Thanks to Ben, Dan, Matthew, BJ, Marc and Craig for taking part in today's online panel. Have a great week!
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