Every sports blog’s objective is to bring the action closer to its audience. With the help of a social media marketing expert, you get to build on what every sport has in its core – passion. Sports fans have made social media an avenue for checking live game updates and sharing real-time actions. This intense passion for sports has sparked interest in sports blogs to get the ball rolling for social media engagement.

Social Media Marketing Expert: Pushing the Pedal to the Medal

A large part of what a social media marketing expert does involves planning, developing, and managing content on platforms. Furthermore, their expertise rests on crafting strategies to drive website traffic, get the conversation going, and nurture online relationships to keep fan engagement alive. In fact, the significance of keeping fans engaged isn’t lost on sports brands and even international sports associations like FIFA.

For the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, FIFA.com and the FIFA Apps received over 130 million visitors since the start of the tournament. FIFA’s total followers on social media platforms surpassed the 120-million mark. They even set up a dedicated community on their social media platforms and recorded more than 100,000 questions answered. Evidently, what FIFA has done for the 2018 World Cup is a good example of successfully expanding social presence to connect with more fans around the world.

A social media marketing expert does more than just map out a comprehensive online marketing plan. They analyze campaigns and measure their impact. Most importantly, you can trust them to entice fans to champion your content and set the passion for sports ablaze.

Harnessing Fan Engagement with a Social Media Manager

Regular engagement with fans and followers proves that you’re interested in more than just telling them about the games. It gives you a firsthand look at what they want to see and talk about in your blog.

Knowing your target audience for a sports blog is easy. That’s because there are always people who share the same interest and love for sports. The challenge is how to turn this interest into conversations around your daily posts, news, forums, and sports team profiles. How do you build an audience to make your sports blog the G.O.A.T.? Here are some social media strategies that you can use for your sports blog:

1. Stretching the pre-game excitement. Social media managers for sports blogs curate content before the games officially begin. This is where they incorporate the key details of the game. They can re-acquaint readers with the athletes to remind them of why they like the game in the first place. They can post a video of past seasons and champion the athletes playing in the upcoming season by including their profiles and shots of their training sessions to add to the excitement.
2. Keeping the momentum throughout the game. Get traffic going during the game by letting your social media marketing expert handle live blogging or live-tweeting of the game. They can capture photos of game-defining moments and post them along with creative captions to further promote your content. Creating polls is also an effective way to get live feedback on the action during halftime.
3. Gathering fans in a huddle. Add more fan engagement by encouraging them to share photos of their experience in a moderated online community. However, it’s important to note that engagement does not rely on the number of shares or likes. Your goal is to create a community of people sharing the same interests. Enable comments and shares for your posts and continue the conversation by connecting and directly interacting with fans. A social media marketing expert can tap a community manager to moderate the content shared in the forums and respond to fans on a real-time basis.

Finding you a social media marketing keeper

A social media marketing expert connects your blog with sports fans at the right place and the right time. Armed with the right tools to manage your content, they design strategies to ignite fans’ love for the game. What’s great about finding a professional these days is that it’s made easy. It can be through traditional recruitment or you can opt to find your match through outsourcing digital marketing services.

Still have misgivings about hiring a social media marketing expert? Take a punt by outsourcing a professional for your sports blog. At HOPLA, outsourcing costs are not a problem when it comes to finding a social media manager who will ensure that your sports blog stays relevant in the growing competitive landscape of online marketing. Call us today to learn more about remote staff outsourcing and how to hire the best creative talent for your blog.