The NFL Media Group set out to generate a myriad of social experiences connecting our audience directly to us. We wanted to know what our fans were thinking and feeling about the latest news and hottest topics. Most importantly, we aimed to deliver content they wanted--content that mattered to them. By integrating social content into our broadcast, we gave fans a front-row seat at our table and a voice to join our conversations. This would ultimately provide an entertaining experience where they we were talking to them and not at them
Our strategy was simple: Find it. Get creative. Integrate it.
Find it:
Our social media team mined social platforms from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine, and Reddit on a daily basis to curate the most interesting stories and trending topics. If it was out there in a social space, we were consuming it and finding ways to fold the content into our shows.
Get creative:
We would let the social content act as a catalyst to get creative. When the Eagles constructed a "game tunnel" https://twitter.com/JuliaTerruso/status/6626371935 it got us thinking, and we decided to follow their lead and start our show with a "game/entrance" tunnel as well. We jumped into the Jimmy Fallon/Justin Timberlake #mugception conversation when JJ Watt opened the door for football to join the fun. When video of the Milford Might Mites went viral because they were not able to run thru their banner--we jumped in and offered them a second chance to rectify the mishap http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-network-gameday/0ap3
The possibilities were endless and we loved it!
Integrate it:
We knew there was a lot of social content out there and the most important thing was to integrate it seamlessly and quickly. We anticipated the varying types of social elements such as tweets, vines, videos, images and posts and got ahead of the game. We created turnkey templates and visualization that would interface and integrate social with a click or touch of a few buttons. Daily offerings that employed turnkey template were our Trending Wall:
http://204.141.132.51/Preview/ACCESS_WED_LINE_021716-PREVIEW.mp4
We also developed visualizations in the form of mosaics
http://204.141.132.51/Preview/MY_FACE_WIN_FOR_SHORTIES_THU_021116-PREVIEW.mp4
dashboards
http://204.141.132.51/Preview/EMMY_REELS_SELECT_WED_020316-PREVIEW.mp4
polling visualizations
http://204.141.132.51/Preview/SM_SIZZLE_FRI_012916_3-PREVIEW.mp4
and games
http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-videos/0ap3000000465216
to leverage the social content we sourced. Being a visual medium, we needed graphics to help us illustrate the story, but recreating something broadcast ready could take a long time. Not wanting to miss the moment and opportunity, we developed graphics that just needed social content to plug in.
Sometimes we needed to recreate charts and graphs to make it more fan-friendly. Facebook provided raw data to us which we created into visually appealing and tangible content for our shows
http://204.141.132.51/Preview/access_sat_line_091215_4621_5m.mp4
For our events such as Super Bowl and Draft, we created a "social media command center" which served as a destination to explore, experience and highlight social and user-generated content.
We were prepared for any and all social content.
We had a success year integrating social. We were recognized by Spredfast with the honor of their "Social First" award--meaning we are a brand who successfully employs a "social first" strategy. We added show specific handles for all the social content and conversation we've been generating.
Tweets from @NFLTotalAccess received 5k-500K impressions per post and averaged 600-52K engagements per post.
https://twitter.com/NFLTotalAccess?ref_src=twsrc%5...
While @NFLGameDay handle on twitter gained 9K-210K impressions per post and 260-12K engagements per post.
https://twitter.com/NFLGameDay
