Arizona Coyotes - Social Media
01 - Responsibilities
I was entirely responsible for TikTok throughout the 23-24 season which involved me scheduling, creating, and posting all TikToks. I was also a largely responsible for running the official Coyotes Instagram during gamedays and non-gamedays. I handled all Instagram stories and assisted with copywriting and posting of main feed content. My contributions to Twitter (X) came in the form of unique copywriting during gamedays and creating unique posts that would boost engagement during non-gamedays. I also managed the outflow of media availabilities (Ie player and coach interviews) on YouTube and Kiswe (a direct-to-consumer streaming service).
I leveraged Wrike to streamline my requests for the graphics team and production team. I also utilized Sprout Social, a social listening software, to conduct competitive analyses, understand audiences, track trends within the organization, and generate reports for my managers. I contributed to the content calendar that was housed in TeamUp, a collaborative content calendar. I also utilized Excel to track gameday content so that my manager and I could see in real-time what was already done and what needed to be done.
My responsibilities for curating and posting content encapsulated half of my job as the other half involved my creative use of Premiere Pro, Capcut, ClipPro, Photoshop, and Slate. I was responsible for updating the score graphics during home and away game days. I utilized Getty Images, Greenfly, and our team photographer to select an image that I deemed the best fit for the current period of the game, which would then be photoshopped into the score graphic. I was also responsible for editing videos in Premiere Pro and Capcut which all required on-the-fly editing skills so that a video could be shot, edited, and posted within 5 minutes. Slate Teams was an invaluable asset for watermarking and re-sizing but most importantly allowed me to quickly mark up posts with our team-specific colors and fonts.
My favorite part about my role at the Coyotes is that I made the decisions on what pieces of content would be posted and how the message was delivered, which gave me a new outlook on social media as a whole.
Josh Doan skates onto the ice for his NHL debut, and to the right you can see me capturing the video of his rookie lap which would be re-posted by major NHL media outlets like Bardown and TSN.
02 - Social Media Strategy
My creative process begins with defining our goals for the specific project and then identifying which channels we should use. For instance, I was tasked with increasing engagement on TikTok and the first step was to sit down with my manager and build a content plan. The content plan was based on 3 factors: audience, trends, and feasibility. I would then come up with TikTok ideas that would be feasible, on-trend, and most importantly speak to our selected audience. The NHL mandated that each team must post at least twice a week on TikTok, but I took that a step further with almost daily content. A huge part of social media strategy for me is understanding the channel-specific algorithms as TikTok content can not be posted on Facebook, especially at the same frequency. Facebook penalizes users for posting too much and will not show your followers posts if you do more than 2 pieces of content a day, whereas TikTok’s algorithm encourages users to post more.
The diversity of social media campaigns allowed me to get a better picture of what it takes to get results. For instance, I was tasked with boosting season ticket sales but I had no idea where to begin. I looked back on a past campaign that revolved around getting people to sign up for Coyotes Pick Em and I noticed that most sign-ups were coming from Instagram Stories. I used Sprout Social to look back on what story posts were generating the most tap-backs and most interactions. I then implemented what worked best for that campaign into the season ticket sales campaign which led to an increase in season ticket purchases on or after home game days.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to social media strategy at the Coyotes as I worked on projects with influencers, projects with players, and projects that featured corporate partners.
03 - Creative Process
I approached each post with an eye for detail and constantly gave my managers updates when possible. I utilized each platform’s features to make our posts stand out more while also helping to achieve a project goal. For instance, I introduced the reaction button on Instagram stories, which helped to boost our engagements by 4% compared to last year’s period. I also pioneered the use of TikTok stories on home gamedays, which increased our overall home gameday viewership by 20,000+. I injected my creativity where I saw it fit and one example of that was when I led my campaign centered around the new Ray Ban Meta Glasses. The glasses were sitting in a drawer collecting dust, however, I saw them as an asset to our brand and I did something no other team in the NHL had done. I pitched a slide deck to my managers who gave me the green light to give the glasses to our ice crew, Zamboni driver, drummers, and fans so that our viewers could watch hockey in a way they had never seen before, a true POV experience.
My creative process is defined by pushing the boundaries of what can be done on social media within the confines of the various channels while also collaborating with my team to create content that is exciting, unique, and goal-oriented.
Creating Engagement
For this specific milestone post I wanted to try something different in the copy. I decided to give our followers the extra push by including a CTA (call to action) in the copy, which ended up working so well we used a CTA for each milestone after this.
Eye Catching Content
I always made sure to take full advantage of each channel’s unique capabilities. The swipe feature on Instagram slideshows is a smart way to stop users from endlessly scrolling and gets them to see more of YOUR content. For this post I wanted it to look professional and clean because I knew it would be a collaboration post with NHL Australia, so it had to look at home on their main page as well.
On Trend
It is always crucial to know your audience, in fact, it’s the most important aspect of social media marketing. TikTok is dominated by Gen Z so the type of content one makes must be catered to their liking. It was important for me to follow general sports trends and other global trends to be in a position to come up with creative content and most importantly cater to the Gen Z audience.
Knowing the Brand Voice
I was looking at Twitter one day when the trade buzz around Shohei Ohtani was at an all-time high. I came up with the idea to make a post on X that day with a reference to Shohei Ohtani so that we could boost engagement on the Coyote’s main X profile. The post soon became the #1 viewed post on the Coyotes X profile and I knew I could do this because our brand voice was humourous and relaxed.