Baseball is back! To quote lyrics from the Go Cubs Go song, ‘Baseball season’s underway, well you better get ready for a brand new day.’ With opening day today in Milwaukee, I want to take a look at what businesses can learn from MLB to correctly do social media. I am Brewers fan, so I am biased to their social media. First, I was happy for the Cubs that they won the World Series in 2016. It was cool to see the city so electric, was extremely awesome. I remember the Brewers playoff run in 2011, going to all the home games and feeling the city pounding beneath my foot. It’s what playoff baseball is all about and what baseball can do for a city.
First, speaking of what baseball can do for a city. The tailgating has already begun in Milwaukee with exhibition games at Miller park. If the exhibition games excitement and turnout are any indication, the area pubs, like Kelly’s Bleachers are going to be in for a good year. In Milwaukee, Opening Day of the baseball season is a national holiday. For the pubs around Miller Park, it is their second busiest day of the year by 4 times as much. It’s an all day event.
With the crack of bat, peanuts, hot dogs, and ice cold beer; America’s pastime is back!
What Brands Can Learn From the MLB’s Social Media Strategy
Be Engaging With Your Consumers
The best digital marketers understand that social media is a two-way street. It’s not about you. It’s about the consumer. Sports is an excellent example to illustrate how brands can better engage with fans and each other. On the MLB Fans app, fans can engage with MLB officials, participate in fan forums, upload photos and videos, and chat with other fans. Social media as allowed the fans voice to be heard and includes them in the brand experience. With Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, fans can interact with other fans, the team and beat reporters during the game. It allows the teams and the MLB to engage in the dialogue with the fans, answer questions, etc.
Create Content Centered Around DigitalÂ
I think we all know the importance of mobile and how anything that you create should be mobile friendly. I often see brands not moving beyond the traditional marketing to extend to the consumers critical touch points, which is on their mobile device. Consumers may not be able to watch a full baseball game due to other commitments. What the MLB and their teams are doing, is they are offering different avenues for their fans to catch the game. They are posting videos of a highlight that recently happened, after the game they posting video highlights in a condensed version for their fans to view the game. This is allowing fans to view the games on their own time and keeping them engaged. They can relive the game they were at or witnessed the previous night, the next morning. Plus, during baseball season, their mobile app, MLB At Bat, is accessed more than 5 millions times a day by more than 1 millions unique users. These users are watching full games on their mobile phones, the MLB is utilizing the app to create digestible content for fans to get the information they are looking in the 15 minutes they are spending on the app.
Visuals Are King
People upload more than 1.8 billion images a day. Major League Baseball understands this. They are masters of the visual storytelling, capturing the drama of the late inning home run, the beauty of the diamond, the impact of the strikeout, and even the joyful moments off the field. They are probably the best at GIFs, utilizing them on all of their platforms. They allow fans to watch on spectacular play after another on an infinite look of baseball. Sports is a collection of memorable moments that us fans love to talk about and relive, the beauty of the MLB’s visuals capture those moments for us to relive year after year. The visuals that they are producing are conversation starters to allow fans to carry on the excitement of the play they witnessed when it happened live.
Extend the Story Beyond the Game
In today’s hyper-connected world. Fans want to know every aspect of the team. They no longer want to just go to a ball game, they want to connect with the team, the players and see what is happening behind the scenes. Fans also expect that their in-stadium experience will be enhanced by digital technology, allowing fans to be part of the story, creating their own story and extending the story. They want to see their favorite ball players outside of the game, what the team is doing, the goofy fun times, etc. Fans love seeing their team dressed up as they are getting on the plan for a road trip or doing a music video to a hit song. It’s telling the story of the team outside of the game. Inside the stadium, fans want an experience that includes Wi-Fi access, so they can access the apps on their fan to order food from their seat or watching replays from a different angle. Basically, a ballpark experience that is the same or better than at home.
During the Super Bowl, the Brewers launched their own Super Bowl commercial on their Facebook page to promote the upcoming. I thought that the video was powerful and extremely will done and it centered on, that it’s the fans team. I also liked it because it demonstrates that brands can get involved with their fans on line during the biggest game of the year as long as it relates. Great way to start a conversation and keeping the fans engaged when consumers are not thinking about you and your product may not be in season yet.
This is just my thoughts on how I think brands can learn for MLB and their teams on how they are connecting with fans. Sports bring people together. It’s a way for us to step out of our normal lives for a short period of time and come together with people for a common interest, cheering our team on. Baseball is america’s pastime, something we all grew up watching, so it’s only fitting the baseball is a good example of connecting with fans on social media. Is there anything that you would like to add? What is your favorite baseball moment on social media?
Play Ball!!
