Reds Dir of Digital Media Lisa Braun (@Reds) has been running the franchise’s social media accounts for eight years, and has seen her role evolve to include consulting with each department that has its own social accounts to make sure that messaging is consistent with the team's branding. Braun came over to the social media role after two years in a marketing position with the club. Braun: “They decided to split between traditional and non-traditional (media). Of course, eight years later, social media is anything but non-traditional. It’s pretty mainstream.” In that time, social media has grown exponentially. Braun: “When I started, we had a Facebook account and a Twitter account with a few thousand followers. It really has grown. I think we have 1.2 million followers on Facebook alone.” Social media also has afforded the Reds the opportunity to create related accounts for their HOF, Reds Community Fund and more.
SOCIAL SNAPSHOT
Must-follows: I love Chrissy Teigen because she makes me laugh and has a different look at life.
Favorite app: Instagram is probably the app that I’m on the most.
Average time per day on social media: Probably 10 hours a day.
Planning for a long season:
Social media never turns off, never closes. During the season itself, it’s easier to find content. The offseason is more challenging. During the season, you have the games and the wins and the losses. There is always a story out there, which makes what we do really interesting.
Keeping fan interest during perceived rebuilding season:
We don’t have any control over the baseball side. Our biggest thing is keeping the fans updated on the new guys, letting them get to know the new guys. Sometimes fans get frustrated when somebody they got attached to gets traded to another team or not re-signed. Part of our job is making sure these new up-and-coming guys are introduced to the fans and highlighting their successes.
Being the go-to source of information for many fans:
I never really think of it that way. We are the center of everything. We have in terms of overall information a program called Reds Way, which is a customer service training. Everyone who interacts with the fans from the people who work in the parking garage to concessions to the ushers and security, everyone goes through this training. It’s really to enhance the ballpark experience to make sure everyone who comes here has a great time from the second they come here to the second they leave. Social media is a big extension of that.
Whether tone change as season progresses:
At the beginning of the season there’s a lot of education of who the new guys are, then we get into the All-Star voting. Towards the end of the year, people are more educated on who the people are. When we get to September, we’ll get the call ups and some new guys to introduce there. It tends to be more fan focused at the end of the year, about the fans coming to the ballpark, what’s going on and the different activities we have.
Bob Ross bobblehead video:
There is a TV commercial that was created with that and these were the bloopers, which we run on social media and in the ballpark. I guess it was created for both purposes. It has done really well, it was picked up by a lot of different media outlets. We have a “Star Wars” one where the guys are trying to do the Chewbacca sound and they are just laughing when they can’t do it.
Which players have a great grasp of social media:
For the most part, I pay attention to our guys. We have a lot of young players who are coming up and are very comfortable on social media and do a good job. It’s interesting, when I started doing social media eight years ago, the players were just starting to get into social media. A lot of them were being pushed by their agents and PR people and were hesitant to share. Our first-round draft pick) Hunter Greene does such a fantastic job communicating with the fans and marketing himself as well.
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