1. SPORTS and
SOCIAL MEDIA
Same game; different rules
GATEHOUSE NEWS & INTERACTIVE DIVISION
Audio: 888.398.2342 Access code: 585.200.4058

2. PREGAMEWARMUPS
MIKE TURLEY
CONTENT TEAM MANAGER
Large Daily Division / GateHouse
News & Interactive Division
Phone: 585.851.9696
Email: mturley@gatehousemedia.com
Twitter: @ml_turley
Blog: www.ghnewsroom.com/blogs/mike-
turley

3. THELINEUP
• START with some facts and stats.
• WHY reporters should use social
media tools to cover the local
sports scene.
• WHAT social media tools are
available to reporters, and
WHAT they
should cover through social
media.
• WHEN and WHERE reporters
should post the content.

4. THEHISTORY
“Outlined against a blue-gray
October sky, the Four
Horsemen rode again. In
dramatic lore they are known
as Famine, Pestilence,
Destruction, and Death.
These are only aliases. Their
real names are Stuhldreher,
Miller, Crowley and Layden."
— Grantland Rice, sports writer for
the New York Tribune, wrote this lede
graph to his story on the Notre Dame-
Army football game in 1924.

5. NUMBERSGAME
86The percentage of people who will check
sports updates while at work.
Factoid
• “Social media has climbed
to the top as the No. 1 source
for the average person’s sports fix.”
Source: GMR Marketing

6. 81The percentage of sports fans who prefer the
Internet over
radio for sports news.
63The percentage of fans who check on game
updates while
they are at a game.
Source: GMR Marketing
NUMBERSGAME

7. Top sources for breaking
sports news
41 — Percentage of sports fans who turn to
Twitter
and Facebook.
40 — Percentage of people who turn to
national
news websites.
13 — Percentage of people who turn to
television.
4 — Percentage of people who turn to
NUMBERSGAME

8. PLAYINGFIELDS
Print
• A second-day look
at yesterday’s coverage;
platform for previews
and features; medium
of record.
Web
• Multimedia
opportunities;
breaking game coverage.
Social media
• Live platform; high
engagement,
conversational.

9. PLAYINGFIELDS
How adults consume sports content

10. 49The percentage of
U.S. population that owns
a smartphone. Number will
increase to 68 percent by 2017.
89The percentage of 18-24 year-olds who have
their
smartphones with them 22 hours a day.
NUMBERSGAME

11. WHYSOCIALMEDIA?
• Readers will seek out the information; why
not be the one they find?
• Proactive approach allows readers to follow
the action, not just read about it the
next day.
• Fans want to share their opinions and
thoughts when it comes to sports so create
a forum for discussion.
Factoid
• “No one knows more about a sport than its
fans, so
providing a destination where fans can talk
among themselves and create their own
content is the epitome of Web 2.0 thinking.

12. • Increase followers on Twitter, likes on
Facebook, traffic on Web …
• Build a more loyal audience.
• Generate buzz around your name; get people
talking about the brand.
• Increase the reach of your content.
Factoid
• “Without content, social media is a sports
car with an empty gas tank: All show, no
go.”
— Joe Chernov, Content Marketing Institute
WHYSOCIALMEDIA?

13. ESPN approach to Twitter
• To become the breaking sports news wire.
• Cultivate and enhance a growing network of
citizen contributors.
• Provide a first-screen coverage option for
non-televised events.
• Second-screen analysis option for TV events.
• One-on-one, one-to-many communication tool,
or many-to-one.
WHYSOCIALMEDIA?

14. How can we give fans a more
engaging experience?
• TWITTER — Micro-blogging service that allows
you to post real-time updates and short bursts
of information.
• FACEBOOK — Social networking platform that
allows you to connect and share content with
friends.
• PINTEREST — Virtual pinboard that allows you
to create and organize theme-based visual
content.
• INSTAGRAM, VINE — Photo- and video-sharing
social networking services.
TOOLS OF THE TRADE

15. TWITTER
• The percentage of Internet users that
uses this micro-blogging platform has
doubled since 2010 to 16 percent. Twenty-
seven percent of those in the 18-29 age
group use Twitter.
• There are 554,750,000 registered Twitter
users.
• The average number of tweets per day is 58
million.
• 9,100 tweets occur every second.
• Forty-three percent of Twitter users access
their phone to tweet.

