I had the pleasure of joining Nick Cipkus, a sports business pro from Cleveland, recently to answer a few questions about social media and sports. These were my responses:
Nick Cipkus: What is your favorite social media platform for sports? Why?
Ben Zettler: Each platform can serve a very specific purpose to an athlete, team or brand. Snapchat is great for engagement with 18-25 year olds, but with recent feature releases by Instagram (which many have referred to as cloned features), it has quickly become the go-to platform for a marketer focused on both engaging a younger fan base and with the help of some third party tools, driving significant web traffic. Twitter is still the best place to interact from a content perspective in real-time because of the nature of the platform. Facebook is great to reach an older audience with a specific interest that you are attempting to target.
NC: What is one tip you give someone who is interested in working in the digital space for sports?
BZ: If you want to work in the digital space in sports, understand what that means. Do not make the assumption that a hiring manager will say, “Yes,” because you tell them how passionate you are at sports and how much you like using different social platforms for your personal use. If you have a true understanding of what that company or team measures themselves against in terms of KPIs, you will be more likely to show that hiring manager that you can fit well with the organization…and that “passion” will shine through.
NC: What are two books someone should read to improve their knowledge of social media and integration of sports
BZ: Forgetting books…the resources are at your fingertips. Invest time in following relevant industry professionals and marquee teams and brands in sports so that you have a pulse on what is going on in the sports world. There is a lot of noise in the digital space, particularly as it relates to sports. Navigate through that by taking advantage of tools available to you (like Tweetdeck for example), to stay organized. Read online resources (Entrepreneur Magazine, Mashable, Ad Age, Adweek, Business Insider, etc.).
