Social media plays a massive role in the public image of a sports digital publishers. Whether it is Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat, the opportunities to create a brand image are limitless for these companies. That image is driven by the way the company engages with their audience and their sports content distribution.
The content portion of this equation is more or less consistent throughout the social media world, especially in sports. All of these companies are more than capable of creating professional content that is blasted out to their followers.
This is why the engagement factor holds more weight. Some accounts are incredibly active with their followers, which in turn gives a sense of value to the follower. People take pride when they see that their favourite accounts interact/follow them.
It has been shown that there is a direct correlation between audience engagement and a brand’s image. The more that you engage with your followers, the more positive of an image your audience creates with your brand.
This engagement can be done in a variety of ways. It can simply be retweeting/liking a reply to your initial post. Or you can stretch it to interacting with your own content.
The Chicago Cubs, a team in the MLB, are doing their best to create content in their offseason. This is a very challenging task because of the lack of material the team is working with until the season begins. However, they have run a recent campaign that has performed very well.
With just over two weeks remaining until pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training, the Cubs are finishing their #CubsSuperlatives campaign. The campaign is centred around the accounts’ followers voting for various comedic awards that would best fit the Cubs’ players.
Best golfer? Debatable.
Sweetest home run swing? Perhaps.Reply with your #CubsSuperlatives for @JLester34 and we'll put our four favorites to a fan vote! pic.twitter.com/oJ8lpAssgF
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) January 27, 2018
Over 10,000 people have voted on their most recent superlative which focuses on starting pitcher Jon Lester. While 10,000 may seem like a small figure when you have over 2 million followers, it brings people back to their account in a period where their organisation isn’t in season. Which is the main objective of the campaign. The engagement brings people to your profile, which is your end goal.
