Building an identity on social media has to begin somewhere -- by accident or because it’s the trendy thing to do. Or, in the case of the Hornets, simply by keeping an open mind. Hornets Senior Dir of Digital Media Matt Rochinski said, “I’ve been here for 13 years. When I got here, I was a one-man show for the first four years. It was insane. It was right at the time of social explosion, so it couldn’t have happened at a worse time for me. All of a sudden, thanks to some intern, nine, 10 years ago at this point in time, walked up to me and said, ‘You guys should start a Twitter account.’ I was like, ‘That sounds like the dumbest thing ever. Why would anybody care?’ We signed up for it anyway, thank gosh we did.” Because social media did not have the clout it does today, many businesses, including those in the sports world, were not sold on its viability. That was not the case in Charlotte. When Michael Jordan bought the franchise in ’10, he and Hornets Managing Partner Curtis Polk discussed with Rochinski what was needed to make the team’s social and digital efforts a success. Rochinski said, “Most people would say money or a promotion. That’s not what I said. I said I needed people and equipment. What we were doing back then wasn’t enough to satisfy the thirst of fans.” Exec VP & COO Pete Guelli said of Jordan, “MJ gets it and completely understands what we’re trying to do and how important these social media platforms are to our organization. Every time we’ve needed him to step up from an investment standpoint to continue to grow that space, he’s been wanting to do it.”
FASHION FORWARD: When Senior Social Media Manager Eryn Pittsonberger joined in ’12, the Hornets had roughly 60,000 Facebook followers and 30,000 on Twitter. Rochinski told her his goal was to get their Facebook following to 100,000. Now they have 3.8 million followers across all social platforms. Much of the Hornets' social evolution points back to her hiring. The team’s feeds at the time focused on score updates and play-by-play. She helped change the approach. She said, “I brought the story, set the tone on what’s going on with the game, why it is important. It was just being a bridge between the fans and the players and what they don’t see watching the broadcast.” But she also recognized that fans still wanted more. Soon the Hornets were sharing insights from the players on where they ate in the city to what they liked to wear. Pittsonberger added, “The cool thing about the NBA is it’s about the lifestyle, too. It’s morphed into a lifestyle feel; people are wearing jerseys as a fashion statement. In the '90s, people loved the purple and teal of the Hornets. It became a lifestyle, more of an icon of fashion.” Once Pittsonberger joined, the Hornets’ social and digital efforts were a two-person operation. But even as the department slowly grew, they were at or near the bottom of the NBA in terms of size. After a hiring prior to this season, Rochinski called Grizzlies Senior Dir of Digital & Marketing Operations Lesley Torell and said, “We finally passed you.” He recalls her response was, “No, we just hired two people.” Rochinski: “I tell people those who are doing the best job in the NBA are the people on bad teams. If you are the Warriors or Cavaliers, people are coming to your website. Don’t get me wrong, they do tremendous work. They are killing. But it is so much easier when you are winning. When you are losing, to get fans to come back to your site and your social platforms, that becomes a tremendous challenge.”
WEARING MANY HATS: The priorities for the Hornets’ social and digital efforts are to help sell tickets, connecting with fans and promoting sponsors. Blue Cross Blue Shield and Tissot are among the companies that have branded content on the Hornets’ various channels. Rochinski said, “It’s our job to bring in sponsors and come up with creative content and ideas that we can wrap around sponsors so that it is not so much ad driven.” Providing a fresh and unique view of the franchise to fans is a daily challenge. One such instance came in ’14 when Jordan, who does not have a social media presence, took over the team’s Twitter account for a day during its first season after rebranding from Bobcats to Hornets. Pittsonberger: “We were already growing, but also we had the chance to have somebody who is private and get on social to walk around and do all these things. The national attention we got from that was huge.” Now her goal is to get Jordan to take over the team’s Instagram account, something for which she has her fingers crossed.
SIZE MATTERS NOT: Having the smallest social and digital staff in the NBA has not deterred the Hornets. Being part of a league that is widely considered the standard bearer for social media among its peers has continued to raise the bar. Guelli said despite the perceived disadvantages from a manpower perspective, the Hornets strive to be the best. He said, “In a lot of ways, being a small-market team, the magnification of what you can do in social media gives us an opportunity to play on the level of some big-market franchises. We embrace the expectations and we enjoy having the outlet where we can express ourselves like anybody could in New York, L.A. and Chicago.”
A BUG'S LIFE: Rochinski said it took him a decade before he felt comfortable enough to take his hands off the wheel during games, knowing his staff could handle anything that comes its way without needing direction. It is a sentiment Guelli echoes, saying that the past three years -- since the Hornets aligned social, digital, marketing and public relations -- the department has become a well-oiled machine. With the franchise’s resources at his disposal, including recently purchased VR cameras that will be used initially for marketing purposes, Rochinski and his team are ready to take the next steps in their growth. Guelli: “We need to continue to staff up and provide more resources for those guys to continue to do their job. … We’re still a little bit limited from a manpower standpoint; Matt’s done a great job growing that department. I think we need to add more staffing there if we are to take the next step.”
