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Riding the wild meme: Why the benefits are worth the risks

When it comes to social media, sports dominates the conversation.

This year’s World Cup shattered engagement records on Facebook and Twitter as passionate fans around the world cheered, talked trash, and reacted to live action. The final match, between Germany and Argentina, peaked at more than 600,000 tweets a minute.

Besides being a free 24/7 line to fans, social media’s best value for sports marketers is the power to connect with them on a personal level. Nothing exemplifies this better than memes.

The term “meme” is all-encompassing for humorous visual content that spreads virally online surrounding a popular topic or event. They come in different shapes and sizes, usually expressed in images, GIFs, illustrations, animations or videos. Some are deliberate and lasting. Others are reactive and short-lived, which is often the case in sports.

Whatever the case, savvy teams and leagues are increasingly using memes to successfully engage fans, demonstrate creativity, and expand reach.

“Memes allow us to drive conversation and engage with a larger audience than we might normally speak to,” says Chris Schlosser, vice president of digital for Major League Soccer. “A great example of this is #Henrying, where we took a great goal celebration by Red Bulls star Thierry Henry and added pop culture and humor to his pose. With a couple of seed posts the campaign spread like wildfire across the globe.”

Three memes that sports properties have capitalized on, top to bottom: #HunterPenceSigns, #Henrying, and the NBA pop culture crossover hashtags.
In the age of mobile and social media, it doesn’t take much to trigger a wildly popular meme. Especially when the athletes get directly involved in the fun.

“#HunterPenceSigns is a perfect example of how something started offline with two fans in New York bringing signs to the game and how social media took it to another level,” says Bryan Srabian, director of digital media for the San Francisco Giants. “Hunter Pence enjoyed the meme so much he made a video celebrating it and has even made his own #HunterPenceSigns.”

Memes are, by definition, popular. This is directly attributable to their

shareable, entertaining and participatory nature.

As the social platform that drives real-time conversation, Twitter is where most sports-centric memes take flight while the resulting content is easily repackaged for more visual platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr.

Primarily circulating among tech-savvy millennials, many of whom are sports fans, some rise to achieve mainstream status.

One recent example is the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which raised a staggering $100 million in a single

month for the disease through a series of short, entertaining clips.

In today’s ultra-competitive sports digital media landscape, teams must craft a distinct voice and brand identity that gives fans a reason to follow.

“Memes show that human element and authenticity that makes it fun for fans,” says Kevin Cote, senior director of digital for the Golden State Warriors. “It’s speaking the language of social media.”

While their upside is readily apparent, using memes can backfire when done wrong. At worst, insensitive and emotionally charged posts from high-profile accounts spiral out of control into PR nightmares. At best, they come across as lame and inauthentic attempts to be part of the conversation.

The most successful brands avoid these outcomes by relying on experience and preparation to post timely, relevant and thoughtful content.

For example, Google and Adidas staffed social media newsrooms around the clock to capitalize on the global conversation and memorable moments that emerged from this year’s World Cup. Bud Light and Listerine purchased promoted tweets for the #Suarez hashtag just seconds after Uruguay’s forward Luis Suarez controversially bit Italy’s defender Giorgio Chiellini, sparking a firestorm of comedic tweets from fans and brands alike.

While teams of copywriters and multimillion-dollar social advertising budgets are not necessary ingredients for success, knowledge of your audience and some elementary Photoshop skills will serve you well.

Social listening is another prerequisite. After all, how can you productively contribute to a conversation if you don’t know it exists?

In June 2014, the Warriors’ digital team noticed fans on Twitter engaging in a clever game of wordplay involving NBA athletes and musical artists under the #NBAMusicians hashtag.

The Warriors recognized this as an opportunity to showcase some personality and add value to what would grow into a worldwide trending topic.

“From a branding standpoint, we were able to show why participating in memes like this can be valuable,” Cote says. “To insert yourself into a worldwide trending conversation, and to do that organically, is a fun and genuine way to display a conversational tone that ultimately shines a positive light on the brand.”

This mashup of players and pop culture laid the foundation for a burgeoning NBA meme franchise that now includes #NBAMovies, #NBASitcoms, #NBASuperHeroes and #NBABedtimeStories.

Each series typically lasts several hours and provides an intimate exchange among team, league, player and fan that could only be facilitated through social media.

The Warriors often highlight the best fan contributions through retweets, mentions and articles on the team website. Sometimes the players themselves get in on the action and retweet.

The fact that the NBA can strategically activate its fan base to fuel a trending conversation is remarkable and further demonstrates the influence of sports on social media.

“There’s no exact recipe for creating a good meme, but confidence in your brand voice and understanding that social media is a place people generally go to for entertainment is a good place to start,” adds MLS’s Schlosser.

Social platforms are in a constant state of flux, making it critical for sports marketers to experiment with content and engagement tactics. Memes are just one small part of the content mix, but are critical to a well-rounded social strategy. Make sure you don’t miss out on the next conversation.

Steve Cobb (steve@hashtagsports.com) is the partner and co-founder of Hashtag Sports and #SportsConf. Follow him on Twitter @steve_cobb.

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