After a decade in PR with the Dodgers, Yvonne Carrasco (@YvonneCarrasco) began the latest chapter of her career in March, joining Wasserman as Senior Dir of Player Relations. In that role, she helps in the day-to-day management of MLBers Wasserman represents, including Dodgers RF Yasiel Puig and Red Sox DH Hanley Ramirez. She said, “Anything and everything for our players and their families, and to support the baseball agents and what they do. This ranges from player visits, day-to-day stuff, and also for marketing. It’s mostly regional, so far, and seeing those through.” Although Wasserman has a full-time social and digital department that services all team sports as well as brands and properties that are clients of the agency, Carrasco helps MLB clients with some of their social media concerns.
Use of social/digital media in your position:
I keep an eye on what our guys are putting out there, the ones who are active on social media. We assist with their social media -- it’s up to the player. I’m keeping an eye on what they are doing, what they are interested in, what they are tweeting, what they are instagramming. I keep an eye on all teams, major-league and minor-league, that Wasserman has a guy on. Sometimes you find a cool opportunity to collaborate the player’s social media with the team. The Astros were doing something with a ticket package that the Astros were doing with Yuli Gurriel that was really cool and interesting. I contacted the Astros and said we were thinking about doing a quick giveaway on Yuli’s Twitter and if they could support and retweet him.
Biggest social/digital pitfall:
It always goes back to authenticity. The best athletes, the best teams are very good about being authentic on their social media and you can tell. When accounts are too managed, they lose that authenticity, that connection with fans.
Who does a good job on social/digital:
I really enjoy former players’ perspective on the game. Pedro Martinez is one who will comment on really specific things: certain pitchers, certain games they throw and what he thinks they did wrong or right. That is very fascinating counter-perspective. I consume social media in English and Spanish. Las Mayores, which is MLB in Spanish, really upped their game and showed more of the personality of Latino ballplayers across the league. I also like to step away and look at things that have nothing to do with what I work with. In that vein, I like NatGeo Adventure Channel, NASA Astronauts on Twitter. Another name I’ll throw out there is Mario Testino, a famous fashion photographer.
Concerns of Latino players using social/digital media:
I can think of examples that were little red flags where I had to advise on, even in my past job. In terms of that, the players I’ve worked with do a good job of running things by you, like, “Hey, do you think this will be OK?” or “Can you help me write an English caption for this?”
How social/digital has evolved during your career:
Social media platforms weren’t integrated with one another when I first began using social media as a work tool. Now we see, for example, clubs linking to Facebook Live sessions from Twitter etc. Also, the number of ballplayer active on social media clearly has increased over the last few years. Instagram seems to be the most popular app for ballplayers and the one I see the most authenticity from.
Social/digital inspirations:
I like individuals who are connecting their jobs to social in the right way. There are a couple of reporters who I follow that do an awesome job reporting clubhouse news and even teams' news, and then share photos of their pregame work. That’s a nice perspective. They also give very informative nuggets of information on the team and on the players, and they live tweet during the game. There are only a couple of people who can pull it off. As a woman, I like to give my support to other women who do a great job like Marly Rivera, who creates cool content while at different fields and exclusive clips with a lot of the Latino guys. She’s just an awesome follow. I really like Ramona Shelburne from ESPN -- she is a phenomenal writer.
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