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Social Studies: Predators Duo Dishes On Celebrities, Fake Banners

It’s not unusual for fans tuning into a Predators game to see a big name in country music singing the National Anthem, as it has turned into a nightly affair on social media during the past two Stanley Cup Playoffs to see who would be behind the mic. But the team also generates its strong social media presence with players like star D P.K. Subban, according to Predators VP/Marketing & Communications Danny Shaklan and Social Media Coordinator Megan Garrett (@PredsNHL). When Subban was traded to the Predators after the ’15-16 season, the team’s Twitter following increased by 60,000 in half a day. Garrett said of Subban, “He gives you a view of what goes on in a hockey player’s life or what they do when they are not at the rink or on a road trip. He is constantly on social media. There’s not a whole lot of his life he doesn’t share.”

SOCIAL SNAPSHOT
Must-follows: DS: I like the news outlets, the CNNs of the world.
Favorite apps: MG: Twitter for sure. Instagram is a close second.
Average time per day on social media: MG: More than I’d like to admit. It’s the first thing I check when I wake up, it’s the last thing I do. It’s probably not healthy the amount of time I spend on social media, but I enjoy every minute of it.

Carrying over synergy with city to social media:
Shaklan: It’s the relationship we have with the fans. We were voted ESPN’s No. 1 sports franchise in all of sports. The way we say it and the way the numbers came out is we have back and forth with our fans. If our fans say they want to hear this song during the third period, it would be awesome, then we try to make it happen for them. If they have an issue at the game, someone will be at their seat within 5-10 minutes fixing it. It’s that engagement with our fans that make them feel they are actually heard instead of sending out a survey and their feedback isn’t taken by the organization.

Standing out on social media:
Garrett: Each team has its own voice and personality on social, and we try to play on that in everything we do whether that is a sponsor post or something we cooked up on our own. One of the main things we’ve done in the past is not be afraid to make fun of yourself. One of the most recent examples was when we raised banners on our Banner Night. We caught some heat for raising so many banners. We just rolled with the punches and in our own voice we made fun of ourselves, which makes it stand out when you are willing to do those sorts of things.
Shaklan: Megan came up with the idea of raising additional banners, which were obviously photoshopped. We were the Hot Chicken In The NHL Champions, Coldest Building In Nashville and Regular Season Bachelorette Capital. How can you make fun of us after that?

Naturally incorporating paid partnerships:
Shaklan: We have a really good relationship with our sponsorship team and sit down with them on a monthly basis and say, for example, “What is sponsorable on social media? Knock on wood, we always score the first goal of the game. Who could we put on that?” In-game we have a lot of food items. For example, if we score a goal in the last five minutes of the second period, everyone gets a Big Mac. If we score four goals, everyone gets a Frosty. It’s helping drive traffic to our sponsors, but also giving our fans what we call flowers. It has to be beneficial to sponsors, fans and us.

Sponsors proactively seeking involvement:
Shaklan: They are being more cognizant of what we are doing on social media, just the face of “can you do this or can you do this?” We always like saying yes here, and sometimes we tweak it. There never is a no from us because if it benefits them, it benefits our fans with what we want to do. We have our natural ones, like the Big Mac, but we are happy to create new ones that will incentivize our fans.

Fan feedback:
Shaklan: It changed about eight years ago when our CEO (Sean Henry), who came from the food services industry, and just that customer-service aspect. Our fan relations department has tripled in the last three or four years because we have sold out season tickets, but we want you to be able to pick up the phone and have a one-on-one.

Working with celebrities:
Shaklan: We started making a name for ourselves during the playoff with the anthem singers. You guessed who would come out next: Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, and there have been fun stories that trickled out from that. Urban, when he sang here, it was the first time he sang the National Anthem. We put that on social. When we first made a run in ’16-17 to the Stanley Cup Final, we had to make a lot of calls. Then it snowballed. They know what to expect, they know they will be on a national stage for some games. Nashville is a chill town. If Dierks Bentley shows up to a game with his kids, no one really bothers him because he’s just a guy at a game.

If you know anyone who should be featured for their use of social media, send their name to us at jperez@sportsbusinessdaily.com.

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