The five-person WWE Social Media Team, led by Director of Social Media Corey Clayton, has a myriad of responsibilities, ranging from education, brand awareness, social corporate responsibility and most importantly fan-Superstar interaction. The team utilizes 11 major platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube and Tout, totaling more than 144 millions users. As such, WWE has become one of the most well known and influential brands in the social space, more followed and influential than the NHL, PGA, UFC, Nike, Pepsi and Disney. The WWE team is based in Stamford, Conn., but travels to arenas across the globe to create engaging content, interact with fans in real time and consult our Superstars and Divas on how to best integrate social engagement into their personal and professional lives. The WWE Social Media Team encompasses a Director of Social Media and three traveling Social Media Managers, covering more than 300 local live events and television productions a year. Additionally, a Social Media Editor based at our headquarters in Stamford, Conn., acts as liaison between our WWE.com content team, marketing, public relations and sales. Our traveling Social Media Managers are responsible for collaborating with the writing staff to integrate social components into our television programs reaching more than 14 million weekly television viewers. This includes WWE Monday Night Raw, the longest-running weekly episodic television program of more than 20 years. Our managers’ presence affects the show in three specific ways: fan interaction throughout the show, storyline development and social integration, and information gathering and data analysis. Specifically, we have integrated fan and talent tweets in a Twitter ticker that provides commentary and sustains conversation on the program’s matches and promotions. Fans watching the show also have the ability to effect the show's outcome by participating in polling contests via WWE.com, WWE Active (WWE mobile app), and specific Twitter hashtags. These efforts have led to the following: • More than 1.3 million social mentions per week, with our shows WWE Raw and WWE SmackDown frequently No. 1 in social media mentions for both broadcast and cable television on their air dates. (Trendrr) • WWE's Facebook network, which includes 121 Superstar and brand pages, saw an 83 percent gain from 2011 to 2012 with a combined following of 97 million Facebook fans. • Seven Superstars with more than 1 million Twitter followers, 21 with more than 500,000 and 72 with more than 100,000. • More than 1 million YouTube subscribers watching 69 million minutes of original content per month. In summary, our team relies on more than facts and figures when defining success. While we are incredibly proud of our past accomplishments, we are always looking for new and exciting ways to engage our most important constituency, the WWE Universe.
More recently, one of our flagship television programs, Friday Night SmackDown will highlight WWE's commitment to social by running a pilot episode dubbed “Social Media SmackDown (SMS)" featuring live commentary, fan Twitter ticker and a live chat with talent. While this is a pilot program, it spotlights the conscious effort WWE has on remaining a leader in the social media space. (More details: http://youtu.be/YDBNClXaBuU)