16. 5 Twitter tips
• Be active — Twitter is the best way to share
what is happening right now, so tweet what
you are seeing. It’s more than just scores
and stats.
• Engage — Share the experience; don’t tell
it.
• Promote — Create an event-specific hashtag;
let readers know you are covering an event.
• Respond — Pay attention to your followers;
ask questions.
• Retweet — Encourage reader participation.
TWITTER

17. FACEBOOK
• Two-thirds of adults who access
the Internet are Facebook users.
• Eighty-six percent fall in the 18-29 age
group.
• There are 1,110,000,000 monthly active
Facebook users.
• 680,000,000 are mobile Facebook users.
• 700 billion minutes are spent each month
on Facebook.
• 130 is the average number of friends per
Facebook user.
Source: Statistic Brain

18. 5 Facebook tips
• Interact — Create a virtual tailgate; ask
fans to submit photos and details of their
pregame activities.
• Entertain — create polls, contests such as
trivia quizzes.
• Full-court coverage — Provide information
before, during and after games. Fans are
most active during the days leading up to
the event so fuel the fire.
• Respond — Pay attention to the comments.
• Promote — Let readers know what they are
missing on Facebook; conversely, drive
FACEBOOK

19. FACEBOOK
This Facebook
post links
readers to The
State Journal-
Register’s
website and
access to print
versions of the
local high school
football
schedules.

20. PINTEREST
Pinterest is a good platform to
organize theme-driven visual content
such as best pitchers in the
conference, best plays of the season,
etc.
Source: Norwich Bulletin

21. VIDEOTOOLS
INSTAGRAM
• Thirteen percent of Internet users
take and share photos on the platform.
• Twenty-eight percent fall in the 18-29
age
group.
Source: Statistic Brain
VINE
• Five Vines are tweeted every second.
• 19,667 Vines were made amidst the Boston
Marathon bombings.

22. VIDEOTOOLS
Instagram and Vine:
Beyond the lines
• Look for cheerleaders, the
drill team, poms and band.
Shoot a segment of a routine
or song.
• Interview fans in the
stands. Find parents of
athletes and ask how they
deal with the “excitement”
of watching their son or
daughter play.

23. • Blogging platform
used to curate a
timeline
of posts from Twitter,
Facebook, Instagram,
YouTube, etc.
STORIFY
Factoid
• The real-time,
right-now nature of
Twitter is just a
snapshot. Over a
period of time, a
whole story emerges.

24. Taking the first steps
• Recognize cultural shift in way people
consume news.
• Reality of earlier deadlines.
• No longer can rely on print platform to
shoulder
responsibility of result-based content.
• Recognize opportunities to cover prep
sports.
• Become more creative in digital approach.
• Put reporters in position to win with social
media.
• Plan and budget for social media on a daily
GAMECHANGER

25. • Live updates — cancellations, lineup
changes,
crowd and parking updates, alerts
• Interaction and engagement — Who do you
think
is going to win? Who will be the star of
the game?
Note — Box scores and results are static.
WHATTOPOST
Factoid
• Major League Baseball saw a 36-percent
increase in its balloting for the All-Star
Game after hyping the selection process with
a hashtag campaign.
Source: business2community

26. Pregame
• Who is starting?; who is injured?
Gametime
• Problem with goal posts in south endzone;
kickoff pushed back 30 minutes
Postgame
• Video of coach’s decision to go for 2.
www.rrstar.com
Practice time
• Coverage throughout the week to keep readers
engaged.
WHENTOPOST
Factoid
• “Twitter is like a time stamp on a scoop.
If you get it on Twitter first, that’s what a
lot of people are going to recognize at this
point.”

27. Twitter feeds
Use Twitter widgets to embed
Twitter boxes in story on
your
website.
https://twitter.com/about/resources/widgets)
WHERETOPOST
Factoid
• Soccer fans sent 15,358
tweets per second as Spain
scored the winning goal in
the Euro 2012 Finals. It is
the second highest rate in
Twitter history. Sporting
events account for four of
the top five most related
tweets per second.

28. Content turnover …
An app for Illinois Prep
Scores
keeps fans updated on every
football score in the state.
THEOPPONENT
Factoid
• “We need people to be
involved. It is a community
effort. We created this for
the fans. We created a tool
for fans to report scores
to everyone else.”
— John Ingles / Illinois Prep Scores

29. THETAKEAWAYS
• Sports fans are relying on social media to
keep them informed with real-time content and
conversation.
• Sports departments and reporters need to
recognize the cultural change and rethink the
way they gather and report news.
• Determine the right social media tools to
engage readers.
• Develop a game plan — what, when and where
to post.
Factoid
• “(Twitter) is the appetizer we
use to get people hooked on our site’s

30. SPORTS and
SOCIAL MEDIA
Same game; different rules
GATEHOUSE NEWS & INTERACTIVE DIVISION