U.S. Ski & Snowboard Content Marketing Manager Courtney Harkins (@usskiteam) said last Thursday at the Pyeongchang Games was “pretty insane,” as she covered three different events. Speaking from South Korea, she said, “We called it Super Thursday and we had event after event after event. We tried to get to as many as we can to be authentic for social.” As the only person handling social media for the NGB at the Games, along with a videographer and photographer and a content lead, trying to provide comprehensive coverage can be a challenge. Harkins said of Thursday’s coverage, “We try to do as much as we possibly can. We made it to three events and tried to deploy as much content as we possibly could.” The decision making worked out well, as the U.S. medaled in all three events she covered that day. Having joined USSS after the Sochi Games, her colleagues helped prepare her for Pyeongchang, where she had been for almost a month. She said, “I came in expecting little sleep and high amounts of work. My mental preparation was good: You don’t sleep much and you just hammer through everything.” Harkins is already seeing her effort pay off. USSS’ Facebook page had 170,000 followers prior to the Games, and is now over 600,000.
SOCIAL SNAPSHOT
Must-follows: The NBA, as they really set the bar for different things.
Favorite app: Definitely Twitter loyal.
Average time per day on social media: In some form or fashion, 12 hours or so a day.
Olympic experience:
It has been such an amazing experience. It’s been really incredible to see the ability level of the athletes, but also the magic that surrounds it. We go to World Cups all year long, but this is so different. The feelings are different, and the vibes are different. Watching Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall win Gold in cross country skiing was one of the most emotional sports moments I have ever been part of.
What worked:
The coolest part about the Olympics is the emotional side, and any time I can relay that emotion via social so that someone at home in front of their computer or on their phone can experience that emotion and live it on their own, is when it’s a success.
What did not work:
There’s plenty that didn’t work. That’s the nature of social media. You post something and think, “That will do super well” and then it doesn’t. We have a cool video of David Wise breaking down all of the men’s halfpipe competitors and saying this is the strongest team we’ve ever had. He goes out 12 hours later and wins the halfpipe, wins Gold and one of the other guys talks about winning Silver. But the video just sort of flopped on social media. But why? So now we can re-use that now that they won two medals and see if we can get more of a bump behind it.
Post-Olympic social media plans:
It stays the same. It will be a little more planned and a little less fly by the seat of your pants. As much as you want to have a content plan and everything is set in stone, it changes by the minute, which is both cool and exhausting. We’ve had so many learning experiences here that we’ll be able to parlay into social for the regular season.
Promoting new standouts:
We are sort of responsible for making them into household names. They are on our team and we have to build up their persona that is going to be public facing. Jessie Diggins is a perfect example of that, Red Gerard is a perfect example of that. You work with the athletes and their representation, and we have a great PR head here, and we make sure we are getting them in front of the right people and getting them on the right magazine covers and talking to Jimmy Fallon, CNN or whatever fits their brand.
Athletes, NGBs that did well on social media during Games:
Team USA does a great job. They have a fun voice. NBC Olympics has also been really impressive. They have cool, fun videos and their captions are hilarious and they keep it really relevant for non-hardcore Olympic fans. Mikaela Shiffrin does a great job; she is super authentic and comes out and says exactly what she is thinking but in a sweet way. And Matt Hamilton because he has a great mustache.
