The Boston Celtics Dominate Online Marketing
In many ways, social media marketing is a balancing act. It’s a creative strategy that you carry out on a day to day basis, all the while keeping your end goals in mind. In many cases, the main objective behind building a social media presence around your business is to drive traffic to your website. However, what many businesses and individuals fail to realize is that it isn’t necessarily about the number of “followers”, “likes”, or “fans” your social media page receives. It’s about building a following of people who genuinely care about your brand and message, will pass along your messages, and who will interact and engage with you on a daily basis. Businesses that operate excellent social media strategies reciprocate by interacting with their followers and fans, and offer them something unique and worth while.
Social Media Presence
With our headquarters in Boston, MA, the Hide & Seek Media Group is lucky enough to be in one of the greatest sports hubs in the world (don’t be haters, New York). Many national sports teams are active with social media marketing, but in our opinion, the Boston Celtics are a terrific example of social media excellence. The organization carefully balances their social media output, and is able to successfully drive traffic to their homepage not just during game time, but around the clock. The team’s home games are almost always sold out, with a building capacity of around 18,600. However, they are able to interact and engage with fans who are not at the Garden through their social media networks.
“Now that we’re at this sold-out state, it’s more difficult to get into the game and fans can’t get tickets,’’ said Rich Gotham, the team’s president. “We want to make sure we don’t forget about those fans. We want to keep them interested and keep them loyal.’’
While a lot of fans are watching the games on TV, many of them are also tweeting about them, posting status updates, and following game updates online. In fact, traffic to the Celtics website spikes nearly 100% during games.
“With sold-out games, we have 18,624 people in the building. But we could have over 20,000 online at Celtics.com,’’ said Shawn Sullivan, chief marketing officer for the Celtics. “It’s almost like there is a whole other game going on.’’
Fan Interaction and Engagement
In addition to making the Celtics homepage a destination for fans during and after games, the Celtics also have established visibility in other locations where fans are spending time, primarily Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. During games, the Celtics Twitter account provides fans with game updates, stats, photos, and behind-the-scenes news updates. Exclusive video is shared on the team’s YouTube channel with fans every week, each video garnering hundreds and thousands of views. And the team’s Facebook page offers fan’s weekly articles, interviews, ticket opportunities, and the “Three-Point Play” Facebook App, which allows fans to predict the statistical output of their favorite players, and compete against other Celtics fans.
“Our goals in creating 3-Point Play were, first, to create an online experience that would resonate with fans and keep them engaged throughout the season, and second, to design a marketing tool that would help the Celtics get to know their Facebook fans even better, allowing them to create a more relevant and compelling marketing strategy for this community of digital consumers,” said Scott Savitt, Molecular Senior Vice President.
The Celtics are a terrific example of social media excellence. While their primary objective is to drive traffic to their website, they have also given themselves visibility on several important online platforms where their fans are located, and are interacting with creative methods. Their online interaction and engagement with the public helps them strengthen the relationships they have with their fans and attract new ones. The organization’s online community continues to grow, and provides us with a perfect example that we can all learn from.
Cheers,
– Joe from HSM
Credits:
- “How the Boston Celtics are Using Social Media,” Social-Media-Optimization.com
- “Clicking on, off court,” The Boston Globe
- “Celtics Launch “3-Point Play” Facebook Game,” NBA.com/Celtics
Hide & Seek Media is a creative marketing firm with locations in Boston, MA and Park City, UT. If you’re interested in learning more about developing your own creative marketing strategy, shoot us an email and tell us about your business and current marketing goals. Please note: Hide & Seek Media has no affiliation with any persons or organizations mentioned in the above article.
